Thinking about buying a used X220 What Will I be missing out on?

I'm considering buying a used X220 with 120gb intel SSD and 8gb ram, IPS screen.

What will I be missing out on vs getting a newer x-series laptop? I really like lenovo's scissor switch keyboards and do not think I will enjoy typing on any of the newer models. Mostly getting this for browsing the web in the living room, maybe some light coding (compiling stuff), posting to forums, and of course traveling. I was thinking about getting a tablet instead but tablets drive me nuts with the on screen keyboards, and yea you can add bluetooth keyboards, but none of them seem to be very good, plus then I would need to set the thing up at a desk anyways, which defeats a tablets purpose (for me).

For primary PC I have a 4770k delidded running 3.5ghz, so anything that will be hard to do on a laptop I can just do on the PC.

Advice?

 

If you like the classic keyboard, then there's no reason to consider the newer ones. Personally, I consider the newer chiclet keyboards to be pretty good, but that's me. I think the main complaints about the X220 are the lack of resolution being that it's 1366x768, kind of old school, but wider. The track pad is also sub par, but if you're a stick user, that's a moot point. If you can live with those, the X220 is a terrific ultraportable.

 

Mostly a screen with a contemporary resolution.

The chiclet-style keyboards of the newer ThinkPads have scissor switches, too....

 

There's a trade-off no matter how one wants to look at it. You just have to choose your priorities.

If you're "married" to the old-style 7-row layout as some of us are, X220 is the way to go. You only get a 1366x768 LCD, which is not all that bad on a 12.5", but is not that great either. You can also install an mSATA SSD in the WWAN slot and leave the main bay for storage.

For those not minding the newer-style-keyboard there's X230 which is eerily similar in most respects to X220.

The trade-offs *really* start with X240 where you get one DIMM slot and a max of 8GB RAM as opposed to 16GB on *20/30 but also an option of a hi-res IPS panel. Conventional TrackPoint buttons are also missing from this one.

X250 brings back the TrackPoint, but you're still stuck with a single DIMM.

Pick your poison...

 

Wow I didn't realize moving to the newer versions was such a trade off. Yea the screen resolution sucks and that was the biggest drawback of my x61s as well. I think I can live with that. I still prefer the older keyboards over the island style keys. However it's good to hear they are still using scissor switches in them! Of course I'm a trackpoint user as I can appreciate them just as I appreciate the older better keybaords but my GF likes to use the trackpad. How bad is the trackpad?

I guess newer processors / battery life on the newer latops isn't all that extensive?

 

On X220 it's pretty bad in my opinion. If your lady is used to a Mac, she'll positively hate it.

The real question is: how much processing power and battery life do YOU need? Different people have different priorities...

 

I think it will probably be ok, as long as it's not too sluggish for the usual tasks compared to my 4770k @ 4400mhz. It's not like I will be gaming on it.

 

In my opinion, any Sandy/Ivy machine such as X220/230 should do just fine - and then some - for your current needs. They are far from obsolete unless one is crunching numbers 24/7/365 or doing video encoding...neither of which they were designed for in the first place.

Unlike X240, these sport full-voltage-CPUs and can take 16GB of RAM. They should be able to keep you in business with "usual tasks" for quite some time.

My $0.02 only...

 

I just noticed that asking prices for them used 220s and 230s are drifting up, at least in our neck of the wood. Wonder what is happening really. Having one or two that had passed through my hand I notice that their builds are a lot better than newer comparable models that are being introduced. I have found that I cannot even live with the 7240 from the Latitude range.

 

I've had my X220 since 2011, and I love it, even though it's showing some wear (fingerprint reader shorted out, some backlight bleed in the lower right of the display, lid switch stopped working; to be fair, except for a four-month period it's been almost constantly on since I got it.)

Pros: great keyboard, brilliant IPS display, opens 180 degrees, fast full-powered i7, very compact form factor..
Cons: 1366x786, small trackpad, runs very hot (as it gets older, I'm seeing 95 degrees Celsius when watching Netflix).

I had planned to buy an X240, until I saw that it has only one DIMM and a non-replaceable battery.

At the time it was released, the X220 was the best "no compromise" laptop I could find with a 12 (well, 12.5) inch display.

Lenovo doesn't seem to be making no compromise laptops anymore, which has turned me from someone who insisted my department all get Lenovos to someone looking for better options.

 

Going to check it out in person tomorrow. Price is $250, but it does have some wear on the outer case corners. Guess I won't have to worry about it getting it's first scratch

It's sad that lenovo has been going downhill, but that seems to have been the case since they purchased IBM really.

 

^^^^^

That's an *excellent* price for a machine with SSD and an IPS panel, let alone 8GB RAM.

Good luck.

 

Picked it up today, there some wear on the corners but otherwise the thing looks as new as it could get, Im going to cold blue them and forget about it. It's an I5 2500mhz model and the intel SSD drive is zipping along. Although I'm going to check the firmware because I have had some issues with this version drive just suddenly taking a crap on me before.

Keyboard is great, although I keep hitting FN instead of Ctrl..

 

I'm pretty sure that you can swap these in BIOS....

Good luck and enjoy that X220!