Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2012

The only way to get a real review is to let NotebookCheck have a thorough a look at it. They'll perform a detailed autopsy of every component, including the display color gamut and the noise emissions in dB.

 

Agreed. Most of these reviews aren't very good at all.

 

Good god i hope so. Cnet is claiming only 40GB of free space on the 128GB SSD which is ridiculous. The SSD looks pretty unremarkable with one review stating a boot time of 56 sec and avg transfer rate of only ~85 MBps.

 

I see the VEEM (Very Expensive Email Machine) was announced today. The X1 Carbon will be available August 21 now.

The reason I call it a VEEM is because I see that it has a maximum of 4 GB of Ram. That's 4 (four) without a 1 in front of it.

This is absolutely hideous, as this is not the '90's. To say that I'm shocked is an understatement.

This is not a "business machine" (which needs 8 MB ram just to start) at all, rather it is simply a very expensive email machine.

 

I see no VEEM. I see a maximum of 8 GB : Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon N3N2SGE / 34602SG

 

That's not just unremarkable, that's disastrously bad. I have a hard time believing this can be true. You can get the Samsung Series 9 with a Sammy 830 SSD that allows the machine to cold-boot (using Intel's Rapid Start Technology) from button-press to desktop in less than 10 seconds.

Yes, there are some very serious issues with the capabilities of this laptop. Sure, it looks good, and we can assume the keyboard is alright as well. The screen is probably slightly above average, too; not IPS, but it should be quite serviceable. But the restriction to non-upgradeable 4GB is a show stopper if there ever was one. Same for the proprietary SSD connector. In contrast, the 15" Sammy Series 9 has two standard SODIMM slots, and a standard mSATA connector. So, if next year I decide I want 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD, that's not going to be a problem at all. With the X1C, it's easy, too: You just buy a new laptop...

 

I am not sure why some reports showing only 4gb ram but I can tell you 100% that two people have told me from Lenovo that it will be available with 8gb ram. We are planning to buy bunch of these and I highly doubt they would tell us something like this if it wouldn't be true. I would say hold on bit more before calling names

 

Exactly my thoughts. ^

Or Anandtech

 

I believe this but the cost is looking to be insane. Apple charges $100 for the 8GB upgrade on the Air whereas it's another $800-1k for it on the Lenovo??

Lenovo Solutions Center

 

Agreed, a thorough review is certainly needed!

 

Avrim is the same guy from LaptopMag who reviewed the original (2011) X1 and had this to say about the 2011 X1 keyboard:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1

Has the X1C's keyboard really taken that big of step backwards from the original X1??

 

I seriously doubt that.

 

So the confirmed and rumored negatives so far with the XC1:

Confirmed:

• only 40GB of available hard drive space on the 128GB model (Ackerman/CNET)
• 56 second boot up time (Piltch/LaptopMag)
• 4 hours of battery life (Mossberg/WSJ)
• Slow SSD drive, about 1/2 the speed of the MacBook Air (Piltch/LaptopMag)
• Gets hot, 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) on the bottom (Jackson/NotebookReview)

Rumored:

• No IPS (ZDNet is reporting otherwise)
• No upgrade to 8GB of RAM (Mashable and another site are saying the RAM is upgradeable to 8GB)
• Keyboard not as good as other Lenovo notebooks or original X1(Piltch/LaptopMag); Piltch is the only one to say anything negative about the keyboard
• $1400 list price for base configuration, $200 more expensive than MacBook Air; however many state that the actual price people will pay will be significantly less and perhaps equal to the $1200 Air.

Am I missing anything?

Reviews to date:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon - Laptops - CNET Reviews

ThinkPad X1 Carbon First Test Results: This Ultrabook Means Business

Lenovo X1 Carbon Review | Ubergizmo

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Hewlett-Packard Envy 6 Sleekbook Review - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review: The New King of Business Ultrabooks

ThinkPad X1 Carbon -- Able MacBook Air competitor (review) | ZDNet

http://mashable.com/2012/08/07/lenovo-x1-carbon-hands-on/

 

Not sure why there's such a huge deal about 4GB of RAM being standard. Frankly, 95%+ of users of the X1C probably won't need more than that. W7 (and W8) and all the "normal" programs and web content run extremely smoothly with 4GB of RAM.

I've never once encountered memory issues with my X120e or T500, both of which are at 4GB right now. Even when I had "only" 2GB of RAM on my T500, I didn't have any issues. My brother had been gaming on his Core i7 920 + GTX 275 desktop at max settings in pretty much every single modern video game until recently... with only 3GB of RAM. But, in any case, 8GB of RAM is available on the X1C, so that should be fine.

I'm more interested in the post-discounted Lenovo pricing: if the base configuration can near the $999 mark, that'll be amazing.

Likewise. I doubt the keyboard feel will be much different from that of the X1 and the other current Thinkpads.

 

May be because there are already couple good ultrabooks with 4G (Zenbook, Samsung 9) with 4GB or RAM. So everyone with need of 8GB was looking with hope to X1C.
Despite great keyboard, X1C is not a better alternative to Asus or Samsung offers with 4GB.

 

I think this post highlights why you should take the internet with a grain of salt. Here's what I think.

• The screen is good.
• The keyboard is good.
• Prices are Lenovo list price and not street price. Historically there is a huge gap.
• There are two RAM options.
• 128GB SSD drives always start at 119GB available when wiped. From there the disk is consumed by recovery paritions, hibernation partition schemes, etc. If you are worried about it and want to run the factory config, get the 256GB option.
• Thermals need to be tested in a detailed manner but don't be shocked if the X1C doesn't cool efficiently under high load.
• Boot performance will vary depending on the boot configuration. The factory config is likely using BIOS instead of UEFI. Reviewers that mention a slow boot with no analysis as to why lack cred in my book. Learn how to do a boot trace people.
• The SSD in the reviewer configs is the 128GB Sandisk. Sandisk is historically at the bottom of the pack in terms of performance on http://thessdreview.com. CNET's James Kendrick claims the specs for his machine is the 256GB SSD but he didn't bother to describe the speed. He's also the guy that said the screen is IPS. Rolls eyes.
• Battery life is not a shocker. This is physics. You can only cram so many cells into such a tight space. RapidCharge ROCKS !!!

 

That one I wouldn't worry about: This can be improved by deleting various pieces of cruft, or simply get the 256GB SSD.

If true, that's an embarrassment, plain and simple. More pertinently, it's an important performance indicator in scenarios that happen to be important for UltraBooks. Extremely disappointing, to say the least, and not appropriate for a "business-class" machine.

That one I find hard to believe. It's a disaster if it's true, and makes the thing unusable in many typical UltraBook scenarios. Like I said, at this point I simply don't believe that number.

That's pretty lousy, and puts the X1C at the bottom of the heap. Again, inadequate performance for a business-class machine.

There's different numbers on this one, too. Not sure who to believe.

I think that's a given by now, but I don't think it's as big of a deal as some make it out to be. If it's an above-average TN screen, that would work just fine.

I don't think anybody has an issue with 4GB being the standard config. The concern is just about 8GB not being available in certain configurations.

 

A lot of contradictory findings among reviews. UberGizmo found the SSD to perform better than anything else in their test. Also, they found the keyboard better than the Macbook Retina and S9 Samsung. They weren't totally impressed with the display since, like I've been seeing, vertical viewing angles aren't the greatest. But horizontal angles should be good. This confirmed it's not an IPS for me. The battery life was found to be "very good".

Lenovo X1 Carbon Review | Ubergizmo

I'm surprised no one mentioned the front camera quality until now. I will be using this to video conference and it's good to hear that it has good low-light performance.

 

This Price List seems to be uncorrect, since the X1 C on the german site with 8 GB only costs about 1800 € (i5, 256GB, 8GB RAM). And 1800 € are not 2909 $ like in this price list.

 

Well when you do the conversion, it does come close. I mean I can get a 256GB/i5 for $1600. To get the 8GB shoots up to $2900? Something's not right here.

Also, I'm hoping the prices we've been seeing from Lenovo will also have the "web discount" we're used to where they take 40% off the MSRP. I'm expecting that since all of their machines have that right now.

I'm hoping my corporate discount will make it even cheaper than that but I don't know if it covers brand new models.

 

I agree with these, mostly. It looks like not all RAM options may be available for all processors, which is strange.

• The boot times we are discussing here have nothing to do with BIOS versus UEFI. If we're talking almost a minute for booting, that's lousy disk performance, plain and simple. The SanDisk would explain that.
• Yes, that SanDisk is excruciatingly slow by today's standards. Avoid at all cost. The issue with the X1C is that you cannot upgrade to a better SSD yourself. Let's hope the 256GB drive is faster...
• No, that's a design decision, not physics. They could have decided to add just a tiny bit to thickness and weight, and ended up with one/two/three more hours of battery life. No kind of WonderCharge will do you any good if you don't have external power, or a charger on you.

 

We'll have more reviews and better reviews before the Carbon goes on sale...but there are some things we know for sure already:

-- There are only two USB ports, only one of which is USB3. Is there anyone in the world who thinks having a redundant manual on-off switch for wifi is more important than having another USB3 port?

-- Ethernet gets relegated to a dongle -- and the dongle takes up a USB port!

-- The battery is not intended for user replacement. So...does the Carbon contain one of those magic batteries that retain their efficiency forever? Is the Carbon's projected useful life so short that one battery will be sufficient?

-- I hope they intend to offer a round-plug to flat-plug adapter for the power brick cable, because I have three round-plug bricks in use: one each on two desks and one for the briefcase.

Think about the basic things a computer needs in order to do its job -- power to run, and connections to a network, to the web and to peripheral equipment. Ports and batteries are not sexy, but they matter.

 

For some of the extreme power users, this machine might not be for you. I think something like the T430 might be more useful. To Pirx, yes you can add more thickness for greater battery, but that's not the point of an ultrabook. If you want that machine just get one of the others they offer that allow you to customize it more.

Someone will always complain about something on a machine. They can't cater to everyone. I think Lenovo has offered a great balance of everything and after some extensive research, almost buying the Samsung Series 9 or Asus Zenbook Prime, I think the Carbon is the winner for me.

 

As the prices here in Germany are generally higher, you can't convert them directly into USD.

My suggestion would be to convert it 1:1, as a rule of thumb


For example:

Lenovo X1 (Germany)

Lenovo X1 (US)

 

Yeah, I may have replied to the wrong review after reading several on an iPhone (not the best way to navigate around).

Edit: I think I'll reserve any judgement until I see a more intensive review.

 

I understand that prices in Germany are higher. So you're suggesting the US price for the same configuration will be $1800 when their solutions site says $2900? It's a fair bit off.

The solution site seems pretty accurate since the entry level is $1399 and that is what everyone is reporting to be correct. But there is a good chance we'll see those same MSRP prices discounted with their "web discount".

 

notebooksandmore.net already lists an X1 Carbon i5 8Gb for approx 1895 euros


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Nonsense. You would only have to add an almost unnoticeable amount to the thickness. Plenty of UltraBooks demonstrate that this is possible, even with older chipsets. Lenovo decided that bragging rights for that sub-3lbs laptop are more important than practical usage, and battery life in particular. Samsung decided they can afford about a half pound more, in return for almost double the battery life. I agree with Samsung on this one. I do have enough strength to carry and lift a 3.6lbs UltraBook off the desk, but if the laptop dies after 4 hours of meetings in a day, I'm out of luck. If anything above 2.99lbs is too much for you, I'd recommend the gym...

Mind you, I do not disagree with your choice at all. It is, after all, your choice. Fact is, each one of the top contenders in this market segment offers features that none of the others have. Each one of them has some weak points compared to the others, too. As a consequence, "the best UltraBook", or "The New King of Business Ultrabooks" as one review put it so naively, simply doesn't exist. What does exist is the best UltraBook for your purpose, and only you can decide which one that is..

 

some good news on boot time - LaptopMag just published their complete review (they gave the XC1 an Editor's Choice) and Piltch is now reporting a boot time of only 30 seconds:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review | Ultrabook Reviews

 

There are other things to put into consideration too. We don't know what Lenovo had to do exactly to withstand the conditions it does, fold out 180 degrees, and include a spill resistant keyboard. I'm sure there needs to be some room for all that and Samsung has no mention of either. Plus, I think you're putting too much faith in Walt Mossberg's report of 4 hours under "harsh" settings. I've heard it can last longer than that from other reports.

I currently have a Samsung Series 9 that promotes a 7 hour battery life and I usually only get 4-5 hours.

Excellent. I thought that earlier report sounded to be too long. I'm sure with some cleaning up and settling of the X1C 30 seconds sounds right.

 

That's still kind of slow by today's standards, but acceptable, I guess. Still, their file transfer test showed abysmal performance. On the other hand, these guys report well above 7 hours of battery life under somewhat realistic conditions, which is not bad at all, and certainly serviceable enough in most cases.

Yes, you are absolutely right, see my other post. If we're talking 7+ hours, then there's nothing to complain about, I think.

 

Although I'm not a big fan of most SanDisk drives, I will bet Windows + Bloatware is the main issue for this. I bet I can get Ubuntu booting to desktop in under 10 seconds on this thing.

They could have made it 1.5 inches thick with twice the battery life. But that's not what this laptop was designed for. 80% charge in 30 minutes is pretty amazing and better than any other laptop I've seen. No one is making you buy this WonderCharge laptop.

Yup, I do. I don't even need more than one USB port. Who wants to plug in so many devices on an ultraportable? If you are using this at a desk, just use a USB hub. Saves having to plug in 3+ things at a time too.

Do people still use ethernet ports? If you do, I bet you only use it at one or two places. Just leave the dongle attached to the ethernet cable and plug it in whenever you're there.

They matter to you... this is an ultraportable, not a desktop replacement.

 

Nonsense. Read my other post.

You might want to change to attribution to the last three quotes you have in your post. Those quotes did not come from me.

 

Yes, but maybe it is only accurate on the entry level price and not on the more expensive machines.

 

I somehow doubt it, but yeah it is possible. I hope so!

 

Really cool ad:
Carbon Takes Over (Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon) - YouTube

 

Keyboard + screen res are the only real reasons I need this thing.

 

That was awesome thanks

 

The fact that the review units carry 3-yr warranty is a give away that they are preconfig models which are almost always uneconomical. Let's hope CTO with discounts comes in a lot lower.

Dunno how you guys are unsatisfied with the SSD. These are very good numbers.

 

New extensive video review from Hot Hardware

Hands-On with Lenovo's Hot ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook - YouTube

 

Please tell me it's not true that Lenovo is only offering 4gig RAM models??!?

 

Lenovo is at MOMA, New York talking the X1C. I guess this is their official unveiling in the states. Hope that means they'll update their site soon.

Here's a new interesting article too.

Design - Design - Lenovo Blogs

 

Please tell me that we'll be able to get these in 8gig Ram models??!?? No way that they're just going to offer 4 gigs in all of them....?

 

Because some of us use the computer for other than surfing the web.

 

I'm with MidnightSun on this. I want 8GB just like everyone else but I use a lot of graphic intensive software daily and have never had an issue with 4GB.

I hope we can upgrade but it's not the end of the world but it won't deter me from this machine if I can't get it.

 

Lenovo Ultrabook | ThinkPad X1 Carbon | Tough & Reliable Laptop | New Zealand (NZ)
http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/pdf/X1_Carbon_DataSheet.pdf

 

I'll save everyone the trouble: "Up to 8 GB DDR3 1333MHz". No mention of IPS.

 

At a lenovo partner event today they stated that there will be a version with both an i7 processor and with 8gb ram, but that specification would only be out in about a couple of months.

 

Which is why the T430u was, is and remains on my radar.

 

I like the looks of the T430u, but a 1366x768 14"???