Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2012

Haha I am extremely new to Lenovo products. Should I expect the Labor Day sale to be better than EPP + newsletter pricing? (which still works by the way, seems they lowered EPP discount but raised newsletter discount)

 

Along the same vein, does Lenovo's website offer some form of price guarantee in the sense that within a certain amount of time, should the price go down further, they'd offer you the lower price?

i.e. if i placed the order this weekend for $x, and in 10 days' time, it was $150 less, would Lenovo.com credit me the $150 to my original form of payment?

Thx!

 

I have an sd card reader in the expresscard slot. This is not an option for the X1 Carbon, however.

My SD Cards are older and read at 30MB/sec... and it's noticeably slower anytime you're copying files. Even opening RAW photos is slow. However, standard office documents, and even the Android SDK runs without it feeling slow.

 

Should we expect the same great discount they were running? Better? Worse? (I'm new to Lenovo as well).

 

The discounts fluctuate. The best you can do is watch for a while and be ready to move when they're low.

 

It will be better... the question is when. USXDISCOUNT is the default discount for Lenovo. It will go on sale eventually.

 

As ZaZ said, the discounts fluctuate...a lot. It would be part-time job to keep track of which discount holidays are the best. Though I think you can generally count on Black Friday or Cyber Monday to always be very good.

That said, I am shopping for my wife. We are waiting for her official acceptance to grad school. I'm hoping that comes before Labor Day, and if so, that is when I will buy the X1C (assuming my wife hasn't changed her mind about spending that much on a laptop for her). Obviously no one can tell you with any certainty when the best time to buy is. But IMHO, Labor Day is your best shot at a bellow-average price before the holidays.

 

I wish i could wait until Black Friday to order this!

Alas, i'm off to a 6-week trip (one location, one hotel, very long distance from home) abroad, in fact, flying ON Black Friday! Since that's the case, i'd have to factor in sufficient time to order, ship, receive the x1c, use it, test it, and, should anything is wrong with it, factor in sufficient time for an exchange/return, then the same test/use process again!

With all that in mind, i just want to get this process done and have the "new laptop ready to go and no problems" check box checked on my "To Do" list before my trip!

So, in all likelihood, there's not much choice for me but to order it by Labor Day at the latest, if not next week

 

When I was looking at X220s, the pricing was actually cheaper in the earlier part of November than it was on BF. Their pricing is just unpredictable.

 

Good point. Maybe it has to do with their supply chain management.

I'd be happy to order now, but it's just that i thought it would be good to hear at least some early recipients' feedback.

Most guys here are knowledgeable and enthusiasts. Their feedback means much more than others who would be just happy having any laptop. We nitpick more, we are more demanding -- hence when those on here opine, I take it far more seriously.

I wish I could order now. It is very close to the price point I think it will be for the foreseeable future, though I have no basis to think this!

I looked closely at the Sony Z 2012 as well, and actually trekked over to the Sony Store here in Manhattan to inspect it Pricing-wise, this x1c is priced "right", me thinks, when one looks at it in context of its biggest competitor. Well, maybe others don't feel that the Sony Z 2012 is the x1c's biggest competitor, but I do. Same size, same weight (Sony Z 2012 is merely 2.6 pounds!), different battery options, different screen size, but...in the same ultra portable category (< 3-ish pounds).

 

I've been looking around for a long time for a business-quality ultraportable-type laptop and maybe the Sony Z came closest, but
it didn't convince me. I will definitely get an X1C as it's an almost prefect fit with what I was looking for (and I had one of the original Lenovo X300's, which I thought was great).

The only reservations I have are some of the reports of the X1C getting hot and the lack of an ethernet port (but I guess "thin" and "ethernet" don't go well together, and I can live with the USB adapter).

 

I have an international American express card and lenovo thankfully accepts it. But when I went to book my X1C, it asked me for a US billing address which I do not have ( I just have a US shipping address ). So an online representative told me that I should enter my shipping address in both the columns, shipping and billing address. And in the next page, I should use his rep id, give him my real international billing address and it'll all be fine. I am not really sure about this as normally Amex is pretty strict about what is put as the billing address.

Alternatively, I can use the Amazon Checkout which works fine with international credit cards. The only issue here is that I cant purchase the warranty upgrade as then it becomes 2 items in the cart and then Amazon checkout doesnt work. So I was thinking about just upgrading my warranty when I get the laptop. But how much extra does it cost to upgrade than if I buy it with the laptop?

Any advice? Thank you.

 

it's a complete ripoff. unless you absolutely need it pass on it out of principal.

 

same. i emailed Lenovo websales.

 

I would be willing to bet that price goes down after a couple of weeks.

 

On the the order screen under Accessories tab, why does it show the ThinkPad 15W Sleeve Case when it is not compatible?


Is the ThinkPad 14W Sleeve Case compatible?

 

yeah, heat is a concern for me as well. i'm still using my T60 which has horrible heat issues, so it's making me hesitant. only other considerations are the z and zen prime.

 

How's the screen compared to Zenbook prime ips?

 

They haven't started shipping yet.

 

I really wanted to pass on principal, it's outrageous. Unfortunately I really do need the 8gb and so went ahead and got the 8gb/256gb config.

Heat, screen etc don't bother me too much. The key issue that I care about is battery life. The reviews seem all over the place on that. I'm replacing a Samsung 900x3a, so tried to find sites that had reviewed both using a standardish test. I found 2 and both had slightly longer times for the x1. If that turns out to be the case, I'll be happy.

Also, does anyone know if you can upgrade the warranty post purchase? I wanted to pay the extra $40 for another year, but lenovos site treats that as two items (x1 and warranty) and the Site won't allow you to use amazon payment for orders with more than one item.

 

Is the RAM not removable/replaceable? Why is there so much concern about the expensive upgrade option?

 

There's a thread here discussing the RAM, SSD and other aspects of the X1 Carbon.

 

Wow. The loss of the B&N discount really punished me for waiting a few days to purchase . My X1C I had configured yesterday went from under $1,500 to $1,700 (and out of my budget). Back to the drawing board.

 

I think if you can wait a bit there'll be some more coupons along in the near future.

 

I am still seeing the B&N discount. $999 for the base model with B&N and email subscription discount.

 

Agreed but I went ahead and ordered the base model as I was satisfied enough with what I read and saw in the various reviews and I have someone who's traveling over from the U.S. to the UK and can bring me one for what will probably be a 50% savings on the UK price.

My outstanding questions are:

1. Battery life. I feel pretty good about the range but all these varying reports won't mean anything until I see how much battery life I get based on my personal use. My hunch is that I'll get at least 5 hours out of it. Not great, but I'm willing to compromise in this department given the X1C's other strengths.

2. Keyboard. The initial review from Laptop Mag, which performed an in-depth review of the Lenovo keyboard changes, said the X1C's keyboard was not as good as other Lenovo laptops. They suspected this was due to the X1C's thinness. I'll definitely be disappointed if the X1C's keyboard is no better than a MacBook Air's, which is what I've been using most recently and was one of the key reasons I wanted a Lenovo laptop.

3. Heat. I'm not too worried about this based on the reports that it's only a problem under heavy duty stress (gaming). But I tend to notice laptop heat and this is one of my big gripes with the Air, which gets way too hot.

4. Win 8. All sorts of questions here. How will gestures be with Win 8? Battery life? Performance with 4GB of RAM?

5. 3-year warranty. Every review I read stated this thing came with a 3-year warranty, but when you purchase it only 1 year is included in the base price. Will Lenovo step up and provide everyone with a 3 year warranty? And if not how did the manage to mess up the PR communication so badly.

 

Europe and the likes seems to get the 3 years mandatory, hence an heftier price.

Cheaper in N. America but start with a 1 year guarantee, put three years and you should match the Europe price.

I personally prefer the "bare bone" approach. Give me the price for a naked laptop and let me add the components/options.
Now, this X1C come with broadband card and other stuff that I still have to pay although I will never use them...

 

And I still don't get it, the top cpu doesn't come wit 8GB option because of heating issues ??? Sounds odd to me.

Me think more options will be available with time, especially after tomorrow, the official release date !

 

Can someone fill me in on this?

I have never more RAM causing heating issues.

Does anyone really need 8GB if they will only be surfing the internet and streaming video?

 

No, and if those are your only requirements, why not save yourself several hundred dollars and a few pounds and just get an ipad or your favorite android alternative.....?

For just websurfing and watching movies, specs well under the base x1c model would be more than sufficient.

 

It is my understanding that the units (shortly) available through resellers will have 3 years depot warranty as standard. Only when bought through lenovo will you have 1 year as standard (but pricing obviously differs).

 

that's good to know! so does it translate to the fact that none of us "early adopters" will be effectively penalized for buying through lenovo.com, as the pricing via lenovo.com ought to be commensurately less due to them offering a standard 1-year and resellers offering a standard 3-year warranty?

my concern really is two fold:

- what if early samples showed some things that the reviewers did not see or did not show up on the reviewers' samples?

- what if there is a price drop shortly afterwards? i.e. if i ordered this coming week, and then merely 10-14 days later, lenovo.com has some Labor Day-type sale and my price goes from, say, $1,800 down to $1,600? will lenovo.com credit my original form of payment for a certain, predetermined, number of days?

 

Interesting, didn't realize that was the case. Most of the reviews to date have been from U.S.-based tech review sites though so poor job Lenovo PR team on advertising the 3-year warranty.

But like you I definitely would rather have a lower price and have the option of purchasing a 3-year warranty.

 

But you can purchase that 3-year warranty on the Lenovo website right now, right? I want to say it was around $180.

 

The USB Ethernet dongle is not Gigabit?

I'm pretty sure this new Lenovo USB 3.0 dock will have faster hardwire connection then.

Will I notice the non-Gigabit nature of the adapter?

 

It's a USB 2.0 Dongle which is kind of dumb. If someone wants Ethernet for speed why would they want to use a USB 2.0 Dongle. Good WIFI will be faster than USB 2.0

You can always get a 1GB USB 3.0 Ethernet Adapter.

 

Then one would assume that these "things" would show up within a year. If not, you're screwed.

Heh, very funny! Wait, was this a serious question? If so, the answer is "no".

 

Can someone check my math/research here?

USB 3.0: 5120 Mbps (5 Gbps)
USB 2.0: 480 Mbps

Fast Ethernet (10/100): 100 Mbps
Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000): 1024 Mbps (1 Gbps)

I'm trying to research whether or not buying that Lenovo 3.0 dock would get me the bandwidth needed to run gigabit Ethernet, a keyboard, a mouse, and maybe a DAC all over the one X1C USB 3.0 port.

Any thoughts?

 

Hi,

A long time looker, a new member here.

I ordered X1 Carbon several days ago and looking for ways to add more storage to it.

A question for the more knowledgable members here.

Would it be possible to replace the PCI Express Half Mini Card for wireless WAN and replace it with mSATA drive?
PCI Express Half Mini Card for wireless WAN - ThinkPad X1 Carbon

say, with 256GB Crucial m4 mSATA 6Gb/s SSD?

I won't need the WWAN...however, would love to have extra storage.

BTW, has anybody received a shipping confirmation yet?

 

i was thinking of adding a 128gb SDXC card to the SD card slot. according to the Lisa Gade video review, the SD card actually sits reasonably flush to the body, so leaving it in the laptop all the time shouldn't be a problem.

what do y'all think of using a 128gb SDXC card in all the time as extra storage?

 

I'm pretty sure a mSATA SSD would be too big and you'd have to use a PCI-E Half mini SSD. I think the biggest is 64 GB though so it wouldnt really be worth it.
I too have be researching ways to find storage and I think I'm just gonna use network storage until hopefully maybe the custom SSD in the X1C becomes available for a cheaper price.

 

Are you talking about to add on to the 256 GB SSD? If so, then it's not the worst idea. But if it's to add onto the 128GB SSD then you'd might as well buy the 256GB SSD

 

i'm definitely buying the 256gb SSD.

this SDXC of 128gb would be to add to the 256gb SSD.

what do you mean by "...it's not the worst idea"? what other ideas does anyone have for an extremely compact, easy to carry, no fuss memory besides the SDXC card?

 

From mSATA FAQ:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/574993-msata-faq-basic-primer.html

Can any notebook take an mSATA SSD?

No. Despite the mini-PCI Express form factor, a mini-PCI Express slot must have support for the electrical connections an mSATA drive requires. For this reason, only certain notebooks are compatible with mSATA drives. Most compatible systems are based on Intel's newest Sandy Bridge processor architecture, using the new Huron River platform.

Which Lenovo notebooks support the mSATA platform?

Lenovo's newest T-Series, W-Series, and X-Series ThinkPads released in March-April of 2011 have support for an mSATA SSD card in their WWAN card slot. The ThinkPad Edge E220s/E420s, and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460/Y560 also support mSATA. More models may have support available; this thread will be updated as-needed for corrections.

For the price and speed, I definitely prefer replacing WWAN with mSATA if it is possible.

 

as of now, since there's no confirmation yet, my best best would be for an SDXC 128gb card.

once it is confirmed that the mSATA works at the sim card port, then we can go that route, right?

btw, have you checked out the prices for mSATA SSD's on newegg? ouch! they are not inexpensive whatsoever!

 

My order status changed to "Released to Manufacturing" but with a new ship date of 2012/08/26 ... anyone else having ship date being pushed back?

 

Same has happened to me.

 

may i know what was your original ship date?

that way, we know how much the ship date has changed.

thx.

 

Mine was the 22nd.

 

wow! that's a slippage of 4 days! bummer.