Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 4

If you want hi res, wait for OLED.

 

But remember, OLED will be available in the X1 Yoga only, and it will be a glossy screen. Thats not for everyones taste^^

 

Will the OLED version have a glossy screen or will it have an anti-glare coating like the IPS version?

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Yoga.htm

 

Received my X1 Carbon gen4 yesterday, I got the i7 6600U with 16Gb RAM, 512Gb SSD and 2560x1440 IPS screen.

The first feeling is that it seems to be close to my X1 gen3 (but I still prefer the "soft" cover of my gen1).

Really disappointed Lenovo didn't do any effort to add some of the great ThinkVantage tools in Windows 10.
When I did an upgrade from 8.1 to 10 on my gen3 I had Password Manager and Fingerprint manager available in 10, now with the new gen4 coming preloaded with Windows 10 these soft aren't there anymore and so need to switch back to some of the native Windows options for that but I keep looking to find a way to get these things in Windows 10.

 

Whoa, how long did it take between order and delivery, that sounds really fast in general. Also, almost the config I wanted to get, wish you got the FHD to get some opinions! . Did you opt for the NVMe SSD or the standard?
How is the keyboard feel? if its any different from Gen 3 that is.
How is the scaling for the applications that you use at say 150%? This is my biggest concern. If you could share some pix it would be great!
The earlier X1 carbons were a bit notorious for bad builds in the initial production runs, how is the flex overall, any gaps in construction, wobbly touchpad, etc of note?

Have you tried on their website? Below link shows Thinkvantage tools available for download (you may need to choose the appropriate X1 version). After the superfish debacle perhaps the went aggressive on not pre-loading some of their own software too.

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/pro...rowse Products|Sub-Series Selected&beta=false

Sorry for the barrage of questions! Still hanging on to hear some reviews.

 

Just one question; how loud is the NOISE of the laptop's fan(s)?

 

I ordered mid February and received it exactly 1 month later. I must say it's a special offer from some students site, so fixed config and they clearly said it would take 1 month for delivery because new.

I'm 90% sure the SSD is the fastest one (it comes preloaded with Windows, the model without Windows was with the slower version SSD), just don't remind exactly which one it is (can't find it in the order form).
Can't really give you a real keyboard feel for now as I just had little time to start configuring Windows. I didn't really used the Gen3, I kept my Gen1 for daily use and so Gen3 was more a spare laptop. The first impression is the keyboard is close to the Gen1, always a good keyboard (for such a thin laptop compared to other brands using lower quality keyboard at least for me).
I reduced the scaling to 150% because the default 200% was just too big (the feeling to really lose too much of the screen), at 150% honestly it looks good, I can perfectly imagine myself working 8-10 hours without issues.
Will try to take pix during the weekend if I manage to find time to finish the setup.

Build quality seems good, a bit better than my Gen1 (ordered as soon as they announced it and so had some gaps mainly between screen and borders etc.), all seems to be fine. The touchpad is also fine, so nothing to report on that side.

On their website they provide some drivers and just few generic things ... I was looking for Password Manager mainly (don't want to move to another soft as it's 15 years I use ThinkPads and copy my password archive from a laptop to the other). Officially it doesn't exist for Windows 10 but using a workaround on the Lenovo forum and hacking the .msi installer made the job and it's now installed. For fingerprint I had to use Windows 10 Hello functionality: was skeptical at the beginning but works fine, so can't complain. The new fingerprint reader is really a lot better (touch the reader instead of swipe the finger).

1c3d0g: the noise is like Gen3 when at maximum, a bit noisy if I compare with Gen1, and I have the feeling Windows 10 easily push the fan at the maximum when things get busy (was better in Windows 7 on my Gen1, at least based on my impression).
But it's isn't really always at the maximum if you don't run full viruscan while installing soft etc. In normal usage it's difficult to hear it. (but again still not really used during a normal work day)

 

I didn't know that. Bummer. I was under the impression is was going to be available for the non touch.

Thanks for the info.

 

I heard terrible things about brightness level of the Gen3 screen, how would you say the Gen4 compares to it in this regard ?

 

I didn't really used the Gen3 outside with direct sun light and so never had issues, I would say it's similar to Gen3 (as far as I remember), maybe a bit less bright than my Gen1 at full brightness (but I use it at only half or I will not have any eyes left at the end of the day).
So for a normal use it's good, nothing to say about brightness.

 

I got the matte non-touch 1920x1080 display.
From what I can tell, less bluish than the Gen1, nearly as bright as Gen1. So that's good.

And MUCH MUCH better than Gen3, which was about 70% of the brightness of Gen1.

Btw, was comparing them here side by side and will determine this week-end whether to switch to Gen4 from Gen1. Gen3 the display was just unbearable.

Just got a standard ubuntu installed on it. Hda some strange flickering at some point, that even happend in the BIOS, after a failed ubuntu install. Fixed itself after supplying the boot options require to boot, given the kernel doesn't yet fully support certain power saving options of skylake...intel_pstate=no_hwp

 

Does the 1920*1080 screen have the PWM flickering at lower brightness? Can you check the panel name in the BIOS?

 

+1

Would have been nice to see some shots of Win10 at that native resolution

 

My X1C 4th Gen arrived this morning. So far so good. The 1440p screen looks very good and bright to me, no pixel defects or uniformity issues. My last Thinkpads were the T430s and X301 so I have no prior X1 experience for comparison. The screen does wobble a little bit when I type. Also if I tap on the touchpad there are many times where my taps aren't picked up. Annoying but nothing I can't live with. I do miss the physical buttons that used to be below the touchpad. I have the scaling set to 150%. Updated to the latest BIOS just because.

I have a Samsung 950 Pro on hand and plan on swapping it into the system later today / tonight. Hopefully it will go smoothly considering I ordered the laptop with the standard 128gb SATA m.2 drive. I will post again hopefully by tonight / tomorrow whether or not it works and whether NVMe is recognized on my system, and will list the steps I went through to install it.

 

Well, this sucks. I removed the bottom portion of the case quite easily which is good. There are 9 screws and then the bottom popped right off. There are grooves on the front of the laptop, so I'd advise lifting the cover from the backside first. When you put the cover back on, make sure the front is aligned with the grooves and then press the rest of it down into place.

The problem is there is now a large black sticker covering a portion of the motherboard including the m.2 slot for the SSD. Does this mean that if we remove the sticker the warranty will be voided? I didn't see this on teardown videos of the X1C 3rd gen. Is this something Lenovo has implemented to prevent DIY upgrades of the SSD? If so, I will promptly return this thing to Lenovo because that totally stinks.

Photo attached, area at issue circled in red.

 

Are you going to the Thinkpad again?

 

Are you going to the Thinkpad from rMBP again?

 

I called Lenovo tech support and was told that the SSD is a user replaceable part and removing the black sticker will not void the warranty. He did not know why it is there but said I will be fine. I don't know what I want to do, especially since I'm not even convinced the new SSD will run at PCI-E x4 instead of x2. I didn't order the NVMe SSD through Lenovo because I wasn't sure what type I'd be getting, i.e., slow as molasses Samsung drives (in terms of write speed) that get shipped in the Surface Pro 4 and Dell XPS 13 9350.

Here's what the X1 Gen 4 PSREF states:

Storage Some: M.2 SSD / SATA 6.0Gb/s
Some: M.2 SSD / PCIe NVMe, PCIe 3.0 x 4, 32Gb/s
Optical None

**Edit- I called Lenovo support again and didn't get a clear answer. I referenced the PSREF and he said that since "some" is in the document (even for both SATA and NVMe / PCI-E 3.0) that not all models will work with the NVMe drives because the system BIOS files will determine that. I said I downloaded an updated BIOS and that it wasn't system specific, it's for all X1C 4th Gen laptops. I got nowhere with my phone calls. So now I am on the fence about even keeping the laptop...

And yes hunterdt I'm going to the X1 from the MBP.

 

I do miss the physical buttons that used to be below the touchpad

Doesn't the 2016 X1 have physical trackpoint buttons?

 

Yes it does. I'm talking about the physical buttons below the touchpad. Not the trackpoint.

 

Does your upgrade drive work? How do you like the screen compared to your Mac?

 

Happy to report that the Samsung 950 Pro works perfectly in my X1C 4th Gen. My system came with the base 128gb SATA m.2 SSD.

**Edit 3/23/16: Setting up the 950 Pro is very easy after all, deleted old post, here's the way to do it. In Windows 10 just type "recovery" into the search box by the Start button. You should then create recovery drive onto an external HDD. Reboot the PC, press F1, the setup menu / BIOS menu will come up. You want to disable the battery prior to opening the laptop. It will automatically re-enable itself when you plug back in with AC adapter. Then insert the 950 Pro. Power on and press F12 to get into boot menu and boot from the external HDD. Then select option to reinstall Windows, I chose to do clean install / wipe drive option. This method will install Windows with all of the Lenovo drivers in one fell swoop. Then just run Windows update and install the Samsung 950 Pro driver. Done.

FYI, the black tape covering the SSD will peel away easily and if you're careful the adhesive will remain intact. It sticks right back on. So don't worry about this either.

I am getting the 950 Pro 256gb advertised PCI-E 3.0 x4 speeds! Hope this helps anyone on the fence ordering the base SSD vs. Lenovo marked up PCI-E SSD. Screenshot attached!

 

Yes! See post above. The screen on the MBP is superior which I totally expected. Not that the X1C is bad, it is very crisp, uniform, and bright enough for me. It's just that the MBP is a step ahead of almost everything else. I got the X1C because I wanted a matte, non-touch, hi-res display. The antiglare coating also is not intrusive in my opinion / there's not a distracting graininess to my eyes. It's there but I've seen FAR worse coating.

 

Sorry to ask, but can you give us a little feedback about the fan noise ?
I come from a Dell XPS 13 and one thing I liked about it was the fact that the fan only kicked in above a certain temp, while remaining off the rest of the time.

And how would you describe the screen wobble ? Very wobbly or bearable ?

Thx in advance for your answers

 

Hi,

I'm looking for the information about RAM updgrade.
I plan to get one with 8Gb and upgrade to 2x8GB ? Is this possible and do not void the warranty ?
I'm also looking for the information to know if with the SATA3 ssd, is there a mSATA slot available for another SSD ?

Thanks very much
Regards
Aymeric

 

The fan noise isn't bad under regular use, to me. I haven't done more than re-install Windows and run 3 Chrome tabs. The fan remained on while just browsing but was very quiet, I couldn't hear it unless I put my ear next to the back of the laptop. The fan did become audible during the Windows install and driver install, to be expected.

The wobble is bearable. When I type I don't notice really any screen movement. It doesn't wobble back and forth, just a minor wobble / jiggle is the only way I can describe it.

As far as I'm aware you can't upgrade the RAM. You need to order 16gb if you want 16gb. Also the laptop does have a WWAN card slot, so if you don't use WWAN I would assume you can use an mSATA SSD instead. I'm not an expert with mobile chipsets though; I know on my Z170 motherboard my use of the m.2 slot in PCI-E 3.0 mode disables a SATA port or two. In the X1C I don't know what impact there will be on the mSATA port when you use a PCI-E SSD in the m.2 slot (or a SATA m.2 SSD for that matter) / what lanes are shared. I assume it will still be OK but you never know.

 

I got the X1 Yoga with the Lenovo NVMe 512GB SSD. With the Barnes & Noble discount the upgrade from the 128GB to the 512GB NVMe was only $240.

When I price the X1 the disk upgrade cost is $277.50.

It's reported as "NVMe SAMSUNG MZVKV512" and doesn't seem to report slow in CrystalDiskMark. (I can't upload an image.)


Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2503.143 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1535.695 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 484.914 MB/s [118387.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 386.158 MB/s [ 94276.9 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1684.359 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1537.266 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 52.302 MB/s [ 12769.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 155.439 MB/s [ 37949.0 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [C: 12.5% (59.6/475.7 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2016/03/22 15:08:44
OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 10586] (x64)

 

Excellent, that's the performance you should be getting from that 512gb SSD.

The Samsung PM951 is what I was referring to in my earlier post. Although it is NVMe and PCI-E 3.0, the sequential write speed of that 256gb and 128gb SSD is slower than SATA 2! This drive shipped with the majority of the XPS 13, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book (some people got lucky and received Toshiba drives). I didn't want to risk it with the X1C. I ordered it through my local state bar association discount program and the upgrade to 256gb NVMe SSD was $255. I got the 950 Pro 256gb for $179 from Microcenter, so for me this approach made sense.

 

I have a stupid question. The red Trackpoint cap somehow became loose and comes off. I scheduled a service call and a tech is coming tomorrow to replace the keyboard. I checked the user manual on the Lenovo site and (on page 37) it specifically says that the red Trackpoint cap on the X1C and X1 Yoga is removable?? Has this always been the case?? It's pretty loose and falls off if I gently shake the laptop while holding it upside down. I'm not sure this is a good thing...

Also preliminary report on battery life. I've been using the laptop at about 75% brightness and after 2 hours of use just web browsing plus 1 reboot the battery is at 76%. If this is remotely accurate re: overall battery life I estimate I'd get about 6-8 hours of use under these conditions. Not too bad I guess.

 

Well don't do that! I'm the one with the upside down keyboard.

The nubs are removable and you can get replacements. I have to tug a little bit to remove mine.

 

Thanks, makes me feel a little bit better. Still my function key sticks and is not normal, so I'm still getting the keyboard replaced as long as I have the appointment set.

 

Nope, you shouldn't. While the nubs are removable there is no way it should fall over when held upside down or even be loose for that matter. The nub on my 6 year old x301 is still tight and I still have the spare one that comes in the box.

Lenovo should really up their game with QC, this isn't expected from them.

Back to the NVMe drives. I wanted to get the 256GB directly from Lenovo. Now I'd like to know if its the SM951 or some other drive that comes in 256GB :/

 

Thanks for your answers !

I'm on the verge of ordering one, but I'm still a little concerned over reliability
My last experience with a laptop (XPS 13) was a nightmare, with multiple motherboard changes, and I'm not ready yet to go through this again .....

But AFAIK, Thinkpads are known for being reliable, right ?

 

Thanks, we'll see what the replacement is like. Maybe I contributed to it when I unscrewed the m.2 SSD for the first time? That shouldn't totally dislodge the rubber cap, but who knows.

Maybe Lenovo will use the SM951 equivalent for the 256gb SSD, which has faster write speed than the 950 Pro. Decided to just go for the sure thing in the 950 Pro. I previously tried the XPS13 (2015) and SP4 and both had the crappy PM951 drive. Fool me once...fool me twice...not again. Anyone who ordered the X1C with the 256gb NVMe SSD would you please post your speeds.

 

sorry if this is obviously a "yes" but I want to be sure
if I order the 128gb sata3 basic ssd can I simply plug
in new nvme 512gb drive and I'll be good to go?

In canada Lenovo wants an extra $900 for the 512 nvme drive!!

 

@albright- Yes. You will need to do a system restore though from an external USB drive as I mentioned earlier.

On mine there's also a small chip in the anti-glare coating about the size of a speck of dust that happens to be smack in the middle of the screen. The tech came this morning to replace the keyboard and was awesome. But I don't feel like getting the screen replaced on top of the keyboard, on a laptop that is 3 days old and hasn't left my living room table. So I got a return authorization. Chalk it up to receiving a lemon, I think I'm the minority. I'm lucky like that when it comes to electronics.

Interestingly the B&N gold program that I signed up for long ago, my login still works, and gives me a hefty discount even greater than my state bar association. The cost to upgrade from the 256gb NVMe SSD to 512gb is only about $80 US, no brainer. I will use the 950 Pro in another system.

 

One more question I should have asked before. How do you compare the trackpad on the carbon 4th gen to the Mac? Looking to understand scrolling precision, two finger taps, etc.

Love the glass trackpad on my MacBook Pro Retina. I'm hoping someone finally has one as good.

 

Hope to get more feedback of the FHD. Would you be running it with Windows too? Some pictures of the display and info on how you're battery life is faring would be great!

I'm also one of those "lucky" ones in getting lemon electronics. Not a good feeling.

You made me go back and check! While its just 60$ to switch from 256GB NVMe to 512GB SATA3. Doubling NVMe storage sets you back 115$ though. I'm hearing it would be the SM951 in the Lenovos. Probably come May/June I'll pull the trigger specced out directly from Lenovo. Hopefully we should see some price reduction (and production standardization) by then.

 

for those who've opened up the new x1 carbon

I take it that opening is not too difficult (unlike T440S e.g.)

Does it look like the battery would be replaceable fairly easily?

 

The trackpad is very smooth and feels nicer than any other Windows trackpad I've tried. It is still behind the MacBook Pro in terms of precision- I've found it to be fine but again, the Mac is just so incredibly precise it puts everything else to shame. The TrackPoint is the killer feature in this regard, it's pretty accurate and precise moreso than the trackpad for me. The Synaptics utility has all sorts of great adjustments you can make. Two finger scrolling is fantastic in my opinion. I don't get any cursor jumping when I press on the trackpad which is nice. The only negative thing I've experienced is that no matter how I adjust the trackpad sensitivity it still does not pick up all of my "taps to click." Most of the time it works but it is annoying. Not at all a deal breaker.

My wireless card also is crapping out, it cuts in and out very often in my apartment. Sitting 10 feet away from Nighthawk router. So not even a week in I've had keyboard replaced, dust sized chip in screen, and faulty wireless card! I need a laptop for work on Friday and then right after I'm shipping it back to Lenovo. Already re-ordered another unit, I expect it will be fine.

For me the price difference from 256gb NVMe to 512gb NVMe was $85. Maybe they have adjusted it again? I remember when I placed my original order there was like a $15 difference between the i5-6300 and i7-6500. They've since adjusted that. I only will use maybe 50-60gb of storage but it just made sense to me for $85 to double my storage and get the speed bonus too (regardless of whether or not I'd notice it under regular use), and not have to worry about upgrading at all down the road.

Opening the laptop is very easy. There are 9 screws on the bottom, I think I used a #1 Phillips for everything. You lift the back part up first and then slide it out that way. Do not try to remove the front part of the cover first, it will break because there are latches / grooves on the front part of the cover. I did watch the tech replace the keyboard yesterday. You basically need to take apart the entire laptop, it isn't pretty. And as I said, now my wireless card has crapped out, so obviously something went slightly wrong when he put it back together. The battery you probably can replace yourself though, it probably voids warranty though. Not sure. Highly recommend the onsite warranty for this laptop, a simple keyboard replacement is not simple on this thing.

 

Seems like Lenovo's Quality Control is still a big problem

 

The chip in the screen may have been due to the tech taking apart the laptop to replace the keyboard. My fault for not checking when he was still there, honestly would never expect something like that to happen. Maybe too much pressure was put on an area of the laptop that touched up against the screen? Who knows. I also didn't have dropouts in the wireless prior to this point either. The keyboard- yes that was defective from the factory as the red TrackPoint cap was way too loose and the function key was defective. I don't think my experience is anything to be alarmed about re: QC. Stuff happens.

 

Any thoughts on the display brightness for either screen option? I just ordered the QWHD display, which Lenovo claimed (via live chat) has higher brightness. I know some mention of this was made earlier in the thread, but more specific information would be great! How is it compared with the gen 3?

 

It's interesting that I ordered on Monday, shipped today. Pretty fast.

 

Nice! Did the status page originally say it was going to take a few weeks?

 

Yes. It was 10-12 days


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Nice. I ordered my i7/16GB/512NVMe/WQHD back on the 16th and it's been RTM ever since with a shipment date of the 29th and estimated delivery of the 31st. Maybe the i7 CTOs are taking longer for some reason?

Anyone care to confirm that this laptop can push 4096x2160 (true 4K) through it's DP port? Intel ARK seems to indicate it can, but that doesn't mean this laptop is without quirks.

This will be my first Thinkpad in 6 years, so I'm really wondering how the build quality will compare to the MBPs I've been using.

 

Perhaps the 6600U is also part of the reason it takes longer? I ordered the i7 6500U with 8GB and 128SSD and the WQHD.

 

Hey, the same situation here. The last Thinkpad I owned was T410, then switched to rMBP two years ago.

I like Mac, but miss the file management system in PC. That's why I ordered a X1 Carbon. Hope it won't disappoint me.

 

I'm not fully committed to switching away from OS X. If I can't take using Windows 10 or Linux (Fedora or Ubuntu), I'll return the X1C. Frankly, the MacBooks have been languishing for a while now. Nothing about them really speaks to me anymore, and while OS X is nice, I feel very mixed about it at this point: newer versions have bad bugs or regressions that should've been obvious to Apple's QEs. The issues with discoveryd replacing mDNSResponder and the subsequent flip back to the old implementation is just one example of this.