Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 4

Yes, there are 2 versions SPF1 and SPF2 and they're definitely not equal, all things being said.

Is it really that bad? Yeah, it kind of is. It's less bright than my X1C 2013 model's LCD and the whites are dull. It is certainly a step down from what the machine shipped with. I've also noticed a bright spot in this replacement screen and now I can't even un-notice that. I can't even seem to find the SPF2 version for sale online, otherwise I'd have considered replacing it myself.

I've requested the a replacement for the same model screen as it had originally and will escalate the issue if they can't seem to source the "right" panel. I love the machine overall, but this screen fiasco has put me off, and if it's not resolved, the machine will have to go back.

Lets see what happens this week. I'm not even using the machine since the replacement LCD.

 

Question for you folks - I've been hem hawing around between a X1Carbon and a HP x360. Maybe one or some of you can answer a question for me. If I order a X1 Carbon with a mSATA drive is there still a slot for a PCIe drive on the motherboard? And the reverse question also - if I order one with a PCIe drive will there still be a slot for a mSATA drive? I know that you cant have both working at the same time, but I'm wondering if all the motherboards are the same and have both slots or whether you are stuck with whichever format you choose when ordering.

My only reservation about ordering the X1 is whether the display is too dim. I realize this is personal preference, just wondering what you owners think of the display? and I'm speaking mostly about the higher resolution display.

My finger is on the order button this evening. Just waiting to hear what some of you have to say. Ive read most of the thread, but I'm running out of time as I have a deadline and need to get an order in one way or the other. I currently have a Yoga2Pro but I want a little larger screen for a long trip. I won't be taking my workstation HP with me.

Thanks in advance. I noticed Thor posting a lot in here. He and I seem to gravitate towards the same laptops.

 

The X1 carbon 4th Gen has 1 SSD slot. It is M.2 format. NOT mSATA.

 

I ask because a salesperson told me that there was no interchanging possible. You either order it with mSATA or PCIe. He doesn't know what he's talking about, right? So the correct answer is you can put a M.2 SATA drive or a PCI3 drive in the port and it will accept either?

 

You, and the salesperson, probably don't really understand it.
The only connection in this laptop is m.2, which is the form factor (or physical connection).
With these form factor you can choose 2 type: SATA3 or PCIe-NVMe.
They both of the same physical and connection so both will fit all x1 carbon.
The question should be if you order with SATA3 (which is cheaper and slower), can you install later PCIe.NVMe?
My guess is that there should be no problem to do it, and someone wrote in the past that he did it.

 

Oh, I understand it perfectly. But when a salesman gives you what might be faulty info (choose mSATA or PCIe) then it's time to ask owners to make sure you know what you are getting. The salesman's answer indicated that Lenovo used two different MBs depending on the purchaser choice. If he had told me that all the MBs wee the same and it's a M.2 slot that would accept either a SATA drive or a PCIe drive then I would have had my answer and wouldn't have needed to make a post on this site. I also know the difference in speeds between SATA and PCIe. No need to act as though I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

It wasn't my intention.
Anyway, I don't think you can have such a small laptop with something other than m.2.

 

The salesman probably meant you need to choose between SATA3 or PCIe storage for the m.2 slot. There is an mSATA port on the laptop- it's where the WWAN card would go. I don't know if you can use that slot for a SSD or if it is limited solely for use of a WWAN card. I also don't know if the MB will have the slot if you don't order a laptop with the WWAN card. Maybe call Lenovo sales?

You can order the laptop with the SATA3 SSD and install your own PCIe SSD. I have done it as have many others on here.

 

Hi All

I received my unit a couple of weeks ago.
My Config:
-i7-6600U
-16GB RAM
-FHD - I AVOIDED the QHD as my banking software does not scale - i can't believe Dell and others do not sell the XPS13 high-end i7 with FHD.
-512GB SATA (forced option)
-Win 8 pro

I have just received my 1TB SM961 NVMe drive today.

I have a few questions:

1. I understand the recommendation for installation of SSD is to make a restore drive from Win10. However does it also install Office 365 and other apps once you restore to the new drive? I love having a clean install - I have been doing it for years for all my previous laptops. I'm just unsure regarding the Win10 activation on this laptop. I have used tools to view the product key however the last 5 characters do not match what windows settings screen shows
2. Is there an ambient light sensor on this laptop? I cannot find the option for auto brightness. Also the keyboard backlight has only manual operation?

I have been awaiting the NVMe drive therefore am not using the laptop daily however the battery seems to run down very quickly.
I will have to check more on this.

First impressions therefore not that great.
I have been using Sony Vaio Z models since 2008.
My current is the Sony Vaio Pro 13 - which has Sammy XP941 SSD (1500MB/s read) - which I bought in 2013.
This is some what a step down. Hopefully things will improve with the new SSD and fresh windows installation.

Any answers or thoughts? Please post.
Thank you

 

I have your config except that I opted for 512GB NVMe and Win 10 Pro x64. I have had the laptop for about 2 weeks now (had to wait nearly a month to get it as I'm in India and had to get the laptop sent to me via my boss). I'm getting very decent battery life. Though I would not be considered a hard core user. Lots of browser tabs, Outlook / Thunderbird, Word / Excel / PDF / Telnet and somehow I find brightness above 70% to be too bright, probably because I'm coming from an x301. I get around 8 hours easily. Quality wise, my space-bar is a bit mushy, there is a miniscule dent on the arm rest above the fingerprint reader and there is a spec-scratch on the power button where the light slightly bleeds through. I'm not sure if I should attribute these to my boss who is a bit rough-handling. I'm not as nit-picky as I was when I got my x301 6.5 years back so I'm learning to live with these.

Otherwise I absolutely love the laptop, the power it brings, how thin and light it is. I'm really glad I opted for FHD as it really is more than required for me. I have kept scaling at 100%, while a few things are a bit small, it still works.

On a side-note I purchased a sleeve from WaterField Designs and I'm just so glad I did. I keep a power adapter at work and one at home so I really just need to carry the laptop around. In all honesty I can get through a full day at work without even needing to charge.

Now I'm curious what settings you folks have set for the battery. I would really like to retain the amazing battery life it brings, but also wouldn't want to wear it down too quickly.

Also, how do you keep the screen and the keyboard clean? When I first got it I had the trackpoint indentation on the screen which I could wipe clean. (Yeah probably it was squeezed tight at some point in transit). I hate that its a fingerprint magnet. Another nitpick - Probably cos of my finger oils, the trackpad already shows signs of wear.

Any other tips and tricks for squeezing the best out of this laptop?

 

Looking at my options here:
1) Wait for CES 2017 for new Thinkpad X1 5th Gen announcements
2) Wait for Black Friday deals to buy the 4th Gen model
3) Buy used model

Never owned a ThinkPad before, but I hear many good things about it. I intend to use it as my main computing device. I would connect it to an external monitor, mouse, mechanical keyboard when I'm at home working largely in MS Office with some light gaming (CS GO). The biggest factor to me is durability (hoping to last 4 yrs), screen, and keyboard.

My 4 year old laptop is still running good with a new SSD that I put in this year so I can afford to wait, but if I can find a very good deal, I may pull the trigger on a 4th Gen model.

Few questions for X1 owners,

• How is your 4th Gen holding up?
• What is your the biggest gripe with the laptop?
• What would you like to see for the 5th Gen model?

 

One more question: can you open the lid with one hand?

 

The second X1 is here! It comes with me almost 99% of the time. I am taking serious measures this time.

 

If you are not in a hurry you can wait for the new one. We expect the usual upgrades like 7th gen Intel processors, probably the desired USB-C type connector and who knows, 32GB of RAM option? If you money burns in your pocket, wait for a good deal.

Mine is new, so it's still perfect. My only concern was to not come with a USB-C instead of the OneLink+ connector.

Not really, hinges are quiet strong and the laptop is so light.

 

Had mine for about 2 months now (i5, 8Gb, 192Gb SSD, FHD AOU Panel)

So far i am very happy with it, planning to upgrade the SSD to the Samsung 960 Evo when it is available. The screen is great, so much better than the T420s that i used before. Battery life is great too. i guess they really succeeded to lowering the battery usage during idle or low intensive tasks. (i mainly use Chrome / Office)

There are however two things that are nagging me.
1. The middle Trackpoint button feels a bit "mushy" compared to my previous Thinkpads. It functions normally but the "force" feedback just doesn't feel right. (i don't use the Trackpad). Still thinking whether it's suppose to be like this or a "defect" in mine. Might consider taking it to the maintenance center to check
2. No full size SD card reader. i would rather they skipped the OneLink port to have a full size SD card reader, but maybe that's just me

Cheers!

 

Hi all,
X1 Gen4 support 2 SSD or not?
Thanks

 

No

 

Hi,

Long time reader but not often a poster . I am after feedback from owners regaring the build issues I have on my Carbon X1's.

The first Carbon X1 I received had a rattle in the trackpad when I pressed on it..... like the glass was not touching and bounced up and down. Also, rattles at the front of the case on the Right palm rest area.

I sent a youtube video to support who said it is not normal.

I just received te replacement and it is even worse.

If owners could please watch my linked videos and comment on similarity with their own Carbon X1's I would be delighted.

I have written to the Escalated support team for clarification on the issue being abnormal / batch problem or 'normal' build quality (in which case I will return it as it's not premium quality build).

 

Luckily not facing such issue with my x1 yoga

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Thanks x017in .... they are very similar devices as I understand so maybe there is hope that I can get one that isn't a rattle filled annoyance.

I reckon I could fix it myself with some small padding if I opened it up but I'm not that interested when it's an out of the box issue for both and allegedly the "premium" notebook for Lenovo.

 

Yep. If you can get a replacement, then better do that.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Had a play of some lenovo notebooks at my local Harvey Norman. No thinkpads but all of the other models were quite solid and not one rattle.

Either the carbon X1 is just a bad design to save weight or Ive received 2 duds....

 

Should I get warranty with my machine? Just reading about all these issues has me scared. Just purchased a fully-upgraded Carbon for ~1300 post tax which was a steal.

 

I have a three years warranty


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Just an update on my X1 4th Gen that I bought this past May. I am looking to sell it and someone wanted me to run a battery report. I did it and am shocked. Since May, over the course of only 6-7 months with light usage, it looks like my battery has gone from 48,408 mWh full charge capacity down to 31,550 mWh full charge capacity. The intended design capacity is 52,260 mWh. So, my battery's capacity is only 60% of the design capacity!!!

Plan on calling Lenovo to get this POS battery replaced asap. I thought I noticed less battery life over time and now I know why. Check your batteries guys!

Lenovo support remotely connected to my system after I did a BIOS update, and they confirmed the battery is defective and only capable of 60% of original charge capacity.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Let me check mine too.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Mine seems okay, but the weird thing is design capacity shows 52.06 Wh while full charge capacity shows 53.69.

Any idea how many cycle counts your battery has been through? Mine is on 34, purchased it about 2 months ago.

 

This is not unusual.

 

Today, I upgrade my laptop, i change liteon ssd to SSD samsung 960 pro, look good.

 

Amazing values!

 

Data point:

My battery, after ~10 months of continuous daily use, with about 5 partial / full charge cycles is at:

Battery 0: design capacity 3310 mAh, last full capacity 2341 mAh = 70%

So I have lost about 30% of total capacity. Not complaining just sharing this.

 

Anybody run a large monitor off their X1C via one of the OneLink port replicators? Coming back to a 16GB, FHD Lenovo ThinkPad X1C after three Surface Pros (two 3s, one 4) and two years absence.

I have a 3440x1440 QHD Dell U3415W running off of miniDP > DP on the SP's port replicator just fine now, but reading really bad things about the OneLinks on Lenovo's own site and elsewhere as well. If not a OneLink, what are you using or would recommend? Right now off my SP3 port replicator I have a Blu-Ray DVD, Western Digital My Cloud, 2TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim and a card reader for a client's security badge.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, B

 

Anyone skin their X1C? Looking for a plain black carbon fiber skin.

Thanks!

 

To answer my own questions in case anyone's interested (probably not) the Dell U3415W runs fine off the X1C over a miniDP > DP 1.2 cable. I run the monitor's upstream USB cable from the X1C to the Dell and on the four downstream ports of the monitor I have my phone plugged in, an LG ultra-slim Blu-Ray DVD, a Panini scanner from Chase Bank and a Logitech B525 HD webcam. I run an additional card reader and 2TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim off the X1C's USB ports.

For carbon fiber skin I got the following - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I5UCGX0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 on Amazon from Decalrus.

 

Anybody had experience with both the FHD and WQHD LCDs? The FHD on X1C is good, but after the high res of the Surface Pro 3 and 4 I'm starting to think I should have maybe gone for the 2560x1440. Don't like the bezels on the X1C either, too big.

 

I had the WQHD and my lap got stolen. I bought a second one with FHD. The reason is simple, WQHD is too way smaller for my eyes (30+ yo and I don't wear glasses). Unfortunately, the resize options in Windows 7/10 were so bad so I decided to go for the FHD. Still small but more confy for my eyes. Yes, the bezels are **** but is more sturdy than the Dell XPS

 

Yeah, I got my X1C off Lenovo Outlet for pretty damn cheap and popped a Crucial MX300 M.2 1TB SSD in it for another $215 so I can't complain. Even the extra three year's on-site for $89 was pretty good. That's about two thirds for what a 1TB Surface Pro 4 would cost me so all thing's considered it's still a very good machine for a very good price.

Dell and I broke up years ago. You only have to get bad service once on warranty and you call it quits for good. Have never had that problem with a ThinkPad.

P.S. - Wait 'til you turn fifty, progressive lens are your friend.

 

Got one from outlet. i7 6600u, 16GB, 128GB SSD and WQHD. Previously using T420s for more than 5-6 years, tried Macbook Pro 2016 to upgrade but returned and got X1C. Thinkpads are the best. Have little noise when I tap trackpad otherwise very good. Not sure much about display but very comfortable at 50% brightness. more than 75% is too much for me.

 

can anyone on here recommend sd cards for use? I would like to purchase the fastest available out there but can't find the specs to see if it would be supported

 

Best value: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ul...e=UTF8&qid=1488458758&sr=8-2&keywords=sandisk
Best performance: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Memory-C...=UTF8&qid=1488458785&sr=8-19&keywords=sandisk

UK links, but will find easily in .com website. Don't go for eBay to save few bucks as there are lots of fake ones.

 

Thanks a lot for the quick reply!. I'm curious if the best performance ones would be supported by the X1, I can see that Sandisk has the extreme PRO that has write speeds of up to 100MB/s which is as good as a USB 3.0 spinning external hard disk. @200$ for 128GB, they aren't the best value, but would be interesting to see if they held up.

 

I can do some tests with the value 16GB version later.
If you don't need intensive speeds as recording HD video with another device it should be more than enough the cheap one.

I have few cheap with on my 3DS and phone and I never had performance issues.

 

Funny, though I really like the X1C - it's a very good machine - I found I missed my Surface Pro 4 a lot for the touch aspect and have subsequently purchased an X1 Yoga running 2560x1440 WQHD and I love it. Default text size is 200% and I don't have any problem with it.

Different strokes.

Four week old X1C, 4th Gen, with a 1TB Crucial MX300 and three year on-site warranty going up for sale up here and elsewhere later today or tomorrow if anyone's interested. My haste and waste, your gain.

 

Sorry, this is my card:



This is the speed I have with the laptop:

 

I got the following on a Lexar 200GB 633x microSDXC UHS-I in an X1 Yoga I bought on eHoseBags for $55.

 

@Nyek and @B'midbar Thanks a lot for this! Painfully slow write speeds mean it just makes sense to get at max a 64GB where I can store or backup my important docs I guess.

 

I'm trying to find laptops that does not have PWM flickering.

Reading this thread, it seems that the X1 Carbon 4th gen does not have PWM. But the WQHD screen has 2 different panels. If the laptop comes with LG panel, there is no PWM. But if the laptop comes with Panasonic panel, there is PWM. And there is no way to know this before hand.

For FHD (1080p) screen, the panel is only by AUO, and there is no PWM. So if I want to get a laptop with no PWM, I should get the X1 Carbon 4th gen with FHD. Is this correct?

 

once again back to the different display panels for the x1c 4th:

due to some clouds my panasonic display developed recently, i got my panel replaced under warranty. as the panasonic one wasn't available, i got the LG display... BUT i got the SPF1 ( LP140QH1-SPF1) version of it, not the SPF2, which is said to be used for the X1C.

after some research i found some scary measurements and pictures on how bad the SPF1 is compared to the original SPF2... so i got myself a colorimeter (xrite i1pro) and did some measurements on my own.

well, it turned out that apparently there is a huge batch to batch variation within the same model. my LG measured very well, only the white point was a bit on the cold side when uncalibrated.

but it measured a maximum brightness of 324 cd/m2, on the native white point, with a black level of 0.35 cd/m2. which resulted in an native contrast of 926:1.




and a stil respectable 289 cd/m2 max brightnes when calibrated to 6500k. with a black level of 0.33 cd/m2. calibrated on 6500k white, the ∆E of the LG panel ist just 0.81. which to my knowledge is quite OK.


what i'm trying to say is, don't believe the rants youll find on reddit and the lenovo forums, concerning the SPF1 version of the LG panel... it doesn't have to be that bad, as there are be good batches as well... as long as mine isn't just a funny exception ;-)

edit: and no, my LG panel definitely doesn't use PWM...

 

Just to let you know that I installed a Samsung 960 PRO 2TB in my carbon 4th generation, and it works like a charm