Thinkpad X201 review by AllanD

Hi Thinkpad folks,
I wanted to post some pictures (coming later) and impressions of my X201 with respect to my former T60p.

I've been a Thinkpadder since about 2003 (RIP: My trusty T21 is now dead-That's 7 years of service since my family started using it). My T60p is being shipped off to my Dad.

What I bought
I purchased an X201 with an i5-520m, 2 GB of RAM and 160 GB Seagate HDD. The OS was Windows 7 Home Premium. I opted for the 9 cell battery (I work in two labs I have meetings in between). Also, no camera. This can be a problem at some conferences. I ordered on November 3rd. Arrived November 18. I made this purchase through Lenovo's affiliate/Visa perks website. This system was 888.52 CAD excluding tax and recycling fees. I promptly placed an order from a national online store for 8 GB of RAM. The RAM total was $171.33 including taxes and next day shipping. With SSD and and 8 GB of RAM the system is very zippy.

Perfect for me (Plan)
In the images you'll notice that there is no touchpad. There is no finger print reader. I've become nostalgic for the T21 and opted for only the trackpoint. Probably has to do with the increasing greying of my temples. I have only used the trackpoint on my Thinkpads because, I believe, my man claws are too thick skinned to make it work ( opinion, not researched). For me the idea of navigating a laptop without a trackpoint is not an option.

I removed the 160 GB drive, popped in my Intel X25-m G2 and upgraded the RAM to 8 GB. I installed an academic/open license version of Windows 7 x64 Professional available from work. I also changed the trackpoint cap to a classic dome; cats tongue some call it.

Build quality
It's rigid. It's durable feeling. My colleague purchased a 13" Edge (I know it's a consumer grade line). The X feels lighter and extremely rigid by comparison. Compared with my T60p it is more rigid. This is likely due to the compactness of the X201 (decreased surface area to volume?).

The keyboard is perfect. I don't notice changes in my type speed or accuracy. The machine is quiet. It's quieter than my T60p running fan control to minimize fan RPM. I can say the 9-cell battery does wobble. But I also use the battery as the first point of contact/grip when I'm transporting the laptop. I have never felt like the laptop and battery were going to become separated.
The monitor is a considerable improvement over my T60p (8744-J2U). The T60p was, for full disclosure extremely dim. It's brighter but a little more washed out. I found it acceptable after a calibration. For my usage, Excel 2010 doesn't care about color gamut.

What I don't like
I don't like the WiFi switch. I dig my nail into the chassis just to toggle it. I feel as though I'm scratching my laptop every time I use it. The hinges are metal and strong looking but my particular unit seems to have less hinge tension. In this way it requires very little force to close the lid. My T60p required a good deal of force and this provided for me a good feedback/tactile feel. Hinge tension may be different due to the considerable differences in mass of these two laptops.

A minor quibble is that I never received a trackpoint cap set with this unit. I received one with my T60p. Sure, I have about 5 sets laying around the house at any given time. It would have been nice. My spouse's T400s and my colleague's 13" Edge did not ship with these caps either. I suppose they stopped doing this around 2006-07.

Thanks for reading!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6628948/2010-11-24 X201 and T60p/1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6628948/2010-11-24 X201 and T60p/2.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6628948/2010-11-24 X201 and T60p/3.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6628948/2010-11-24 X201 and T60p/4.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6628948/2010-11-24 X201 and T60p/5.JPG

 

Nice review alland! I'm definitely digging the components upgrade you did. My 9-cell battery on my X200 wobbled too so I had to put in some folded
index cards and now it feels so much more better and secured. Also I wished they included the trackpoints set instead of having us buy cheap ones from eBay

Looking forward to see pictures of your X201 (even though it'll nearly look just like my machine anyway)

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Nice review, not sure how relevant pictures will be considering that visually without touchpad it wont be any different from X200, however real life photos are always nice to compare.
I liked classic dome trackpoint until it started to collect dirt on it, quite hard to clean that cat tongue off, so im back to dome

 

Visual animals my friend!

I'm going to look for my original T21 cat tongue trackpoint cap. It became disgusting: whitish, slick yet crusty. Needless to say they need more frequent replacement than other varieties of caps.

 

I noticed this immediately when I handled my X201 for the first time. I also "fixed" the "battery wobble" problem by pushing in a folded Post-It note. I still don't understand why the customer need to fix such a fit-and-finish problem!

 

@alland...

Nice review. Thanks.

Wanted to ask: Did you experience any problems moving from a larger screen to a smaller one?

 

I can say after going from UXGA to WXGA, it didn't bother me as much as I thought. The stick is very easy to scroll on and you can only look at one thing at a time. The X20x machines are imminently more portable.

 

Hey nice review! I heard you about the WiFi switch, its so uncomfortable to use it so I avoid it. Rather, I use Win+X then click to switch it off. Alternatively, you can press Fn+F5 and then set it up for that key combination to be a switch between WiFi on and off. I found hinge tension just right on mine. It feels very solid unless you really shake the laptop - then it moves.

 

@unreal25. I know about your Fn+F5 idea but for me it's mostly a matter of getting out of old (possibly bad?) habits. I'll try to use software switches to get around the switch "problem." With respect to the hinges: I was really searching for problems. I can't stress how happy I've been with the machine in this short time. If longevity comes with it as well the X will be nearly perfect for me.

@lineS of flight
I think moving to a smaller screen is OK with Windows 7 because of the window-snap feature. Also like ZaZ is saying you get used to it really fast. I've taken to auto-hiding my task bar and orienting vertically on the right side.

@NeeGo.
I'm looking for index cards at the moment. Brilliant idea.

 

I got a TrackPoint set with my X200s and my T500. Must be a new development?

 

No matter how many times I've seen reviews of this notebook it is always nice to see the erotic pics of them spooning each other.
Nice review (^_^).

 

Totally agree, it's always interesting to see the X-series laid next on to a bigger ThinkPad just to see the size difference. Are you going to get a Lenovo/ThinkPad background for you X201 too?

 

... and Lenovo/ThinkPad theme for Firefox? Not!

 

I never use the wifi toggle switch. Also, I rarely turn off wifi - is there a reason you do this so often?

A great shortcut is the ThinkVantage button - wifi controls are on-off with one button press and one click of mouse...

 

Hey, a ThinkPad background is cool but a ThinkPad theme for Firefox? That's just overdoing it.