Thinkpad x1 carbon 5th (2017) Owner's Lounge

The X1 Carbon uses 2280 PCIe NVMe M.2 drives, like the Samsung 960 Pro.

Not really, the QHD option is still missing.

 

Samsung PM961 - MZVLW512HMJP-000L7
awharton answered my same question earlier in this thread.

 

Thanks. I completely forgot about that screen.

Which connector for the SSD? B, M, or B&M ???

 

Not 100% sure, but I think it should be B & M.

 

Are the batteries in the 5th gen replaceable? Just wondering what happens a few years from now.

 

They are internal. You can replace them, they are secured by screws. Of course, you would need to find a replacement battery, these are only available as parts, not as accessories.

 

X1 5th Gen Owners - Please can you comment on the the time between your order date and the received date?
I ordered mine, but now I see all 5th Gen's out of stock, and am getting anxious.

 

Me too... I ordered customized the first day they allowed it, now worried because they took the customization option off...

 

Ordered one a couple of days ago but it said two weeks before shipment. We'll see.

 

Does Windows 10 still have scaling problems? That may be a deciding factor in choosing between FHD and the WQHD

 

I haven't seen any scaling issues in Windows 10. I am using a T460s 14", with FHD screen and have set the display scaling to 125%. Works pretty good.

 

No, not since insider build 9942 that preceded RTM and now, of course, there's the 1511 Anniversary Update. Have ran multiple machines with Win10 Pro and multiple, large monitors no problem.

 

Depends on what applications you use regularly. Personally I use Remote Desktop a lot and scaling to remote machines doesn't work well. A lot of legacy applications also haven't been updated and don't scale well.

 

What is your machine lcd panel res? What is the rmt session res? Windowed or fullscreen? Information would be helpful.

 

Any more feedback from those of you with machines?

There are two points which I am interested in hearing on -
(i) the suggestion that some of the machines were running loud
(ii) how people are using the system with external monitors. I am interested in the thunderbolt 3 dock but it isn't listed on the UK site, only the USB-c dock. I have always had 12 inch machines with traditional docks, usually Lenovo X series but currently an HP820G1. I'm keen to know how well the one cable connection works in practice.

On the scaling discussion, in the past few weeks I have seen examples of scaling not operating properly with legacy applications. For this reason I just got a UP3017 from Dell rather than the 27inch P27/X1 Lenovo screens I had been considering. Just need a laptop to go with it...

 

Looking at the part number for the fhd x1c5 earlier in this thread, looks like the same part as the x1c4.

That said anyone see any reason why we can't fit a 1440 screen from the x1c4 in the x1c5?

 

I thought the Gen 5 was made in America. Apparently not.

Ordered mine on 2/3. Shipped from China today.

 

Touchpad: had anyone have any problems with the precision touchpad? It works really well most of the time, but suddenly starts to act really bad. I restart and it works well again (till it acts weird). I'm almost sure it's a software issue. Why are those Synaptic drivers showing on task manager if it is a precision touchpad?
Thanks

 

I ordered mine on Mar 2nd as well, but as of this morning, my ship date was postponed by 2 days.

 

If mine exhibits that issue, it will be returned. I can't stand crappy trackpads.

 

I ordered mine on 10 Feb here in the UK. Still waiting!!!

 

Full HD panel. For me I run at 100% scaling for this reason and the Full HD panel works fine.

 

You ordered yours in the future?

 

No. I ordered it online on 10 February. It still hasn't shipped owing to delays with the LCD screen in Europe.

I am told it might ship on 10 March. I don't believe Lenovo though!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Damn. I read February but my mind converted it to March. I'm losing it!

 

Hurray. Had a shipment notification from Lenovo. Its on its way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Looking for advice: Is there a preferred (best practice) for re-installing the OS, more importantly, the drivers and packages there after?

Here's my plan. Any advice is much appreciated.

1. Save Windows built-in Windows Key.
2. Re-install OS Win 10 x64, from Microsoft Website (USB stick...etc.)
3. Install Intel Chipset driver from Lenovo
4. Install Intel Rapid Storage from Lenovo
5. Install Lenovo System Update
6. Use Lenovo System Update to get ALL other drivers, packages and registry mods from Lenovo.

Did I miss anything here?

BTW, getting mine on Monday (fingers crossed).

Thank you.

 

How do you do #6 without wireless, or are you assuming the default Windows 10 driver will take care of you until the updates are downloaded?

 

How are you planning to do Step 1 ???

 

The OS is a signature edition which means there is zero bloat and just the essentials. Don't see any real value in re-installing.

 

Hey Guys
hope you are doing well , i'm new to this forum and i found it as i was looking for discussions about the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon .
i'm planning to buy one ( still sold out ) and i had few questions that lenovo did not answer me , so i was hopping i could get answers here .
if we choose the WQHD display , what will be the effect on the battery life ?
i was wondering the the higher resolution display is worth waiting for , also the effect of the price and battery life is not clear yet .
what is the best battery life you could get with the Full HD display ?

 

Battery life always seems to be a subjective matter. It depends a lot on what you are doing. Reading email versus encoding HD video will impact processor usage and power consumption.

 

Based on experience, there is only one Partition. I would like to make 2 or 3 partitions on the 1TB ssd.

 

To install other operating systems?

 

Yes, one other OS, but also for TrueCrypt and Virtual Machines.

 

Thanks man
i'm aware that usage behaviors effects the battery life , I meant on average use and mostly the comparison between displays was important for me

 

Just got mine today. I'll know more when I get the SSD upgrade tomorrow and get everything installed and actually start using it. ETA next week for impressions.

 

What's everyone else's experience with battery life? I did a fresh install of windows 10 and have all the proper drivers loaded. Windows only estimates about 6 hours of battery life from a full charge.

 

I doubt I'll have a good idea on that for quite a while. I don't use mine for all day meetings or classes during the day. When I use it in the evening, I am usually plugged in.

I can say though that I like the FHD screen. The brightness, color and clarity is just fine for my needs. Running it native res at 125% DPI.

I pulled the 128GB stick and installed a new 500GB Samsung SSD. Access to the internals through the bottom case is VERY easy. All of the Win10 Pro drivers were on support.lenovo.com so I downloaded them to an external drive. Installation of Windows 10 Pro with the embedded key proceeded without incident. All of the drivers from lenovo and microsoft update resolved all driver issues. It's running great.

Installing all of the rest of my stuff now.

Love the machines design and feel. The trackpad is phenomenal. Excellent keyboard. I am not going to miss any of the Macbooks I've been using while Lenovo went through four generations of the X1. They got it right with the 5th gen.

 

Anyone have issues with the fan spinning up quite a lot? I've got the i7-7500u and the fan is turning on as soon as any CPU activity kicks in over around 30%. CPU temps go up to around 65-70c. Fan is only off when in idle mode and CPU temps are around 40c.

 

Try updating your BIOS, Notebookcheck reported that with the newest BIOS, the fan stays quiet for longer.

 

Yes - already tried that and the issue still persists

 

I received my 5th Gen X1 Carbon on Tuesday and there are several disappointing build quality issues.

Firstly, the casing is loose on the rear underneath the Thunderbolt 3 ports. I have exactly the same experience as this guy:


Secondly, when I picked up the laptop to move it around I found that the rear casing also makes a clicking noise right behind where the fingerprint reader is. It sounds as if there is a small air gap and it clicks when squeezed (like when lifting the laptop up holding that area).

Thirdly, the F3 and F5 keys barely move at all. They do respond, but feel very strange to press and barely have any key travel.

Luckily, I had a second 5th Gen X1 Carbon delivered at the same time (a duplicate order that Lenovo were unable to cancel before shipping). I opened that up and the F keys all work fine and there is no clicking under the fingerprint sensor, but there is still the issue with the loose case as shown in the YouTube video. I'm currently debating whether to keep it or not - it feels as though this is a design issue that needs to be fixed. Do other owners find the same problem?

On the positive, as my first X1 Carbon I am otherwise smitten with the device compared with my Dell XPS 13. The keyboard is fantastic, the trackpad is great, and I like the 14" screen as a nice compromise between 13" and 15". I was also taken by the Thunderbolt 3 ports as I would like to purchase the ThinkVision P27h once released due to the single cable solution for power, video, and USB hub functionality.

I'm considering waiting until the summer to re-purchase, hopefully with improved build quality and the 2k display. I purchased these ones from the UK Lenovo store with 7 day build time and 7 day shipping from China. They are now back to shipping 'in more than 4 weeks'. I'm wondering if this is because of high demand, or because they are addressing some of these build quality issues.

 

@Thors.Hammer - I could use some help here. I found that the Touch Pad freezes every few minutes. Please can you tell me which driver did you install - the Ultranav or the Precision Touchpad. Also in the zip file for the Precision Touchpad Driver - Which EXE do you double-click to start installation?
I am also having the terrible fan noise.

Did the bios update to 1.15 too.

 

I installed the ultranav driver at https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/n1mgx17w.exe

I guess I need to list the drivers I installed and the order I installed them in.

 

Oh Man... I'm glad Im not the only one with this issue, was already pretty sure it was a software issue, but at least this confirms its not just me. Upon receipt of the x1 I Immediately swapped out the 128 sata drive with a 500gb nVME. Installed a fresh copy of Win 10 pro and used the lenovo system update to load all missing drivers (with the exception of wireless lan which I had to load manually... this thing is too new!). The track pad worked fine for a bit, then starts freezing in place every 20-30 seconds or so. The tap to click option also no longer functions properly. A restart fixes the problem for a short period, but it eventually happens again, seemingly at random. So far I tried installing both of the driver options off the lenovo website, completely uninstalling the trackpad drivers and letting windows load them, and even pulled the drivers off the lenovo install from the 128gb drive and installing them on my 500gb drive, none of which seem to have any effect. I did find that if I disable the trackpoint in the mouse options it fixes the tap to click problem, however the pointer freezing in place problem is still prevalent. It seems to me like there are two different drivers interfering with eachother or something. My hope is that Lenovo just needs to do some sort of driver update, but for now its pretty frustrating. My next plan is to copy the factory lenovo image from the 128 drive onto my newer SSD using clonezilla in hopes that the software setup there doesn't exhibit the issue and hope it gets fixed in the future. Anyone else experiencing this who hasn't installed a fresh copy of windows?

 

Had a an engineer come and look at the fan issue. As thought - there isn't any issues with the fan or cooling - just that the laptop is so thin that the fan kicks it even at very moderate temperatures to try and keep the CPU cool... mine will be going back in all likelihood

 

I blame Adobe Flash. Seriously.

Tonight I've been running on battery power for the past 3.5 hours and zero thermal or fan issues. But I have been avoiding sites that have a lot of Flash based ads.

Last night I was plugged in and hitting quite a few sites that are notorious. It has a dramatic impact on power and proc usage, heat generated, and thus fan and noise levels.

 

I suppose I have a minor equivalent of what's in the video though I don't really find it so iterating or clicky sounding like in the video. Doesn't bother me.

I think I found the gap you're referring to when I press with my thumb above the finger print reader while grasping the palm rest (and my other fingers are on the bottom part of the chassis). I only came across it from your experience and trying to replicate the matter. I never grab the machine with my thumb that far up so hasn't been an issue. I usually grab the bottom right corner with the ThinkPad logo and have found it rock solid here. Your hand may be a lot larger, but overall I don't have any issue with the palm rest area of the chassis as far as general sturdiness goes (typing, leaning my weight on my palms, carrying 1 handed).

I can perceive a slight difference in the "give" of certain function keys but I have actual key travel so no issue to me.


I could see how some of these factors are annoying but personally I haven't discovered any of them without reading about it on the internet and trying to reproduce. In my every day use I haven't had any build quality issues.

I do have the wonky trackpoint/trackpad issue though. The trackpoint will ever so slightly not feel as precise and accurate (I use the highest sensitivity) and the trackpad may not respond to certain inputs. I'm going to try and keep the trackpad disabled because I really don't use it.

 

The issue is that the fan kicks in at a very low CPU threshold and almost immediately when the CPU is doing anything other than idling. Very annoying because otherwise the laptop is great.