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

If you look at the HMM, the WiGig antenna is a separate module and is not the same as the existing WiFi antennas. I also want WiGig and the antenna module.

 

What do you mean by HMM? So in other words, I won't be able to add Wi-Gig to my X1C after I purchase it?

 

Hardware Maintenance Manual... you can add it if you get the right parts... the 18265 wireless card (Lenovo branded) and the WiGig antenna part (part 11 on Page 50 of the HMM)..

https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x1_carbon_5th_hmm_en_sp40m11925.pdf

 

I'd venture to say most people who buy the X1C don't know what Wi-Gig is. That's probably why you're not seeing it offered.

 

eli5 us what is a wi-gig

 

It allows Wireless docking using the WiGig standard...

This is the dock...
http://www3.lenovo.com/au/en/access...wireless/ThinkPad-WiGig-Dock-ANZ/p/40A60045AU

Basically you bring your notebook near the dock and your video and peripherals connect to it.

I actually bought the Lenovo WiGig Dock a few months ago on eBay for $140.

 

Thanks Daniel. From looking at the pictures, it might not be easily installed by a novice like me. Furthermore, will Lenovo even allow me to purchase the antenna separately? Again, I'm pretty disappointed that I won't be able to jump on to the Wi-Gig bandwagon.

 

My X1 Carbon is finally here (took FedEx their sweet time due to supposedly their Paris hub being hacked or something, and then the incompetent customs officer took another 10 days): only powered it on so far to make sure it works and matches what I expected. Nice QHD screen (I so missed the matte panel), nice keyboard, but significantly larger than the XPS 13 which I need to get used to. It does feel significantly lighter than my good ole XPS 13 9343.

Also, RJ45 adapter did not arrive in the box: this was a US version, and it's annoying that you can't even order one online when ordering the laptop (which is why I was hoping ). I do have a USB ethernet adapter from my Dell, but it'd be nice to keep the USB port unused for rare cases where I want to use a cable connection with a laptop.

If I find the time, I'll probably take a photo of white background at max brightness on XPS 13 3200x1800, X1 Carbon and Dell UP2414Q screens to get an idea of how they compare, though matte surface will be much more usable outdoors.

 

Anybody experiencing a big downgrade in battery performance after the most recent Windows 10 update (i think it's Creator's update)? My battery life is now around 5 hrs since that update, really terrible. Any tips on fixing this? Thanks

 

That is pretty concerning. I'll have mine next week so I will try to update and test

 

No problems here... I've been running Creators Update before it was GA'ed in April.

 

Weird, I do have a lot of applications open but I definitely noticed a downgrade after Creators. My battery life is great in Ubuntu, just bad in Windows. Any tips on diagnosing the issue? Thx

 

Settings -> System -> Battery -> Battery usage by app

Anything high CPU usage in task manager?

 

Mostly Chrome (I have many tabs open). I'm confused because it definitely ran longer prior to the update.

 

Chrome is a notorious battery hog especially with extensions. I only use it when plugged in. Otherwise I'm using Edge.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...e-six-tips-to-make-it-suck-less-battery-power

 

Cool I'll give it a try. Do you use Ubuntu by any chance as well?

 

Had my X1C5 for ~24 hours now. Initial thoughts are that it's near perfect.

Any recommended tweaks to bring the synaptics touchpad performance more in line with windows precision offerings though?

 

Out of curiosity, what is your battery discharge rate in Windows 10? I'm seeing about -10,000 mW in "BatteryBar" free version.

 

Seeing anywhere from -7,000 to -14,000 with just Chrome open (lots of tabs, but not enough to force frequent paging). When opening a previous Chrome session (lots of tabs loading) it briefly spikes up to around -22,000 due to the cpu load spike.

 

Hi everyone !

I'm ready to buy the X1 Carbon and I read all the owner lounge so far but there was one recurring issue in the thread that has not been clearly addressed. It's concerning the fan noise that might be caused by the i7 vs the i5 ? I saw a lot of comment about that but I'm still not sure if it's safe to order the i7-7600U or if I should take the i5-7300U in order to avoid fan noise problems.

Anyone could share a concrete experience about the impact of the CPU on the fan noise on the X1C5?

Thanks.

 

How do I enable disk encryption on my X1C5? I tried enabling bitlocker encryption several times, but it hangs every time during the preparation phase before the actual encryption task would even begin.

Am I supposed to be using a non-bitlocker encryption method? If it matters I have a 1TB SM951 NVMe drive.

EDIT: I set a hard drive password in the BIOS. Now on boot I'm asked for my fingerprint *or* hard drive password. If I use my fingerprint at this point during boot I'm also signed into windows automatically which is nice. Am I using OPAL 2.0 correctly now?

 

I've only had my X1 Carbon for a short while, and I went with i5-7300u for that exact reason. Note that i5-7300u is actually quite close to i7-7500u in performance (both Turbo Boost to 3.5GHz, i5 has a base frequency of 2.6GHz and i7 is at 2.7GHz, the only major difference being vPro and 3/4MB cache size), so I was worried it would be annoyingly loud as well, since most reports have been comparing i5-7200u and i7-7500u instead. They also cost about the same (i5-7300u and i7-7500u).

My experience is that i5-7300u in X1 Carbon is pretty quiet most of the time, but a fan kicks in quite quickly and loudly when CPU usage grows. There's also the wake-from-suspend bug that puts the fans at 100% in Linux that's mostly resolved with the latest kernels. Note that I am exclusively using Ubuntu 16.04 on it, though I did keep Windows in there for now in the last 50GB of the 1TB SSD.

However, note that even with i5-7200u and i7-7500u, reviewers found no noticeable difference in performance between them (notebookcheck reviewed both, look for their long-running performance tests which catch throttling issues as well: i7 did start at 360 Cinebench score, but few minutes in was at 324, and i5 started and remained at 319), and I only went with i5-7300u because you need it to get 16GB of RAM. Basically, even with that, you are paying extra just to configure it with more RAM, and you are not getting any more performance in practice at all than you would get with i5-7200u. According to the review, the cooling system in X1 Carbon couldn't even cope with extra oomph of i7-7500u, and I doubt it would fare any better with warmer i7-7600u (turbo to 3.9, base at 2.8GHz). The only consideration I had for i7 was in thinking about resale value, but I hope to keep this X1 Carbon for a long time, so it doesn't matter much

Basically, I've yet to see a thin-and-light notebook review favourably in their i7 variant in the last few years: the cooling is simply not there yet. NotebookCheck reviews are so far the best resource since they go into enough details and let their peformance tests run for 30 mins (most i7s beat i5s in the first few minutes, after that they are equal—of course, this only applies to thin and light systems like the X1 Carbon). After a mistake with my Fujitsu U904 and i7-4600u (which was not just loud but also had an annoying whirring sound which the review at NotebookCheck mentioned but I thought how bad could it be ), I've only ever gotten i5s (in my XPS13, X1 Carbon) or fanless core m CPUs (in Thinkpad Helix 2).

 

I've got a Dell UP2414Q 4K screen, Dell XPS 13 9343 with 3200x1800 screen and the new X1 Carbon 5th gen with WQHD screen. To compare their brightness and colour in a very crude, non-scientific way, I set my Sony A6000 to manual settings at f/4.0, ISO400, 1/400 exposure with SEL50F18 lens in a dim room (purposely dark to avoid any screen getting all white), set up all of the three as close as possible to each other and at max brightness, and took a raw/JPEG shot of them.

Looking at the photos with Shotwell/Gimp, I'll average out all the RGB bytes to get "average brightness" (this is all wrong on so many levels, but bear with me) as a single byte (0-255 or 0-0xff).


In the RAW image, these are the RGB values of sample pixels I clicked on (totally arbitrary, a few others I clicked had the same relation between RGB values but did differ a bit: a better way would be to average out the entire screen in the center of the photo to avoid lens quality affecting the score):

UP2414q: #595c5c (average 0x5b)
X1: #424e4d (0x4a)
XPS13: #505a60 (0x59)

Clearly, X1 is darkest, which is unsurprising considering XPS13 was rated at 400 nits, UP2414Q at 350 nits, and X1 Carbon WQHD at 300 nits. Both X1 and XPS13 have a green/blue tint, and UP2414Q is best in reproducing pure white.

Basically, X1 is ~83% of the brightness of my XPS13, and ~81% of the brightness of UP2414Q. XPS13 9343 got an average brightness of 373 nits in NotebookCheck review, and UP2414Q got 327 in Tom's Hardware review. That puts X1 Carbon WQHD between 264 and 310.


Double-checking the JPEG (which has additional processing by the camera itself), the relationship mostly holds. Sample pixels have the following values:

UP2414q: #a9a8a6 (0xa8)
X1: #769995 (0x8c)
XPS13: #8badb6 (0xa5)

Here, X1 is at 83% of UP2414q and 85% of XPS13, but notably, the processing exaggerates the dim red in the X1.

FWIW, I've been running my UP2414q at very low brightness, so it's probably preserved most of the original brightness, whereas XPS13 has been used outside at highest brightness because of the reflective screen. I've also tried snapping individual images of each screen at the same static settings, but even at this distance (1.4m from screens), the camera captured subpixel arrays and I didn't want to spend more time on this.

 

Thanks a lot for your response!
I'm in the exact same situation as yours so I will follow your advice and go for the i5-7300u.
I'm using linux too for everything related to work but this time I'd like to use linux in a virtual machine so I can have both worlds simultaneously as I'm using a lightweight window manager and being 95% of the time in terminal sessions the VM overhead should not be an issue.

I have another concern which is about USB-C. Actually I bought a Dell XPS 15 three months ago and I lived a nightmare with the Dell support since all that time because of hardware issues (the nightmare is not yet finished actually )
One of my issue was that as soon as I plugged an usbc hub on the laptop (even if nothing was plugged on the usbc hub) the fans would always spin at 2500 RPM. This was preventing me to use my external monitor and keep my work environment quiet. I could not use the hdmi port either as it was hdmi 1.4 hence not supporting high resolutions at 60Hz.

I don't know if you have a usbc/thunderbolt screen or hub but if it's the case, have you encountered such an issue?

 

Regarding the 7200u vs 7300u vs 7500u - I have the 7300u and it throttles down to around 2200 under sustained load. All processor options are handicapped by the cooling system so the upgrade options offer zero performance benefits. I also got the 7300u since it was required to configure my machine with 16GB of RAM.

 

I would argue that this is slightly misleading though. I opted for the i7-7600U because a lot of my work is CPU intensive and although an ultrabook isnt great for those sort of tasks to begin with at least I'm doing the best with what's available. However, the situtations where the extra CPU performance is most beneficial isnt when my laptop is sitting there compiling a project for an hour it's when short periods of high performance is necessary which is exactly where the difference is most noticeable. So yes, while benchmarks that measure performance over a long period of time is useful to register the thermal characteristics of a system for sustained loads, the performance during shorter workloads is probably a more useful metric for most people which is exactly why Intel Turbo Boost technology exists in the first place.

Please note that I'm not advocating that everyone should get a i7-7600U on their X1C. My impression is that most people use their machines for very light productivity work and reap little benefit from the higher clock speeds, BUT I am arguing that if your day to day usage involve a lot of CPU intensive work, the i7-7600U will give you better performance.

 

I'll be mostly using linux virtual machines: always one as a working environment (light window manager, most of the time in vim/terminal) and sometimes 2 others vms. I just decided that the 223 euros difference between the i5-7300u and the i7-7600u isn't worth it.

 

Can you tell me if the fans kicks on with the X1C5 when you plug your screen through USB/C ?

 

I've just tried that using Lenovo USB-C/DP adapter, and no they do not (using either of the two USB-C ports).

 

What's your battery capacity? Mine's 56,050 mWh. If my math's right, at a 7000 mW discharge rate, that's only 5.6 hours of battery life. That's about what I'm getting in total battery life but everyone here's reporting 8+ hours. In Linux my battery life lasts about 10 hours.

Anyone else getting only 5-6 hours of battery life in Windows 10 after the creator's update?

Prior to the creator's update, I was getting close to 8 hours in Win10. I'm really considering reinstalling Windows to see if it fixes my problem.

 

Mine just came in the mail and I'm in love with it so far. Still getting everything set up on it. I'll be checking my battery life tomorrow and see how far I get with undervolting the cpu.

Also, what should I be looking for idle temps? Mine are hovering around 47-50. Could be because its still a new laptop so its indexing/caching/whatever goes on in new laptops.

 

Your math does not seem right: 56Wh / 7W = 8h. Seems pretty decent if that's your average.

 

So I just got done setting up some profiles in throttlestop and undervolting the CPU/iGPU. the results have been pretty great so far. full power on AC with the performance profile, the max temps were 75c (rarely) and average temp was around 50c with surfing and productivity software. My battery profile really lengthens the life of the laptop as well. The power is heavily toned down on this profile, but I was able to stream from kodi perfectly for 1hr 34min at max brightness, and it took the battery from 74% to 61%. Temps stayed somewhere around 37-38 degrees for the duration as well which made it very comfortable to watch while on my lap. Fans never kicked on as well. I'm pretty amazed by this machine so far, its just built like a rock and the performance is very admirable for a notebook of this size.

I was wondering what everyone is getting on their Cinebench CPU tests. My highest was 313.

 

Hey. I am really upset with my yellow tint FHD screen. Does someone has some ICC profile to solve this huge issue for me.... Thanks in advance!

 

Which processor did you choose for your X1C5 and how much have you been able to undervolt it?

 

Actually the X1C G5 is artificially capped at 75c max CPU temp.

 

Undervolted my 7300u by -90mv. Lower temps and noticeable performance bump under load. The lower temps allow for a consistently higher multiplier below the 75C max.

 

Anyone know (or know how to find out) the full list of USB-PD inputs that the X1C5 will accept? For reference the 65W stock charger outputs at 20V 3.25A / 15V 3A / 9V 2A / 5V 2A.

What about 20V 3A (eg. macbook 61W) or 9V 1.67A (eg. samsung 15W)?

EDIT: X1C5 will accept 20V 3A USB-PD inputs for charging. Definitely won't accept 9V 1.67A or 5/6V 3A USB-PD inputs. Surprisingly it won't accept 9V 2A USB-PD inputs either even though the stock charger has this listed as a supplied voltage so you'd think it would be compatible.

TLDR: The Apple 61W USB-C charger charges the X1C5 at near full speed, but most wall wart style phone chargers and power banks won't be able to supply any charge at all. Numerous charging sources that other USB-C powered laptops will charge from do not work at all with the X1C5.

 

Can anyone PLEASE help me with the dull brightness and yellow tint? I will commit suicide with this pain.

 

Try calibrating your own screen. Alternatively, Notebookcheck made their calibrated X1C5 profile available for download (as they do with calibration profiles for most notebooks they review). If you determine your screen is defective you need to either address it with Lenovo or, if you purchased from a reseller, get a replacement from them ASAP.

 

I am planning to buy either an X1 Carbon or T470s in the next couple days. I've read some comparisons but I'm still torn. Is the keyboard the same on both models? are thermals better on the T470? I'm leaning towards the X1 carbon, but if the T470 runs cooler and has a better keyboard, I think I would choose it. Also, anyone have any tips on getting the best price?

 

Hello everyone,


I am looking for a new laptop and I may have settled for the X1 Carbon 5th Gen. I first saw an Art Technica Review about the X1 Yoga that looked cool (A few years ago I had bought a Yoga but despite its interesting qualities was much too slow). However, upon looking further, it seems battery life is disappointing. Hence, the X1 Carbon, which I had already looked at about 1 year ago (the 3rd or 4th gen?).


I am looking for a lightweight laptop with a good screen, long battery life and one which is not slow (in day-to-day operations and boot/startup).

Will the X1 Carbon fit this description (I am considering at the high-end resolution with 1TO SSD, 16 G Ram and the WQHD screen) ? According to what I have read yes.


However, I have seen people complain about battery life. I usually use things like Chrome, Excel, Word, Evernote, a bit of Matlab and some gaming (CCGs such as Eternal, Faeria, Gwent¦) as well as services like Onedrive, Dropbox in the background.

Do you think I can achieve something like 8h battery life ?


Other questions :


- Does the WQHD screen reduces battery life vs the FHD?

- Has anyone tried to charge it with an external battery ? I have an Anker one that I use for my MB pro but I wonder whether it will work with the X1, just in case¦

- Anything else I should be aware of ?


Thanks !

 

After getting used to this dull display I am facing another irritating issue. I hear this small clicking/buzzing/crackling sound under the keyboard when I mouse my mouse or trackpad and when I load a webpage or any other light activity. What could be the problem?

 

Hello,

I am finally going to receive this beauty on Monday!

Anything I should do when I receive it, e.g., things to download/remove, settings to optimize battery life ?
thanks!

 

Hi guys,

Does anyone know why all X1 Carbon Gen 5 doesn't seem to support the WiGig dock?
My understanding is the WiGig Dock requires Intel Wireless-AC 18265 chipset but almost all of the X1s offers online uses 8265.
This is such a great function and I am heart broken not having able to do this...
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Edwin

 

My X1 Carbon Gen 5 just went dead yesterday while I was using it and won't POST. I tried the emergency reset button and have no luck. It's going to Flextronics to be fixed tomorrow.

 

Can someone clarify Lenovo's fingerprint scanner / OPAL / encryption implementation for me?

My X1C5 has a Samsung 1TB PM961. Currently I have fingerprint sign-on enabled at boot. If I use fingerprint sign-on at boot then Windows signs in automatically (same fingerprint). If I use password sign-on I have to use my fingerprint / MS password to login to windows.

My questions are:
(1) Can I enable fingerprint at boot *and* force password for MS login?
(2) At what point is my boot drive decrypted in each scenario (assuming Opal 2.0 encryption/decryption is happening)?
(3) PM961 don't support EDRIVE / hw bitlocker - should I enable software bitlocker?

 

1) not that I know of
2) not sure
3) it'll probably work

 

Was looking at picking up a 6th gen, but noticed it has some serious issues with overheating and paint peeling. Considering the 5th gen instead.

Do these 5th gen units also suffer from the same paint peeling?

Thanks!