Thinkpad x20x (s/t/i) Owners Thread

Yeah, you're right. The configurator pricing is $1329, less 20% would be $1063 (if today were Black Friday) vs. $1196 (= 10% off the configurator price).

Using the online configurator yields:
ThinkPad X201 - 1 Year Depot Warranty Edit
Processor: Intel Core i7-620M Processor (2.66GHz, 4MB L3, 1066MHz FSB) Edit
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Edit
Display type: 12.1" WXGA LED Panel, 2x2 UltraConnect II antenna; with Camera and Wireless Broadband Upgradeable Edit
Total memory8: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) Edit
Pointing Device: TrackPoint Edit
Hard Drive: 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm Edit
Battery: ThinkPad X200 Series 9 cell Li-Ion Battery Edit
Bluetooth: None Edit
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters: ThinkPad bgn Wireless Edit
Integrated mobile broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable

Price $1,949.00
Savings $620.00

Total $1,329.00

Ships within 9 bus. days.

Different CPU (640M) and battery (9 cell) in my system. So... $1196 vs. MSRP of $1949.

 

Did you apply the 10% off coupon? They always have something here: Lenovo - Lenovo Deals!- Limited time offers on laptops, desktops and accessories .

This is for 10% off Thinkpad X201: USPUPGRADES

Also there's a free 4GB RAM and 500GB HD upgrade. What do you know!

 

Hmmmm... the rep's discount plus the USPUPGRADES would give me the Black Friday pricing.... first call in the morning. Thanks for the tip.

Also, the rep wouldn't give me a single 4GB SO-DIMM... it had to be 2x2GB.

 

Hm but maybe his discount was actually applying the discount. Just give him a call.... you can mention you "just" missed BF pricing.... maybe he can offer something in between at least.

 

Yep. First call in the a.m. LVO is on ET. I'm in Honolulu.

It's interesting to see that Newegg only has i5 models of the X201, at high prices compared with LVO direct. No i3 or i7 models. I don't get it.

What ever happened to the Thinkpad Edge 11, announced several months ago with an i3-380UM, IIRC?

 

LVO wasn't interested in discussion, just in the cancellation, which I did, and within 30 minutes had bought online an i5-540M model with 8 months of 1st yr. warranty left ... for under $800. For my needs, I've got the same machine for almost $500 less than the cancelled one.

 

The Edge 11 is not coming stateside, but I think is already offered in other markets.

 

Just installed 8GB(4GB x 2) crucial ram that i bought from J&R on black friday sales ($99) into my X201. Its so much more responsive now. Can you believe it? 8GB Ram on my notebook. My first PC desktop is IBM 80386 only has 64KB ram and the HDD is only 75MB. The world is moving so fast and i am playing "catch up".

 

Has anyone here been able to cancel an X201 order? I canceled within 12 hours of placing the order, with a 9 day lead time, and got a notice today that the order had SHIPPED. I called LVO and was told the order was sent to mfg before cancellation....???? So, I think the "cancellation policy" is ship everything that is ordered. With the cancellation, there's no restocking fee... but maybe the customer will keep it.

 

I'm looking to get the x201 tablet but I'm wondering if I should wait and see if lenovo has any good boxing day sales or buy it now. The way I've got it configured currently it's going to cost $1408 after $1405 in savings. I'm betting this is a damn good deal but if I can likely save more by waiting for boxing day then I will. Cheers.

 

Got my X200 in today!

I have been pretty impressed with it so far, especially how easy it is to type on this thing.

I just have one concern though. I am noticing a quite a bit of flexing on the palmrest, can others comment that they also notice this or any suggestions pertaining to the flexing?

 

Where on the palmrest is it flexing?

I only see a very little bit of flex if I push very hard. There is a fair bit above the Expresscard slot, but I keep an internal flash drive in that slot at pretty much all times so I really don't notice it. Even without the drive I don't notice it at all while typing normally and etc.

 

pretty much every spot on it will flex when press down on it fairly hard. Worst spots are below the right and left mouse buttons, express card slot and sd card slot.

 

you must be pressing it with a huge amount of force, to cause the palmrest to flex.... all the X200 i had used are rock steady and no noticeable flexing issues.

 

Hmm I am getting a weird whining noise coming out of the back left of the laptop. I am assuming this has been happening since I got it but I have not heard it until now (I am in a realy quiet building). It seems to only hapen when I run firefox or some kind of flash content on IE. Any idea what causes this? Not a huge deal but id like to stop it if I can.

Its weird how its constant for Firefox and not IE though.

 

I don't think I am exerting a lot of pressure on it. Compared to my netbook, and old sony, this computer will flex the most (just at the palmrest). I may take it apart and see if there is something out of the ordinary.

 

As Stillborn said, it took actually very little to flex the palmrest plastic right above expresscard area. It makes sense, there's a huge air gap if you don't use that slot. I fixed it by opening up the palmrest then cutting an L-shape piece out of the thick sponge that came with both Mushkin and OCZ SSDs. I still have spare. With this "mod" (lol) there is no flex that I can see and that part of the palmrest feels way better. If I'll ever need to use the Expresscard slot, I can just take out the sponge.

 

Yeah despite the little bit of flexing, this is easily the best computer I've owned. Typing is amazing, very powerful, and battery life for me is awesome.

I may try that mod of yours Unreal, the worst flexing I get is right below the right mouse button, hopefully a bit of foam will fix this up.

 

Yeah, thinkpad keyboard is simply out of this world in comparison with... well almost anything else.

Give that "SSD foam" a try, I used only 1 layer of it and it was perfect thickness. I also like how it can be used to "patch" any holes if needed... just cut the right shape.

 

Hmm it stopped. I was using it right after I came in from carrying it around in the cold, is it possible that had something to do with it?

 

The fix at the bottom of this page worked for me, but the whine is still present whenever I watch flash content on youtube or use itunes.

 

I just ordered x201 and have 2 questions about 128Gb SSD.

1. What is the brand of this SSD? Samsung?

2. I am wondering about the impacts of P2P programs on SSD. I frequently use P2P programs (several hours a day) and I usually set the temporary and download folders of these programs to an external HDD. Would the programs still access SSD on my laptop frequently? Would it bad for my SSD?

Thank you.

 

I just lucked into an X201s and will be selling my X201. WOW! The LCD panel on the X201s looks MORE than twice as good as the one on the X201 (not just 30% better, based on 1.3 million pixels vs 1.0 million pixels). Side by side pictures don't do the comparison justice... since the pix are downsampled to post, you've got to see the displays side by side. The spectral fidelity and view angles also look better on the X201s.

I've found that an SSD for the boot drive pretty much equalizes the CPUs. With a spinner, the plain X201 was discernably faster, but with an SSD, the apps launch time difference is imperceptible.

So... if you see an X201s and care about displays, grab the X201s. They seem to show up in waves on eb.

 

Howdy X20X owners of the world (^_^)

I have been a proud owner of my little X201 powerhouse for about 10 days now and am liking it so far, but have a few questions.

1) I am concerned about how hot the AC adapter gets when in use for more than an hour. It gets REALLY hot under normal use. Does anyone else have this issue? I don't really have anything to compare the temp with because I never had such a tiny adapter. I just assume the tiny AC adapter will get hotter than all the other much larger adapters I own but it feels like I can cook an egg on it. Even when I use to game for hours other adapter never got this hot. Should I call Lenovo about this?

2) The X201 will be going back to be traveling in my backpack every day. Do I need to protect the screen from the keyboard with a micro fiber cloth or something? I hate getting those scratches/rub marks.

 

my fingerprint reader failed to work 2 days ago, I had this X201 since April 2010. I called tech support and they are sending the palm rest to me ... phew ... oh by the way, I ordered mine through myus.com and I lived in Indonesia. Guess the support is worldwide.

 

TMB, make sure you have the 90W AC adapter. The 65W PSU will charge the battery OK, but gets too hot (IMO) for operating the notebook.

Yes, use a microfiber cloth if you have one.

 

Mahalo maunakea (^_^)

I have the 65W adapter. Guess I'll get the 90W for work when I'm plugged in.

EDIT: Konnichiwa evilid (or whatever time of the day it is over there),

I would be very interested in the long term results being a long time P2P user myself. I just use an old notebook for P2P duty right now, but eventually an SSD comp will rotate in for file sharing action. You should document the process.
If I was you, I'd use the older Acer of yours for the P2P duty.

 

Thanks, TheBugMan.
I will connect an external HDD through the Ultrabase and put the temporary and incoming folders on the HDD.
What I am not sure is whether my OS will still write on SSD first and transfer to the external HDD or not.

And also do you think a long term use of 65W adapter for the main unit will have any negative impact?

 

Konbowa evilid,

I'm no expert but the SSD is sure to be active no matter which P2P client you use, but it may only have to read off the SSD because it needs the OS to tell the client where to write the files chunks/files, not to mention your file sharing program will be on the SSD so the SSD will be active. I wonder if you can install your P2P client on the external HDD also. I always put the file sharing program on a drive other than the primary partition but never on an external HDD before, it will probably benefit to install the P2P client on the external.
There is also the issue of the amount of disk cache the client will need. I suppose you could change that to written to RAM or external HDD instead of SSD space?

Maybe this would be better discussed in a P2P forum since they are the experts (^_^).

About the micro fiber cloth...
Until I get one large enough to cover the whole keyboard, where should I put my small cloth now? Any common hot spots?

EDIT:...

I assume when I use the X201 the notebook it's really taxing the AC adapter for more juice than the 65W can give. Maybe one with more capacity is better for my usage? I don't feel comfortable with how hot the 65W adapter gets and would not leave it unattended for long periods (if you keep the X201 on for several days DLing/ULing files on P2P for example). Maybe you will have to experiment and see if it stays cool for you.

 

I've noticed the same heat level regarding the X201 AC adaptor but never thought much about it.

I've got a 90W adaptor for my T61 and it gets only very slightly warm when in use. Is this one compatible with the X201 or is there a special 90W adaptor for the X201?

 

The 65W PSU gets very hot with extended use.
The 90W PSU gets warm with extended use.

 

for some reason my 65 watt only gets hot if its charging. if the battery is done charging but still plugged in then it only gets warm

 

Draw on the PSU also depends on how hard the CPU and HDD are working. If you're doing major software installs, without the battery in, your 65W PSU will get toasty. Some folks even play games on an X201. So if the OP is going to be running a heavy duty cycle, IMO he's better off with the 90W PSU.

 

Kingston KVR1066D3S7/4G

Just want to confirm that 2 of these will work on my X201 to make it a total of 8 GB?

 

I'm waiting on my X201 - ordered on the 14th, my estimated shipping date is the 26th. I'm looking forward to joining the ranks of modern day Thinkpad owners, and retiring my poor X41.

Has anyone ordered from Lenovo recently? I'm wondering if there's any chance of my turnaround being quicker than the estimate. My mature adult side is telling me to be patient and wait, but my inner gadget nerd/three year old child wants his toy now! Does anyone have any recent experience dealing with Lenovo's build turnaround?

 

I just got my new X201 this week, ship date was about a week earlier than the estimate...

SSD and Windows7 install went very smoothly. Love this little thing.

 

It's the best ultraportable on the market.

 

I love the keyboard of x201.
Then I connected Lenovo standard USB keyboard (SK8825).
It is noisier and it needs to be pressed harder and deeper.
I don't understand why a notebook keyboard is better than a desktop keyboard when it was made by the same company.

 

Should I buy mine from eBay? I wouldn't mind refurbished, but I'm worried about the warranty and what not. I'm looking at ellen_mouse on ebay right now and this(brand new) Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Intel Core i5 12" 2GB 250GB BLTH S - eBay (item 250761960011 end time Jan-24-11 10:48:46 PST)
It would be great to get a response asap since I really need a laptop this week

Thanks

 

Er, it's barely cheaper than Lenovo official website (and that's debatable too if you actually look for coupons/discounts). Why in the world would you buy it for that price?

 

Unless you got a specific need to push the CPU frequently, I'd opt for the X201i. It's $100+ cheaper and you're unlikely to notice a difference unless you're pushing the CPU frequently.

 

I'll opt for the x201i then. I'll upgrade to SSD(aftermarket of course) or buy the ultrabase.

Thanks

 

I have observed an annoying issue in my X200s: the fingerprint reader works until an external (VGA) display is not connected.
After the display disconnection and turning the laptop into a standby mode, I cannot login via the reader anymore because "Fingerprint device is not available"...
:confused2::confused2:
The laptop is updated automatically.
Anyone knows a solution?

 

I am still seeing some occasional switching off when the machine is plugged in. Bizarrely it's only happened while idle. I checked all my adapters (I was given another one when I reported the problem to Lenovo) and they're all 65W. I checked and as other people have reported here they do get very hot.

Is it conceivable that the problem is with the adapter? Shouldn't the battery take cover if the supply is interrupted or fluctuates out of specs?

 

Had the machine switching off several more times and once it happened while working. IBM say it's my fault as the machine is now dual boot and recommend I wipe Linux off the other partition. Problem's never happened in Linux and only in Windows.

Can't understand their logic. Not going to do that.

 

They're not going to support an OS that didn't come with the machine.

 

The problem happens with Win7 in its original Lenovo factory install (plus all usual updates). The partition was simply reduced as Win7 allows and Linux put on the other.

They're advising to wipe out Linux (where no problem happens) and reinstall Win7.

 

If you have to get rid of Linux to prove that you have a problem just do it.

 

I am not going to wipe the other partition where I work to prove them that a very expensive laptop is faulty. I'll keep win7 as is - I hardly ever work on it anyway - and do my normal work on the linux partition.

Since Lenovo are not responsive to this and all my machines are dual boot, I just have to accept after many many years they no longer meet my needs.

 

You cant blame Lenovo until you prove them wrong, not in this case, sorry
Software is a b*tch, so is Lenovo's service sometimes and this time youre the one able to prove your point and get your machine fixed