Twist vs. X series : Pros, Cons?

We're looking to replace X200 with a new model. I'm wondering what's the main differences pros and cons of the twist vs. X series laptop like the X230.

Pros: Touch screen, all the ports, small form factor
Cons: shorter battery life, a bit heavier. non replaceable battery

Are there any other differences? the laptops seems very much a like. Why Lenovo didn't just make a X230 Twist version? it seems that there aren't real differences beside the screen.

 

The Edge Twist's hinge is small and weak, i imagine that after a year of use, the Twist hinge would give up. Also, the silver plastic decoration around the LCD gets dented and scratched easily. The ram on the twist is soldered to the motherboard.

X230t is going EOL, and getting replaced by the Helix.

The review of the Twist in my link, which shows some comparison pictures against the X230t.

 

The X also has a better processor (Twist uses the U) *Correct me if I'm wrong lead.

 

Lead, thx for the extra info. But again, these may seem minor considerations. I was wondering if there is something more crucial in terms of performance and usability.

 

if your Twist's hinge fails then you can hardly call it usable? When i was typing on the Twist balanced on my leg, the screen was flopping around like leave in the air.

Also, performance is partly attributed to the amount of ram right? The ThinkPad X230 can do up to 16 gigs (maybe 32 gigs once the 16 gigs module is released), which you can freely upgrade, while the twist has fixed ram so what you buy is what you are stuck with.

Finally, the X230t battery life with 6 cells + 6 cells slice is well over 10 hours, the Twist would be lucky to manage 5 hours.

 

The Helix looks like it is going to be great. Are we looking at an Ivybridge version or will it wait until Haswell's introduction?

 

The Twist hinge would be a warranty issue if it was to fail within a year right? I have heard good things about lenovo's warranty service so I'm hoping that if thats the case, they will replace it. I don't see why they just didn't use the same "Tried and true" hinge from the X series.

 

That's a pretty scathing review. Should put the ThinkPad Twist firmly in the "dont ever buy" category. Any chances lenovo fixed this recently?

Can't wait for the X1C Touch or Helix. The rest of these seem like junk.

 

I was able to hand-on a Twist at my local Fry's. I didn't notice anything too bad about the hinge, but maybe it was because the chassis had so much flex such that I couldn't see anything else.

Definitely one for the never-buy category.

 

Lenovo marketing: "Reviewer says Twist is as light as a leaf."

 

I got to play with the manufacturing sample, so it has been pretty beaten up through rough handling. But i don't think the Twist's hinge would stand up to the test of time. The build quality of the ThinkPad Twist isn't bad since it uses a magnesium alloy construction, but the hinge on that thing is tiny.

 

Just wanted to add my 2 cents since I purchased a Twist about some of the mentioned problems, and maybe add a few more. I got mine for $699 on black Friday.

The review mentioned that the hinge was beat up, but it was a demo unit. I'm not sure if they improved it or what, but the hinge does not wobble at all. I do worry a bit about it failing after many years though. Who knows.

Obviously the soldered memory is not a high point due to the fact that I can't upgrade to more memory later....

It's quiet, it's not hot, it plays Diablo 3 fine, resume and boot times are short (as with any ultrabook with an SSD cache...), great keyboard with feedback, good trackpad, good viewing angles and brightness on the monitor, and good hotkeys for Windows 8. Anyways, just pointing out this laptop has a lot of good aspects.

Something not brought up here is the battery life. All touchscreensseem to get poor batterylife, but this has gotten pretty poor reviews. I get at most 4 hours of battery life. Under good use, measured once at 2:52. But I think most are like this. It has 42000 mWh of battery life and uses anywhere between 7500 W to 9000 W under low usage and up to 15000 W under higher useage, so you can figure out the math. I looked at some other ultrabooks with the same battery application and found they were actually similar (small size batteries with the HP touchsmart and useage is around 8000 W as well. Anyways, the battery has been slightly a sour point and it is impossible to see the 7 hours they claim. Under no use all the way dim screen with Bluetooth off the battery life is still not comparable to 7 hours.

The autorotation can be poor. Most people unlock the screen and make it rotate and relock it or use hotkeys to rotate.

 

I am curious- yea or nay on this lead_org? My feeling is the design leans almost toward a novelty of some sort. IDK maybe my belief system is just becoming a bit rigid but I like my X200 and T400

If I were to get a tablet from Lenovo it would be an X220 tablet.

 

i am sort of on the fence about twist, if the hinge was a little stronger, then it is a great machine especially at this price. But the manufacturing sample that i have seen, sort of scared me of getting one. I mean the ThinkPad Twist casing is really well made, full magnesium, etc. But the hinge wise... i am not so sure. Hinge is usually the first to break in most laptops, so having a high quality hinge is essential, especially in a thinkpad.

If you need a cheap tablet get a X201t, it runs cooler. But if you need the SATAIII and mSATA slot + long battery life then X220t/X230t is the better choice.

Also, current Twist has some battery issue with the Win 8 OS, so that is a problem you should consider when getting the system.

PS. My friend bought a Twist, so i will see how his one fairs and if the hinge still holds in 4 months i will consider the Twist.

 

Lenovo claims that the hinge is stronger than on former X-Series Tablets:

So maybe your evaluation unit was defect, lead_org. Evaluation Units are often not build as good as the production models. For example, there was even a defect prototype of the T430u on CES 2012 with defect hinges: Lenovo ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook prototype preview at CES 2012 - YouTube

 

@lead_org.

Thanks for responding

By all means let us know how your friends Twist holds up. There is an Office Max down the street and I am pretty sure they have the Twist but it simply is not compelling enough for me to break away from my routine to check out. I will continue to hold out and save my money for an X220T for the faster SATA III and battery life as you had mentioned. Thanks again!

 

Lenovo claims but I trust real-world experience. We will see how well the Twist holds up in the coming months.

 

Could be who knows, i love to be proved wrong in this case. Because there is so much going for the unit.

 

I would go for an X230T.

Here are the reasons why:

-Upgradable Ram up to 32GB (Once 1x16GB sodimms are released)
-Even though this is a $900-$1200 laptop, it has Wacom tablet functionality (you can get a similar Wacom tablet for $2000+)
This means you can write on it with a pen called a digitizer, like it was a notebook!!
-It's an ultra durable laptop that can twist its screen! It's sooo cool!!!
-It's so durable, it's like a small tank. It's something that won't break easily by any means.
-The design is so nice and fresh. I don't know about you, but I like rugged designs like this one over sleek and stylish designs like the Macbook pros. This design just makes you work harder because of its rugged instead of being lazy by using a stylish mac. It's called psychology, look it up!
-It's so small and the battery life is soo long, IDK any situation when this wouldn't come in handy.
-It also has more ports. And 2 drive bays. So you can have 2 SSDs in there.

The Twist on the other hand:
-Can't be used as a tablet
-Non-upgradeable ram
-Windows 8
-Not really made for "producers" (if you're more of a consumer, then go for it)
-No where near as durable
-No "WOW!!" factor because it's so thin, people know it must be new. While the X230T, people will think is super old, yet it's so advanced.
-You really don't look as professional using such a slim laptop, you'll look like a college or high school student doing homework even if you're doing advanced CAD designs on there (btw I don't think you can even do CAD on there)
-Can't run any VMs with 2GB permanent ram

etc. Long story short, X230T forever!

Also, with the advent of the Lenovo Helix. I am glad I ordered an X230T. It's probably going to be the last 'rugged' touch tablet that Lenovo creates. I'm so lucky to have gotten one, because it'll also be their most advanced 'rugged' touch tablet. Also, it's the last of their systems to use windows 7. That's great, because I got Windows 8 professional, full version not the developer preview or whatever, about 3 months before the release date because Microsoft gave it out to Engineering students, anyway, I got to test drive it and imo Windows 7 has more functionality. You can get Windows 8 as VM on your windows 7 and run apps from there if you ever wanted to.