X1 Carbon Gen 2 (Haswell)

To whom did you talk? Lenovo or a retailer? And what does next month mean? Beginning or end of the month?

 

My guess is that you need to check whether your software for cutting movies is CPU or GPU dependent. I think the latest Adobe Suite has some GPU acceleration, but it will be mostly CPU dependent. Therefore, I would choose for a 4600u (so 4400 graphics). However, the X1 is shown by Notebookcheck to throttle the CPU at high speeds. For example the T440s doesn't, probably because it has more space for cooling. If you need a very CPU-intensive computer, I would explore other options like the T440s and even look at Dell's XPS 15 or M3800 that have a quad-core CPU. They will be much faster, not more expensive and not much heavier.

 

For anyone who received a customized version of X1, how long did it take between ordering and delivery? Thanks!

 

I ordered on Feb. 13th and it's arriving tomorrow. The order was originally projected to ship on March 4th, so I'm pretty happy about that.

 

I'm still debating between touch and non touch version. Can you guys, who already got your new X1 Carbon, share your thoughts on the screen door effect? A few people said they don't notice any screen door effect, while only one person said it is noticeable. What is your thought? Which screen did you get? I really wish I could see one in person before buying, but no offline reseller carries this model.

 

I have the same screen door concern and same decision to make, with an additional concern of brightness. THoughts are appreciated.

 

After spending more time with mine...it may not be as much a screen door effect but rather some distortion due to the matte screen film. When I removed the film, the screen improved considerably (to me). I am now happy with the screen.

 

Given it's an M.2 SSD (SATA 2280) in this new model, then another option is to go aftermarket with a larger 480GB drive, with the Crucial M500 M.2 being the only one on the market right now. Here in Australia there isn't even an option to upgrade the i7 version of the new X1 beyond 256GB.

 

Thanks for your comments! It looks promising, because you were the only one who said there is a screen door effect. So it seems that the new screen is not as bad as previous gen ones. But removing the film will void the warranty... mmm, I will need some time to think about it...

 

I'm interested to hear specifically from those who have bought the non touch. how is the screen? Is it with a film or is it originally matte? what about the screen door effect.

I wonder if there are some nice offers for people in Canada

 

Which version has the film or potential screen door? Touch? After an entire year of complaints and returns for the "screen door effect," I am surprised they weren't sure to avoid it this time.

I personally just ordered a non-touch, but had problems stomaching the increased cost. I just don't use the touch feature on my laptop-ever.

 

I've only heard one or two people complain about "screen door" on this laptop screen. Rather, the vast majority of reviews have been very positive. I think some people obsess about this issue to such an extreme that they look to find it. The original X1 screen had pretty bad dot pitch, which is what a lot of people are remembering, but this is a totally different panel, and by all acounts it's far superior. Both the touch and anti-touch are at least semi matte, so I'm guessing whatever effect the matte coating on the screen has, it will probably be similar for both.

My touch model arrives today, and I'll report once I've had some time with it. But for what it's worth, I played a bit with the original X1, and the screen didn't strike me as awful as people have said, so I expect no problems with this one.

EDIT: Realized I didn't really answer your question. I assume that both panels have an anti-glare coating, but I don't have a reference for that. The touch model by all accounts definitely does.
EDIT2: After some reading, I think I may be using the term dot pitch incorrectly. What I meant is that there was a noticible gap between individual pixels. Sorry 'bout that.

 

Is it possible to use a digitizer on the touchscreen of the X1 Carbon?

 

I'm going to disagree with you here, as I do not believe it is a matter of obsessing, but rather whether or not you personally see it.

The "screen door effect" has been a major issue in the arena of front projectors (home theater, classroom, etc.), and for certain people it jumps out at them, whereas other people cannot see the effect at all. It may be that certain levels of visual acuity are more affected than others.

I had a front projector in my HT setup, one that had many reports of the dreaded "screen door effect". With normal viewing practices, I never saw it. However, if I strained my vision and focused in a certain way I could force myself to see the screen door effect, and it IS disconcerting. Luckily, I am one who normally doesn't see it.

However, for those who see it as part of regular viewing, it is a real issue.

 

I agree! I own a IT services firm and most of our clients could care less about the quality of their notebook displays and don't notice the differences when they change devices. I personally do and really want a crisp, bright hi-res screen. The Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus I had before this is noticeably better to me, but I am not sure it would be to everyone else. I am going to keep this X1 since with the matte film removed it's now OK to me. I still would like a brighter screen though.

 

You may be right. It's just that if you press your face close enough to almost any monitor you'll be able to discern the pixel grid, so if you really want to find it, you probably will. I think what matters is how comfortable and pleasing the screen is with normal use. Luckily I also don't seem to be that sensitive to it.

 

I think it is one of those things, that once you see it, you can't unsee it. I was a bother enough to me to return the x1 and the x1ct. Hoping for better screen on x1ct2.

 

I'm with DMKnapp on this. For the few hours I had my X1 Carbon (Haswell), I was impressed by the display. It DOES have a slight haze due to the matte layer over the screen. But it's a great tradeoff for having a matte touchscreen, something you won't find anywhere else. Color reproduction is very good. The blacks were a lot deeper than my Ivy Bridge Samsung Series 9. Viewing angles are good too. The brightness didn't appear as high, but when you turn off the auto dimming, it can get pretty bright still. I would gladly do my design work on this.

I returned mine for another reason though. The display connection was shot and would constantly glitch out. I've had hardware issues with all three iterations of the X1 Carbon. I still want one, because I was very impressed with this model, and can't find anything else that compares (Fujitsu U904 is close).

On one hand, I don't want to buy another out of principle. On the other, I can always return it anyways if anything is wrong with it. But how are you all fairing with yours? Any reliability issues? Mine was among the first batch, so I'm wondering if they've improved things since then. My ultimate concern is how the reliability will be over the years.

 

Just out of curiosity, how difficult was it to remove the film? Did doing so any residue behind, and has it affected touch control at all?

 

I too plan on ordering a machine from Canada. I followed the advice of one of the members (Ajgar) and was able to get a 10% off coupon emailed to me once I signed up for the email communications using the following link: Communication Preferences | Lenovo | (CA) . I guess this is a worst case scenario and you can use this to leverage a bit more discount when speaking with a representative over the phone or using the online chat.

 

I have a 2014 haswell x1 carbon, the QHD screen has a screen protector/film on it which you can apparently peel off. it does make the screen whites look "mottled" just like when you put a screen protector on an iphone, it bothered me at first but it bothers me less now, they should just use glass and bundle a protector in the box. MBP screen is brighter, screen is larger and clearer, viewing angles on MBP are also better. Most of the problems are likely due to the screen protector imo.

keyboard is great, touchpad is so so, trackpoint is great.

the main problem with the laptop is the windows high resolution support, apps just look odd / glitched when fonts are scaled up to be readable in 2560x1440. shame cos everything else is good.

 

So apparently the screen color reproduction is awful, according to the Notebookcheck review?

My W520 has a 99% Adobe RGB spectrum TN screen, and this has roughly half?

 

Getting a corner started was the hardest part. There were a few residue spots that came off easily. People removing the film on the previous generation X1 Carbon mentioned having a lot of glue to remove after but I did not have any...it came off very clean.

 

My X1C arrived today, and I've had it long enough for some initial impressions. The screen is nice. It's normally very crisp, unless there's a scaling problem. Colors and viewing angles are are generally good. Whites are a little dark, and I can't decide if that's the protective film or the slightly low screen brightness. I haven't tried messing with the adaptive brightness or power saving settings, which might help. The monitor on my last laptop was really really good, so it's admittedly a tough act to follow. My gf has a non-retina macbook. The X1 resolution wins hands down, but her whites make my screen look dingy in comparison. The keyboard is great, and I'm not that bothered by the layout changes. I actually like the split backspace/delete.

The touch strip pretty much sucks in my opinion. I the keys are fairly responsive, but switching between layouts is really slow. It takes a lot of time to cycle through the several modes to get to the F-keys when I need them, or when I'm in Word and decide I want to change the volume. It's a shame that what Lenovo considers the most exciting and innovative feature on this laptop is the biggest turn off. The touchscreen works well. It remains to be seen how much I actually use it. I opened up the map app. in metro, and I will admit it was a pretty nice experience panning around and using the pinch-to-zoom.

The touch pad is a mixed bag. It's large and very smooth, but the clicking action feels awkward and unusual. It's pretty much exactly what I remember from the t440s. It might just take time to get used to, and I often tap-to-click anyway. Multi-touch gestures seem to work really well. One frustrating problem is that trackpad control is a bit erratic. When I the move the cursor quickly, when my finger stops, the cursor "rebounds" a little bit. This doesn't happen with a mouse plugged in, and I can't seem to find a way to fix this through the mouse settings. Uninstalling the ultranav drivers doesn't seem to help either, and kills most of the mult-touch controls anyway.

There's a pretty annoying amount of bloatware on this machine. Weeding out what isn't necessary is going to take a while...

This may sound like a negative post, so I'll end by noting that it's thin, light, rock solid, beautiful to look at, virtually silent, very snappy in the i7/8GB config., and it's free of any obvious QC issues. The function strip is really stupid, but if you can get past that I think it's a keeper.

Oh, and Window 8 sucks really hard. Not really enjoying that...

 

Is anyone else running linux with the Onelink Pro Dock, by any chance? Most features work, but if I plug in two external monitors, they mirror each other and I can't get them to be treated as separate displays. They show up as one device (DP2) when I run "xrandr -q". More details here, along with some other updates on running linux on the X1.

 

I just received both an X1 carbon touch and a non-touch model. Each has the QHD resolution screen (2560x1440). The non-touch has a i5-4200u, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD. The touch version has the i7-4600u, 8GB ram, and the 256GB SSD.

Here is what I have noticed so far:
1) The touch screen model has the superior display. It doesn't get quite as bright as the non-touch, but it has superior control over edge lighting bleed. Also, the non-touch model has a plastic bezel around the screen, and the touch model has glass around the screen with no lip. I can't comment on the screen protector, but I can say that both models have a superior display to the TP YOGA and Helix that I tried in the past.

2) Lenovo clearly used a different supplier for the trackpoint button spring assemblies. The touch screen model has significantly more dampening and does not "feel" like the trackpoint buttons on the non-touch model. The non-touch model has a fairly loud click to it that is annoying.

3) This is the biggest difference. The battery life on the i5-4200u non-touch model is much better when the laptop is medium+ activity. I see the touch model with the i7-4600u get about 4 1/2 hours under medium load, while the i5-4200u non-touch model is getting closer to 5 1/2 hours of battery under medium load. I used a looping website with flash animation to test, so I am not just completely guessing. The test results were very close to what I noticed just by using both laptops for day to day activities.

4) The weight difference doesn't feel substantial to me - I can barely tell they are a different weight.

Overall, the laptops are very nice, but I wish the battery life was better on both. No where close to the Lenovo quoted values unless you set screen brightness to the lowest value and turn all the radios off. The build quality is generally high.

 

Could you give us side-by-side comparo pix? are they both running windows 8?

I would mostly be getting the non-touch as touch is purely a novelty at this point, and I'm random guessing that non-touch should give us a theoretically better battery advantage. My choice would change if the touch has a 10% better display though... but then again I absolutely detest windows 8

 

anyone else having this issue? it seems to go to sleep fine (slow blinking) but the next AM the battery has drained totally. seems to be waking up on its own.

 

I had the same issue with my T430. Then I checked the system log files and found it started to wake up at exactly 3 am everyday. It turns out that the system was trying to update windows 7. After I updated the os, it can sleep through the night.

 

I would appreciate some pictures as well, you seem to be the only one here who can directly compare touch and nontouch. Can you comment on screendoor effect comparison.

 

Update:

Still not a fan of the adaptive keys, but I was able to reprogram the default setting so the function keys appear. I also removed two of the other layouts, so I only have to toggle between the function row and one other. Still not great, but an improvement over before.

The trackpad is still the worst part of this machine for me. Right clicking with accuracy is a nightmare. I ended up buying a wireless mouse to use.

Besides the scaling issues on some apps, I like the screen. Very crisp, but again not the brightest I have used.

Windows 8.1 is growing on me after I disabled all of the horrendous features it comes with. Still don't like the new start menu.

Battery life is mediocre, I expected better.

Overall, I am glad I bought the computer. Certainly not perfect, but I couldn't go smaller then a 14" screen and this seems to be the best option. Definitely some room for improvement.

 

I never used the trackpad in Windows, but I had the same issue in Linux, then found a way to tweak the settings and now the accuracy is really good. In Win7, the relevant settings would be found by going to Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Devices and Printers->Mouse, then there should be a "Device Settings" tab. Then you could find the trackpad, and dial down the touch sensitivity, that might help.

 

Have you already installed the latest UltraNav driver? Synaptics ThinkPad UltraNav Driver for Windows 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad

 

I will post a side by side video if I get some time this weekend. The screen protector on the touch model actually makes the screen look a bit dim (almost dirty) compared to the non-touch model which doesn't have the protector. After using them both for a few days, I have to take back what I said about the screen being better on the touch model. I think the antiglare protector coating on the touch model made the back light bleed less noticeable but it is still there for sure.

There is a rather extreme battery life difference between the i5-4200u non-touch and my i7-4600u touch model. It is over an hour of difference even with a light workload (5-6 hours, vs 6-7 hours).

The adaptive keyboard row just sucks. I can echo all of the comments made so far. The gimmick factor is so painfully obvious, I really have to question what Lenovo engineers were thinking.

Both models that I have came with windows 8.1 and I have no intention of ever using Windows 7 because the DPI scaling capability would be even worse.. it is bad enough with 8.1 on the QHD, but Windows 7 would be a nightmare with my 30" external monitor. There are great programs available to make Windows 8 feel more like Windows 7 (e.g., Stardock's Start8 comes to mind).

In general, QHD (2560x1440) is turning out to be more of a problem that I thought it would be. Some applications like Chrome - you either have to deal with blurry UI elements, or incredibly small UI elements. I fooled around with all the HiDPI support and the bottom line is that Chrome just doesn't work great on this device. If anyone reading this is thinking about using Eclipse (programming) - FORGET IT!!! The icons are completely unreadable and the eclipse devs don't have any fix in the works yet. The general point that I am trying to make here is that this screen requires a lot of effort to 'tweak' the scaling for desktop applications, and even with a lot of tweaking, many apps are still borderline unusable. Why couldn't Lenovo just stick with 1080p?

Performance difference between the i7-4600u and i5-4200u turned out to be more noticeable than I thought it would be. The i5-4200u doesn't even file like an upgrade from my i7 x220 model from 3 years ago.

Overall, the biggest downside to me, on BOTH the touch and non-touch model, is the relatively short battery life. I was really hoping for battery life closer to the T440s (even with the 3+3 battery) but that just isn't happening.

 

[RANT]
Well, the bottom line here is that, working arm-in-arm, Microsoft and OEMs together have now managed to completely and utterly f*** up what once used to be a thriving market. Strong-armed by Microsoft to support an OS that nobody wanted, OEMs are trying to shove those touchscreens down everybody's throat, the fact that those things are entirely useless for the vast majority of users notwithstanding. Oh yeah, but we took Windows Aero away, so that reduces power consumption. Awesome deal, since now we have touchscreens, which are eating up a lot more power than Aero desktop graphics ever could. And, guess what, still nobody wants that piece of garbage called Windows 8.x on their computer.
Then, to add insult to injury we are being offered those ridiculous resolutions on tiny little laptop screens, which are, once again, unusable under Windows, thanks to the fact that Microsoft had better things to do than fixing the scaling issues that we were living with in Windows for decades. So now they're telling us you can either have a crummy cheap TN screen, or that gorgeous IPS screen at a resolution where you won't be able to recognize crucial interface elements and fonts without a magnifying glass. It's the perfect storm, really.[/RANT]

Well, thanks very much guys, I guess I'll have to take my money elsewhere...

 

I want it, and there are enough other people that want Windows 8.x. I wouldn´t want to have Windows 7 on my system, which really is a garbage system (just Windows Vista with ugly Aero Glass design and no real new features). People oppose Windows 8.1 for now real reason, other than "I don´t want to get used to something new"

The scaling works perfectly. It is not Microsofts fault, it is the fault of lazy programmers, who don´t adapt their programs to the scaling (like Adobe for example).

 

Yep, there's enough of them that Microsoft is now forced to not walk, but run, away from Windows 8.x as fast as they possibly can (Windows 9 is now scheduled to go RTM next spring, if not earlier than that). There's enough of them that Windows 8 has turned into the biggest disaster in the history of Windows, ever. There's enough of them so that Windows 8's chief architect Sinofsky was fired over the smashing success it represented, and Ballmer had to leave as well. There's enough of them that adoption of Windows 8 has crawled to almost a halt, with a whopping 10% marketshare after 18 months on the market. And there's enough of them that OEMs such as HP are now starting advertising campaigns around the Windows 7 systems they offer.

Very funny to see that tired old canard again. Far off-topic here so I won't respond to this nonsense, other than saying that the problem is not that stuff is new, the problem is that stuff does not offer the functionality or productivity that people are asking for.

No, it doesn't, quite obviously.

 

Yes, it does. All the examples ecsrun named are 3rd party apps. If the apps are programmed correctly, they would also scale correctly. Again, it is not Microsofts fault if some software vendors are to lazy to adapt their software to scaling.

Nonsense again. Windows 8.1 does offer all the functionality that Windows 7 offers and more. It just looks different and the start-menue is now full-screen (-> Getting used to it),

Of course, it does not offer "Aero Glass". I don´t know why this is important, I don´t need my operating system to look glossy and shiny with rounded Windows, functionality and features are more important. And Windows 8.1 just offers more and is much faster. Period.

People are often mislead by media and so called "Pro users". There has been a huge negative campaign against Windows 8 when it came out, so it is no wonder it is not very successful. Many people don´t even know that Windows 8.1 already is out. But thats enough off-topic for one day...

 

The shortcomings of Windows' desktop graphics system are well known. End of story.

It does not. There's no jump lists, no hierarchical structure, and the fullscreen program launcher in Windows 8.x inappropriately disrupts workflow.

There is no objective, meaningful difference in speed. My almost 2-year-old Samsung Series 9 ultrabook cold-boots Windows 7 in about 7 seconds. To get back on topic, how long does your X1 take to boot Win8 to the Start Screen?

 

We get it, Pirx. You hate Windows 8. It's the biggest failure since Windows ME. Touchscreens are to blame for climate change. And anyone who disagrees with you is a Ballmer nut swinger. Seriously, why are you in the X1 Carbon thread?

 

Made my weekend....thx

@BallmerNutSwingerHater BTW apps dont support high dpi well, but MS doesnt either go read some in depth reporting on multimonitor dpi scalaing

 

X1 Carbon Videos

The Social Media Hub recently released 13 How to Videos on the X1 Carbon. List as follow:

Playlist: Lenovo - YouTube

With thanks to Serene_Lenovo

 

Your rant is absolutely justified.Microbrain ultimately won't correct the scaling problems until the release of windows 9 or whatever the he** they'll name it.This useless company isn't innovating after a 10 year plateau.It's resting on its userbase and milking it.
Lenovo once again destroyed a product with the stupid keyboard revision.It's awful.
Is it so hard for them to release the carbon with the keyboard as it is and feels on the t440s?
I'd gladly pay a premium for a convertible like helix with a carbon fiber casing, better locking mechanism( not a magnetic like the new miix series) with a keyboard the quality of t440s and a great 1080 display with wacom digitizer support.LTE capability and an included GPS module.Based on haswell and 5100 graphics chipset.
I don't think I'll see it.

 

That was the nail in the coffin. I just bought a gen 1 X1 Carbon. Between the keyboard layout, the adaptive keys and the missing trackpoint buttons, the lower resolution and inferior display are less compromises for me. So long and thanks for fish!

 

The keyboard layout changes are just ridiculous.

Let me give an example.. I use an IBM program called 'Personal Communications' which is kind of a terminal access (green screen) program. This program, like many others, requires pressing F1, or F2, and various function keys. When this program is open, I have to keep the adaptive keyboard layout set to the function row. The problem is that if I want to adjust the screen brightness, keyboard backlight, speaker volume, etc., I have to reach up and press the selector key to toggle the adaptive row to the one which displays those settings and then press the appropriate key. After changing setting in question, I then have to press the selector key AGAIN, to go back to the function row layout. This is a total of 2-3 seconds of time, and coupled with the lack of tactile feedback on the adaptive row, highly error prone. I am seriously lost as to what benefit the adaptive keyboard brings to the table?? Why is this customization so limited?

Another example.. In explorer, you typically press backspace to go back to the last folder (up higher in the folder tree). Well, with the backspace and delete keys so close together, I have accidentally 'deleted' files in explorer when I meant to press backspace to go higher up in the tree. There is a REASON backspace and delete are separate by physical space on most keyboards.

It is as if this X1 carbon was designed by a sales/marketing committee rather than actual engineers.

I also don't understand the battery life performance..

I ran some tests using futuremark's peacekeeper web browser battery test with the following standards in place:
-Bluetooth off
-Screen brightness set to 50%
-Wifi ON with max bars reception (e.g., close proximity to a wireless router)
-Energy Saver profile in Windows with CPU maximum reduced to 50% speed, max power savings across the board for gfx card, wifi, turboboost off
-No background apps running
-All tests done with internet explorer
-All Windows and Lenovo updates fully installed
-Keyboard backlight OFF

X1 non-touch Carbon results (QHD, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD, i5-4300u)
-1250 average peacekeeper score
-4 hours and 48 minutes of battery life

X1 TOUCH Carbon (QHD, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD, i7,4600u)
-1357 average peacekeeper score
-5 hours 51 minutes of battery life

Why the heck does the touch model with a core i7-4600u outperform the non-touch with an i5-4300u processor on battery life??

The only differences between the two models that I could detect:
-i7-4600 with touch has a technology called Intel CPPC and an associated Lenovo driver, the i5 model does NOT have this energy saving tech
-The i7-4600U voltage is something like .676 at idle, which is lower than the i5-4300u model.. I thought for sure the i5-4300u would be more energy efficient

I am not as interested in peak performance, but rather how long these devices will last me on the road. Running the tests in energy saver profile but with the CPU uncapped (100% in the energy profile, turbo boost still off) yields a similar 'gap' between the i5-4300u non-touch and the i7-4600u touch model, albeit both last significantly less compared to my 50% cpu max cap results above.

I appreciate that this is a 3lb device, but why can a MacBook air fit a 73 watt hour battery and Lenovo can only manage a ~45 watt hour battery??

 

Oh where to start. Well, I placed an order for the pre-configured Carbon X1 Touch at the beginning of February and the shipping date showed up as March 4th. “It'll ship sooner, it always does” I thought to myself, which is the experience with every other laptop vendor. In any case I can wait. Two weeks go by, and it still says "Order Received". Meanwhile the accessories have all been sent to manufacturing, shipped and received.
I start calling for updates and get different stories each time. Either there’s parts shortage, or it is in manufacturing and the customer order portal just hasn’t updated. But everyone still assures me it will ship on time.
Fast forward to today, I’m told by customer service that there’s a problem and they don’t know how to solve it. Actually first they said there was a payment issue. I assured them there wasn’t and the shipped accessories have long since been billed for.
Now I’m told because the pre-configured model is no longer available, the only solution is to cancel the order and place a new order for a custom configured model with the same specs. I don't understand that at all but okay. I’m not sure I want to do that, despite their claim this is the only surefire solution. They said they could look into it further if I didn’t want to do cancel, which I asked them to do.
A few hours later I called back, and once again I am told it is shipping tomorrow. I assure them I was told it is not shipping tomorrow since it hasn’t even hit manufacturing yet. Meanwhile the ship date on the order status portal is now blank.
I decide that canceling the order is my only salvation, but the next sales rep cautions me against it say I should absolutely not do that, versus the last rep who swears it’s the only solution.

So here I am a month after ordering. No laptop. No ship date. No confidence in Lenovo. Wondering if I should order a Dell or HP instead.

 

Its not like the new carbon is their budget POS line they are marketing to the poor hordes......its a flagship targeted at the highest of end user.....Lenovo fail, is there no face to be saved in China anymore???

 

If they can't deliver on time, ask for a hefty discount.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Working on it. But I do have to cancel the previous order. This sucks.

 

What power supply did everyone opt for? The slim and the regular are both 65W. I always get two and was going to get a slim and a regular, thinking the regular would be more robust. The slim is 2 prong, can any confirm if the regular is 2 or 3 prong?