X1 Carbon Gen 2 (Haswell)

I called a Lenovo rep yesterday who indicated no X1 with HD 5000 IRIS for US customers any time soon. Thinking about buying out side the US, any draw backs except shipping costs?

 

And Lenovo still sucks. Shipping delayed again. So if the new date holds (which I doubt), it will have been 3 months since I placed my initial order.
1st Unit: Never shipped after a month of waiting. Estimated date came and went. Then no shipping date would appear. Order cancelled at recommendation of sales.
2nd Unit: Waited a month, Unit arrived with screen issues. Sent back next day.
3rd Unit: Estimated shipping was 3 weeks, just got bumped to 4.

Hands down worst experience with any computer vendor.

 

Has anyone tried to put a GOBI into this thing? I'm going to try tonight and hope it's easy.

 

Finally received the OneLink Pro dock. I just hooked it up, so just a few initial impressions so far.

- Build quality is solid.
- Includes a cable grab to hold the OneLink cable in a fixed position on the desk.
- The X1C QHD Touch with 4600U can output graphics to the ThinkPad display and 2x 1080p monitors simultaneously. Mine are connected with DisplayPort and DVI to the OneLink Pro.

The Windows display settings for QHD on a 14" panel don't work as well on a 22" 1080p monitor. I expected this. I don't see an option for display "profiles" within the software yet. It would be great to have settings change when the OneLink is connected.

I'll post more as I use it. I'm happy to answer any questions too.

 

I have had my hands on a total of (4) X1 carbons and I have noticed something quite odd. On all but one of the carbons, the trackpad has been excessively noisy. In general clicking the Trackpad is not producing a crisp sound, but more of a loud plastic on plastic clacking sound. I would have just chalked this up to a design flaw as it has been a common complaint on other recent thinkpads.. but again, one of the carbons had a significantly nicer (quieter) trackpad.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible they are using multiple suppliers for the trackpad and some are worse than others? Does anyone know if it is possible to open the case to try to add some dampening material to the clickpad area?

By loud, I mean it is loud enough that if someone was sleeping in the room, the clicking would be enough to annoy them. Ditto for a conference room full of executives.

Thanks,

 

Can anyone comment on what the WQHD display is like at a reduced resolution of 1600 x 900? Is it still crisp and clear at this non-native resolution?

 

Can anyone advise me on the difference between the two model available?

I follow the forum for a while and it is really useful. Somehow the preconf X1 Carbons with WQHD have arrived to Europe even with HD5000. Now I am thinking of getting one of the 2 configs below. I am an engineer - travelling a lot. Not really hard core usage I expect but office stuff a bit of autocad and adobe products should run smoothly and editing full hd video also. On desktop with one-link stuff I will run on two wqhd screens (maybe fullhd monitors I dunno). I need the touch version.

I am buying a computer for 3-4 years. I hate the hassle of the purchase system config and getting used to new keyboards....

Things that matter to me: silence, stability, warranty around the globe, reasonable speed, kinda heavy-duty.

Cheaper: 20A7003VHV
Intel Core i5-4200U 1,6, Intel HD Graphics 4400, 8 GB DDR3, SSD 180 GB

More expensive: approx USD600 extra
20A7003UHV
Intel Core i7-4550U 1,5, Intel HD Graphics 5000, 8 GB DDR3, SSD 256 GB


I tried to get the parts list from the lenovo website given the serials above without any success. If anyone can help me on that would be appreciated.

The USD600 is extra 60GB on the SSD, i5 to i7 upgrade and HD4400 -> HD5000 upgrade. The SSD 180 is enough for me even sounds better as I can quickly backup and dont keep sh*t on the laptop but on HDD outside. This i5-i7 and graphics card trade off bothers me. There must be some improvement from intel on this but according to tests I read the difference is not more than 10%..

Any suggestion or recommendation on the decision above?

 

so are you able to install it? Just wondering if it works with tmobile service

 

The onelink pro dock can only handle one monitor at 1920x1200 if you plan to use a second monitor at a max resolution of up to 1920x1080. The only way around this is to plug a single WQHD monitor in to the onelink pro dock, and then connect your other monitor directly to the mini-displayport connect on the laptop itself (kind of defeats the point of having a dock...).

Regards,

 

Wow... good to know. It is a bit dodgey. But it I think about I would put a WQHD and a full HD screen next to each other but based on what you said it is still too much for the one link...

 

Do you mean WQHD? There is only WQHD and HD+.

 

Any reference I could use whether the i7 and HD5000 worth 500USD extra if I could choose between the options below? Does anyone had a chance to compare these two or any review I could use to make the decision?

Intel Core i5-4200U 1,6 with Intel HD Graphics 4400

Intel Core i7-4550U 1,5 with Intel HD Graphics 5000

 

I just ordered a crucial 480gb m.2 SSD for about $250.

I'm going to attempt to install this in m x1 carbon in the new week. I will report in this forum if all works well.

 

Could somebody please confirm whether there is an IPS, WQHD non-touch option available and whether its only available in certain regions (EU/US etc)?

EDIT- There is!

 

I got my X1 carbon touch with WQHD in Europe. Solid machine I like it. The only thing that bothers me is the bloody keyboard (and later one link resolution limitation will do also)

For those who get their machine other than UK or US do doublecheck the layout. I was aready prepared that it will be a mess with the caps lock and backspace + del combo... but on my hungarian layout the ESC is between the alt and Ctrl on the right hand side in the same position where the tilde character is on US or UK layouts... I really dont know what was the thinking behind messing up with the layout as much as they did... complete useless in a way. The reason why I luved lenovo before was the keyboard seems like it has gune forever...

 

Hi,
Just joined the forum now. I appreciate all the feedback provided here by the Thinkpad lovers.

i own the new X1 Carbon i-7, 8GB, 500GB, NO Gobi

I love that the Home and End buttons are now above the shift key. Most of the time i use Shift+Home or Shift+End to highlight text. Its very convenient to have them next to each other. I am not a big fan of the new adaptive keys, but nothing to complain about. They do the job but not as efficient as Lenovo wanted us to believe I love the Easy Mode and hidden keys (where you press the Fn for 5 seconds and then press i,p, or t) I struggled to find the print screen and insert. Very creative of Lenovo. Wish though they have labeled the letters with their functionality (Ex: i button with an insert logo or something). That would have made our experience better.

For those who already removed the film, could you please post a pic of the screen on high brightness with some white color on the back? i want to see the while, brightness, and how glossy the screen is. Thanks in advance. The most thing that bothers me is the white color! Its off white and never gives you correct white color. Hope removing the film solves this issue.

For those who are asking for good sleeve/case, I bought the ThinkPad 14W Ultrabook Topload & Standard Sleeve Set - Black, and i LOVE it.
The topload is very elegant, professional, thin, light, and above all, matches the brand and color of the Thinkpad brand. The sleeve has a red soft material inside it. Just love it. A good thing also is that, the sleeve goes inside the topload, which is a plus for me. It is only $49 for both , and they come as a package.
ThinkPad 14W Ultrabook Topload & Standard Sleeve Set - Black | Lenovo | (US)



Hope someone will find this valuable.

I bought the Gobi 5000 from Rakuten ( TP GOBI 5000 MOBILE BROADBAND-AT-T - Rakuten.com Shopping) as its much cheaper than buying it from Thinkpad. I bought it for $180 2 weeks ago (I see the pumped the price now to $216 but they lower it from time to time) while its $280 on Lenovo's website. I am planning to install it today or tomorrow. Will update you later on. From the manual, installing it seems very simple and easy. Just need to connect the antenna and power to it after you plug it in.

 

Installed Gobi today and it did not take more than 10 min. Very easy. You just need to follow the direction stated on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Maintenance manual (Pages 54, 55, 59, and 60) http://homepage.univie.ac.at/markus...enovo/hmm/x1carbon_2_hmm_en_sp40a26110_01.pdf .
Also, be careful when you disassemble your machine. Saved myself $100

 

@baaqil: thanks for sharing the maintenance manual.... it is good to have on board. Telling the truth it didnt even occured to me to look for one like this.

I am thinking about removing the layer coz it is a bit blurry... but I try to keep it on, maybe i got use to it. My display is touch WQHD.


Does anyone know how can use set the FN row for specific programs to the default FN keys? Eg. with Total Commander I miss the FN keys... whenever I change task and go back I have redo the FN circle... annoying..

 

Did anybody have issues with connecting to an external monitor? I have a i7 touch with HD 4400 and WQHD built-in display and I'm trying to connect it to a 22" LG with 1920x1080 with a mini DP to VGA adapter. The strange thing is that the external monitor works with most programs, but when I activate outlook it flickers and disconnects. Or when I open up a specific page in Chrome and scroll down to a specific point, the same thing happens.

I've tried updating, uninstalling and re-installing the graphics driver, intel monitor driver and LG driver. I've also tried it with other external monitors. Very strange..

 

Looking forward to hearing about your experience. I am looking at either the m500 (480GB) or m550 (512 GB) also. Am generally happy with the X1C Gen 2. Still getting used to the odd keyboard layout, but then I am coming to the X1 from a T420 (the last of the non-chiclet TP keyboards).

 

Guys - does the X1 Carbon non-touch model come with an extended battery option? I really need a business laptop that can provide 7-8 hours of battery life

Thanks

 

The battery is built-in and there is no external battery option to add to it.

 

Hi!

Does anyone has seen this kind of unknown devices (under other devices) in device manager?
MS-ABTP
MS-TCC

What are those?

 

So the X1 touch with i7 was an option before, right? Using the Lenovo website, it seems like the option with the touch screen doesn't offer the i7 and the selection that offers the i7 doesn't have the touch screen as an option.

Reading this thread it sounds like some people had the i7 and touch together, unless I misinterpreted.

I asked in chat, and the guy said it wasn't an option at this time. I'll call tomorrow but was wondering if anyone knew anything.

 

I have the i7 with touch (WQHD) screen. I did not order via the website...mine came via distribution and is model 20A70037US.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I just found it at Microcenter so I'm going to head over and take a look at that and some other Ultrabooks.

 

I knew this would happen. The adaptive touch strip has stopped working. The keys are visible, but they don't respond to touch, and I can't cycle between modes with the Fn key. More worryingly, although the strip automatically toggles to the F-keys on startup, the keys don't respond in the bios menu either, so I can't access startup options. I can change the default mode in the Lenovo utility, but none of the modes respond to touch.

Anyone else run into this or have ideas?

EDIT: and now it's back. weird. I'll post again if I find the source of the issue. That this can block me out of startup control is disturbing.

 

I was just posting in the owners thread that I have some problems with the adaptive row. After leaving my laptop on for a couple hours and locking it, letting it sleep maybe, the adaptive row displays only the F1-F12 buttons, Fn doesn't work, and it doesn't respond at all. After I reboot, it's fine.

My only theory is that Start8 is causing problems since I just installed it and otherwise my software is super generic. Lenovo Bloatware + Office 365.

 

After reading about the problems some users of the new X1 carbon have here I'm glad about the decision I made yesterday:

I've been a Lenovo user for many, many years. It started with a T400s, after that I used (up to now) a T430s and for my company I bought a couple of Lenovo devices. The last one was a X240 for someone in upper management. I must say that my experiences with the Lenovo support on the one side and with Lenovo's quality control on the other side led to my decision to avoid products from this company in the future.
The nail in the coffin was that a brand new X240 which could not be powered on anymore after a couple of days due to a mainboard failure. Before this I was treated literally like an idiot by the Lenovo support team.

Now I have pre-ordered a MS Surface Pro 3 instead of my planned X1 Carbon Touch and I'm curious to see how the quality of that machine will turn out to be!

 

I think we are in the same boat. I might go for Sony or Asus instead of Surface Pro 3 which looks like another product Microsoft is testing in its deep blue ocean strategy.

 

Guess I'm with you guys .

After reading about the problems as well, and after returning my Samsung 9+ to Best Buy, I went over to Micro Center to see the X1 Carbon in person, and I wasn't impressed.

is it me ? or are some of these Ultrabooks not made well ?

I mean I really wanted to "Love" this X1, but I can't

 

In case that you are not aware, Sony has sold its notebook business and will exit the north America market.

 

Having issues with sleep. When I close the lid of the laptop, I go back to it a day or two later and the laptop is dead. Sometimes I've closed it with as much as 90%. Any ideas?

 

When asleep the notebook is still using some power, so eventually it will become dead.

 

Something causes the laptop to wake up for no good reason, then it doesn't go back to sleep. I've seen a couple of complaints about this across the internet, and I've seen it happen once with my own machine. I thought there was a brief mention earlier in this thread, but I wasn't able to find it quickly. Hope that helps...

 

My Laptop was waking up from sleep and I realized that my wireless mouse was being left on in my backpack. The mouse would get bumped and wake up the laptop. If you are using a wireless mouse on the laptop make sure it is turned off. That corrected my problem

 

Upgraded all the Lenovo software (through their app) and that seemed to help. Previously the laptop was dying within a day or two in sleep.

Now on to the notorious issues with the Gobi 5000 LTE Verizon card. Wish me luck! there is a six page thread on support about it.

Isn't technology great!
It only takes me 40+ hours to get my laptop the way I want it (which will last for a year or two).

 

I'm going to change the SSD with Crucial M550 520GB.

Any recommendations how to clone the SSD? (of course I will need another separate HD for it)
Or should I go with clean install, and in this case any recommendations for the procedure? (drivers, Levono bloatware, sequence of installations...)

 

The bloatware is so overwhelming I'd look into starting from scratch.

Now that I have a few driver issues fixed I'm really enjoying this machine. Now I'm debating self-installing a Gobi.

 

I'm considering this as a viable option instead of the MBA 13. Assuming Windows running on MBA 13, how do you owners think that the X1C Gen 2 compares against the MBA?

 

The X1C will have a higher resolution screen and I suspect better battery life since the Apple Bootcamp drivers never seem to deliver great battery life for Windows. Based on my experiences with Bootcamp, I would not recommend going with a MacBook if you are running Windows full time. I would only consider a MacBook if I was using OSX primarily. If you like the MacBook Air form factor and build quality (which is better then X1C), then I would also look at the HP Elitebook 1040. I am evaluating one now and it feels and looks like a Windows based MacBook Air.

 

Did someone installed a different SSD?
Can someone confirm that any m.2 SSD will work?
Or to be specific, this one?
Amazon.com: Crucial M550 512GB SATA M.2 Type 2280 Internal Solid State Drive CT512M550SSD4: Computers & Accessories

 

I am still having problems with my wireless. New X1 Carbon Wireless problem after sleep - Lenovo Community

It randomly won't work after sleep, and after joining a new wireless network I need to reboot before it will connect.

Very frustrating. Have updated the drivers, Windows, BIOS, etc. Anyone else had this problem?

 

Waiting on delivery of my X1 next week, but from what I've read we can only use the SATA based M.2 SSD's (the one you linked to).

 

Received my X1.
I copied the recovery folder to USB (through Recovery options).
Replaced the new SSD.
Started recovery from the USB.

Works without problem.

 

Further to my earlier post, bought myself the 256Gb version of this. Installed it and loaded a fresh install of Windows 8.1, working without any issues.

 

I had 5 (five) critical crashes in 9 days.
Windows is not creating a dump file (I did everything... increase size of pagefile, create new dump folder....).
There are no strange events before the crash.

I changed the ssd, so I can't give it back to Lenovo without changing back.

NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.

 

I have a question... why does the screen dim when viewing something with a dark background?

For example, when in the Spotify program, which has a very dark UI, the X1 screen dims a lot. Then when I switch back to a browser with a white background, it's very dim. It does correct itself within a few seconds or so but it's very distracting.

Any way to turn this off? (no, this isn't the adaptive brightness thing in the power profiles)

 

I received my X1 Carbon Gen 2 from Amazon. My basic thoughts on the 20A7002WUS (top spec retail nontouch no wwan). For comparison, I am coming from a T530 and T42.

1. I did a clean install of Windows 7 SP1u home premium. Mine actually came preloaded with Windows 7 SP1 pro, but I wanted a clean install without all the Lenovo junk. I deleted all partitions and recovery files. My package came with Windows 8 OEM recovery DVDs. I am using legacy mode. I unfortanetly did not copy the Windows 8 key before deleting everything, and so could not active my Windows 7 SP1u pro that I originall clean installed. So I did another clean install with home premium and just bought a new key from Amazon. I actually managed to find my OEM windows key in the bios through some software, but this key would not activate my Windows 7 (I'm thinking it was a Windows 8 key). As far as drivers, everything works fine except for the latest gesture control update from lenovo, it broke the gesture app. I don't use it anyway, but I did use the old driver which works fine.

1. The screen. Nontouch. Best I've seen on a thinkpad. There is a slight screen door, but the pixels are absolutely tiny so this is basically negligible. I had to look for it, and only knew to look for it becaues previous thinkpads had it and people mention it on the forums. Moreso, there is a "glisten" to the screen, probably because of the matte layer. I think this may actually be the screen door, not sure. In either case, it is there. But the screen is nice and bright and I am happy with it overall. As far as resolution, I set mine to 1600 900 since I use citrix and the WQHD is simply unusable for citrix applications I use. I sent my scaling to 125% and so far working out okay, as expected windows 7 does not scale perfectly but it works well enough. A few applications look funny but it works out.

2. The keyboard is great. The touchpoint is a little more shallow than prevoius but this was expected and I am used to it now. The backspace took a little bit getting used to. Caps lock did as well. The adaptive strip is useless since it provides no tactile feel and I accidentally press it at times.

3. The trackpoint which is the only reason I bought thinkpads is upsetting. The left click works fine, I did get used it that quickly. Right click works fine too. Middle click is garbage. It is inconsistent, registering maybe only 60% of the time, requiring mutlple presses. It ruins the browsing experience. The touchpad works great actually, but I'm not a touchpda guy, I am a trackpoint guy. I tried old drivers too and they were even worse. I think this is a driver issue, but I hope they can fix the middle click to be as responsive as right and left click. Also, I saw the touch version in the store, and the clickpad on that one seemed stiffer but less clacky (liek an apple one), so I think there is some inconsistency manufacturing wise, but not enough of a bother for me to send this one back.

4. Wifi. I was worred about the other reports. Fortunately, zero dropped ocnnections across two networks over 4 days.

If anyone else wants to know anything, let me know. I am overall happy with everything except the middle click. I think if they had just left the keyboard and trackpoint alone, this would have been the perfect laptop.

I do have one question, i fsomeone can help me. I want to use two wifi cards simultaneously (one for internet network and the other to connect to my print server on a different network). First off, is this possible? Secondly, would it be possible to install a NGFF wifi card into the WWAN slot, since they are the same size? How would the antenna business work? Does it even need an actual antenna? I was planning on buying a NGFF wifi card pulled from a T440s or X1C Gen 2 on ebay, as there are several sellers now.

 

I highly recommend anybody with X1 Gen 2 to install the latest Intel wireless drivers... I've been having so many problems with it (disconnecting on both bands -- have to disable/enable to connect again). Just updated to Intel's latest driver released 6/30-ish. Version 17.0.5.8. I have zero problems so far. Connection is stable and I can larger folders with my OneDrive without a problem.

Lenovo hasn't updated their wireless driver package yet (still at 17.0.2), so download directly from Intel here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Se...ductProduct=Intel®+Dual+Band+Wireless-AC+7260

Be sure to download both the Bluetooth and Wireless drivers.