Well, that's really helpful... Seriously, what is exactly awful about it?
I'm using one now--a borrowed one, as I'm having some problems with my main machine. I absolutely love it. The machine I'm using is an I5-4200/4GB, 128GB, WQHD screen (non-touch), purchased new on the Black Friday sale. So, the build is fairly recent (Dec. 14). My general thoughts:
-screen is perfect, no dead pixels, no ghosting at all, and it's amazing
-performance is good even with the low spec. It's not what I'd buy, but even running some data-heavy applications it does OK, no throttling including on battery only
-it runs cool, and fan noise is minimal
Now, for the part that I'm sure will make some folks' heads explode:
-keyboard: I love the keyboard. Yes, home/end are in a different place, but frankly they're way more useable now. After 2-3 days I found myself using them much more frequently, and since I work mostly from web-based apps, this is really useful to me. Frankly, this is way more useful to me than caps lock, with is still readily accessible. I think this is a better layout, and I'm a bit disappointed they went away from it. I realize, change is hard for some people... My only qualm is that the backspace key is a bit small, but I got used to it after a couple of days.
I have been using two for work.. I can deal with the keyboard and get over it.. it's the adaptive keys that constantly launch screen clip, the adaptive keyboard settings, etc etc etc.. I can type super fast and have never had an issue till that thing showed up, it drives me bonkers. My co-workers report the same thing.
-trackpoint: I use the trackpoint about 80% of the time, touchpad the rest. I've been using the trackpoint since the mid/late 90's, so I'm certainly used to separate buttons. I actually prefer the integrated buttons on the whole. I've used this before on a Helix, and it wasn't nearly as nice as the one on the X1. Part of it may be my particular machine, or maybe they've improved the drivers. Either way, the middle button for scrolling now works flawlessly, and the left and right clicks, drag and drop etc all work great. I'm able to go between the X230 trackpoint and this one with no issues.
It's just not the same and I use the trackpoint 95% of the time.. right clicking with this thing is awful. Having to press HARD to get a click is bad too.. if you could simply TAP (not click) it might be better
-trackpad: by far the best trackpad I've used on a Thinkpad. I like the fact that it's not hinged, and the one on this unit is quiet, throw is short with good tactile feedback--and not too noisy (my trackpoint buttons on my X230 are actually noisier).
-adaptive strip: nice idea, implementation isn't quite there. Being able to customize the options within each mode would have gone a long away; but, it's not a deal-breaker for me.
Not only having things constantly pop up but having to actually look at the strip to figure out what function you're going to hit is a deal breaker for me and most people.
Thinks I don't like:
-printscreen key missing: I liked the screen grab option in Windows 8. The snipping tool works, but it's more work.
-battery life: with the WQHD screen on high, I'm getting about 4 hours with basic web-based work. With the brightness reduced, it's too dim.
If it weren't for the promise of better battery life on the Broadwell version, I'd buy one of these right now, particularly given the price difference between this and the Broadwell. Personally I consider the reversion to the old keyboard/trackpad a step back. I'll probably go with the Gen3 just on the hopes of better battery life, but besides that caveat I think this is a great machine.
Click to expand...
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
