X1 Carbon Received - Happy, but nothing is perfect.

I've had X1 Carbon for a few days now. I have some feedback based on all the discussion I've read on here.

- individual pixels are quite visible, it annoys me a lot for now, but I'll manage
+ the TN screen blows away the one on the t410s, most people will love it

- hibernation partition, and other 'drivers' might be hard to do on a clean Windows install for a novice
+ boot time is great (~50s by some reviewer out there is nonsense)

- touch-pad/cursor goes unresponsive!, requires a reboot, happened once on a resume from sleep, and always on CPU-Z 1.61 launch (driver issue to be fixed?)
+ as reviewed touch-pad is great, but needs some driver tuning

+ speakers are ok (set dolby to appropriate setting)
- cheap buzzing from the right speaker on this video
Intel Anti-Theft Video - YouTube, X1 was on a bed at the time

+ best keyboard on an ultrabook
- keyboard back-lighting is blinding at some positions where you're not looking down on the keyboard, i.e. in bed with with the X1 on the lap closer to the eye level watching youtube with only occasional typing

Overall X1 Carbon is great.

update:
- BIOS v1.02 fixes CPU-Z issue

 

Thanks for posting your thoughts. That's interesting about the screen. I saw some other reviews that mentioned the pixelation on the screen, but the review unit I got had none off it. This issue I had with the screen was the bluish hue, but that's fairly easy to mitigate with calibration. The HMM only lists on screen part, but I wonder if Lenovo is using multiple screen suppliers, which could potentially explain the differences. The review unit I had used a LG screen.

My take on the X1 is it's a nice ultrabook, as good as any other. Lenovo didn't really bring anything new to the table, but they executed well.

 

how can you tell the screen manufacturer? thanks!

 

I used everest, which gave the model number.

 

If there's only one FRU there's only one product from LG used.

 

Yes, but is Lenovo using one FRU for different screens is the question? I don't know.

 

If there were multiple screens, there'd be multiple FRU's. People either have different tolerances in being able to see this or there is a manufacturing issue from LG.

 

Keep in mind, some people confuse pixellation with the "grainy" texture imparted by the anti-glare coating on some panels. Or at least they did with the T420(s). Not saying that's the case here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.

 

Are you saying the issues in the T420 series were an anti-glare coating? Really? Do you have something that backs that up? That's the first time I've heard that.

I understand the sheen discussed with panels like my Dell U2711, but not with the T420 or T420s.

 

I have a little off-topic question. Do you have any good calibration profile or specific settings to get rid of that bluish hue?

 

https://plus.google.com/110166527124367568225/posts/bLg18FtS8KZ

 

"Pixelation" or "grid" problem can be also observed on glossy screens as well, such as the AUO one used on Dell XPS 15 L521X right now. So, I'm not so sure about the relationship with anti-glare coating texture.

The problem is inside, not outside.

Furthermore, the same panel from a single manufacturer may exhibit such problem on different instances. The random discrepancies have been reported by L521X users, and I'm not surprised that such discrepancies (namely, visible grid, faintly visible grid, or no grid -- at typical viewing distances) are observed by different users of the X1 Carbon.

Sigh... Great laptop screen are hard to find, indeed. At this point, as far as TN are concerned, I am satisfied only with AUO B156HW01 V.4 (matte) and V.7 (glossy). And not all IPS screens are automatically great, mind you -- only a couple desktop ones from Dell are worth getting excited about.

 

Well part of the problem is that I can never tell what people are referring to when they talk about a "griddy" appearance. If they've got the laptop at arm's length they either have *way* better than 20/20 vision to notice it on a 1600x900 14" display or they're noticing something else. In the case of the AUO HD+ panels, that "something else" seems to be the anti-glare coating.

Now a 1366x768 14 or 15" display or viewing it a little closer... yeah, that I can understand.

(As an aside, it's pretty hard to have a "screen door" effect on a display that doesn't have an aperature grill or a shadow mask... but I'm not going to be that much of a pedant. )

 

^^^ Word uses and verbal descriptions can be confusing, especially to those who haven't seen the problem directly and in person.

One simply cannot reason about it. The problem has nothing to do with intellectual understanding.

As I noted, the AUO 15.6" glossy FHD TN panel used on the Dell XPS 15 1521X exhibits this "grid" or "screen door" problem, and the frustrating part is that it is inconsistent. I happen to have seen 3 instances (of varying degrees of "griddiness") when a family member had the screen replaced by drop-in technicians.