X1 Carbon Touch

My estimated shipping date of 20th January and devliery date of 27th January has been wiped from order status page. It's show no date what so ever now besides what I ordered and the total cost.

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

Then I would go for the non-Touch as it has a 7 hour battery run time. The touch has an edge to edge panel with just enough gloss to allow for easy movement of one's finger across the screen, may possibly be a modified version of the screen on the original X1C.

Just don't ever put the X1CT down on a black piece of furniture, you'll forget it is there. Yoga is very good, had one first and liked it a lot except for the one I got had plenty of keyboard flex and a nasty bit of screen bleed in one corner. If BB had any in stock to do a swap I may still have one but they didn't and so I did a return. The X1CT had been announced and I decided that a good keyboard was a priority. If you can make do with a serviceable keyboard and don't mind that the NIC is 2.4GHz only, the Yoga is a good choice since it's screen on the 360 hinge is awesome. I do miss the tablet mode and if I continue to, I am thinking about supplementing my X1CT with a Windows 8 tablet with 8-10 hour battery and decent power.

I should add that the Yoga's finish is on the delicate side. Some have complained of peeling, I just noticed that it stained easily. Definitely get the sleeve if you get the Yoga, also really helps in covering the exposed keyboard when in tablet mode.

 

My ship date changed from 1/20/2013 to tomorrow, 1/11/2013 - we will see if that actually happens. I ordered on 12/11/2011 - the day the X1CT was made available online, so I have little faith I will ever get the laptop at this point.

I called Lenovo CS and asked about a price match. I took a screenshot of a price quote during the end of the year pricing ($280 less than I paid). He said that they will honor the price regardless of the current price as long as I had a screenshot of the quote. They won't price match until I have a tracking # though.

I will report back on whether or not they honor that after it actually ships though.

 

Thanks... I had wondered what your reasons were for leaving the Yoga. I had also read about chipping paint issues with the Yoga, but seems like not everyone has had that problem. If I can just overlook the mediocre keyboard I think it really has a lot going for it.

 

To be fair to the yoga's keyboard, I tried out the Macbook Pro Retina 15" today and I found the keyboard to be of similar type, thought not quite as bad. So, it isn't that bad a keyboard, its just not as good as lenovo usually is.

 

I can't wait to return my yoga. Paint is chipping after 1 month, keyboard is cramped. Touch screen not responsive, and I've maybe used tablet mode 5 times. Fail.

 

I ordered on 12/29 and my ship date has stayed as 1/13 the entire time. No Estimated Delivery Date though. Just says "Released to Manufacturing" at the moment, so I have my doubts

 

The Yoga is a nice machine, a lot of fun. Has a smaller screen of course but it is thin and portable.

 

Lenovo is probably trying to identify and resolve the Touch panel defects so they don't ship anymore faulty machines. Considering the shipping delays on the original X1 Carbon reached 60 days, I would not be surprised to see that happen again. Unless of course they come up with an easy fix.

Good luck.

 

Very interesting information on the shipping delays here: X Series Laptops Shipping discussion (2013) - Page 2 - Lenovo Community

 

So there is an official stop ship in place as they resolve the issue with touchscreens. That's at least a little comforting.

 

No, I don't believe this is true. More context is needed.

Here is the original post by erithtotl:

In other words, his company ordered a whole bunch of X1CTs, and since so many had problems, they requested Lenovo stop the shipment of any more machines to his company until the root cause is found.

Then he posted Lenovo's reply to his company's inquiry:

Meaning his company's specific request has been put in place, not a global stop ship for all X1CT orders.

 

I agree. I had misread it and took it in the wrong context.

Hopefully, this means that Lenovo is looking into it for everyone.

 

I mentioned that I had issues with the X1CT and my work wireless network, Cisco. Turns out it there was a single AP near my office running H-REAP so I was bouncing between two networks. So no fault of the NIC, it's all good.

 

The online reps are telling me no. Then maybe... if I ordered within 24 hours of it expiring

Is that how it works?

 

I was about to return mine due to the touchscreen working on / off.

But now it's working perfectly. Was there a software update or something? I'm wondering if I should still get a replacement or not. I'm afraid it could just happen again. Does anyone know anything about this?

Edit: Agh crap I closed the lid, and opened it. Now it's doing the same thing. I'm definitely going to shoot for a replacement.

 

Will they send you one before you have to send yours back?

IIRC, you work with graphics (?). How do you like the X1CT for it? I'm hoping it's not too bad for editing a few photos while on-the-go.


I need to replace my W500 so finally pulled the trigger today. Ship date on or before 30 Jan. Fingers and toes crossed.

 

As more reviews of Windows 8 Touch Ultrabooks come out it looks like a battery run time of just on the plus side of 5 hours is going to be typical.

 

They agreed to let me keep this one until I get my replacement for all the trouble I've gone through. Yes I do work with graphics. The X1CT is perfectly fine for it. Doing casual photo editing like you mentioned will be a breeze on it.

The display is nice on it, though there is room for improvement after seeing the IPS / PLS displays on other high end machines. But this one is still good.

Enjoy it when you get it. Its a great machine. I think I just got unlucky with an early, faulty batch.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

 

Perhaps 14.0" IPS isn't a common panel with manufacturers right now, seems to be quite a number of 13.3" units, even on the yoga etc. I wonder if that influenced the decision to go with that screen? I've just had a few T420 come in to work and their screens look ok, which I assume would be the same as x1c. I'd hit it!

 

Is anyone else having trouble with the order status link?

 

Never mind. It's back up for me now. My ship date says "1/12/13". It's now 1/13/13 and my status says "in production". Nice Lenovo. Glad to see your still making sense.

 

I am in the same boat.

 

Shouldn't the yoga and x1ct use that same panel? Save cost with volume

 

How? Yoga uses a 13" screen, and the X1 Carbon with Multitouch uses a 14" screen.

 

I have now worked for two weeks with both the XPS12 and the Carbon Touch. I have now given up on the Lenovo and will keep using the XPS12. Here are my issues (not order of importance):

1) The Lenovo WiFi does not connect to my home router about 50% of the time. It just says no WiFi available. Can't even find my neighbor's wifi, nothing. Reboot is required and then it may or may not work. No issues here with the Dell or my IPhone/Ipad. Reinstalled everything, drivers etc.. Same thing.
2) The Lenovo is a fingerprint magnet. It looks like used for 5 years after one week.
3) Battery life is simply too short for me. I really like the fast charging time, but it lasts typically around 2.5 - 3 hours for me. The Dell always reaches over 4 hours.
4) Honestly, I like the screen of the Lenovo better. It is definitely brighter. The Dell is too glossy for me, but the touchscreen works better (more precise) on the Dell.

 

1. Did you try upgrading to the latest drivers from Intel? I noticed that with the Lenovo driver that I couldn't connect to a network which did not broadcast it's SSID.

2. Simple wipe with a microfiber cloth takes care of any prints. I like the finish, easy care I think and no worries of staining like with the Yoga.

 

True...I was 1/2 asleep...lost a few marbles..ahaha

 

The WIFI issue seems to be farther spreed than X1CT. I've seen Acer and others having similar issue. I wonder if it is Win8 / Intel compatibility issues.

I am torn between X1CT, Yoga 13, and Dell XPS12. Those are the only touch screen with nice resolution and give me the ability to have 8GB RAM + 256SSD.

I am leaning towards XPS12 at the moment due to built quality. However appealing to Yoga for more upgrade ability. X1CT has me looking due to the recent 22 % EPP discount, but also it is a Thinkpad. Solid machine with years of history around it.

Outside of these, I really like the Acer S7, but limited 4GB turns off. The Asus UX31A touch, same issue limited 4GB turns off.

HP, extremely disappointed to what they turned the Envy series into. Crap machine.

Samsung, no touch screen until the Series 7 Ultra comes out.

Toshiba, LG, not on my radar due to lack of popularity = lack of quality and support

Sony, like the S series, but no touch. T series ugly.

 

My network broadcasts its SSID. I tried all kinds of drivers and settings I could find, but nothing seems to change the issue. Support did not help. In the end, it was the fault of my WAP. Never mind the fact that the XPS12, my IPhone, Ipad, Sony with Windows 7 and two internet radios work flawlessly.

I have the microfiber wipes. Still attracts fingerprints 100x faster than any other laptop I have ever owned. This is a minor point. Maybe I have different grease on my fingers....

 

There is an issue with Cisco Unified Wireless and Windows 8, so if you have a Cisco router/ap you should upgrade it's software.

 

So I picked up a Yoga yesterday, hoping it would fit my needs. Immediately I notice that the fan runs rather loud all the time. I am ok with it running constantly (as it does on my R61), but not so noticeable in a quiet room!!

How is the fan noise on the X1CT, and compared to the Yoga?

Sent from my Incredible 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

No fan noise at all on the X1CT, especially if you keep the area below the vent on the under side clear. If you do cover the vent, by placing the laptop on a bed for example, the fan will finally kick in. Compared to the Yoga the X1CT is extremely quiet.

While the fan can at times be very audible on the Yoga it never bothered me. For the Yoga it comes down to is the keyboard good enough for you?, is the NIC good enough?

 

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that the X1CT runs quiet. This is what I would expect from a ThinkPad.

I had anticipated buying the Yoga since it was first announced a year ago. But I think as others are finding, Lenovo cuts a lot of corners on these IdeaPads.

Wireless is definitely one of the them, with the glaring omission of 802.11a (5 GHz) capability. Unfortunately the numerous WiFi complaints are probably also contributable to the poor-quality card.

Keyboard may be another (there is some flex), but honestly it is much better than I was expecting, and is usable for the long-term in my opinion.

The FAN noise on the Yoga, though, is an unexpected and highly distracting caveat. From the moment I powered up, it has run constantly at very audible levels. I often work in a very quiet environment, so maybe it is more evident to me than to others. Activity on Lenovo's forums regarding this exact issue leads me to believe that not everyone is happy about the fan. And the buzzing, grinding issues of the fan, due I suppose to its low quality, are not something to look forward to.

So for the fan noise alone I'll probably have to return the Yoga. Too bad, since it's such an innovative design.

Sent from my Incredible 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

Fan noise bothered a lot of people with the Yoga so you are correct in assuming you are not alone. For the Yoga there are four things to look out for; keyboard, wifi performance, fan noise, and the delicate finish. The 360 hinge and screen are awesome but they can't overcome the previously mentioned for some, for me it was the keyboard and NIC.

 

My Yoga's fan runs constantly, but it's a relatively unobtrusive whoosh sound with no buzzing or grinding as in some other laptops I've tried.

 

I finally checked on the status of my X1CT order, which was supposed to ship on 1/13 (yesterday). Per the rep:

I apologize however the order is delayed due to a part constraint on the L case for this model. The order would be shipping out in the first week of February. Its an internal part for the X1 carbon.


Definitely not the news I was hoping for since I ordered it on 12/29. I get the feeling this is typical for Lenovo and highly frustrating.

 

How did you check the status? phone? Will they be providing any sort of compensation for late orders this time around... I recall some were able to get compensation with the original X1C.

 

Ordered 12/11. Delayed many, many times so far. Latest update was it was supposed to ship 1/10, then 1/12, then 1/13 and now 1/15. Do I think it will actually ship tomorrow? Hahahahahaha.... no.

 

I checked using the online chat - the web site status still indicates 1/13. I wasn't aware they may compensate for late orders...I may try that in a couple of weeks. I'm just pissed that it's already a two-week lead-time from ordering, and then they delay it for another 3 weeks - all without any sort of notice. It's not that hard to notify customers and would go a long way.

 

Unbelievable. Is this the norm for Lenovo? I own a small business and figured I'd try Lenovo for build quality. Dell Latitudes have been OK, but we've had some hardware issues. Out of the gates, I'm having serious second-thoughts. When I order from Dell and they promise a date, I get it two days early.

 

Yes.

The X1 Carbon delays grew to 60 days.

Who knows what might happen with the X1 Carbon Touch.

 

I've ordered in the Lenovo for years.... this has become the recent norm on newly released products. I wouldn't say it's the norm overall.

 

Even though the timing wasn't good, I would more than likely be out of town during delivery, when the X1CT became available I went ahead and ordered anyway anticipating it may be hard to get like the X1C. When I got back in town I had the third and final delivery attempt notice on my door, thankfully it hadn't progressed beyond that.

 

The experience I have from Lenovo customer service and after sale department is more than terrible. The agents I talked to them during the past 4 weeks are very unprofessional and totally useless. I'm still waiting more than a month to get the order and today was the 4th or 5th time that the stupid agent told me you will get the UPS tracking within next 24 to 48 hours (continuous lying to keep orders and play with customers) . The ship date you see over check status page is meaningless, when they can't even be close to that. I ordered mine on Dec 12 and the shipping over that page has been delayed more than 10 times I guess.
As I found, only the second level manager who has access to the warehouse info might be honest and tell you about the possibility of shipping. Just ignore whatever you hear from the first agent. I've talked to second level managers more than three times and today after 1 hour of struggling over phone he confessed that X1CT is not supposed to be shipped until all the issue related to the new model be fixed by the engineering team. Very disappointing to see that after a month of ordering a device it not passed through quality check and more wired to see that they are still taking orders for what they don’t have plan to ship. I don’t know about your experience with this department, but right now my level of trust to Lenovo is below zero.

 

I went to Best Buy today to return my Lenovo Yoga. Really cool that they don't have a restocking fee. I looked around after my X1CTouch may take another month to get here, and I saw the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch they had on display. Wow. Very cool machine. I bought it. I may return it, but with basically being able to lease it for free for 30 days, I figured I'd give it a go. So far, pretty awesome. Keyboard is great, reviews even said they've improved keyboard and touchpad since the non touch version. This IPS screen is insane. Best I've ever seen. Touchscreen is flawless. I may even keep it over the X1C touch based on principle alone of not wanting to contribute to such a shady, company such as Lenovo that lies to it's consumers by saying they laptop is coming even though they have no real idea when it's going to ship out.

 

Yeah the ZP Touch is pretty good. The only potential downside being that the ram is limited to 4 gb, I think.

 

Interesting you wrote this, I just returned my Yoga today for the Zenbook Prime Touch (UX31A). Really nice Ultrabook... lightweight, 1080p IPS touchscreen, good backlit keyboard, abgn WiFi. My particular screen has some strange coloration and light bleed so I'll need to look into that. But fan is only on intermittently, and very quiet too, so that is a significant improvement over the Yoga.

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What would you say are other advantages of the UX31A over Yoga (same question applies to jeffreyjames)? I played around with both of them at BestBuy and Yoga somehow just felt more comfortable (I'm guessing because the keyboard and touchpad are better, and that's what you mostly experience within the first couple of minutes), even the touchscreen was more comfortable, I'm guessing due to the lower resolution.

 

Well this is pretty early, but I've played with the Asus (UX31A-BHI5T11) about as long as I did the Yoga, and my first impressions for both machines are definitely in favor of the Asus.

The keyboard was upgraded for this Zenbook, and is actually quite good. There is no flex, and good key travel and response. Use of the volume function keys and other such functions require the FN key to be pressed, which is a minor inconvenience. There are also no dedicated Home/End keys. But keyboard backlighting is very nice, and probably something I wouldn't do without from now on. Though I didn't think the Yoga keyboard was too bad, the Zenbook is better in my opinion.

Touchpads are comparable. I actually found the Zenbook touchpad easier to work with out of the box, but probably either one could be set up to accommodate a user's preferences.

I think the advantages of the high-resolution screen outweigh the disadvantages. I actually had some trouble reading text on the Yoga, seemingly due to pixelation. Everything on the Zenbook screen is extremely crisp. Small font sizes can be compensated for through Display settings (I have mine at the default of 125%). I also set my default Chrome browser zoom to 125%.

Other advantages of the Zenbook over the Yoga? Well, WiFi is probably a big one, since there are many complaints about poor signal and also lack of 5 GHz capability on the Yoga, whereas Zenbook seems to be fine in this department. The Zenbook is a half pound lighter than the Yoga. Fan much quieter as I already mentioned.

Advantages of the Yoga? Upgradability of RAM and SSD. Convertibility. SD cards fully insert in the card slot on the Yoga, while only partially on the Zenbook.

I guess it comes down to your needs and personal preference. I think the Zenbook is a worthy contender, I just need a little more time with it to make a final judgment yet.