X1 Carbon Touch

Windows 8 appears to be very particular about which ICC profiles it will allow but the ICC file from the X1 Color thread made using Eye-One should and does work. Just make sure the following are all true:

Use Windows display calibration is checked under the Advanced tab
Use my settings for this device is checked under the Devices tab
The X1_Carbon_EyeOne ICC file is installed and the resulting profile is available in the Devices tab and set to (default)

 

I have yet to see a really good 14" display.

I am slowly but surely giving up on the 14" segment. I will buy 13.3" ultrabook class machines for travel and 15"+ machines for heavy lifting. Either class MUST have a high quality screen.

 

Other X1CT Owners - I ran the Lenovo diagnostics and my Toshiba SSD failed the "SMART short self-test". Does your SSD pass this test? Wondering if I need to RMA already.

 

My 256GB SSD (guessing it's a Sandisk make) passed the test. All my tests passed.

Had to download USB WiDi driver from Intel to get rid of the exclamation mark under device manager.

I am back on the default lenovo ICC profile for colour. Found the Eyeone to be too warm. Lenovo's default is cold which I prefer.

As for screendoor effect, I notice it if I dive close to the screen to see if it's there or not. Which I don't do normally so does not bothers me.

 

Well, I ended up cancelling my order with lenovo and went with the ebay reseller for the X1CT. Ordered on thursday, got it on friday. Cancelling was the hard part, talk about hard selling! 5% discount, expedite order processing, etc...

Any case, had a chance to fire up the touch... works excellent. My biggest fear was the screen issue, but honestly, it is a rock solid screen. Not as good as ips (definitely not as lush), for sure, but it does not suck as much as other make it sound (for me anyways). Yes, you can see dot pitch (screen door), but you would need to have your screen 10" from your face. In normal sitting, its hard to see. Keep in mind, I do photography work, and don't really consider laptop screens as the best place to get colors right. I'd rely on a calibrated monitor for that type of work.

I think the hardest thing to get used to is the windows 8 interface (first time for me), but It's starting to make sense after only a few hours with the machine. I have had no problems with the touch interface.

Startup time is phenomenal (its faster then my W520 waking from sleep!).

I'm a pretty picky computer user, and so far (3+ hours) the machine has been leaving up to my demands. I plan to install some more demanding software, like solidworks, in the near future. Will keep you all posted.


I have the i7, with 8/240

 

So, I'm really thinking of giving back my X1CT due to the screen door effect, which really bums me out. Question: Is it possible that different X1CTs have different screens (source/manufacturer) that may differ in the amount of screen door effect? I do have a replacement process started (due to fan noise; not screen), and I'm wondering if it's worth exploring the replacement machine before just giving up and trying to find another solution.

Thoughts? Thx.

 

Finally received my shipment notification (ordered 12/29)! Anyone have a rough idea of time from ship notification to delivery? Guessing it's at least a week to the central USA?

 

I appreciate your help Dyton, I followed your suggestions and now it works. I see difference in using this profile. I agree with you, the display looks better using this profile.

 

Lenovo, like most OEMs use several LCD makers. Samsung, LG and AOU are the suppliers (I think). I thought someone commented the other day one of them got bought by another so there may be some consolidation taking place.

I am not sure if these owners threads have identified the different panels being used in the Touch models, especially considering they just started to ship.

 

What is the spec you ordered? I ordered on 12/26 and mine still haven't shipped.

 

i7/8gb/128gb

 

Shipment Timelines To Expect

If your shipment is direct from the factory in Shanghai, here is what to expect tracking wise:

About 2 days to US (maybe Alasks
About 2 days to central Kentucky UPS site
2 to 4 days there while passing customs (several Clearing Agency notations on different dates, then Need More info notations, then it will ship)
Next business day it will show up

 

About to get my laptop tomorrow. Has anyone had experience with supplementing the storage space with an SD card? If so, what type did you get, and how's the speed on that compared to say, a typical 7200rpm HDD? Thanks!

 

Sandisk extreme ultra 64gb SD card rated at 45mb/sec was writing data for me at a touch over 35mb/sec. Perfect to hold media like music and pics... Keep the SSD for the grunt of it

 

I'm not sure how this is possible, but mine shipped on the 4th out of China and is out for delivery today (midwest-US). But I'm not going to complain! It was shipped via UPS World Ease. Can't wait!

 

I took just got mine (base model). I don't think I am going to keep it (didn't even open it). I feel like if I am going to keep a laptop for the next 2-3 years, I can do better. I do recall the keyboard on the X1C being awesome though.

Either way:
1.) I have a base model Touch for sale, that is not even opened if anybody is interested.
2.) I saw that XPS12 refubs are down to ~$850....

 

Mine arrived today. Initial impressions:

GOOD
- Build quality is excellent - keyboard, touchpad, texture, etc
- Incredibly responsive, including touchscreen - no issues whatsoever so far

NOT-SO-GOOD
- The screen is very poor. With white backgrounds, the "screen door" affect is impossible to not notice - even at normal viewing distances. Text is not crisp either. Compared to the UX31A I have next to it, it looks awful. I did apply the ICC profile in this thread as well.
- Why on earth are the Ctrl and Fn buttons switched? I switched them via BIOS, but that is just plain silly.

SUMMARY
I'll probably keep it. The UX31A was my first choice, but windows DPI scaling is awful and 1080p on 13.3" is incredibly small. I also need 8GB of RAM for running multiple development environments, so there are limited options (new Series 7 maybe?). I'll comment again after I get some time using it. But if Lenovo is listening....seriously, upgrade to a display panel worthy of this otherwise-great laptop.

 

I have enabled edge swipes, four finger flick, three finger flick, roating (twist rotate), pinch to zoom rate set to fast under application gestures (ultranav settings) for the touchpad and it's a beast machine now. gestures ftw!

 

I'm interested, you don't find it convenient to use the touchscreen for any of those?

 

I managed to get my hands on an X1C non-touch. Is the screen on the X1CT similar in quality? To be fair, I found the screen half way between my T420 and Macbook pro retina, which is to say, reasonable. I guess I'm used to the crap AUO panel on my T420 and anything else just seems better.

Other than that, the X1C seems to be absolutely fantastic. Great build quality, very compact for a 14". With a FHD resolution and better battery life, lenovo could make a killer machine on the next iteration.

 

So I have had my X1CT for a week and a half now and here are some thoughts and random notes:

Screen Quality
The resolution is perfect, not too small but still a lot of real estate. The screen door effect gives the screen a slight graininess with any sort of white background. This is pretty annoying and degrades from the screen quality. However, I can say that I am getting used to it and don't notice it as much after a week and a half. Still not too happy with it.

Build Quality
Awesome. Everything works great (except my SSD, more on that later). Keyboard is awesome. Trackpad is great. Touchscreen is great.

Performance
Awesome. Doesn't perform like an ultrabook

Battery
Stinks. Something is draining my battery like nobody's business. I just went from 60% battery to 51% battery in 4 minutes. 60% brightness and only Google Chrome with wireless enabled. I get around 3 hours of total battery life if I am lucky. I put the laptop to sleep with 18% battery and the next morning I woke to a completely dead battery. Not cool.

Smart Short Self Test Failed
Right out of the box I ran the Lenovo diagnostics and got a failure on the SSD Smart Short Self Test. Lenovo had me run another test and confirmed the drive is bad. Now I have to wait a week for them to ship me a new drive and swap drives before I can put any important data on my hard drive. I am trying to get them to compensate me for the continued hassle (40+ days to ship and now another two weeks to replace a bad SSD before I can really use the laptop.)

Overall, even though there are some big negatives I will probably keep it because I can't find a better alternative out there at the moment.

 

Have had mine ordered for about a month now and expect at least another month before it ships. Had to return a non touch x1 because it wouldn't charge when powered on. I know what to expect from the touch model more or less.

However I just read about the revamped xps 13. Anyone have opinions on that vs x1 carbon touch. I don't really "need" a business class laptop, but the dell says it ships pretty immediately. Just non idea how their customer service is compared to the Lenovo next day accidental that I had. And my experience with lenovo customer service was mostly positive.

Just curious if anyone might have used both and can offer any insight.

Thanks.

 

Has anyone else noticed a small bulge on the top casing of their X1CT? It's right where the wi-fi and CPU indicator lights are, above F8-F11 keys. I think it may have something to do with the SIM card slot in the back because the casing is not flush and seems to bulge up.

I am wondering if this is a normal design feature or if it's just my unit.

 

My X1C (non-touch) has the same slight bulge.

 

I found another ICC profile that I like much better (less blue tint). If anyone's interested, here's the source:

Fixing the Lenovo X1 Carbon’s washed out display | Racker Hacker

The display is still terrible compared to the UX31A, but oh well. Hopefully it grows on me.

 

Interesting... is this profile different than the one posted below in the X1 Carbon Color Settings thread?

 

So mine is finally shipping and is supposed to arrive tomorrow (2 days(!) shipping if it actually happens, same as codeforfood's). I bought a sweet- backpack but would still like to get a sleeve as well. The 14W topload seems to be essentially not available anymore and the ones at sfbags seem a bit bulky and expensive. Does anyone have alternatives that they KNOW fit the X1CT well? Does anyone know if the form factor is more comparable to Mac Air or Mac Pro 13? If it's close enough, one of these might fit..

 

It's different, looks like it is from the review at notebookcheck. It is very "warm", much more so than the Eye-One calibrated ICC. It also not as bright, so check it out if you like a "warm" display but probably avoid if you like it "cold".

 

I got UPS tracking for mine. It was processed in China on the 6th and departed China today. It has an estimated delivery time of Friday,02/08/2013,by10:30 A.M. China to NJ in 1 day.... possible with customs?

 

Definitely possible, that's the way it worked with mine.

 

Great.... but wow.

 

Yep, got mine the same way. China to East Coast US in less than 2 days. Shanghai --> Anchorage --> Louisville (no customs hold as reported by other people on these forums) --> Regional Processing Location --> Out for Delivery.

I was skeptical too about the 10:30am, but it arrived right on the dot.

 

that is what it is saying for me too. was sent on 6th and today it says out for delivery

 

Received mine today. Are you guys using a screen protector? I used one for my X220 tablet.

 

Checked it out and think I actually prefer it to the Eye-One. Thanks to codeforfood for the link!

 

I've been using my X1 Carbon Touch with the Toshiba USB3 Dynadock for a few days now. My setup is Microsoft ergo mouse, Logitech Performance MX mouse, 24" IPS display (via DVI to the dock), plus X1 display. I've noticed a definitely lag / stuttering of the mouse on the external display. This is a documented issue with DisplayLink. I think I need to hook the external monitor directly into the X1 to avoid the issue, unless anyone has another solution?

I'm also thinking of getting a Yamakasi Catleap 27" display (2560x1440). Just curious if anyone knows whether I can get the HDMI version and get the full 2560x1440 with mini-DisplayPort (directly from X1) to HDMI connection? Otherwise they make a more expensive version with a DisplayPort input, which I'm assuming would be supported?

 

Do you mean a protector for when closed, between screen and the keyboard? If so yes, I use a ShaggyMac.

It's not bad, another option and much better than the shipping ICC. I like the Eye-One with the gamma ticked down a notch to 0.9, guess I like a neutral display.

 

Got mine today, after 2 days of shipping. I guess Lenovo really pulled themselves together recently.

I'll post my impressions after a few days. But first I have a question for the people who already have their X1CTs:

Did you do a clean install? I know there's barely any bloatware but I was hoping to repartition and maybe get more space out of the SSD. My 240GB shows up as ~205GB with ~175GB usable. Also, maybe it's possible to repartition without wiping the Windows?

 

Unlike the Yoga, there isn't much to gain in repartitioning the X1CT. There is a recovery partition of 8GB that you can move to a thumb drive or memory card through Windows Recovery if so desired. Which leaves a 7GB OEM partition, is it worth a clean install to get 7GB to ~10GBback?

 

That's good to know, thanks. A couple more questions (this applies to everyone with a X1CT, not only Dayton):
1. What kind of tests did you run to make sure everything is working, besides the Lenovo solution center Hardware scan?
2. The hardware scan says my SSD does not support the "SMART drive self-test", can anyone with the Intel 240GB confirm it's the same for them?
3. The solution center also reports two unknown devices but the Device manager does not show anything like that. Did you have to manually hunt down and install any drivers, e.g. for the trackpad or wifi card?

Thanks, guys!

 

Lenovo Solution Center reporting 2 unknown devices appears to be a bug. I posted this in the Lenovo forum and never received an answer. I just disabled it's notification, if the Device Manager shows no "question marks" then it is all good as far as I'm concerned.

 

Did anyone else see the free 12 months of Skype premium with the purchase of X1C promotion? I can't seem to find it on Lenovo anymore, and was wondering if anyone else got it. Thanks!

 

hey guys , what is the best way to clean the smudges on surface of the x1?

 

Rice paper works like a charm: Amazon.com: Palladio Rice Paper Blotting Tissues Natural: Beauty

 

You should receive an email with the code.

 

I just use a microfiber cloth which I dampen with a bit of water to do a more thorough job. The sleeve/case I got from sfbags has a pocket which is where I keep the microfiber cloth so it is always available.

 

Approximately how long did it take before you received the code?

 

About a week.

 

Cheers guys, will try them. So easy to leave fingerprints and smudges just from carrying it about.

 

Hey all,

Just thought I'd write and give my impressions of my X1 Carbon Touch.

Firstly, I ordered 1/9 and had it in my hands 2/8. Given all problems, I was impressed with the turnaround and was actually expecting it in March.

Now, that aside. I got it out of the package and was instantly impressed with the ergonomics and the texture of the laptop. My previous Lenovo was a T400 that I absolutely adored (I maintain that it was my favorite computer of all time.) The keyboard is absolutely a delight to use and the touchscreen is responsive, as well as the trackpad (when I need to use it, which is almost never.) The touch adds a TON of value to the Windows 8 experience and my computing experience in general.

The one thing that I hated almost immediately was the screen. If I had to give a list of compromises my T400 had, it would be short and, for the time, not a big deal (a little thick, the battery life was so-so, etc. Nothing gamebreaking.) For me, the X1 Carbon Touch had everything right (perfect, even) but the screen was one huge dealbreaker. I turned it on and opened a browser and instantly saw it - the dreaded "screen door" effect. After seeing the touch Asus at Best Buy with its wonderful 1080p screen, I was heartbroken. My T400 had a wonderful panel (it too was subject to a "panel lottery" of sorts) and my previous laptops had good panels, so my disappointment was palpable.

Fast forward a few days later. One previous poster mentioned that the screen was growing on him and, though he's not thrilled with the screen door effect, it is tolerable. I would say that is where I am right now. After having this laptop for a few days and loving everything about it but the screen, I can honestly say that the screen, though I'm not completely happy with it, is growing on me and is tolerable. I think my eyes just had to adjust to it after using my beautiful 27" IPS desktop monitor and my wife's MacBook Air. I can still see the screen door effect whilst typing this review, but the more I use it the better it becomes. Overall, I love my new X1 Carbon Touch and would recommend it to anyone looking for a light, fast, business-class laptop.