X1 Yoga (3rd Gen) Owners Lounge

Good Morning.
New X1 Yoga 3rd Gen owner here, taking the liberty to start the owners lounge thread.
Specs: i7-8650, 14" HDR, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD UHD 620.
Attachment below is the CDM for the SSD. It is a PM981 1TB.

Happy to answer any hardware questions. Thank you.

 

Have you been able to compare the glossiness of the (touch) HDR screen and the keyboard feel to an X1 Carbon (6th Gen, HDR, non-touch)?

 

Not to the 6th gen, but the 5th Gen X1 Carbon (my previous machine).
The X1 Yoga is too glossy for my taste with lot of reflection compared to the X1 Carbon.

 

@d2tbydt2 can you by any chance test it with Intel 18260/18265 card, to see if WiGiG part of the card is even recognized in OS at all?

 

Ordered one Tuesday. What sort of build/shipping time did you experience? Also, any initial thoughts on any necessary accessories or any problems you've experienced.

i5-8350U, HDR, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Joe

 

So my X1Y3, ordered on April 17th, arrived April 27th... though it would have gotten to me on the 25th had some weather not caused a delay. Anyways, overall the laptop is pretty excellent, though I have some minor complains that are known factors judging from what I'm seeing in all the forums. Note that I am coming from an X230T, which has been amazing and still is to be honest.

Pros: Thinner, Lighter, Sleeker, USB-C, still has HDMI and USB-A ports, excellent screen and above desired resolution/brightness, Thinkshutter Camera Cover, integrated pen/holder much better than my X230T, solid hinges for a 2-1, seemingly good performance, though I've not had the opportunity to do any comparative tests.

Cons: Fan is on the bottom, fan is sort of noisy and spins up randomly it would seem, keyboard key travel is a tad short compared to what I'm used to, Ethernet dongle needed (would prefer the Latitude 7480's expanding Ethernet port), relatively weak battery life (estimates are showing ~5 hrs, but haven't done an actual check to see how long I get).

So besides the fan, keyboard, and battery the laptop exceeded my expectations. I suspect these issues will be relatively easy to overlook as the overall package is still quite nice and I got a reasonable deal, I think. I think if I had the chance, I would check out the X280 or the T580, though even that was not quite what I was looking for since I wanted a lighter laptop with a little bigger screen, higher resolution, anti-glare screen, and to maintain the trackpoint.

Let me know if anyone has any specific questions, and I'll see what I can do to help.

 

@redletter any chance you can try Intel 18260 or 18265 WLAN card in it?

 

As in buy a WLAN card just to try? No sorry. My X230T had WLAN and I never used it so I have no intentions of trying it on this one. I'm pretty sure the antenna isn't factory installed and there isn't an open m2 spot for it right? Or is that what you're trying to confirm?


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@redletter I asked in case you had other machine with one of these (pretty rare) cards by chance.

They are the same as standard 8260/8265 cards, but have an additional 802.11ad radio, which uses second PCIe lane. The WLAN slot in newer Thinkpad is physically correct for these cards, however Lenovo may have skipped connecting second pcie lane to the slot as a cost-cutting measure.

I'm considering a newer Thinkpad, but if these cards won't work on it, I would rather wait till 802.11ay-equipped machines and devices become available.

 

Oh shoot, I'll have to do some research... maybe I do want one of these... If I decide to try it out I'll let you know. Have a link to some info on these cards?


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@redletter they have additional 802.11ad module, which is only really useful for WiGiG docking station because the technology, while very fast and zero latency, only works in direct line of sight. Some (very expensive) routers also support 60GHz 802.11ad, but it's more of a gimmick.

It's a very niche technology, crazy expensive initially - but eBay and Amazon pretty much solved this problem long ago. WiGiG docking is the only way to deliver sound wirelessly without any lags or loss of quality; it can also support up to 2x FHD displays and USB peripherals. I personally have a quality sound-card, 4x HDDs, and a MIDI controller connected to my WiGiG docking station . However, if somebody walks between the laptop and the dock, or if I cover the antenna with my hand e.g. when folding my Yoga to tablet mode, it will loose signal and disconnect unless the obstacle is removed rapidly.

Intel 18260 & 18265 WLAN cards were used on some Broadwell, Skylake & Kaby Lake business machines - mostly Thinkpads, Latitudes, Porteges, some HPs - and there were a few generations of competing QCA solutions, incompatible with Intel and each other, used on Acers and older Dells. Intel 18265 & 18260 cards themselves are dirty cheap, and docking stations are pretty affordable too if bought from Amazon/eBay, while sourcing the necessary antenna and corresponding cable may be a bit tricky, and installation is not very pleasant. There's a link to a guide on the subject in my signature.

 

When I flip open the laptop lid, there's a clicking noise. Upon inspection, it looks like my shift key gets slightly stuck and the click noise comes from when it pops up. Is this normal? I just received the laptop and don't believe it is so want to exchange it if that's the case.

 

exchange now or get a refund

don't accept a repair offer

 

This forum looks pretty dead, guess theres not enough adopters for the X1Y3? I was curious if anyone else noticed terrible distortion in the speakers at moderate volume with dolby atmos on? Turning it off helped some, and the eq in the dolby atmos control panel does nothing.