X1E/P1...Absolutely awful

I genuinely don’t understand how anyone can recommend this laptop, yet all the publications seem to and all the worst aspects of it are mentioned nowhere.

For a laptop that’s made of magnesium and carbon fiber it’s got the rigidity of a wet noodle. Light amounts of torque applied to it causes the screen to creak and flop around and if you do the same to the chassis you can litererally feel the top/bottom covers shift and slide around including the LCD hinge.

The whole point of a business laptop is durability and I’ve never seen such a flimsy a “mil spec” laptop especially when compared side-by-side to an elitebook which has zero flex.

I don’t get it.....Why do people buy these?

 

All of that is YOUR opinion. I had no issues with the build of the laptop although I found it lacking when compared to the XPS 15. I rather enjoyed my X1E...

Milspec doesn't mean anything in it's own regard, you have to know what spec they are testing it against...

 

People buy these cause they don't break, and if they do you can easily fix them. If you think this laptop is flimsy, you shouldn't walk into any electronics retail store or you will be appalled

 

Well mil spec is pretty specific and maybe my case is unique but I ordered an X1C as a replacement and it has several dead pixels and bad keys on the keyboard. So this can't be a one off.

You shouldn't see the edges of the laptop sag causing a gap between the deck of the laptop and screen that clicks and slaps if you bounce the laptop up and down. I mean light torsion and I can feel all the screws shifting. I have never seen anything so flimsy and I have seen a LOT of laptops​

 

Sadly milspec means nothing. As a mechanical engineer you have to know which milspec you're designing for (eg. 810G).

I had no issues with my X1E nor the few that I've ordered for customers, your experience is likely a rarity.

I guess we all haven't done the "bounce" test that you are referring to.

 

Can you explain it again? I don’t quite get what you mean. If you mean by pressing the corners and hearing a click, then that seems a little bit of a nitpick

 

Drooping would be the only way to describe it like you were holding a sandwich by one side and the other split open like this <. That's what happens between the deck of the laptop and the lid.

 

So if you hold it from one corner, the other one opens up a bit?

 

I have no issues with my X1 and I've had it for a few months. It's one of the few notebooks in it's size where I can get 64GB of ram and 4TB of SSD.

 

Been using a P1 for some days, got it from work. The build quality is fine, I see nothing wrong so far with it. The design itself feels sturdy enough.

Performance once undervolted its great so far. At least it is not melting, and the CPU is stretching its legs.

 

Better than other thin and light 6 cores IIRC, can you do anything with the GPU?

 

Well, since this is a work machine, I don't do much with the GPU except the occasional 3d render of engineering diagrams, but that runs "okay" even in intel GPUs, when the project is small. The GPU has worked fine so far but I also don't expect much from it haha.

The only negative I have, imo, is the missing gigabit ethernet. This dongle is a mild annoyance and can easily be lost. I do use the ethernet port a lot because we configure several ethernet based devices. But well, it's just one more dongle to carry.

 

Did you undervolt or OC the GPU?

Don't worry, in the dongle era its normal to need a few here and there.

 

The GPU so far is basically untouched. The CPU is heavily undervolted (-150 mv so far).

 

Are replacements available if you do lose it? A couple of months ago Lenovo didn't even have any for sale. I did find one on Amazon that works tho since the X1E, unlike the P2, weirdly doesn't come with one. But the Lenovo salesman on the phone had told me they both did, and when I subsequently complained about that Lenovo credited me with - I forgot - $135 or something like that.

 

I'd like to believe lenovo does sell replacements for these modules, because otherwise it's going to suck for me hahaha.

I will try later with a Lenovo rep to confirm.

 

Let me know. but if not I'll dig up the link to the amazon dongle part I bought for you. And I agree with you, my only negative is the stupid proprietary - and scarce - ethernet port. Wasn't there room for a real port? I almost always use WiFi though.

Oh, and try to confirm what the Lenovo rep tells you about this dongle. I got conflicting info from every one of them, from yes the X1E comes with it (it doesn't) to we sent it to you separately it's in the mail (it wasn't) to you're on your own, kid we don't have any (they didn't), to we'll send you the compensation for the lies the salesman told you (they did).

 

I don't think there was room for a full port or you bet your buttons they would have it. They did the next best thing which was a mini version of the port

 

This is the adapter I bought since Lenovo didn't even have it for sale - and why does it come included with the Thinkpad P1 but not the X1E!?

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-4X90F84315-ThinkPad-Ethernet-Extension/dp/B00LPRQ5UG

 

I bet they could have fit the weird half port like in the Lenovo G50 that uses a tab instead of the full port. But since this P1 is the same as the X1E, they probably noticed most people don't use ethernet anymore. So redesigning around something there not much demand, who knows.

Then again they could have skipped the mini port, and use another thunderbolt 3/USB-C port and put an USB-C dongle.

Despite being largely the same laptop, P1 users and X1E users are different markets and expect different things. I can tell you my workplace wouldn't have considered the P1 unless the ethernet port was a given. Even in this case which was a dongle, if it didn't come with the "specs" when they review it, they would have rejected it.

Meanwhile the guys at the Sales Department at my workplace, have the X1's and couldn't care less about the ethernet port.

 

The thing is that apparently, a dongle changes your MAC address or something. Apparently, there is actually a pretty good reason for having a mini ethernet port. Also it already has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, I don't think having anther USB-C is that valuable to an already strong I/O set

 

"Despite being largely the same laptop, P1 users and X1E users are different markets and expect different things."


Still, they built both with the same proprietary and hard to find mini ethernet port, and both should have included the dongle for it. It is ridiculous that they included it with one but not the other, and in fact the Lenovo salesman on the phone told me it was included with both, but he was wrong.

 

1st of all, salespeople always give wrong info, that's just how it works

Second of all, the P1's price probably is increased to account for "including it" so its actually better to not include one on the X1E

 

How much can it cost them to make another little dongle and throw it in the package? OK, then add 25 cents to the price of the X1E.

 

It would increase the price by the cost of a dongle. So it's better to just offer it as an optional accessory

 

If they are going to put a hard to find uniquely proprietary port on it - that even they don't sell! - then include an adapter with it which they already do with the almost identical P1, and it would probably cost them about 25 cents to throw one in. I paid $24 for the dongle I got from amazon, linked above, made by "Syntech". I've tested it but so far have not had the occasion to use it otherwise (but I never know when I might), and it has 26% 1-star reviews on Amazon.

 

I agree that the Ethernet port dongle should be mandatory included in all machines that use the port. I don't know why it is not included in the X1E but I know my company wouldn't have bough P1s if they didn't include it.

Also, for all the info I could find, it seems you bought the correct part, even if it was made by Syntech. The 1 star reviews I noticed were people mistaking the display port for this one, since it appears the old X1 uses a different port for ethernet.

I had a similar beef with my previous laptop the P51. It had slots for nvme drives or sata, but it didn't come with the plastic carrier to use nvme. We had to order those separately. At least in that part was technically just plastic.

 

Including the dongle does nothing but drive up the price and ship hardware that not everybody will care about. It's better that they make it optional

You can just buy them as optional accessories...

 

They can also remove the webcam and sell it as an optional accessory. An ethernet por has been industry standard for so long that NOT including it is an outlier instead of the normal expectancy for a computer.

I mean, the marketing of the X1Extreme even touts as something special for IT admins, while the P1 for engineers. In either case I would expect at least the capability to connect to a switch out of the box.

In Lenovo's defense, they do say they include it in the P1, and they don't with the X1E so they are not lying or anything. And the vast majority of users won't care since most use wifi.

 

The webcam has room to fit in. An ethernet port has been an industry standard, that's why they offer a dedicated ethernet mini port rather than USB-C and a dongle.

If you are an "IT admin", you WILL have dongles with you or you suck at your job (not to be offensive)

Using an MBP VS X1E VS E470, I can safely say that IF I need to be wired into an ethernet connection, I will have a dongle at hand. Having a dedicated port vs needing a dongle for something like ethernet isn't a big of a deal as USB-A dongles or display. IF you need to wire in, you will certainly have it with you.

But that's just my take

 

Yes, you keep repeating it. You ignore all the arguments in favor of including it in the package saying people who need it already have it...but they don't, because nobody else uses it and even Lenovo only uses it on particular models (see those 1-star reviews on amazon). How much do you think it would cost Lenovo to make one more dongle and put it in the box? $500?

 

IF you need it, buy it as an optional accessory. If you don't need it, don't order one. The cost Lenovo pays is the same, but the customer ends up paying more if it is "included"

 

At this point, we are just going in circles with the same. We all have different opinions on what is/should be normal and what shouldn't. We have all also vented our opinions on the matter so lets move on.