X220 tablet - Pre-purchase advice

Hi all,

I've been reading these forums for a while now and am about to take the plunge and buy an X220 tablet.

I shall be buying it before Wednesday to take advantage of the 10% off on the X series at the moment.

I've specced it as such:

Intel Core i7-2620M Processor (2.7GHz, 4MB L3)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
12.5" Multitouch HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
Fingerprint Reader
Intel 160 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA
ThinkPad Battery 52+ (6 cell)
Bluetooth 3.0
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
ThinkPlus ThinkPad 3 Years Onsite Repair + Accidental Damage Coverage

In the end I went for the multitouch screen. As I am no longer at uni and prone to outdoor, "work", on balance I reckon the convenience of multitouch outweighs the advantage of a tougher clearer screen.

I'm well aware against all common sense and good advice I have opted for the Intel 160GB SSD but the price difference in the UK to actually buying it is minimal and I figure for the hassle I may as well pay them the difference and have it be their problem if anything goes wrong.

There's no convert to quote for the UK as the selling bit is outsourced to Digital River.

Has anyone got any advice as to things to check/ watch out for when it arrives or anything I might want to look at before buying. If there are any obvious threads I've missed I'd be grateful for a link. I'll be doing a clean install as well as installing my somewhat cheaper student version of Office as well as Acronis/ backup HDD and a portable DVD drive.

Other than that, I shall try and do a thorough review when it arrives and I'm hoping it will be as reliable as my trusty T60!

I've just ordered X220T with the above specs. I've also ordered a Buffalo 1TB portable hard drive and a Samsung external DVD drive. I'll keep this updated as I go along.

 

Unless you're doing processor intensive stuff, you might want to go with the i3 or i5 as the i7 will make little difference. Instead of the 160GB Intel SSD, you may wish to consider the 80GB mSATA SSD and use a platter drive in the bay. That'll probably cost less and offer you more space.

 

Thanks Zaz, mSata isn't an available option, though I presume that it's fittable. I heard they were having some compatibility issues with these; is this still the case?

I can afford to go for the i7 and I'll be running some painfully large databases and doing a bit of photoshop, possibly even a little gaming if it permits so I think I'll stick with it.

 

The i7 might be a waste unless they have fixed the throttling issues.

X220 cpu throttling problem - Lenovo Community

 

Thanks Bokeh, that is a little worrying. It does appear that they have a BIOS fix in the pipelines ETA: end of the month.

One things for sure, it can't be as bad as the whole XPS 1645 throttlegate. I eventually sent one of those back because it took Dell so long to acknowledge the problem existed let alone fix it. I think I'll take the risk, stress test it on arrival and report back with my findings.