X220t vs. X230t

Hi,

Are there essential differences between the 220t and 230t Tablet (I only know about USB 3.0).

I urgently need a new model and my boss would provide me with a X220t. X230t is unfortunately not available at the reseller my boss is using. Until availability, it could take 2-3 month. That's extremely long.

Now I don't know what to do.

Is the X230t essentially "better" than the X220 so that I shall accept the long delay (including problems with the current, old laptop)?

Thank you,
divB

 

Per the forum rules, please provide an English translation. With it you're probably more likely to get help.

 

Translated to English, sorry, didn't realize I was writing in German ;-)

 

No. I would gladly get either laptop even if there were no difference in shipping time. The X230t has graphical improvements with the HD 4000 integrated graphics and a slight increase in speed. Otherwise they have the same chassis and similar real-life performance.

Two strikes against the X230t are the keyboard and the possibility of getting a unit with a wobbly foot. The keyboard issue is just a matter of personal preference, and many that have used the new one have loved it (I honestly do not care either way, besides bragging rights of course), but the foot wobble is a defect that only a few X230t are born with. USB 3.0 is a nice feature to have integrated with the laptop, but most USB 3.0 expresscards will work with the X220t, although transferring from one external USB 3.0 device to another with 3.0 speed is much better with native ports rather than expresscard.

 

There's quite alot of difference between the X220t and X230t ignoring the Ivy Bridge platform. First off you get Lenovo's new chicklet keyboard which has no work around to get an older styled X220 keyboard to work. X230t also has the new chip in the battery so only genuine Lenovo batteries will work in the _x30 series laptops (T530, T430, X230, W530). X230t now comes with a standard 3 cell 30 WHr battery while most X220t shipped out with the fat 6 cell battery. Otherwise, structurally they are the same.

 

Oh thank you. So you both mean I should better go for the X220t which I can have instantly?

So the X220t can not be considered as "oudated" compared to the X230t and I would not do a wrong thing like "buying too old hardware"?

For the battery: Isn't the 6 cell battery much better in terms of battery life?
And I may still change the 'fat' battery to a smaller one?

Today I looked at the notebook in 'real life'. I was quite surprised that the digitizer is very, very unprecise, even after calibrating. On the edged, the device is almost not useable. Is this normal? (However, I must day that I used a pen of my old Fujitsu Siemens Tablet rather than the original one which was missing).

If any of you has such a Tablet: I somehow doubt in the stability of the screen mechanism and it looks quite fragile. Is this really stable enough for longer real-time life? (lets say at least 3 years)?

 

Sandybridge on X220t is great on power and efficiency, while Ivybridge on X230t is just an incremental update to Sandy. No one would fault you processor/gpu-wise for choosing the 2011 (sandy) version instead of the 2012 (ivy). There are certainly tangible pluses to getting the X220t over the X230t, the battery chip being one that I forgot. However, I for one would benefit from having native USB 3.0.

6 cell does get you more than twice the battery life of the 3 cell, as it has more than twice the capacity. I get 2 to 3 hours on the 3 cell and anywhere from 5 to 6.5 hours on the 6 cell, depending on how I am using it. I own both batteries, carry both batteries with me in my bag at all times, and I always have a spare charger on me. Both batteries are useful, too: if the 3 cell runs out of juice before I can plug in to a wall then I hibernate and swap batteries. The 3 cell is great for portability and weight, whereas the 6 cell can pull through for a long while.

Digitizer accuracy on the edge is typically not that good, though I can only speak for X60t and X220t as those are the only ones I've used. If the X220t you used has the old firmware then it would have been even worse than what it normally is; there was an issue with unusually terrible edge accuracy that went beyond drivers, so Lenovo released a brand new firmware for those. It was an improvement, but edge accuracy is still not perfect.

About calibrating, just know that when you do you need to hold the pen as if you are writing; calibration just ensures that the cursor "dot" is in the right spot. And if you used a Wacom penabled pen then there should not be any difference compared the original.

My screen mechanism is going still strong after almost one year of use, and I am constantly docking and re-docking, and going from laptop mode to tablet mode. The X60t that I own has a similar hinge mechanism, and it is still good too. I figure if anything goes wrong with my X220t hinge in 3 years then my 3-year onsite warranty will cover it. One can only hope that the hinge continues being great.

 

Thank you so much then I will go for the X220t without hassles.

 

Hi again,

So things changed again ... a colleague takes the T430s which is about $500 more expensive.

Now I am absolutely unsure. Currently I have a tablet PC (slate) but I do not use it excessively. However, I like it somehow and I find the device much more interesting than an "ordinary" Laptop.

The T430s by contrast has a SSD which would be great and a faster processor. I will need to run things like MATLAB on it but excessive simulations are done on a simserver.

I am very sure that now I would be very happy with the tablet but not with the T430s (it is just yet another ordinary laptop). However, I am not sure about 3-5 years. Will the T430s be more up2date than the X220t then?

And: I know that the T430s has a stronger CPU and SSD, but: Why is it $500 more expensive? I think the X220t has more features ...

So in short, if you could decide between X220t and T430s, which one would you take (and maybe why)?

Thank you so much again!

 

When Windows 8 launches, you're gonna want a touch screen.

IMO of course.

 

Thanks for your answer! "MO" is exactly what counts ;-)

Since this is a new topic, I created a new thread incl. a poll:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/690984-x220t-t430s.html