X230(t) Owner's Thread

Where is everyone seeing these $400 - $500 X230 tablets on outlet.lenovo.com??

 

They probably went fast at that price.

 

Well, I'm fickle. I ended up getting an i5 X230 w/webcam, highest end wifi card, IPS, basically all the bells and whistles for $570 shipped. Happy.

So, now that it's on the way, is it generally recommended to get a dedicated SATA III drive (i.e. Samsung 840 Pro) vs. an mSATA and spinning platter?

I can get a Crucial 256gb mSATA and keep the 320gig drive - or just get a Samsung 256gb SATA III SSD drive. I don't need more space that the 256. Both are within $20 of each other (mSATA = $179, Samsung SATA = $199).

Which is the better bet for longevity, reliability and speed?

 

Why not a smaller mSATA SSD and save some money? All SSDs are fast. There's probably not a perceivable difference between any of them. Longevity and reliability probably comes down to dumb luck more than anything else. Failure rates for all SSDs are fairly low.

 

Samsung 840 Pro is faster. If you want drive encryption (do you have sensitive data on your laptop? if your laptop is lost or stolen, would you be more concerned about the laptop, or the data on it?), Samsung, or Plextor M5P, or Intel 320/330/520 is the drive to get.

Otherwise, unless you're copying huge data volumes frequently, in laptop use case there is no huge difference in logevity/reliability/speed.

 

They did. I'd say less than an hour, and there were a few dozen on Friday morning around 4:30 Central time.

I snagged one of the $484.40 new i3 machines. I'll throw my 8GB and SSD in from my work laptop, and downgrade that back into a work-only machine, and use the X230t as my personal system for the things that don't require my EliteBook.

 

They were there sporadically, including one large batch. I got the following:

ThinkPad X230T - Refurbished
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, 2.60 GHz)( )
Operating system: Windows 7 Professional 64 - English
Display: 12.5" HD WXGA (1366 X 768) MultiTouch LED backlight"
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 4000
Memory: 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM Memory
Hard Drive: 128GB SATA 2.5" Solid State Drive
Optical Drive: No Optical Included
Battery: ThinkPad Battery 67+ (6 cell)
$663.95

I ordered a $23 low voltage Samsung 4GB DDR3-1600 stick to toss in alongside the stock one for capacity and to enable dual channel. I also grabbed a mini USB number pad so I have some keys available while sculpting/painting/modeling/etc. Order has not yet shipped, but looks like it'll be going out tonight/tomorrow . I look forward to using it as a personal and work machine! Parts lookup already confirms the multitouch screen is correct, too.

 

THe one that I looked at for $484 they had hundreds of and they were all gone in a day or so...I SHOULD have gotten one.

 

BONUS BUNDLE!?

It appears that my X230t (the $484.40 deal) came with:
Acrobat Professional X
Photoshop Elements 10
Premiere Elements 10

That's an extra $450 worth of software that I don't need. Maybe I can sell it for enough to get a battery & AC adapter.




As far as other things go...no dead pixels, which is very important. Definitely multitouch. I've tossed my 8GB of RAM and SSD in it, have a fresh install of Windows 8 Pro, Office 2013 Pro. Most of the tweaks done, but a couple issues that maybe someone can point me towards a resolution to:

1. Power Manager won't install, a quick glance shows that it's no longer supported in 8? I just used it for a more accurate battery meter, and set thresholds. I can get around the first part with Battery Bar, which I run on all my other laptops.

2. No auto-rotate when I flip it around. That may not be too big an issue, as I think on the tablet I used a couple years ago, I turned that off and just pressed the button to get it to do what I wanted...but if there's a tweak I need, I'd like to hear it. I am using the latest INTEL driver, not LENOVO.

3. Sound's as crappy as I expected. Oh well, I got this for browsing and productivity, not jamming out to to some tunes.

4. Touchpad sucks. I use Trackpoint anyway, and that's luckily still decent.

5. I miss the old keyboard layout, as I used the Pause key all the time. I'll adapt.

6. I'd hoped that it would boot off the SD card reader, but no such luck. I think I'll look into a small mSATA drive (32GB is more than enough; I could handle less) to do an install of Linux Mint on, and have a dual boot where I toggle between which I want to boot up (Win 8 as default, bring up the boot menu and choose mSATA for the Linux install). Or...I'll just wait until I run across another used laptop and use that for Linux.

 

Evil, that's strange if they sold as new but hey, congrats

 

I got same issue here, trying to calibrate my screen but I think i messed it up. Could anyone, who used a calibrating device, share us the profile?

And by the way, my screen often changes its contrast and sarturation each time I view photos on it ( I mean it changed from a photo to another, not when viewing a single1). How can I fix that? I believe it system software related?!

 

I'm pretty sure you're talking about the intelli-bright or whatever it's called (I could be mixing it up with what's on AMD systems) - I've had trouble finding the settings directly, but try checking if setting the Intel graphics card setting on maximum performance - or setting the power plan on maximum performance, it should do it as well - helps.

 

I've been using my new X230 for a couple of weeks now and here are a few impressions. I thought I'd share for the benefit of someone who is shopping for one. First, I'm impressed with the size, weight, build quality, and speed. The 9-cell battery life is epic, ranging from 6-10 hours in unscientific real-world testing. It took about 12 days to arrive from the time I ordered. Right after I received the computer I swapped out the hard drive for a Crucial M4 250 GB SSD from B&H. I swapped the RAM with two matching 4GBs from Crucial. If anyone is in the market for the original 4GB let me know. I did a fresh install of windows 7 and the Lenovo software. I only have a few gripes about the computer, and they are minor. The first is the key placement. The left side control key is one that I knew was going to require adaptation, but on the right side I often end up hitting the print screen button when I'm reaching for the control. This should get better as I get used to finding the keys. My other complaint is the touch pad. I've disabled many of the "advanced" features like zooming just because they kept coming on when I didn't want them. In the long run I may resort just to using the dedicated buttons above the touchpad, since most of my problems come when I'm trying to use the lower click areas. Also, I thought I had a problem with the power button at first, because it wouldn't respond when the computer was running. It turns out I just had to press and hold it for half a second longer than I would have expected. Overall I'm quite pleased with it, and glad to have found it with help from others here at NBR. Also, I was able to verify that the Igo 704 tip works with the x230, which I wasn't able to determine before it arrived. I'm not planning to carry the Igo for normal travelling though, just because it's so much larger than the standard Lenovo charger. I picked up a few spares on ebay for around $15 each, which is hard to beat.

 

OK, for once I'm going to ask for help with this thing
Anyway, the mouse settings NEVER stick. What I mean is that the trackpad and trackpoint settings will change back to some default after about a half day - mostly I'm talking about the trackpad, because that's where there are the most settings, and the ones I want to change are there - and not all settings go back to that default. For example, the Tap Zones will be disabled after about a half day, but the settings for what tap zone does what (left bottom - start menu, right bottom - show desktop, right top - maximize/restore, left top - minimize) stay at what I set them to. I've tried reinstalling the drivers, they've gone through several updates, and nothing has helped. I guess I'm one of the people who prefers the touchpad - or I like the whole combination of touchpad, trackpad and touch screen - but I use the touchpad because I like all of the multitouch gestures, tap zones, etc.
Edit: Oh, and when I click the touchpad, sometimes it double clicks for some odd reason.

 

All items offered for sale at NBR must be posted in the marketplace forum, use the marketplace form and adhere to the marketplace rules, which would include having six months of membership and 100 good posts.

 

Anyone notice a significant change in battery life, for better or worse, after upgrading to Windows 8?

 

the windows 8 caused a drop of 30 to 40% battery life.

 

How did you test that?

 

X230 refurb from the outlet will replace my venerable Compal HEL80, which decided to overheat and fry itself last month after 6 years of daily use. RIP.

Ordered one with IPS, SSD, faster i5, + docking station for $550 on 2/1. Finally received my order confirmation today. I'm very excited for this machine to make its way to my doorstep.

 

Pardon me for resurrecting an old post, but how on earth are you getting such a high 3dmark06 score?

I recently received an x230 to replace my x220. However, I'm leaning towards returning the x230 because it performs almost exactly the same as my x220. Both get slightly over 4700 in 3dmark06. I've tried various drivers, bios as well as both Win 7 and 8.

Would a few of you be willing to post your 3dmark06 scores so I can compare?

 

what is your RAM?

 

Also note that some 230s came with SB CPU/GPUs, in which case the GPU performance would be exactly the same as that on the last-gen machine.

 

The x220 has 6 gigs of ram with i5-2540m. The x230 has 4 gigs with i5-3320m.

I've noticed that the x230 rarely goes above 75C even when benchmarking, while the x220 will hit 85C under the same tests. Maybe the x230's bios is configured to throttle earlier?

*edit*

I think it's a ram issue. I removed 2 gigs from my x220 and re-ran 3dmark06. This time I got a score near 3700. Also, the temps were lower (closer to 75C). I bet adding ram to the x230 will easily put it over 5000 in 3dmark06.

 

Does anyone's fan making a strange spin-down noise after shutting down? It kind of sounds like a puttering engine for a second or two. Doesn't make any strange noises when in use, fortunately.

 

Some X230 shipped with Sandybridges? I thought they would all be shipped with Ivybridge chips?

 

Almost all of the x30 series offered some SB option at the beginning.

 

I sent my x230 back. To many small issues all of which added up to wanting to keep my x220.

Among the issues with the x230 were:

-Didn't sit evenly. Right palmrest area tended to bounce
-too many gaps around the bezel, more noticeable than on my x220
-plastic flex above express card slot and top of keyboard panel
-trackpad was horrible, jumpy cursor. I tried lots of drivers, fixes in both win 7 and 8
-excessive light leakage, especially near lower left corner
-fan made the occasional sputtering noise, wasn't really that big of an issue but probably would become so over time
-battery wobbled more than the one in my x220

Overall, my x220 just feels sturdier. Only thing I miss on the x230 is the backlit keyboard.

 

I recently Upgraded to Win8, and it's OK for the most part.
Isn't the touch keyboard supposed to come up automatically when you put the cursor into a writeable area, like a form? like it did in Win 7?

 

quick q: I would install Windows 8 on my new msata ssd and enable uefi and secure boot, could i still update my ssd's firmware (crucial m4) by booting from a usb key with the .iso?

 

I ordered an X230T on 2/15 and it still hasn't shipped yet. The shipped date has changed a couple of time but upon chatting with cs they said ship date should be 3/1. There were no delays noted on anything when I placed the order. Is this a pretty typical time frame on the X230T's?

 

2 weeks is pretty standard for Lenovo (that's fast, actually). They manufacture machines as orders come in, so a few weeks is very normal.

It is an annoying wait, though and Lenovo's lack of updates/transparency leave a lot to be desired.

 

Hi, may I know the spec of your tablet and how much did you pay for it? I've been looking for a tablet myself for a while now....

 

Guys I am having some random freezes with my x230.
When I am doing nothing, suddenly it freezes and starts heating and fans spinning.
Running windows 7 64bit with all updates, drivers updated, latest bios etc.
So far I didn't experienced those freezes in linux.
Any tip on how to find the culprit?

 

I had to put an RMA in on my X230T from the $474 batch. Somehow a chunk of the left corner of the palmrest broke off. I've not done anything to cause it, so it's a material defect rather than accidental damage.

I did notice, however, that about 5-6 weeks after having purchased it, I'm still showing a 3 year warranty. While I'd love for this to be true, to my knowledge anything off the outlet drops its warranty to the 1 year EZ-serv, without some outside influence (Mark@Lenovo was able to get a 4 year warranty processed on my old outlet W500 after being given bad info by a Lenovo rep). I know in the past, it's shown the warranty get marked down after roughly 1-2 weeks, but that hasn't changed yet. Are they taking longer these days to knock the warranty down, or has something changed that would allow the warranty to remain at the 3 year mark? I certainly won't complain about being covered until 2016, but I'm tired of waiting for the shoe to drop.

 

1) check if there are virus/malware?

2) check which process is running with the max memory usage

3) do you run multiple anti-virus softwares?

 

Just received my X230, couldn't be happier. Paid about 45% less then what the Lenovo dealership would price it for, so my wallet is as happy as I am.

I´m having the same problem though with my X230 that I have with my T420. Power on/off control over the bluetooth. The Fn+F5 just shuts all wireless adapter off. Am I missing some software available at the Lenovo support site that enables bluetooth/Wireless on/off utility?

 

1)It was not a virus

2)I didnt't check but I didn't found anything with abnormal consuption

3)No.

Guess I found the culprit: avg antivirus with utorrent.
Uninstalled avg and installed avast, all is fine now

 

If you are running windows 8 then that is all Fn+F5 can do. To power off Bluetooth independently of Wifi you would need to go to Settings -> Change PC Settings -> Wireless. In windows 7 there is something that controls it; either the Hotkey Driver or On Screen Display. I forget which.

 

Yeah, it's the Hotkey driver. I've installed it and it installs into the correct directory - I can find the FN+F5 .exe itself and run it normally - but what I need is the registry value to change to redirect the keyboard command itself.

Any ideas?

 

Hi guys,

I experience some performance stability when I use my X230 without battery and stock 65W adapter.
Do you recommend me to buy the 90W or 85W adapter for my X230 to fix the problem?

Thank you.

 

The bigger adapter would solve your problem, see: ThinkPad CPU runs at reduced maximum clock speed w... - Lenovo Community

 

This is interesting because I just saw the "Hybrid Boost" option in Power Manager that says it can pull juice from the battery to assist the power supply to provide higher performance. So, without the battery you would be limited unless the power supply could handle it.

 

Received my X230T and about 1 week into it. Very happy with it so far. I must say that I've been through several different configs on it at this point. First I ported my X220 install over to it. That was a W7 install upgraded to W8. Then I tried a straight W7 port from my X220. Then I tried the factory W7 install. Then I tried a clean W8 install which became my favorite. I had to redo that multiple times however as it's a little glitch with the whole "microsoft account" vs "local account" thing and where you install apps and which accounts can see them. I also did various clean W8 configs but with Easy Transfer to try and capture some settings.

In the end however, straight Win8, from scratch, seemed to be the best. So far with the other configs I've been fighting with driver updates and getting different features to work (like auto rotate, microphone mute, stuff like that). Some of my initial configs seemed to be pretty sluggish. My X230T is an i7, 8GB, 180GB SSD so shouldn't be sluggish at all. This is in comparison to the Surface Pro and Sony Duo 11 which are both i5's that run really snappy. My X230T initially seemed considerably slower than those 2 which just isn't acceptable

My battery life on a clean W8 seems better as well, but that could be just conditioning the battery, who knows. I also noticed that initially I had over 120 processes running but now have less than 50. I don't have any Thinkpad specific drivers installed other than what Windows Update picked up, like the power management driver and Intel 6300 Card, outside of that it's pretty generic. I've got a list of stuff that doesn't work; tablet buttons, microphone button, camera, but I'm okay with that for now until I get more familiar with it. I really don't want to install a lot of bloatware for a feature I'm not going to use anyway (like the camera). I noticed for Thinkpads running Windows 8 there are now "settings dependency packages" for a lot of the features and am hesitant to install those. If I do, I will be cloning the drive first so I can easily roll back.

I have the 3 cell battery + slice battery. I wanted 8'ish hours of runtime and didn't want the sticking out battery PLUS the thick battery, so opted for this combo. I'm a little dissapointed that the slice battery seems so cheap in comparison to the X230T. It's that hard cheap plastic feeling covering up the quality feel of the Thinkpad, quite tragic actually. Oh well...

 

interesting to hear you opinion on the 3 cell and slice.

i just got my x230t today, i7 16gb 128gb Crucial SSD, and installed a clean W8 on it before i even booted into W7.

I love it, but it has the 6 cell and I ordered the slice and will also order the 3 cell.

too bad the slice is cheap feeling.

I am in the midst of installing all the lenovo specific drivers to get certain functional back


thanks to everyone who posted on this 135 page thread, i used it as a great resource prior to purchasing.


I was thinking of waiting for the helix, but seeing the x230t running w8 made my mind up!

 

Yes, the Helix looks great, but with Lenovo's track record we are probably 6 months out still from seeing it actually ship.

The slice is that hard kind of plastic and it's a little thin so is slippery and has some flex to it. There is room on the back for the 6 cell battery to protrude through, so there's a gap there when using the 3 cell. I don't care for the gap but I think I'd prefer it to the 6 cell sticking out, although I'm tempted to try it out. I haven't really used the X230T without the slice, I'm afraid I'd like the thin profile too much and never want to go back!

I'd be curious to know what your WEI numbers are, initially my desktop graphics scored low and I'm hoping the clean install fixed that, but haven't run mine yet.

 

Sure, tomorrow I will check and post it.

I am looking at my low battery life (on 6 cell) compared to my x220 ( non-tablet) and not liking it.

On idle battery bar pro is showing 6.5-8.0w depending on what screen brightness.

My battery estimator is showing 2:30-3:30 hrs of battery with minor web browsing and some short YouTube videos and wifi on.

What do you guys get for W discharge and general battery life on x230t?

I saw a post here a while back of 5hrs on 6 cell would be great!

 

X220 owner (mid 2011). Just come back to this forum for the first time in over a year and reading this thread. Seems like far less excitement/ buzz/ activity over the vanilla x230 than the vanilla x220 previously (eg only a couple of people posting impressions, far less posts overall and most of them to do with the x230T).

Besides the keyboard, why doesn't the vanilla x230 get as much love?

PS: apologies for the excessive use of the term 'vanilla'

 

Is anyone having the wifi drop out on a Win8 install on the X230T? Sometimes when the laptop comes out of sleep mode the wifi is "off" and there's nothing I can do to get it back (i.e. turn the hardware radio switch off and on). The wifi can see none of the access points and I have to power down and up again to get it to work.

 

I had a lot of issues with Win8 and WiFi. One of the first things I do now is go into the power profile and make sure wireless performance is set to Maximum Performance so the OS isn't messing with it as much. I seem to have fewer issues but I still have my wireless go dead occasionally.

 

I know i sold my x220 and got the x230t because of windows 8.

I think the push to a touch centric OS is going to drive interest in touch enabled notebooks, convertables and tablets

I know I like my x230t better than the x220, other than the battery life