X230(t) Owner's Thread

Apologies if this has been asked already. I looked through the thread but couldn't find a post on it so far.

Is the situation with backlight bleed/"spotlights" fixed vs X220?

 

I see a couple of backlight bleed spots in the lower left hand corner of the x230ts screen when the screen is black

 

(x230) There is generally a 1/4 inch of very mild backlight bleed around the perimeter of the screen. The bottom left corner has a more apparent bleed extending almost an inch into the screen. This I instantly noticed when I first booted it up.

 

Thanks for letting me know, mcdoogs and Teslacoil! I had an X220 but returned it due to this problem, so I wanted to know if it had been fixed. Sounds like it's roughly the same deal as with the 220 >.<

 

After all the complaints I would expect them to fix it like Apple did.
So far the Macbook Pro Retina doesn't have any backlighting problems or so I've heard but Lenovo still keeps making laptops with a backlight leaking problem.

 

i have same issue with backlight bleeding...lower left corner is especially bad a boot

 

Argh! Okay. I wonder if the X1 Carbon will have the same problem . I thought about maybe trying the X230 but I don't want to go through screen troubles again -_-

I don't recall build issues being this much of a problem with Thinkpads in the past. Am I imagining things?

 

So, after a long hiatus following the death of my T60p, I bought an X230T a few days ago. Due to arrive on Monday:

i7 3520
12.5" Multitouch, 3x3
4Gb (will replace with 16Gb PC1600 )
Backlit keyboard
No fingerprint reader
320Gb hard drive (will replace with a 830 series 512Gb SSD )
6 cell battery
6300N wireless
No Bluetooth

I may also dual boot it with Debian.

Will post thoughts once I've had a play with it!

 

Arrgh double post...

 

I is the pen-input in general under linux? It depends on the environment but what would be the most pen-friendly environment?

 

It's does not seem to be an issue when the OS is running...just during bootup...at least for me. It was initially pretty disappointing, though

 

Fellow X230T owners, I have successfully installed my mSATA SSD (mydigitialssd 128gb BP3 and transfered the factory image to it. But, should I just delete what's on the HDD or format it or give it a clean wipe?

Also, I'm unsure about the CrystalMarkDisk numbers. Attached is what I got. The numbers improved since I ran it a couple of days ago. Are those numbers normal?

Last item, 6-cell battery life. I haven't really tested it. I booted it up and my batter power was reading 54% with 2 hours and 13 minutes left. I checked the setting and I'm using the Energy Saver setting. Looked back at the battery and it's currently at 53% and it says I have 3 hours & 15 minutes of battery power left. Is this something unusual?

 

With mine, I found it most noticeable when booting up because it's a black background. However, I also noticed it whenever I had a dark gray background or was watching a video, and it of course meant contrast in that area was abysmal since it could not display anything like black.

I guess for me it's basically, I pay extra for a supposedly 'Premium' display and what I get is relatively narrow-gamut, and has slow response since it's IPS seemingly without overdrive, and to top it off backlight bleed and contrast issues. I also noticed the color temperature seemed significantly warmer than neutral. So, I wasn't impressed...IPS or not.

 

I found the IPS display amazingly bright, even better than my 24" FHD external monitor.

 

I'll give it a test when I get the machine (which just got to Anchorage, apparently)

 

Yup, completely normal. It depends on what you're doing. Playing a 3D game at full brightness, for example, will use up your battery a lot quicker than reading a book at low brightness. On the computer I'm on now, the battery can last over 6 hours when I'm just reading stuff, or editing and writing documents, but when I'm playing World of Subways (I know, another train simulator , but it is fairly graphics intensive) at full brightness, the battery will last a little over 2 hours (I'm talking 100% to empty).

 

Does anyone know if the Intel 4000 VRAM (in the x230t) is configurable ? (can it be changed in BIOS / or via OS software ?) or is it fixed ?

Thanks in advance

 

Rather anticlimactic experience with my X230T
Received it yesterday, installed a 4gb stick of ram for a total of 8gb, turned it on, played around with it, made the recovery discs, and put it on standby.
Upon trying to resume, the thinkpad logo flashed for a second and then everything went dead. The power on button started blinking.
Immediately googled the symptoms and found that quite a few X220T owners suffered the same fate. Motherboard failure.
Called Lenovo support and they are sending me a box on Tuesday to send it into the depot in Tennessee. 6 days at the most for the repairs to be completed.
Its funny that the rep as soon as I mentioned the symptoms asked if I wanted to return the X230T or want it fixed before even trying to troubleshoot Maybe they've gotten quite a few similar calls.
Anyway this is my first motherboard failure on any of the 10 plus laptops I've owned. I guess there is a first time for everything
Build quality is solid.
Patience grasshopper!

 

It looks like the prices for the X230 went up a bit in Canada, does anyone know how long it usually takes for the prices to drop on Lenovo's newly released laptops?

 

FYI

forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Major-X220-Motherboard-Problems-Horrible-Service/td-p/683551]Major X220 Motherboard Problems, Horrible Service - Lenovo Community

(cut & paste the URL)
Going through these forums has made me think I might be better off returning the PC all together.

 

First laptop I'm ordering in from abroad. I just hope everything works out. Even tough they will fix it in my country I'm still skeptical.

Keep up the posts guys. I love the updates.

 

I've been using my X230t and it seems like a good tablet.

The only thing that bothers me is the one dead/stuck pixel that I have.

The backlight bleeding is better than the Fujitsu I used so it's not that bad.

 

What tablet PC does Apple sell that has a Wacom digitizer?

How many would jump ship if that were to happen?

 

Not quite sure of the point you are trying to make....

 

I, for one, wouldn't... first of all, it just wouldn't happen (it's against poor Stevie ), second, even if it would happen, it would probably be in some unibody stuff, without much potential to upgrade post-purchase and that stuff gets a dent with even the smallest impact... and third, it would cost 2-3x as much as this does.
Thing is, we're on forums... people who are perfectly happy with their computer, customer service, build quality, etc., don't talk about their systems much (this thread would be an exception, although it still has turned into a bit of a complaint thread), it's mainly the people who are having issues who talk about their systems. Otherwise it's just asking about stuff, but unrelated to the system specifically. Look on the Apple forums, there are a good deal of complaints, as well - for example, in the macbook pro section, almost half the threads are about issues (some examples, all from the first page: "Quicktime has a huge list of videos that aren't on my mac anymore" ; "Macbook Pro Retina battery problem?" ; "When it tries find the hard drive to startup the harddrive disappears" ; "Harddisk error : 4HDD/11/40000000: SATA(0,0)"; and to whoever said that problem about the 3-legged computer could have never happened at Apple, how about this: "brand new macbook pro not sitting flat"...). Basically, no one is a magician when it comes to not having any problems, and that's what warranties are for. Apple is a magician in one place, though.... over-pricing
To answer your question, I don't think that many people would jump ship if Apple made one

 

The only reason why I thought I might be better off returning the system all together was because there were some folks on the lenovo forum who have had their motherboard changed no less than 4 times in the last 6 months. Some others, after sending in their systems for repairs, had to wait over a month to get it back only for the motherboard to fail again.

Some IT managers who had bought 20 plus systems some time last december saw every single one of them suffer motherboard faliures.

Mark, one of the main Lenovo forums moderators, has been really nice and very helpful in trying to help everyone out but, there is not much he can do if I am stuck without a system for an extended period of time.

I travel a lot for work and my system plays a crucial role in my work. My T410s (with touchscreen) has been through hell and back with me (cold, snowy, winter weather to dusty, humid, 110 F weather) and still works like a champ as it did on day 1. Reliabilty is everything to me (As I am sure it is to all of you) So when my brand new X230(t) crapped out on me after 2 hours of use plus the horror stories I read on the Lenovo forums, it got me thinking maybe I am better off waiting for the next iteration (once the motherboard faliure has been fully addressed)

 

All that said, I am still going to send my laptop in for a MB replacement once I receive the repair box tomorrow. Once I get it back I will use it as I normally would and if everything is fine I might get the extended warranty and proceed to fall in love with the machine as I have with my T410s

Jealous of all you X230(t) owners who didn't get a lemon like me.

I am under no illusion that Apple products are somehow more reliable than any other piece of electronic out there.

 

Lots of people claim Apple makes good hardware but the military wouldn't waste their time with Apple products.
Apple doesn't make anything comparable to let's say a Panasonic Toughbook but people who buy Apple products claim it's better than anything on the market.

I've never bought any Apple products so I can't personally talk about the quality.

 

might be mentioned before on the x220 but not here (cant believe I read through the whole 20+ pages)

Just wanted to verify that the X230t multi-touch screen (without gorilla glass) can be use with both finger and pen, but the outdoor touchscreen (w. gorilla glass) can only be use the pen/stylus?

I am gonna install win8 and I think I will be using finger most of time so just wanted to make sure.

 

You are correct.

 

If someone got their X230 (non-tablet!) with i7, could you report what kind of real world battery usage you get? (and with which battery)

Thanks!

 

Hello Everyone!

As I know Ivy Bridge processors are warmer than Sandy Bridge processors so X230 has improved cooling system. I have not found too much information about X230i but I think it can be different from other X230 because of the different processor generation. Maybe the X230 new cooling system and the previous, cooler processor can result a cooler and quiter notebook in X230i than the X230 or X220. Unfortunately I have not found any review about X230i.

What do you think about that? Does anybody have X230i and could say something about its temperature and noise level?

Thank you!

Gabor

 

They haven't done anything to improve cooling that I know of. Chassis is the same, fan is the same, slits in case are same. I think that was just marketing frankly. X230 owners I've talked with say the fan whine is still prevalent as well. Which is really the only thing I dislike about my x220.

 

Jobs hated stylus and it will be several years before apple provides native support for stylus.

 

Not all x220 is noisy. Mine is very quiet and also cool.

 

notebookcheck's x230 review has thermal comparison against x220. They said x230 is overall warmer than x220 under idle and loading

 

Funny, one would think that when moving from 32nm to 22nm and into 3D that heat and energy consumption would be reduced... not that I care too much, as long as I can use it as much as I want and it doesn't show how much I've used it by how dark the skin on my lap is

 

I expected way more from Ivy Bridge in terms of battery life and lower heat. I just looked up the x220 and x230 review on this site and the biggest temperature difference between the two was 2° Fahrenheit. They were nearly identical in terms of exterior temperatures.

 

What is this x230t geek-benching at? My X201t geek-bench score is 4500.

 

I'd love to know exactly which fan you have. I had my whole assembly replaced and it still whines at high RPMs. Mine runs cool, but that really isn't the issue. It is the whine that is annoying.

Yours doesn't whine when you stress the CPU? I've only heard of a handful of people with x220s that don't whine.

 

I realise I might be in the minority wanting to do this, but has anyone tried any eGPU solutions with the X230Tablet?

I'm looking at a ViDock solution over expresscard (1.2Opt) with a 670GTX. Same setup with X220T benches at over 8k 3DMark'11

 

I just ordered mine, thanks to whoever posted the barnes and noble link! Its better than the SPP deal.

Anyways, for whoever was asking about screen calibration of the pen, this guy has a good video describing it. JBA He has all kinds of videos of the x230t already. Or just search his name on youtube if you dont want to go to his site, it makes my browser lag for some reason.

EDIT:
moogleassasin: The benchies should be better since the ivy bridge chipsets use PCI-e 3.0 More throughput over the x1 link. I'd be interested too, but this wont be a desktop replacement for me so I'm not going to bother unless I become unbelievably rich for some reason.

 

got my X230t today. screen digitizer accuracy is better but nowhere as good as my old HP. the 220 was unusable, but at least i can select tools and links more easily now. the calibration tool just makes it worse, so i gave up on it.

 

I've read you can reset it by reloading the driver. Also, I'm going to check for a firmware update for the screen. I read somewhere they fixed this on the x220 tablet. I shall report back.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

I installed a MyDigitalSSD 256GB Smart Series SATA III but I only seem to be getting SATA 2 speeds.

I started a thread here on the topic.

 

is there a double charger for the x220t? I had one for my fujitsu, the adapter had 2 battery connectors

 

I received my X230 today and it was DOA. Won't even post, the light on the power button just flashes when you try to turn it on.

This is extremely disappointing. Lenovo said I could send it in and they would fix it in about a week or two and send it back. I'm leaving the country for 11 months on Sunday, so it looks like I'll just have to return this and buy something else locally.

Does anyone know if there are any retailers in the US that stock the x230 or x220 with the IPS screen?

 

Can you ask someone to forward it to you?

 

anyone know what is the longest battery hour that we can manage to get for this X230 model?
What's really the different with our without (t) model?
is the battery slice from X220 can also be apply to this model also? or X230 has their own specific battery slice?

 

Just got my X230 today. Ordered it with a camera which they forgot to install. Bummer.