X230(t) Owner's Thread

Also, while I'm here...

USB3 performance - not sure what to make of it. Seems very low. I have a 2.5" Kingston V200+ 480GB SATA3 SSD in an external USB3 IcyBox chassis, on my desktop IvyBridge machine CrystalDiskMark reports sequential read write speeds of around 200MB+ and 150MB writes.

However on the Lenovo Win7 build shipped with the machine I got 150MB reads and 100MB writes.... worse than that, with Windows8 installed I'm getting 100MB reads and 70MB writes!

(totally worth having a £400 SSD with the performance of a 7.2k spindle disk happy days)

Anyone else able to do a couple of benchmarks with whatever external disks you have lying around the place? I'm using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64

Cheers all

 

I am thinking of getting the X230 and have some questions:

1. Can I use X230 with this docking station (I already have it ) ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 – 170W (433835U - U.S.) or do I have to get the ultrabase and what is the difference?

2. I see that the 6-cell battery extends the thickness of the machine a little but it is not 'equal' through the whole machine. Does this make the machine tilted more towards ones side?

3. Is there a big difference in performance between stock i5 and i7?

4. Does the machine throttle on battery?

Thanks.

 

Not at all for me, very stable

Not really. It might make a difference if you were compiling huge coade or editing video, but if that is the case, this is the wrong laptop for that.

Yes, if you mean does the CPU slow down to conserve power.

 

Thanks for the helpful information. Regarding the CPU slowing down, do you have any benchmarks with and without battery? Can you tell me if significantly throttles on battery and let me now what is the maximum CPU speed you are getting on battery compared to on AC (if you have this info.)?

Thanks again!

 

It's always throttling up and down, battery or not. If you have a specific test, I can run it.

A lot has to do with the power manager settings.

Right now, on battery, the core speed is hovering around 1200 mhz, but it will jump up to near 3095. Even on power it will do pretty much the same thing at idle, though I notice that when I am doing something it seems to take a little longer to throttle back

 

That is different now. I am OK with and understand that the CPU cores in HWINFO64 or CPU-Z will continue to go up and down as necessary on AC but the thing I had with W520 and T530 is the "bottleneck effect" (i.e. the indicators just throttle to a certain speed and never move up again on battery 899 MHz and 1198 MHz respectively when on battery).

I will appreciate it if you can elaborate more on the X230 whether the throttling in it is similar to any other machine like HP, Dell, or Sony or did Lenovo design it to throttle more than this to save battery (which will not work for me). I am kind of wanna give lenovo a last shot after being disappointed with W520 and T530 performance on battery.

 

Works fine in Windows 7 -- not sure about Windows 8. Did you install the tablet button drivers?

 

OK, color me concerned. I was just typing along making a powerpoint presentation, nothing extreme, not playing any kind of game where I might be pounding the keyboard when the ficking T key popped off!

Now, it did snap back in, but I have owned good old fashioned lenovo x- and t-series keyboards for a decade and I have NEVER had a key from a thinkpad pop off.

Is this the new and improved Keyboard???!?!??

 

My G key popped off today when my fingernail got underneath it. Every once in a while my T61's keys around the track point would come half way off.

 

Really? Never had that happen to me before...and it was just light typing...I didn't even notice it until I came back to the t on another word....

 

I see at least a few people in this thread debating between the X230t and X230 regular, I have both on hand and put together this comparison video that focuses more on form factor similarities/differences than anything:

Lenovo ThinkPad X230Tablet Vs. X230 Regular Comparison, What are the Differences? - YouTube

Sorry if you were looking for an in depth analysis of the tablet features, others have already done that on Youtube better than I can but I think this is at least something more original and people might be curious to see.

 

thanks...good vid

 

Excellent comparison review. Thanks!

 

If I am getting the X230 with premium display and camera, I do not have the option of the Intel Wireless-N 6300 (which I would love to get) but anyway, which of the remaining options is better, Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (2x2 BGN) or Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN?

 

Is that a good price with the current discount. Was there a better discount on such a machine earlier since the launch?

• Intel Core i5-3360M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)
• Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
• 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna
• Intel HD 4000 Graphics in Intel Core i5-3360M Processor
• 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
• UltraNav™ with TrackPoint® and buttonless multi-touchpad
• 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
• No Optical Drive
• 6 Cell ThinkPad Battery X44+
• Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
• Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN
• Mobile Broadband upgradable
• 1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

$1048.572 including taxes

Any other recommendations?

 

awesome, lots of thanks.

 

You can only get the 6300 if you select the 3x3 setup where you can't get the camera due to space constraints.

Out of the two, I'd take the 6205 so you have dual band instead of single.

 

I have the same one with 500gb HDD for $962 after tax.
But anyway, don't wait. This machine is awesome!

 

Yeah, the backlit keyboard, which is awesome. I have pretty much the same machine, though I went for the 3320M vs. the 3360M. It just didn't seem worth it to bump up the processor any more than that, IMO.

 

Using the X230 continuously at work, and now I can tell that Lenovo decided to change the keyboard is a smart move: this keyboard is better than my old T400. The softouch when I pressed the key all the way down is a excellent. I can't get this feeling with the old keyboard. In addition, I have less typo with the spacing keyboard.

 

I know it's subjective, but I also agree. I could never type quickly on my T61 and would constantly need to reset my fingers as they would get "lost" on the keyboard. With the x100e and the x230 I can type really quickly with great feedback.

 

I received my X230 yesterday and i am really happy with this tiny machine.
But I noticed that when i remove the batterey the cpu only use 1.2 ghz which i a kind oy anoying because normaly i remove the battery while using the laptop with ac power.
And the second point ist that I maybe return the laptop due some probelms with my eGPU and so I want to use the battery as little as possible.

Edit:
I have the I5 3220 with 2.6 ghz

 

got mine today, was shocked by the quality of the IPS screen first (noticed backlight bleeding when black and viewing angels when black arent't the best) but now I'm quite happy with it (comparing it to TN panels...).

Biggest shock sure was the fan. It is constantly running. Wth? Maybe you have some ideas for solving the following issues:

(1)
I installed Lenovo System Update and Lenovo Solution Center and enabled the mode where 'noise' is minimal, but still fans are running all the time, don't understand that... Can this be solved?

(2)
Also the touchpad is awful, I've read there are drivers to update it to work better, links? Did I already get using Lenovo Solution Center and its updates but they doesn't change anything?

(3)
Another problem is I can't get the traysymbol for synaptic in the tray, it says it should appear in windows tray icon settings but it doesnt (also not hidden).

This little beast, as some call it here, will serve me in the next half year overseas and I'm optimistic about it

(4)
nearly fogot it: The thinkvantage button doesn't work (the button next to the mic mute button)

 

Is the fan running on high? Mine usually turns off on battery and turns on every once in a while on the lowest setting. Even when doing more intensive work, I can't hear the fan unless I put my ear up to it. I haven't done any serious rendering yet but even with the CPU pegged at 100% for 10 mins the fan never got loud and the CPU was only at 65C. We'll how she handles the CPU pegged at 100% for 30 mins. or more down the road.

 

How???

the same X230 - $1314$

 

Here's mine, received a couple of days ago. Upgraded with SSD and more memory.



Edit: ordered via MasterCard MarketPlace

 

Wow, will you believe me when I say that the fan has just stopped the first time when I read your post?

I wondered if I could get it running again by opening some YT videos but I only heard a minimal fan noise for some seconds, now it is gone again. Magic?

OK, now for some reason the fan just turned on again and is running constantly on a low-medium level, really have no idea why, didn't do any CPU intensive stuff.

 

I must have the magic touch.... I would review your power management settings and adjust to your usage. I have the CPU set to Low on battery and Balanced when plugged in. (Balanced disables Intel's Turbo Boost from what I can tell.)

 

This configuration actually contains the backlit keyboard but for some reason, it does not show in the checkout page. Thanks for the advice though.

 

I was about to pull the trigger on this one and my only concern was if it throttles on battery and now you have indicated one more issue. Your issue should not be a big deal for me as I do not remove the battery frequently but can you test for me if the machine also throttles significantly on battery and what is the maximum CPU speed it reached with battery after removing it from the AC?

 

I totally depends on your settings in power manager. If you want full CPU performance on battery, it's there. My 3320M hits 2.6mhz in my custom profile, on "full performance", it was hitting 3.3mhz. So, no issues getting full use of the processor on battery if that's what you want.

 

Well, that was not true with my W520 and T530. They always throttled on battery even with maxim performance options in Power manager and BIOS. The first throttled to 800 MHz and the later throttled to 1.2 GHz. I do not think I can tolerate this issue any longer especially when I test my friends' machines with HWINFO 64 and CPU-Z and find that they perform fine on battery and the processor goes up and down as needed on battery. Anyway, I hope that there is a consensus that X230 especially with an i5 processor and only iGPU would not throttle because this is the last shot I am giving lenovo and then I am out.

 

Sounds like you were showed up at WoW sit-down....

 

My ugly work beast made it to Anchorage today. Cant wait to use Air Magnet with a stylus...

 

Well,I can't speak to all of the machines, but using the most recent power manager download, achieving full performance is possible, verified by CPU-Z on my unit.

 

Well, I am really hoping that this is true because I am typing to you right now from the T530 and you cannot imagine that I ma having maximum performance enable but still typing is delayed and scrolling in Firefox is awful. I wanted to think it may be the SSD unless I know I am using one of, if not, the best SSD in the market; Samsung 830 256 GB. I also did a fresh install of Windows using one of the guides on this forum. I started to think that I may be the problem!

 

I am very hesitant to upgrade to the 9-cell battery with X230 and may stay with the 6-cell as i feel like the 9-cell will much affect the portability and also I feel like it will mess up its shape. Can someone tell me 'real life' battery life with 6-cell and 9-cell to compare. I hope you can tell me the actual life battery with reasonable brightness.

 

I can easily get 12 hours out of my 9 cell. That includes web browsing along with excel and word running with a brightness of 9. I could probably get around 14 hours if I lowered the screen brightness and disabled flash.

17 hours when the system is completely idle.

 

I really cannot believe that especially that Lenovo indicates 9 cell (94 Wh) − up to 14.8 hrs which is almost always not true but I am happy for you if you can get it.

Do you have an idea what the 6-cell can give you in real life? Also, my hesitancy yo get the 9-cell is not to mess up the shape of the machine. Would you mind share your thoughts about that and a picture if possible?

 

I'm getting an honest 4.5-5.5 hours out of the 6 cell, depending on what I'm doing, screen brightness (IPS) on 13-15, occasional video or music streaming, surfing and some spreadsheet work, keyboard backlight on low. I don't do any gaming, so I can't comment there.

The battery life goes WAY up if I turn down the screen, but I'm not willing to do that. The minimum I'll run the screen is 13. I like to see what I'm doing.

I had the 9 cell on my X220 and I didn't like the form factor at all, either carrying it or using it on my lap. I got the 6 cell battery, and I also ordered a slice battery, which raises up the whole laptop but doesn't stick out. For the times I need mega battery, I can go that route. The 6 cell works 95% of the time for me, though.

 

Wow! That is so encouraging. Your use pattern is exactly the same like me and I also do not like the battery to stick out. I would probably get the slice battery (may be latter) especially that I do not work a lot on the road, so I will stick with the 6-cell for now.

Is there really an advantage from jumping from the highest core i5 to the i7? I am thinking of either loading this machine with the highest possible options with 3 years warranty and invest in it for the coming 3 years or rather stick with minimum requirements with 1 year warranty and just keep it for 1 year or so. Not sure yet which direction to go!

 

Lenovo Banes & Nobles promotion

 

Now that I've had it for awhile the trackpad is working better after some (a lot) tweaking of the settings. It still doesn't scroll as fast or as smooth as my X201 but I think I can live with the results. I miss the downward curve on the palmrests. These flat, sharp (comparatively) corners dig into my wrists and palms as I type or scroll when I'm lying on my back with the laptop on my belly.

 

Is there a problem if I connect the X230 to a 90W adapted instead of the 65W one?

 

No problem for using higher rated adapter. It will only take what it needs.

About the battery, I would get 9 cell for its incredible long run time for only $10 more or something. The shape extends a bit in the rear but that's where the ac plugs in anyway. It might add a little more bulk bit thats only on the rear. By going higher capacity you will also use much less cycles during the years. Wife has x220 with 9 cell, she never worries about battery. It still drains quickly if you play flash videos or stuff, so it's never enough.

 

Hmm, very confusing thing about 6-cell vs 9-cell but thanks for the advice though.

 

Yeah, I know it's a hard decision to make. The 6 cell raises the height same amount as 9 cell, so if you are okay with 6 cell, I'm sure you'll be fine with 9 cell too. 9 cell's protruding back also doubles as a grip spot, so I think if you dont mind the weight, 9 cell is what I'd recommend.
Because the 9 cell has much higher capacity, you can also set the power manager to start charging from 60% and to stop at something like 80% to maximize its life, and still have a decent run time.

I wish the x230T had a 9 cell option. The 6 cell on the tablet already looks really ugly, so it can't be any worse. The x230 laptop 9 cell looks fine though.

 

Now only x220
BARNES & NOBLE | thinkpad x230

 

The sale is still on. You have to go through barnes noble corporate perk or whatever to get deep discount.

Barnes and Noble Gold | Lenovo | (US)

Not sure if this link will work for you. Otherwise just google for slickdeals.net barnes noble thinkpad 30% and you will land on a thread where they have the link to lenovo.com barnes site. Create a ID and password, they still have good sale going on. I tried configuring a same x230t I ordered on 6/29, it is now $1248 instead of $1109 that I paid. I dont know how low the x230 price was back then though.

 

I decided for the 9 cell because I wanted more battery time and not the slice.

I was excited about how big the battery actually is and have not been disppointed. I mean, you don't see it anyway because it is behind the screen and it is only 2 cm I suppose. The only think I think of if I see it it that I got some extra hours of battery time

My girlfriend even said it looks cool (round like a book)