X250 no longer offered in non-touch FHD or so says Lenovo Chat Expert

So earlier last month while I was on vacation, I was checking the Lenovo USA site for the availability of the new X250 in non-touch full HD. Around February 10th it came online as being available.

After I got home around the 15th, the option disappeared. I contacted Lenovo via "chat" and I was told that they were having website problems.

So I waited a few days, still didn't see the option, entered chat and was told that they were out of stock and that I would be able to order it by the end of the month.

As of this morning, this option is still not available, and so I started another chat session and the Lenovo rep said that this option is not offered for this model. Say what? I told her twice that she was incorrect but she insisted that this option is not available.

The spec sheet clearly indicates the option for a non-touch FHD:

http://psref.lenovo.com/PSREFUpload...hinkPad_X250_Platform_Specifications_v467.pdf


Have any of you heard something about this option no longer being available? Or is this just a case of poor customer service? Thanks.

 

Update: I called and asked for this option, and again, I was told it was not an available option. I insisted that it was on the spec sheet. The rep checked, and of course, it still is an option. FYI I was able to order it despite the fact that it is not listed on the website yet.

 

hi ramsonite,

do you feel FHD is good for a 12.5" screen? Will it be too small and straining on the eyes?

I like the size of 12.5" laptops, but the workable area of a 13.3 or 14" is much more comfortable.

thanks for any info..

 

Here in Germany the non touch FHD is available for the X250.

 

What is the price of the non-touch fhd ips display

i am looking at $660 out the door with my CPA discount just with the i5/ips/6cell, the touch 1080p display is $300 upgrade (net difference of 200 from the 768p display). also how many ram slots are there in this machine?

 

I am using Helix (11.6 inch) with FHD at 125% scale. At least for me, it looks good, sharp and reasonable size of icons.

 

X250 has only one RAM slot.

 

well that's a bummer, another 100 down the drain, at least i am not paying for it, my job is, only reason i am getting another TP.

 

The non touch fhd is 89eur in addition to the cheapest display

 

thanks for the info....

i wish X250 came with 16gb ram like the x230 did!

i have no idea why lenovo went backwards with this...this practically deal killed x series for me...

 

The X250 supports 16GB RAM, too. However, the 16GB DDR3L modules you have to use are quite expensive.

 

And it will still be running in a single-channel mode, which may or may not be a big deal depending on what one uses it for.

 

Most casual office work doesn't require powerful graphics processing, so for most applications single-channel RAM suffices.

If people need GPU power, that's what the workstations are for.

 

I'm not saying that you're wrong, but X240 was the first X-series with a single DIMM slot since X24 which was discontinued 12-13 years ago. So no matter how you want to look at it, a single RAM slot in a ThinkPad is a downgrade. This was unfortunately carried into the X250.

I don't recall saying anything about GPU power in regards to X250. Would you care to enlighten me on when and where *exactly* I was complaining about that aspect?

 

I do agree with this actually.

Perhaps I misunderstood you.

It's just that I am unaware of any scenario where dual channel RAM offers a substantial performance gain (over single channel RAM) other than for igp performance. Is there?

You said:

What exactly do you mean by this?

 

It depends on how one defines "substantial". Dual-channel performance gain over a single-channel is never huge, but can make a difference for some users. And no, it's not necessarily tied to improving performance of integrated graphics only. A lot has been written on the subject - mostly by people who actually benchmarked different scenarios - and your favourite search engine will be your friend once again...

If all one uses the system for is Web and Office, the difference is absolutely non-existent.

 

And there it is. I think the performance increase only becomes apparent/noticeable in benchmarks, and never in the majority of real life workloads.

And the performance increase can only be described as 'marginal' at best.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/PARALLEL-PROCESSING,1705-11.html

 

That's your opinion. Perfectly acceptable.

Very old article. We're not in the land of DDR2 anymore. Take a peak at page 3 here:

http://www.legitreviews.com/ddr3-memory-performance-analysis-on-intel-x79_1779/3

I wouldn't call the difference in performance that they had observed "marginal" but to each their own.

The bottom line is that the issue at hand has been discussed ad nauseam for years, as seen in this thread amongst others:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/is-dual-channel-ram-a-joke.727936/

At the end of the day, none of it matters.

You have a X240 in your signature and I don't. Single-channel limitations are obviously not a big deal in your workload - and I'm certain that you're far from being alone in this respect - so Lenovo is definitely catering to a very real target market.

On the other hand, I simply refuse to accept such a configuration after running dual-channel systems for about a decade now, starting with my first T43p.

 

Fair enough, each to their own.

My main gripe is that people are getting their priorities wrong, if they are going to complain about lack of dual channel memory on an ultrabook with a low voltage, dual-core processor that was never intended for heavy workloads. Any "real" or demanding workload will be seriously hampered by the lack of a quad-core processor rather than 10% performance drops in very specific usage scenarios due to the lack of dual channel memory.

On the other hand, if Lenovo started putting only one RAM slot on their W series as an example, people would be up in arms, and rightly so. The W series and X series are apples and oranges.

I didn't buy the X240 for the purpose of heavy workloads. I bought it mainly to 'bridge' my workload between home and the road, and act as a 'backup' should my Y510p suddenly fail. My Y510p is where most of my (demanding) workload is done - MATLAB, video editing, FPGA design and various other things.

 

Hello,

really? X250 can have a 16gb SO-Dimm DDR3L stick installed in it?

Who makes a 16gb So-Dimm ram stick? i can't find anything online.

thank you!

 

Yes:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/16GB-SO-DIMMs-work-in-X250/m-p/2036102#M61618
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intell...modules-for-Broadwell-notebooks.137492.0.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/broadwell-thinkpads-might-take-16-gb-ram-modules.772331/

At the moment, Intelligent Memory seems to be the only one.

 

hi f007,

thanks for the info.
very interesting!

 

well, that is sort of a game changer if the X250 can now have 16gb ram and FHD LCD 1080p screen!

However, it will cost some serious $

 

I zoom up between 125% to 175% depending on the application. This works for me and like someone else here said, it's still super sharp and easy on the eyes. Coming from a x200s, it's a thousand times better.

On a separate note, the keyboard isn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it's not as bad as I feared it would be. Definitely better than the Macbook Pro's. The trackpad works better than average, but nowhere near how nice the Macbook's trackpad is. As far as the RAM thing goes, if I hit a wall and need more RAM, I will buy a separate machine for that, maybe a T450P if they come out with one.

Like most of you, I'm sure, I struggled with configurations -- what I had to have and what I would love to have. I'm a long time subcompact Thinkpad user (My first Thinkpad was a 510 back in 1994). What was most important for me was small, lightweight, good typing experience, long battery life and FHD. I read/saw that the X1 Carbon's keyboard was not as comfortable due to thinness, and the size was a bit bigger than I wanted.

For me the x250 was the best solution to my problem of wants and needs.

Final note: I'm really impressed with the anti-glare FHD screen. It makes working and playing much more enjoyable.

 

I can do FHD on my Dell, but it starts to get uncomfortable after a while. With an inch and a half less diagonal, I wouldn't think the X250 to be any easier, though some do like the ramped up resolution.