how many of you purchased X220 for home use

i'm looking for a thin and light medium to high end notebook. the reviews X220s are getting are incredible. the thing looks so old-school (not a bad thing) and reserved but packed with features and well built. question is it just made for business or can also servers as a solid home pc. also, does it come with USB 3.0 port? i've read you have to get the i7 processor in order to get the USB 3.0, is this true?

 

It can be used for either. I use it for both work and home use, and it's a pleasure to use.

I think that is true.

 

Home use. It's awesome in every way and its specs surpass most of the bigger laptops (except possibly graphics, but I'm no PC gamer). I'm stuck with a latitude for work.. blegh

 

I use it for both home & office and it is all that I want in a light yet powerful laptop. Just have to link up to my monitor via displayport to DVI at home.

 

"also, does it come with USB 3.0 port? i've read you have to get the i7 processor in order to get the USB 3.0, is this true?"

This is true.

I am buying the X22o for leisure and work. I travel a lot and need a portable but powerful system.

 

I bought it for home and travel use, works great. As others mentioned above, the i7 is required for the usb3 support.

 

ThinkPads can be used for home use, I don't see the reason why not. And yes the only way to get USB 3.0 is to get the i7 processors but I do not recommend that right now as it has very bad throttling issues. Just google and you'll see all those hits.

What's wrong with Latitude (besides latest Sandy Bridge ones aesthetics, horrible).

 

Seriously, what do you do at home that would be more intensive or different than the office? This is a distinction without a difference methinks. Unless by either home or office you mean 'activities that require intense computation'
I certainly use mine in both 'places' (e.g. for business and pleasure)

 

I got it for home, work and travel use as well.. Travelling a lot by train in Europe, and this machine keeps on going and going.

Funny thing is that on my work, we use Apple Macs. I have one, but at some point I grabbed my X220 (which runs Linux Mint 11) because I was stressed and it runs faster. Turns out that I can apparently log in to the work-network drive & use all the printers at my work, so I never use the Mac anymore now. Hurray for linux. And the X220 of course

 

Both pretty soon.


I got it for the portability for sure as I am on the road 3+ weeks a month on average. With the docks available and with notebooks not being so underpowered/under spec'd anymore compared to average desktop systems, it will become my desktop as well very shortly. I already have the dock and all, just need to get around to moving every last bit of info I want to keep from the desktop before retiring it. Works out pretty well. Besides the simplicity of one machine vs keeping stuff spread across two and jockying stuff around back and forth, The X220 doesnt take up much room at all on the desk, just as quiet if not more so, and is exactly like using my normal desktop with my same ole 24" monitor, peripherals, etc. Probably uses significantly less power I'm sure as well. When it's time to go, simply pop it off the dock and stick it in the bag and thats it.

 

FWIW I plan on getting the same unit as a home/travel PC as its dimensions and power are just what I want as something to play with anywhere I go in the home or outside it.

Correct, however, there is a less costly option. The X220 is equipped with a express card slot and that gives you many additional options that you can add to your laptop that did not come with it ie:firewire, esata, etc. I am going to get the i5 version of the X220 and, so that it will also have USB 3.0, will also purchase this card

There are a number of options for the usb 3.0 expresscard, I like this one because it is supposed to fit flush with the laptop instead of sticking out.

As the X220 uses the 2.0 version of Expresscard the speed should still be much better than the stock USB 2.0

Have a Magical Day!

 

I am doing that 2 or 3 times a day. It's a beautiful thing!

 

I use it for both. and in regards to the expresscard you can also add an external GPU to it.

its a fantastic machine to pop off its dock and head home with or head to the airport with.

 

lack of entertainment features are my main concern. i know it's a business model, i have a Latitude e5420 from work to use for my job, so the X220 will solely be used for home and traveling. i just wish it comes with blu-ray drive, hdmi out and dedicated graphic card. with all these said, i'm still leaning toward the X220, as soon as i get my refund from my returned Dell XPS 17, i will pull the trigger. thanks for the replies.

 

HDMI is no problem, just get the DP to HDMI adaptor.
the integrated IGP is about the same as a gf9600 so not too bad, I actually hook a desktop GF460 to mine by expressport at my desk. and again Blu-ray is no problem .... get a cheap USB external or rip them to .mkv files

gotta remember its 12.5" and not a 17. besides the speed and bat life are worth it

 

As far as HDMI goes, you do have a displayport which is the same thing in a different format, as mentioned. Just get a cable or adapter. Bluray...you can go external or put one in the ultrabase if you dont want to get the normal docks. Plenty of ways to adapt this thing to be like a normal desktop for home use....then for on the go you have a small light laptop with great battery life vs lugging a monster 17" around.

 

I bought mine for home and travel. The X220 is my primary computer. Occasionally I use the desktop PC at home, but really not very much.

 

How did you confirm that the x220 uses expresscard 2.0? I've been looking everywhere for that information and have so far found nothing of significance!

 

X220 - Expresscard 2.0 Support / Full Super Speed... - Lenovo Community

Re: X220: Booting from Express Card SSD - Lenovo Community

 

Thanks for the links! This is awesome

 

Yeah......what he said.

 

I just got mine 2 days ago for home/college us. I was torn between it and a bigger more multimedia centered laptop because I watch a lot of movies mostly. I am really impressed and glad I went with the x220.

I was concerned about lack of HDMI as well, but just grab an adapter and it works perfectly (got one made by star tech from amazon). The dedicated volume and mute keys are great for movie watching as well. With the IPS screen, I actually watched a few things on the x220 on my lap instead of streaming to my 32" HDTV because it looked so nice. The matte screen I believe has reduced my eye strain headaches as well. The integrated card does just fine for example displaying a 1080p avatar rip onto my tv. As far as gaming, you could always do an egpu setup at some point like others mentioned.

I was worried it would be too small coming from a 15.5" but honestly it is perfect for me. The unit is actually bigger than I expected, which is a good thing. Battery life with the 6 cell is awesome, I can watch several movies at full brightness before it dies.

For more perspective, I had a vaio z for a few weeks and returned it some months ago because it was too flimsy. The x220, with the 6-cell, weighs a bit more than the vaio which is good for me, and the build quality is much much better. And the fan, which was waay too loud on the vaio is quiet for me.

And I really like the look of the machine. Some people say its old school and dated or whatever, but I always preferred understated elegance and imo this is classy in a utilitarian kind of way. All in all I'm glad I went with the thinkpad. The solidity, screen, keyboard and battery life more than make up for not having usb 3, dedicated graphics and other such things. Most of which can be worked around with adapters etc. Hope this helps!

Also, I was planning on picking up an external monitor because I just assumed I would have to and would not feel comfortable working on this thing for say, a few hours typing a paper. I don't feel like I'm going to have to do that. I was used to a 15" of the same resolution though, so keep that in mind. This screen doesn't feel any smaller to me than any other 13.3" laptop I've used. The IPS option certainly doesn't hurt usability either. I have the lid ALL the way flat typing this and can see everything just fine. I only did it just now for the coolness factor =)