x100e impressions (no new info)

I had posted here a little while ago because I had some logistics problems with the Lenovo outlet, and I wanted to post my impressions of the actual machine.

I had previously ordered the L335 model with 2gb and Windows 7 Home from Amazon for about $556 a few weeks ago. Then a few days later I saw a sale on the Outlet for a refurbished machine with the L625 and Bluetooth for only $370 + $20 tax. I was able to return the x100e to Amazon and just pay the return shipping.

Anyway, impressions.

Pros:

Build quality seems very good
Trackpoint is awesome
Keyboard is excellent... very comfortable
Looks very professional
Charger is pretty small

Cons:

Not the fastest machine (added 2gb and now it's a little better)
Heat from fan
Battery life, especially with battery size and weight
No HDMI / Displayport
LCD is one of the worst I've used

So, my conclusion is this machine is excellent for what I wanted it for.... Internet surfing and copying pictures from my digital camera. I was already aware of all of the cons listed, EXCEPT how low quality the LCD appears to be. It appears washed out and the colors are very poor. I don't expect an IPS panel, but I was hoping for the same quality as the Acer AS1410 I purchased for $450 new about a year ago.

I will be waiting to see what they do with this model. I'd definitely be interested in one with a better LCD and an Intel processor. While all-in-all I think this machine is worth the $560 I originally spent, I think I would have sold it or returned it. At $400, I am very pleased and this is my new travel machine. (One last note: I really wish they had used the rubberized paint.)

 

i haven't had an X100e on my desk for nearly six months but do recall the display getting better with some adjustments in the ATI control panel.   no, it's not IPS, but it can be made to be rather good after some of the contrast harshness is pulled out.

it's the same story with the X300/X301.   slight adjustments to gamma, contrast, and color can make all the difference.

glad to hear you're happy with the system overall.   it's a great little machine and (in my humble opinion) quite underrated.

 

Thanks, Erik, I appreciate all of your help.

I was hoping adjustments could be made to improve the LCD and was Googling for it last night.

I'll keep looking!

 

I had been using it on battery, and noticed while using it with the power cable the screen looks a little better!

Then I found this on the Lenovo forums, which I will try tonight:

One more pro to add: Easily accessible hard drive and memory.

 

I actually love the screen the way it is without any tweaks, the matte screen is awesome in my POV. Its pretty clear to look at.

Battery life is hit or miss, granted its not the best, but for me,i cant complain about 4 hours or so.

Heat is the only real con for me, this thing can get quite hot when plugged in running a heavy load. When its on battery running at half speed, it runs cooler. Even at half speed, it seems pretty speedy. This processor at 800 mhz seems quite faster than a 1.6 ghz atom.

You can run some older games on it,when I really like. I can even run MW2 on low settings pretty smootly. Then flip it over and fry a burger!

Its why I bought this over the Intel solutions. ATI IGP > Intel IGP.

 

Small update!

I did the ATI trick (turning off Vari-Bright) and that helped quite a bit! The LCD looks much better.

Then I upgraded to Pro 64bit so I now have 3.75GB available (256 is used for the video I believe) and I put in a 7200rpm hard drive. Machine is definitely running faster with the extra ram and better hard drive.

I remove my con about the LCD, but reemphasize the machine heat. The bottom of this thing gets HOT. Also, the keyboard / trackpoint is awesome. Best keyboard I've used in a long time, even on much more expensive laptops.

A lot of the included Thinkpad tools are good, but what is up with the battery meter? It'll go from 2 hours to an hour to 3 hours to 40 minutes.. I mean, I know predicting battery life based on usage isn't easy but it's all over the map.

 

bleclair, Thank you a ton for the info on the screen controls, it completely changes the screen. Before it was like looking through a screen door.

 

I removed all that bloatware from mine, I still need to do a fresh install with 64 bit tho

I'm starting to like my minimalist look anyway,with having no desktop icons,and the small windows default wireless,battery and volume meter icons by my clock. The big ones were nice,but I dont like the bloatware,and I especially dont like 3rd party wireless managers.

I'm also using Circle Dock,works pretty good when bound to the 3 finger press app launcher on the touchpad

 

how noisy is this machine. just out of curiosity.

 

the fan is pretty quiet on full speed, and my HDD (not stock model) makes some noises when it first turns on that the stock one didnt, its still pretty quiet though

The heat is a more prominent issue for sure.

But hell,I played Call of Duty 4 single player yesterday for 2 hours straight and it was surprisingly not as hot as I thought it would be, the fan was pulling out the air for sure though

 

I'm about to jump on one of these but, I have one concern which is battery life. I've read of them being successfully under-volted by a small margin which should help heat and battery life a bit.

I had no idea it was powerful enough to play new games like COD4. That's pretty damn impressive for such a small device.

Thanks for the mini review.

 

If you are in the USA or you know someone in the USA who can get it for you, they are ~$350 in the Lenovo Outlet right now. Some of them brand new.

 

Keep in mind that is bare minimum settings with 800x480 res,but it DOES play the game,and pretty smoothly,it does hang at times, but its definitely a smooth experience over all.

There dosent seem to be much of a difference with Modern Warfare 2 either,both games are rather close in terms of graphics,and it seems to play equally on it as well.

I'm installing W@W at the moment, I think it actually needs more GPU than either of the other Modern Warfare games. And HDD space for that matter,the patches are damn near more than the game install itself.