x120e Owner's Thread

So what do owners think of the battery life? How long does it (e350, 6 cell) typically last? What tweaks are working (undervolting, power manager,..)?

 

2.5 to 3 hours in 3cell. 4.5 to 5 in 6 cell.

 

This is the ideal solution. Once you try to get heavy computing power into a laptop, it ceases to be a portable computer and becomes a desktop replacement. Give up CPU and you get light weight, incredible battery life in return.

A "little" 1080p editing is theoretically possible in a netbook. The only way to be sure you don't want to do this is to actually try it.

 

Not sure about the three-cell, but at least for note-taking and web browsing purposes on a mixture of level 3-6 brightness, I get 5.5-7 hours off the 6-cell, with wireless sometimes on and sometimes off.

 

Which is why I couldn't understand what was up. Machine came with Windows Home Premium 64, I removed it and did a clean install of Windows Ultimate 64. It had less lag time but I put that down to the clean install. I then followed a clean install guide for the Home Premium 64 and had it running for a few days followed by Windows Ultimate 64 again. I'm pretty sure its not in my mind. Even dragging the windows in W7 Ultimate seems to render better to my eye. Can't work it out. Anyway good news is my fan is much lower still thesedays.

 

Yup, I'm getting that with a 6200. It also happens with hibernate, although more rarely than with sleep.

I wonder if it's because of the modified BIOS or the card itself...

 

I have 6200N, and i do not encounter those issues (yet).. Interesting.. I will pay attention to this issue more and see if i can replicate it..

 

Did anyone notice their computer overheating with catalyst 11.4? I never had problems until I dl'd and installed 11.4. My x120e's fan was going in overdrive and it was overheating which it had never done. Then 11.5 came out, I installed that, and everything went back to normal...

 

I'm not having the problem with my N-6200. Are you using the latest drivers from Intel, and are you certain you're not using a defective or fake card?

 

So I've had the x120e for 2 months now.

I love:
Battery life (getting ~7 hours with six cell)
Build quality
Pointing device
Performance

I don't love
The screen



Is there any way I can put in a higher quality display? I don't care if it's glossy.

 

Screen definitely sucks. It's slightly less craptastic than the VAIO YB. On the YB, the screen is glossy, in addition to having poor viewing angles. Seriously, it's maddening. At least, I don't have to worry about stupid lights behind me on the X120e.

 

The screen really is terrible. My girlfriend always had to tilt the screen in order to see even when she is right next to me.

 

I'm getting eye strain from that blasted screen.

 

I don't think it's that bad. The viewing angles suck, but text is reasonably clear and the colors seem fine as well. It would be a pain with two people, but by myself it's fine. I use IPS monitors on my desktop, so it's not that I've never seen something better.

If you guys hate this horrible screen that gives you eyestrain and makes your life miserable, you could return it for an X220...

 

I agree with the loves and hates from the previous page. I would also add that I'm not in love the sleep mode. My atom based netbook could sleep for a long time without seeming to affect the battery. It seems like thing thing will chew through a lot of battery life while sleeping. I now use hybernate vs sleep so that if I close the computer with 50% charge in the morning I can expect near 50% charge in the evening vs 20%.

 

Id rather have the X1 to be honest!

 

Too bad the x220 cost twice as much The screen is fine when I'm using it. I just don't like the viewing angles

 

so it seems almost everyone agrees with me on the crappy screen.



is there anyway to change it?

 

Yeah, you can always replace the screen. But, you have to have a better screen to put in it, and at the 11.6" segment, there are no great screens--it's a generally low-price segment, with most of the machines designed to be portable secondary laptops. So, I highly doubt you'd be able to find a compatible screen that's significantly better than the stock panel.

 

Maybe I will look in to the DM1z or 1215b, people seem to like those screens. The DM1z supposedly has great speakers too, but the 1215b has trackpad issues. 1215b also comes with usb 3.0. I originally wanted the matte screen but if it's a pos and causes eye strain I will have to pass.

 

Really? From what I've read, the dm1z screen is on par with the 11.6" segment standard. Not any worse than normal, and not any better.

 

Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dm1-3020us Notebook AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350(1.6GHz) 11.6" 3GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm AMD Radeon HD 6310

Read the reviews, crisp clear bright screen is what they are saying. You guys on here are saying the x120e screen is crap and causes eye strain. The 1215b has a 12.1" screen which isn't much but every little bit helps. Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC 1215B-PU17-BK Black AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350 (1.60GHz) 12.1" 2GB Memory 320GB HDD Netbook

 

Overall, this is the best $450 notebook on the market. The only glaring fault is the screen, if there were a fault to pick out at all. The screen is no different than other crap screens in this segment of the market. You wouldn't want to upgrade the screen.

The whole point of this laptop is getting bang for the buck. This notebook isn't a Porsche. It's more like, wow, a Hyundai at THAT price? Totally worth it.

The screen sucks for black levels and viewing angles. Those are two things that I honestly don't care about that much on a netbook. I don't expect to get an IMAX experience and I don't expect to view my notebook at weird angles. I do expect it to stay on all day and not have to worry whether I'm going to scratch it.

 

Frankly, I can say the X120e's screen is crisp and bright as well--it's significantly brighter than my T500's display, and text on the X120e's display is crisp. But, color reproduction, viewing angles, and contrast leave much to be desired. The dm1z's screen has slightly better perceived contrast due to the glossy coating, but it's more or less the same experience as the X120e's display.

I'm not very familiar with the 1215b, but a 1366x768 11.6" display definitely doesn't give me eye strain.

 

Ok I understand where you guys are coming from, I've never used a premium screen on a laptop so I'm sure this will satisfy me as I'm not that picky. Kinda seems like if you had to pick one thing you would improve it would be the screen, but that is a general complaint for all laptops under 15" with low resolution and crappy displays lately. I will more than likely buy this unit and buy a decent 1080p hdmi monitor. Even the T420 guys with their upgraded 1600x900 screen are complaining about it being crap. For $450 it's hard to complain about the screen.

 

Anyone that can help?

 

This. Though now that it's all you've been told and hyped up about, I'm sure when and if you get this laptop, the first thing you're going to say is "THIS SCREEN SUCKS!"

Honestly, I think it's fine. It's OBVIOUSLY not a $3000 LCD panel, but its a godamned netbook and it works just FINE! Lol.

 

What kind of battery life do you guys get with the biggest possible battery on the x120e? And is there an Ontario/Zacate successor that will provide better battery life anytime soon?

 

One of the problems I had was the screen size itself and not just the quality. The small size on the sprites and fonts may be whats causing the eye strain. Lets face it this is currently the best netbook out there. The mediocre screen shouldnt put people off buying this. I really love mine. Everything else works perfectly. I simply adore typing on this. Its dead silent now and very snappy.

 

Yeah, best money spent ever. We're complaining about the screen because there isn't anything else to complain about. Like when you're forced to say something bad about it.

 

I'll say a few more things then.
1) It's not available in Europe, so i had to import it.
2) The location of the microphone was poorly chosen, when you're typing your hand covers the mic. I cannot understand why it's not next to the camera.
3) There is no fan control by default, so the fan isalways spinning, even when it does not need to be. Fortunately this can be solved with tpfancontrol.

But in all, you are absolutely right, this is laptop is excellent value for money.

 

Yes I'm complaining about the screen because there isn't anything else to complain about.

Lenovo built me the perfect laptop. It looks great, thin and light, built like a tank, fantastic keyboard, decent sound, great touchpad + amazing pointing device combo, great snappy performance, and on top of all of that it has amazing battery life too.

And then.... They gave us a cheap crappy screen. What is this, I don't even. I would've payed an extra $200 for a different and better screen.

The screen is it's Achilles heel.

 

I guess the question is if you know of a similarly priced laptop with a good screen? Is the DM1z good? I can tell you for sure that the YB screen sucks in a slightly different and slightly worse way.

 

Judging from the respective NBR reviews of the dm1z ( HP Pavilion dm1 Screen, Speakers, Keyboard and Touchpad) and x120e ( Lenovo ThinkPad X120e Review, the dm1z's screen has better contrast, 216:1 compared to the x120e's 117:1, but they seem to be in the same ballpark in terms of viewing angles.

In contrast (haha), the 11.6" Macbook Air's screen, while still having viewing angle problems, has a much better contrast ratio, about 700:1 ( Apple MacBook Air (11.6-inch) Review... but you can get 2 x120e's for the price of a single MBA.

 

The microphone placement isnt that bad. Here try this if you have the google Chrome browser:

Chaufr lets you shout searches, yell URLs at Chrome -- Engadget

 

i don't know of any similarly priced laptops with good screens. don't care for the dm1z. lol I'm just venting because lenovo worked so hard to make the x120e so great but then cheaped out on the screen.

I agree the x120e is the best 11.6" laptop out there. I'm just venting

 

I just got my x120e and I'm enjoying it so far, but I wanted to switch the end and del key as I remember reading it's fairly easy. I was able to switch them using sharpkeys but I can't change the function hotkeys on them. Is there another way of doing it?

 

Quick question,

When the and e-450 apu is released, could we put it in our thinkpads?

 

No - the CPU is soldered.

My guess is that putting a better screen on the x120e would inflate its cost to the point where no one would buy it.

 

Get the x220 then.

 

I just read about the turbo on E-450. It looks like perfection for a netbook. I could use just a tad more processing power and this would do it without sacrificing battery.

I did find a thing to complain about regarding my X120e, though. The volume is too low by default. Does anybody know of a way to set the gain higher?

 

Where did you get the whitelist-removed bios? I'm having a lot of trouble finding one.

 

seems like there's another thinkpad AMD coming soon. thinkpad e125. most probably will be replacing this x120e.

 

It's posted on Remove whitelist check / add ID's to break hardware restrictions mod requests. - Page 79

 

When will that be out? The lenovo deal is over and I can't find anyone who has the x120e in stock. When I finally find a computer I like I can't even get the thing. Not sure I can wait much longer, been without a computer way too long.

 

According to the Roadmap, the x120e is to last until the beginning of Q4.

ThinkPad Roadmap 2011: Full Disclosure

 

Agreed. Might just be a third GPU/CPU option, perhaps with a special name x125e.
That thing is much too new to pull it off the market already.

 

I'm looking to buy the x120e in the future and I was wondering if I could have some owners' input.

Is the screen better or just as good as the asus eee pc 1000H's screen or other matte screen netbooks? Not sure if anyone has one to compare with. Maybe I'm not that picky about screens but if it's as good as that one then I think I would be okay with it.

Is the x120e fast enough to run multiple microsoft programs like excel, word, and powerpoint at the same time? Also is it fast enough to run multiple browser windows?

I'm assuming it's fast enough...but I just wanted to make sure. I feel like my eee pc is slowing down on me, but it still works pretty well for what I need. I just would like something a little faster without lag and a laptop that plays HD video.

Thanks.

 

It looks like a replacement for the ThinkPad Edge 11 but with a matte screen. The ThinkPad Edge 11 is already available with both AMD and Intel processors. Definitely not part of the 'X' series. You can just make out the silver plastic trim surrounding the lid. Could be thinner but it's hard to tell from the distorted picture.

Lenovo ThinkPad E125 with AMD inside spotted at Computex | Laptopmix

 

A slick update that would take over its netbook neighbors:

Use whatever the fusion bump is, add msata to the wwan slot and a cheap IPS upgrade like the x220