* x220 vs x230 vs x1 vs Macbook Air vs Zenbook * Help!

I try to not make help threads but I think that the best way to help with my situation/dilemma is to just ask people who own the product.

I'm looking to replace my white macbook 2010. I loved it however, it had 2 traits I couldn't deal with. Too heavy. Weighed 4.7 lbs. And it ran way too hot. I had to use a 3rd party fan controller to run the fan RPM at near max so it would stay below 65-70 degrees Celsius. Also made it loud.


I've been looking into buying a used x220, x230, x1, or macbook air. All of these are similar in terms of size and processors, ram etc. so please disregard the common denominators. The things I absolutely need:

1) GREAT display. Or at least not crap. I swore to never buy a PC again when i bought my macbook because my HPs, Dells, and previous Thinkpads' displays were so bad compared to the Apple. But a lot has changed.
With the x220 and x230, Asus Zenbook Prime offering IPS displays, it seems like they are now comparable (for me) to the macbook air or even better.

2) GREAT battery life. I can't stand bad battery life. I need my laptop to last. Which is why I posted in the Lenovo forum because I am heavily leaning towards buying the x220 due to battery life and IPS display option.
Looking to hear from someone who has owned a Macbook Air! Can you please tell me how the x220 with IPS display compares in terms of battery life? If you can please be detailed with what processor and year you have and what size screen MBA. I have owned the 2010 13" MBA and the 2010 11" MBA and the battery life on the 13" MBA was reasonable. It was good. The 11" was not that great. It's rated at 5hours and like 1.5-2 hours if you're watching netflix or youtube videos. That is seriously crap battery life for me.

If the x220 or x230 with i5 or i7 processors can last longer than the 13" Macbook Air than I will most likely be sold on that! I'll kiss the MBA good bye



Everything else is pretty much equal among ultrabooks nowadays. I've owned a Thinkpad before and liked the Trackpoint so I won't be too sad about losing the Macbook's awesome trackpad. It would help to hear from someone who has owned a Macbook Air AND one of the ultrabooks above so I can have an idea of how they compare in terms of display and battery life.



Others:

Zenbook is an option. but given that it has worse battery life (from reviews, could be wrong) than the 13" Macbook Air, I would rather just buy the 13" MBA if it came down to it.

X1 - no IPS display. Not sure how bad the display is compared to an IPS display on the x220/x230. Not sure how good the battery life is either. Could buy one of these for $500 on ebay. Cheaper.
If the battery life and display differences between the x220 and the x1 is not that big, the x1 will save me a good $200-300 and that's nothing to scoff at. I'm broke! Buying used when I can.


X1 carbon - not even an option cause it costs like $1500 but I might be able to score one less used. would still like to know how the battery life and display compares on this one.

Any input appreciated. Thanks.:thumbsup:

 

The LCD quality wise is better on the X230 in my opinion, but Apple does give you more vertical pixels, which will sway some. Both have high contrast, but the Air doesn't have the angles and it's a bit washed out at higher brightness levels. You can read the Air vs X220 review here if you want more details. Anywhere it says X220 you may insert X230 as they're almost the same machine except for the CPU and GPU. To sum it up, the Air is thinner and offers a higher resolution screen, but the X230 is a more versatile machine.

If you're looking for a PC like MBA the Samsung Series 9 might be worth a look and it's got a better screen than the Air.

I would describe the X1 Carbon as very Air like, but with a bigger screen and a trackpoint. They're eerily similar. The X1 screen is about the same as the Air too. As always with Lenovo if you can wait for coupons, you'll do better price wise. Lenovo was in fact selling the X1 Carbon on the release day for $999 with coupons.

 

Thanks for the response. In that case, if it came down to it, I might go with an used x220 over a x230 if they are the same except the generation of processor and graphics. I have a desktop for gaming and heavy duty stuff so could save money by going sandy bridge. The x1 I was considering was the previous generation. The carbon is way too expensive I think but it's nice to dream.

I'll have to check out the series 9, haven't heard of it. If the battery life is good, then it's definitely a contender.

PS. you're comparing the x230 with an IPS option with a macbook air right? not that standard TN panel?

Thanks for the link!

 

I second with ZaZ, a x220 with IPS probably will provide the most bang for the buck. Sure you'll lose some portability compare to the MBA but its IPS screen is great, better than my MBP's crappy TN panel. The Samsung Series 9 is considered the best ultrabook out there, it's a little pricier but it'll give MBA a run for its money. Lenovo Outlet is a great place to search for refurbished x220, or even x230 which has started popping up there in recent days. If you are persistent you can score a Sandy i5 w/ IPS for less than $600, and that's with 1 year warranty too.

 

Man this really helped me out. Much thanks. I was aware of Lenovo Outlet but didn't check there as it slipped my mind. I was refreshing ebay and craigslist for all of models to see if I can get a deal and just go with the one with the best bang for buck. Well you were right about the x220 being the best value. The Samsung Series 9 is way too new to be cheap and it looks amazing with excellent battery life. Way out of my price range.

Anyway, I got lucky and snatched this x220 off of Lenovo Outlet:

i5-2540m @ 2.6ghz
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Intel HD Graphics 3000
4gb RAM
12.5" HD IPS Premium Display
160gb SSD
9 cell battery
Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMax 6250
Bluetooth
1 year warranty

Got the last one and got 10% off on the price for asking a rep. Hopefully refurbs from Lenovos are good quality.

 

Glad I can help, Lenovo normally swap on a brand new keyboard, hard drive, and battery when they refurbish a laptop. I'm curious how much did you pay for that x220?

 

It came out to $560 before taxes and fees, $610 out the door. Got real lucky esp with the SSD.

 

WOW. That's a ridiculous price. I ordered my X220 during their Labor day sale and it was $579 to start for i5/4GB/320GB 6 cell and IPS. I just received my comp yesterday and just installed a mSATA SSD and was happy until I read this thread.

 

Haha yeah i got super lucky. I knew immediately i had to buy it even if i was on the fence about which one to get.

 

Does the x220 take 7mm or 9mm drives? I'm looking to replace the HDD with an SSD

Also, it is a piece of artwork. Absolutely beautiful design. Minimalistic and sleek, surprisingly thin as well despite the 9-cell battery. I ordered mine refurb as well with an i3, IPS panel and 6GB of RAM for $540-ish prior to taxes. I actually missed the deal above on the i5 so I'm assuming you were the one that bought it I had it in my cart and went to check out and it disappeared. Haha.

I haven't yet run the rounds with stability testing yet. Planning on doing memtest86 overnight and a few runs of LinPack and Prime95 mixed loads to see how it fairs. It booted up well and though it was refurb it looks absolutely brand new. I've heard very good things about their factory in South Carolina with respect to swapping out parts and their overall tuning. My first impression is that the refurb looks new and not refurb

 

7mm. I heard that Samsung 830 is pretty nice SSD.....

 

You might want to consider a mSATA SSD instead of 2.5in SSD. I just installed a 128GB Crucial m4 and couldnt be happier having it paired up with my HDD for storage. But if you're looking a 2.5in SSD then I've heard good things about the Samsung 830. I'll also confirm your sentiments about the quality of their refurbs. If it weren't for the refurbed sticker I'd have no clue.

 

I can't wait to get it but freaking Lenovo will not update order status. I ordered yesterday afternoon so it's been well over 24 hours but the order status is unavailable. I also ordered a 2nd laptop from lenovo which was supposed to ship today and got changed to tomorrow. Kind of not expecting to receive them at all or wondering if they'll send me the wrong one.

Mrpelo and sanjaygolf, when did you order your refurbs? Did they send you any notification when they shipped it and if so, when did they ship it out?

 

Back in the day people used to wait six months or longer for certain configurations. 24 hours doesn't seem too bad.

 

I ordered mine over the weekend. They sent me a shipping update on Monday and I received it yesterday evening.

 

I ordered mine on the friday before labor day. On the order status it originally said it would ship out 9/4 but when that came to pass I called and they said some part was missing and it was still "in production". They said they'd email me when it shipped but I never received anything. It ended up shipping on 9/6 but I didn't get it till this monday 9/10 and that was with expedited shipping.

 

How do you guys find these deals? I just looked at their outlet. The refurbished X220s cost more than a new X230. Interestingly a lot of them have 8GB of rams in them. They have a few X120e for over $500. I paid $370 for a new one 3 years ago.

 

agree.... not an attack on the poster, but it's interesting to observe how society has changed - everything is expected to be finished yesterday

 

Patience is required. Be ready to move when prices are low.

 

Did you sort by price? I'm seeing a X220 for $510

 

No offense taken but it's always relative. When society moves at a fast pace, you are required to keep up. I need this laptop, well I needed it like yesterday. So when companies take orders and don't fulfill in a timely manner or even worse, keep pushing back your shipping date (which happened to me again today lol) it's really frustrating. If the norm was 6 months or if I expected to wait 6 months, there'd be no complaining on my part.

 

I just ordered a 64GB Crucial m4 mSATA SSD. I considered buying the 128GB version but I'm only going to run Linux on the mSATA and a few programs so that much space really isn't required. I'm going to take the extra money and buy a 256GB Crucial m4 7mm SSD in about a month or so to replace the platter HDD and use that for win7 and storage.

The products in the lenovo outlet seem to update about twice a week from what I've gathered. Right now the list is pretty weak but if you're prudent in your search you can certainly find some very good deals on the refurb X-series laptops for not much money at all. X220s for ~$540-$560 with i5's and an IPS screen are pretty common. I received mine from as a refurb from the outlet and it looks brand new so I wouldn't have any reservations in buying from their outlet again so long as it's not a scratch & dent

 

I think it updates on a rolling basis. I've been refreshing every few hours just to see what's going on and since I placed my order, I've seen more computers come in. Right now there's a x220 with ips display and an i7 processor for $607, which comes out to $500something with the coupon codes.
They also have a brand new (not refurb) x230 with i5 processor, ips display for $628. Someone snatch that up!

 

There's a slight catch with refurbished machines though and that is the lack of International Warranty Coverage (for those who might be concerned). See Lenovo's International Warranty Service Terms And Conditions.

 

I believe all machines come with a one year warranty and the warranty cannot be upgraded via normal means. This is regardless of what the original warranty was, which led to some confusion with people seeing a three warranty when they looked it up because there's a lag in the warranty database update. You can purchase a post warranty extension for any ThinkPad purchased in the outlet, but it's expensive, like $170 for one year.

 

I just want to add that though officially the X220/X230 will only take 7mm drives, it can easily be made to accept standard 9.5mm drives by filing down the tabs that are needed to keep the door in with 7mm drives. The process is very simple - all you really need is a nail file, not even a drill with a gritty aluminum bit...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/583998-9-5mm-hdd-t420s-x1-x220.html

 

Well, unless you're broke and receive a used 9mm SSD from your generous brother, why go through the "nail file" acrobatics?

Look at the low prices of SSDs these days and order a 7mm SSD.

(That post by vinuneuro was over a year ago when choices were limited.)

 

Where do you get the coupon codes? Thanks.

 

"EMAIL10" is a standard 10% off coupon code that's valid all year around.

 

Yep, EMAIL10. Looks like those configs are gone though.

 

Thanks for the coupon code info. Is that coupon code good on the B&N website also? Thanks.

 

Received my outlet x220 yesterday. Very happy with it. SSD is great, IPS display looks awesome, battery life is just ridiculous. The trackpad sucks which is my one complaint about the laptop but I knew that buying it. And the speakers are the worst thing I've ever heard but I use earphones most of the time or my desktop for quality sound. Overall, very satisfied. Good stuff.