x301 questions

is the working battery life really 4 hours and 50minutes like stated in the review here? (just need a few comments on this) because the person selling his to me says it's about 3hours. i know it varies with use, but still, a few comments would be welcome, maybe a comparison to the x200, cause i know that one's enough battery time for me.

i'm talking abt 6 cell.

is the 1.4ghz dual core powerful enough to run 1080p h264 videos?

okay this might sound silly. but are the processors upgradeable at a later time like the sdd/ram?

lastly, if i can get this, used, 3 months old, 64gb ssd, 1.4ghz cpu, 3gb
at the same price as a brand new x200 with 320gb hdd, t9550 (2.66ghz),4gb ram, would it be considered a good deal?

sorry but i need the answers fast cus i'm dealing tmr!

regards,
howe

 

I did that review. Note that it was with a 6-cell battery -- you can get a 3-cell or 6-cell, so check on which one it's configured with. The 4 hours and 50 minutes is the absolute max you'll get. It was idling and nothing being done, so realistically you'll probably get 3.5 hours in use or 3 hours under intense usage.

The processor is not upgradeable. RAM and storage are. You will be fine to run 1080p video.

It sounds like a good deal if the X301 is in decent shape. Check on the warranty length, that's important, if it's 1-year I'd negotiate the price lower. Check the Lenovo outlet to see what prices of used X301 machines are there to get a better idea on the deal you are getting.

 

hey thanks alot for the quick reply.

it is a 6cell that comes with the laptop. he says the laptop is in perfect condition. i will be inspecting it before purchase anyway, since i live in sunny Singapore, and can meet him face to face to deal.

the warranty's 3 years, so 2 3/4 years left.

what kind of accessories other than the charger does the package normally come with. i'm only getting the set and the charger, so if there's anything important missing it'd be nice to know.

anyone else like to add a comment on whether they think it's a good deal is welcome! =]

 

I just got an x301 from the Lenovo outlet and they accidentally gave me the 6-cell regular battery and the 3-cell bay battery - I get probably 6-8 hours under normal use. I love the battery life so much that I decided not to sacrifice the bay battery for an internal optical drive - external slim drive for 1/3 of the price off Newegg, baby!

With just the 6-cell, you could probably hit your 4hr50min mark on minimum brightness and wireless radios off, if possible.

 

i've read that the with the ultra bay 3 cell though, it gets drained completely before it moves on to the 6cell, isn't that not so good for the battery in the long run?

also, issit alright to leave the batteries inside on AC connection even after they've been fully charged?

 

Yes, that's true, and that's probably the only reason I have not yet swapped out my DVD drive for an extra battery.

It's okay, if you have a charge threshold set at, for example, 95%. Otherwise, topping off the battery to 100% is not the best idea. Take a look at this guide for in-detail information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846

 

Realistic battery life will vary heavily with usage. The x301 6 cell is rated at 43.2 WHr (10.8V * 4.0 Ah) and this number divided by the watts consumed with your usage will determine your battery life.

Under ideal conditions (low brightness, wireless off, typing or reading a document) I would expect the x301 to be right around 6.0 watts (same as my x200T). Playback of video content will likely be 10-13 watts depending on brightness and the complexity of the content (higher usage for HD video). Web browsing tends to be similar to video playback for energy consumption. These usage patterns equate to a realistic range between 3.0 and 6.0 hours depending on activity.

As to your other questions:

The 1.4GHz CPU may have trouble decoding 1080P video on its own (especially at high bitrates). However, the x4500MHD GPU in the x301 is able to accelerate decoding of h264 and VC-1 video and as long as your content is supported by the GPU, playback of 1080P content is possible with a light CPU load. 720p video should be possible even without acceleration.

The CPU in the x301 is soldered in place. As such, it is not upgradeable.

You will have to determine the value proposition yourself. If you place a premium on a thin machine, a 13.3" WXGA+ LED display, and/or an optical drive then yes the x301 can be a good deal. However, if your top concerns are CPU performance, docking station support, and/or expandability (e.g. ExpressCard, SDHC reader, 2.5" SATA bay, etc.) then the x200(s) is probably a better choice.

 

i've gotten the x301 already. this is my first thinkpad, and the form factor's great so far. i haven't had the chance to get to know it that well yet.

 

is backing up the recovery media important? is it downloadable from somewhere at later on? i've deleted the recovery partitions and installed a fresh windows 7

 

If your hard drive crashes then yes. You cannot download them. Lenovo will sell you a set for $45.

 

is the software tied to each individual computer, or can i use the media recovery discs from someone else's thinkpad to recover my own?

also, is there any way to reduce CPU load for web videos? i can play 1080p fine with GPU acceleration, but I don't know how to make the same thing work for flash player videos, and as a result, the CPU shoots up pretty quick when playing higher quality vids.

 

I believe the recovery disks for any x301 should work. However, you should probably back up your activation information to a file so that you can use your license (check the clean install guide for details).


Sadly, I do not know of any way to reduce the CPU load for web videos. Flash does not properly support DXVA and as such, the decoding is almost completely CPU bound. This is one of the many reasons I hate, and block, flash.

 

they have to be x301 recovery disks though? do you think there'll be any chance that the recovery disks from another thinkpad might work? i don't know anyone else near me who has an x301, but i know of a few with x200 and T400.

that just won't do. i rely on flash for a multitude of reasons. an overwhelming majority of web-based video is flash anyway, blocking it would be like blocking streaming video. i'll just have to find a way to download and play the videos rather than stream them.