
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review - mcone
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/7/16105800/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-review-ultraportable-laptop
======
Harkins
Look hard at the review sites like the Better Business Bureau before you buy a
Lenovo: [https://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/business-
reviews/computer...](https://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/business-
reviews/computers-wholesale-and-manufacturers/lenovo-in-morrisville-
nc-90064256)

I bought a 3rd gen X1 Carbon. Three weeks out of warranty, the display stopped
working. The repair took five weeks and they put in the wrong parts,
downgrading the CPU and RAM. it took three more weeks for them to even ship a
new replacement. On every single interaction I was told something false about
the repair process, timeline, shipping, etc - seriously, I kept a log. Every
department pointed fingers at every other department, no one (even the
"Executive Support" I was escalated to) even claimed to have comprehensive
knowledge, let alone actually took responsibility for the process.

Read the reviews. My experience wasn't unusual. Would having no laptop for
nine weeks inconvenience you?

~~~
tumba
I'll just offer a contrary anecdote. A few months ago, I had a catastrophic
failure of my X260 failure (hard crash--would not power up) while on site for
a client in a manufacturing facility on the south side of Chicago. I called
support and within 3 hours, a tech was on site with a comprehensive set of
tools and parts. The technician had been repairing ThinkPads since the late
1990s and still wore his original IBM badge along with his newer one. He ended
up nearly completely disassembling and re-assembling my machine in the
temporary cubical I was sitting in to replace the motherboard, but was gone
within two hours and the machine has worked fine ever since.

I'm sure service varies, but I always purchase the same day, onsite, four hour
warranty option and try to be a little savvy about who the contracted service
firm is. You can use Lenovo's website to find the certified repair firms and
suggest that your ticket be dispatched to one you want.

I have been buying a new ThinkPad every couple years for about 15 years. I
have ambivalent feelings about the newest generations, but still find them to
be the most ergonomic and comfortable option for me (TrackPoint, keyboard
quality, matte display, extended battery options).

~~~
Harkins
Thanks for sharing your story. I wasn't aware of the possibility of buying a
separate service contract from an outside firm. I'll include it in my
consideration the next time I buy a laptop, along with my frustratingly-earned
knowledge of Lenovo's party service.

------
pedrocr
I recommend the T460s instead to anyone considering the X1. Very similar form
factor and specs but the RAM and SSD are not soldered on so it's much more
future proof. I run mine with 20GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD and I don't think you
can even get that in the X1. It also has a better set of connectors, including
an Ethernet port. Linux runs very well in it but I assume the X1 is similar.

~~~
om42
I was torn between the T470 series and the X1 a few weeks back. I ended up
getting the X1 and have been liking it so far. Got it with 16 GB RAM and the
upgraded screen. Personally the screen was enough for me to chose the X1 over
the T4xx series. Also the SSD is not soldered in and can be replaced, the RAM
is indeed soldered in. Linux does run very well on it, didn't have any
problems out of the box.

Edit: Although I wouldn't mind the T470 since one of my previous laptops was a
T430 and I love the accessibility of that series.

~~~
pedrocr
I have my T460s with the 2560x1440 screen. It's indeed great and I assume it's
the same panel you get on the X1.

~~~
lallysingh
The X1 is the only one with OLED, isn't it?

~~~
WizzleKake
You're thinking of X1 Yoga

------
artursapek
This is my main dev machine, although I bought the 4th gen (right before they
retired it last Fall). It's a beautiful dev machine as soon as you put Linux
on it. I have the highest end specs and it runs really smooth. And as this
article explains, the build quality is top notch. Highly recommended laptop.

~~~
lj3
Have you had any issues with the trackpad? I have a Lenovo w530 and the
trackpad is junk. The texture completely rubbed off with a few months of heavy
use. The scrolling behavior is erratic on both Ubuntu 17.04 and Windows 10.
It's probably the biggest factor in determining whether I buy another Thinkpad
or go back to Apple.

~~~
sevagh
I don't enjoy the ThinkPad trackpad experience in Linux. When I type my sweaty
palms touch it, and it never feels great.

My (drastic) solution was to disable the trackpad and fully commit to a
keyboard-based workflow (i3wm, tmux, emacs/vim, cvim on Chrome) with
occasional usage of the trackpoint.

------
tannhaeuser
Looking forward to the ThinkPad Retro ([http://blog.lenovo.com/en/blog/retro-
thinkpad-its-alive/](http://blog.lenovo.com/en/blog/retro-thinkpad-its-
alive/))

~~~
4ad
Me too!

Unfortunately it was confirmed it's not 4:3, and I think it's very unlikely to
be 16:10 instead of 16:9, but I still hope it will be good.

~~~
the_stc
If we are lucky they will go with 3:2.

------
shimon
For anyone shopping for a good deal: The Lenovo Outlet sells refurbished
products for a great discount. They often get inventory in bursts, so if you
want a good deal figure out your search criteria and check repeatedly. I got a
T460s with great specs for around $800 a few months ago.

[http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus](http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus)

------
fumar
I recently made the switch from Surface Pro 4 to a ThinkPad 370 (like a
smaller X1 Yoga). I was close to pulling the trigger on the X1 Carbon, but
wanted a touch screen. Before the Surface, I had MacBooks and iMacs. Biggest
takeaway, I love the keyboard and the TrackPoint. I was concerned about going
from a high DPI screen to HD, but after a week my eyes adjusted. I will take
7ish hour battery over the Surface's 3-4.

Build quality is spot-on, no issues thus far. Having 2 USB ports and 1 USB C
(thunderbolt) is clutch. I use the thunderbolt port to hook up an eGPU with
1070 GTX card. I can finally play some games and edit video.

~~~
tertius
Care to share whet eGPU solution you're using?

~~~
fumar
Akito Node with a MSI GTX 1070. Everything worked out of the box after
installing Nvidia drivers.

------
4ad
Worse pixel density than a Macbook and the screen is 16:9 instead of 16:10,
giving me less real vertical real screen estate than a 13 inch Macbook.

I really, really, really want a new ThinkPad, but they simply cannot compete
with Macbooks. For the record, I am a huge ThinkPad fan, I count 14 thinkpads
around me, the most recent one I have being X240. For me, the epitome was
X61T. I still have two of those in mint condition. But today, when I buy a
laptop it will be a MacBook.

------
jpalomaki
After lots of thinking I eventually went with T470. The reasons: 32GB of
memory, dual battery configuration (possible to swap battery while running).

Drawbacks with my choice are at least the size, probably not so good display
and just PCIe x2 for the SSD.

There are small annoyances. The software-hardware integration is not on the
level where it should be. Pretty much out of the box and for example sleep
does not always work - sometimes when waking up all apps are gone. Windows 10
install is not clean, there's Lenovo and Intel stuff hanging there. I dislike
for example the Intel popups that I get when changing WLAN. Yes, it is
possible to clean up these, but I'd rather not spend time on that. The build
in LTE feels a bit unrealiable, it is not there always when computer wakes up
and sometimes I'm not able to get connection. Also Lenovo does not provide 1TB
SSD that would be compatible with Microsoft eDrive specs, which allow
Bitlocker to offload encryption to SSD (which is anyways doing it).

------
DerfNet
nice to see a modern thinkpad getting a positive review. my T420 isn't going
to live forever.

~~~
tertius
The T440p is waiting for you...

~~~
terminalcommand
I still rock an X201 :)

Arch Linux + Gnome 3 + SSD everything feels instantenous.

Only thing lacking is the slugishness if I want to convert an h265 video. But
that's understandable.

Battery still lasts whole day (9 cell battery at 68% health).

~~~
tertius
One thing about the T440p... You can install the i7-4900MQ in it.

That should help with the conversion...

[https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4900M...](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4900MQ+%40+2.80GHz)

------
reza_n
I bought the 2nd gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon (20A7) back in 2014. Been rock solid
to this day and not a single complaint. This is my main dev machine. Ive been
running Ubuntu since I got it, so the 8GB of RAM has been more than enough. No
driver issues or anything, high density screen has been great, CPU is fast
(Intel Core i7 dual core), and battery life is still excellent. Even have the
finger print reader working :)

~~~
arketyp
You know, I'm even fond of the quirky keyboard layout, in the end. I will
dearly be missing the backspace/delete combo once I upgrade.

------
strgrd
Looks good on paper, and surprisingly bloat-free stock OS (just the usual
Windows 10 crapware), but even with the highest bin kit, my Carbon Gen5 gets
hot to the point of being uncomfortable to handle, and starts stuttering with
just 5-6 Chrome tabs open. It can play Starcraft 2 for 10-15 minutes (just
long enough to run a benchmark!), and then just starts giving up.

~~~
chao-
_> starts stuttering with just 5-6 Chrome tabs open._

I have a 3rd Gen, and have several dozen tabs open right now, with no issues,
stutter or otherwise. One is playing a video, quite a few are also larger
page/webapps (e.g. Gmail, Trello, Github in a large PR). I am have the 1440p
version, and am plugged into an external monitor that is at 1440p, which
should be further taxing the integrated graphics, but it's not showing. I
can't imagine you're coming close to hitting any memory limits with just five
or six tabs, so presumably something compute related?

What five to six tabs cause stuttering?

~~~
strgrd
I'm guessing you didn't make the mistake of paying more for a much hotter
CPU...

~~~
chao-
Your guess is incorrect. I have the most expensive available from that lineup
at the time of purchase. I might be mis-remembering but I recall there being
two i7 offerings (plus an i5 version) and I shelled out for the more expensive
one.

------
YorickPeterse
I've been using an X1 (3rd gen with the 4K display) for about 2 years now I
think, and it's a great laptop for Linux. A full charge will last around 8
hours, maybe 9 or 10 if you turn of Chromium and WiFi (this all depends a bit
on what you end up doing).

My only complaint is that I had my display replaced 3 (or maybe already 4)
times either due to dead pixels, or these white smudges on the screen (these
appear to be caused by damage to the LCD). These smudges in particular keep
popping up and aren't too uncommon amongst other users either. There's a new
one since I last had my screen replaced, but it's fortunately only visible
when looking down on the laptop from the top (even then it's hard to see).

~~~
girzel
I've got the most recent generation, and in addition to killer battery life,
the battery charge times are incredible. I basically don't have to think about
it -- plugging it in while I'm in the shower gives it enough charge to last
the day. Seems to charge about three times faster than my phone...

------
callahad
Extremely happy with my current generation X1C running Fedora. The selection
of ports hit a sweet spot for me: two full-size USB, two Thunderbolt 3, and
full-size HDMI. After years with Macs, it's wonderful to finally be free from
dongles.

~~~
bdcravens
I didn't require a dongle until the latest generation.

~~~
callahad
With my Macbook Air, I needed a Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.

With my Retina Macbook Pro I also picked up a Nexus 5X, so I needed a USB-C to
USB-A adapter.

With my wife's Touchbar Macbook Pro I need a USB-C to USB-A adapter _and_ a
USB-C to HDMI adapter.

Finally, with the X1C, I need none of these.

I have no doubt that USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 are the future, but as a transition
laptop, I couldn't be happier.

------
HankB99
I wonder if they really did get the hinge right. The reason I ask is that I
just replaced the wife's laptop because the hinges were stiff enough to beak
the case around them (after years of use.) That was an economy model that we
purchased off lease so it didn't sting too badly. The housing on my Y50 is
cracked around the hinges. I need to open it up to clean out the dust but I'm
afraid to do so.

My wife's laptop was replaced with an Acer. If I were to replace mine today it
would probably be with a Dell XPS 15. Only time will tell if these are any
better.

~~~
xorblurb
I replaced my Thinkpad by an XPS15 with a small fear that I would regret the
Thinkpad, and I absolutely not. Under Windows, the Dell software is far better
than the one of Lenovo (far less bloated, and far more discret).

I thought that I would regret the Thinkpad keyboard, but the keyboard of the
XPS is actually not bad at all (well, the Thinkpad one better, but the XPS is
still largely ok for me).

The only thing that I clearly regret are the lack of dedicated Page-up/Page-
down keys. This is even ridiculous given there are empty space next to the
arrow keys where they could have been put (same place as on the Thinkpad).
Well, I can live with that.

------
Blaine0002
just my 2 cents after owning one for quite some time now. Avoid.

Right after the warranty ended the screen has constant flickering and will
sometimes turn to straight up static for 5 minutes at a time. moving the
laptop hinge doesnt affect this at all which leads me to believe its a
motherboard issue rather than a screen or ribbon cable issue. Besides that,
the build quality is actually pretty terrible for what one of these costs and
the hinge is flimsy and wobbles around when you move the laptop.

~~~
db48x
Flickering in an LCD is usually caused by a bad inverter, which is an
inexpensive part ($20 range) you can generally replace yourself.

------
zzzeek
my thumbs are still on the inside of my hands so unfortunately I still cannot
deal with trackpad buttons _above_ the scrolling surface.

I have an older thinkpad from my job which is a great machine but unusuable
trackpad-wise due to this design. I use a cheap asus zenbook daily. Would love
to have a trackpad-buttons-where-my-thumbs-are lenovo again.

~~~
willtim
Those buttons are for the nipple not the trackpad. The trackpad otherwise is
like an Apple trackpad.

~~~
zzzeek
Haven't used my T540P with a GUI in quite a long time, I think I may have
noticed that the bottom of the trackpad is trying to be like an apple trackpad
button also, however I recall it working very poorly; the whole trackpad
physically clicks very nicely and definitively for the upper buttons, and on
the bottom it just works like crap. Perhaps they've improved that.

------
al2o3cr
1080p screen, awful headphone audio quality, limited to 16GB of RAM, and ships
full of Windows crapware - I guess "Apple has made its MacBook line worse, not
better" from the intro is describing reversion to the mean.

~~~
gruturo
This will of course be a matter of personal preferences, but yes, I concur
with the sentiment: Apple made its MacBook line worse, not better:

\- They confine better specs to the touchbar models, which I would tolerate
(not love) if it had the decency of starting _after_ the ESC key. As it is,
it's an abomination which must die, die, die.

\- They give you USB-C ports (yay) at the expense of leaving you with _zero_
USB-A ports (nay).

\- They supply you with a low spec charging cable, indistinguishable from a
high spec one

\- They took away MagSafe which I love and has saved my laptop

\- They took away the SD slot (but left the headphones jack? While arguing in
favor of its removal on the iPhone? A bit inconsistent?)

\- They massively bumped prices, making it considerably less appealing from a
price/specs ratio perspective

\- ...and they max out at 16GB just as you criticized the Lenovo.

~~~
iwasakabukiman
For the headphone jack, I'd argue that different use cases for laptop and
phones mean removing the headphone jack on one and leaving it on the other is
justifiable.

The other things you mentioned are definitely annoyances I run into
occasionally with my MacBook Pro.

> \- They supply you with a low spec charging cable, indistinguishable from a
> high spec one

What do you mean? My laptop came with an 87W charger and a cable that works
fine with it.

~~~
gruturo
>> \- They supply you with a low spec charging cable, indistinguishable from a
high spec one

>What do you mean? My laptop came with an 87W charger and a cable that works
fine with it.

The supplied USB-C cable only supports USB-2 data speeds (480Mbps). If you
want to achieve USB-3 or 3.1 speeds (either 5Gbps or 10 Gbps), while still
having the full 5A charging current supported by the 87W charger, you need to
buy this $12.99 cable from monoprice:
[https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24285](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24285)

We're talking a laptop which can be configured between $2500 and $4100 and you
need to go buy a better cable for it. I'm sorry but this is _not_ the Apple I
used to love.

~~~
crtasm
Same with the recently launched Keyone phone from Blackberry, at least it
prompted me to learn about the extra pins on a USB3 connection.

------
alberth
I own and prefer the smaller footprint of the Yoga 370 ... BUT ... I really
dislike the glossy display.

The X1 is fantastic because it's a matte finish.

I really wish more laptops used a matte finish.

It's so much easier on the eyes (due to lack of reflection).

------
Roritharr
If you like the X1 Carbon, but need more ram, the Toshiba Portege X30 is the
only machine that has fully serviceable components at only 1,1kg of weight. I
ordered mine with 32 GB of ram, loving it so far.

~~~
wodenokoto
How is it in terms of build quality compared to Lenovo or Apple?

How does Linux run on it?

~~~
Roritharr
You can read a few reviews about it, personally I find it "good enough", a
little bit below Lenovo or Apple. But for me the Gold Standard currently are
Surface Books regarding build quality, so take my opinion with a grain of salt
if you dislike them.

I run Windows 10 and haven't installed Linux so far, but the hardware seems
very standard. If you are interested I can try an Ubuntu Live Stick later.

~~~
wodenokoto
Thanks for the kind offer, I was just curious if you knew. You don't need to
go to such lengths.

------
bluedino
No mention of wifi performance. The last ThinkPad I had (T450s) it really
wasn't that great even though I had the high-end Intel wireless option.

------
SmellTheGlove
Has anyone gotten OSX stable on this thing yet?

------
polote
Asus ux330 has basically the same characteristics but it is available for half
the price

------
ribfeast
I don't think it matters how much better Windows hardware is, or how far along
the Linux subsystem gets, I only feel at home in a *nix OS. The best UX/most
stable is MacOS, and it doesn't hurt that I can run Photoshop, Sketch, etc.

~~~
yellowapple
Possibly relevant:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1iybjq/is_it_po...](https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1iybjq/is_it_possible_to_install_osx_on_x1_carbon/)

Information is dated, though; I have no idea if it's still relevant to modern
X1 Carbons (or to modern macOS versions).

------
baybal2
Why do they put the touchpad off-centre to the left?

~~~
thomastjeffery
Because of the numpad. That way it's centered between your palms so you don't
touch it accidentally while typing.

------
michaelmior
> Lenovo has mostly been a good guardian of the ThinkPad brand, but it did
> misapply the label on its plasticky ThinkPad Edge laptops. I owned one of
> those and it definitely didn’t live up to the storied reputation of this
> portable PC.

I had a ThinkPad Edge E525 for many years and I was quite happy with it for
the price. I finally decided to upgrade later this year mostly because of how
I had (unintentionally) physically abused the machine over the years. But I
still think the Edge series was pretty nice.

------
H1Supreme
Can someone explain to me what the point of an i7 (or even an i5) is on a
laptop? Aside from speed? They all have dual core processors. It's not like
the desktop lineup where each step up gets more cores.

~~~
ty_a
Cache size and clock speed. In Ultrabooks i[3,5,7] are all 2 core 4 thread
differentiated by cache and clock.

You can get 4 core CPUs in larger laptops where the i5 is 4 core, 4 thread and
i7 4/8\. Similar to desktops.

~~~
bluedino
Right, 3MB vs 4MB of L2 cache in the case of the X1

------
blueplastic
I've been using Thinkpads and Macbooks on and off for the last 15 years, and
this gen-5 Thinkpad is easily the best laptop I've ever owned.

Some subtle features of this gen-5 laptop that may not be apparent:

\- The audio jack creates no hiss. If you used Thinkpads in the past with
sensitive headphones, you'd hear a buzzing noise. The Macbooks never did that
and this is the first Thinkpad that is a silent audio jack.

\- You can spill water on the keyboard and it'll just flow though.

\- Seriously best keyboard in class compared to all other ultrabooks. I really
don't like the Macbook keyboard design... the depth on keypress is too shallow
and it doesn't have the nice bounceback effect of the Thinkpads.

\- Battery life is around 6-7 hours, which is long lasting ThinkPad finally.

I think the build quality of Thinkpads is way more functional and utlitarian
than Macbooks. I like the matt screen of Thinkpads more. The touchpoint to use
your index finger to move the mouse lets you keep your hand in the typing
position. Fingerprint sensor is fast and works well.

