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Lenovo Launches Ultra-Thin ThinkPad P1: X1 Carbon Meets Workstation
- awiesenhofer 8y agoRedhat certified and available with Ubuntu pre-installed, great! Probably will get one of these to replace my aging macbook pro.
- rkangel 8y agoMy experience was that for good graphics support you wanted to go for integrated Intel (currently using a T430s). Does the Ubuntu support imply that the graphics card swapping and drivers for the discrete graphics are now actually good?
- smacktoward 8y agoThis is the bit that jumped out at me, too. I would love to see Lenovo start offering preinstalled Linux on ThinkPads large and small. Interestingly, however, Lenovo’s own info page on the P1 (https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P1/p/22WS2WPP101 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi...) makes no mention of Ubuntu or Red Hat options. It only list the usual flavors of Windows.
- bubblethink 8y agoThat's always been the case and is always mentioned in marketing materials. You just can't buy it. It's mostly for certification purposes, which is also largely pointless. The X1 got certified by both RH and canonical despite the inability to suspend/resume.
- jpalomaki 8y agoThe specs sure sound quite interesting. Intel i9 or Xeon, 64GB memory (also ECC), dual PCIe SSD (up to 4TB), 80Wh battery. 3mm thicker than MacBook Pro, but bit lighter. And since it is part of Lenovo professional lineup, I assume you can get the onsite warranty for this, meaning the components can be actually replaced with normal tools. Interesting to see the reviews on screen. The display has been usually the weak point on the more powerful Lenovos, but hopefully this is not the case here.
- pimeys 8y agoThe latest X1C HDR panel is just awesome. Bright and AdobeRGB 100%. I doubt the panels here are worse.
- torstenvl 8y agoECC isn't available at 64GB configurations. Memory Up to 64GB DDR4 2666MHz *Up to 32GB for ECC https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P1/p/22WS2WPP101 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi...
- avhon1 8y agoI wonder what the explanation for this is.
- gargravarr 8y agoUsually available DIMM sizes, 32GB ECC DIMMs may come along eventually. May also be a power restriction, since (AFAIK) ECC draws more power, so at some point the DIMM may hit an upper limit (ECC running on each refresh cycle).
- compsciphd 8y agoAs someone who has an X1, very little of it considered an FRU. my trackpoint died and in the past that meant simply replacing the keyboard, and I've done that many times. They had to have me ship it back for that.
- utobi 8y agoI always update to onsite warranty because of this. It is well worth the money. Had to get my personal X1 fixed while on a business trip in a company meeting room and another personal X1 in a hotel room while on vacation.
- compsciphd 8y ago
- phatboyslim 8y agoTo add some anecdotal experience here, I replaced my 2015 MBP which I loved, with a 5th Gen Lenovo X1 Carbon and I can honestly say I have no regrets. The machine is wonderful for development. Light but powerful, very pleasant to type on, checks all the right boxes. You can use Linux or Windows (which honestly has come quite a long ways and works quite well). Also, you can game with these laptops now thanks to USB-C external graphics enclosures, giving you a work machine on the go, and a gaming machine at home.
- plouffy 8y agoWhat about the trackpad ?
- post_break 8y agoIt's a thinkpad, you don't use the trackpad, you use the "nub"
- Goronmon 8y agoYeah, the downside to getting used to the trackpoint is that I don't know if I can ever switch to a laptop without one. Trackpads feel so clunky now.
- roddds 8y agoDo you have any tips for getting used to it? I've been using my first Thinkpad (a 5th gen X1 Carbon) and I've tried on and off to get used to it but it doesn't feel like it'll ever be better than using the trackpad.
- appleiigs 8y agoSame here. I found learning vim to be easier than getting used to the nib. Would love for the nib to be effective for me. I think the nib requires to much force to push around.
- anc84 8y agoI wish a screen was as good at angles like the fake marketing photo suggests: https://images.anandtech.com/doci/13208/ThinkPad_P1_Lifestyle_Image_Engineering.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/doci/13208/ThinkPad_P1_Lifestyl... Images like that have no place in a journalistic article in my opinion. It turns it into a full ad.
- hyeomans 8y agoAgree, it's a photoshopped stock photo: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/confident-serious-attractive-professional-architect-woman-775058860?irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=TinEye&utm_source=77643&utm_term= https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/confident-serious-a...
- nathanaldensr 8y agoWow, that's ridiculous. I love how the original stock photo is of a tablet (iPad?) and the Photoshopped laptop is in perfect focus, unlike all the objects around it. If you're going to lie, at least try to do a good job.
- gomox 8y agoIt's plausible that the computer would be in focus at that location as it is at the same distance from the camera as the main subject in the picture (and therefore shares the focus plane). The transition is too hard though, and the screen illumination is ridiculous.
- cwyers 8y agoYou can do a lot with a tilt-shift lens and selective focus. Not that they did that.
- psychometry 8y agoThe fake tilt-shift thing drives me nuts. Usually seen on instagram photos of a flat piece of paper.
- api 8y agoThis is the kind of hardware Apple would be shipping for "Pro" if they cared.
- DKnoll 8y agoThinkPad hardware and Apple hardware are very different, from a design perspective and also repairability. Similar specs maybe.
- walrus01 8y agoThe first generation Macbook Pro that used an Intel CPU (2006) and the later ones (2009 15 and 17 inch) were the same idea as this Thinkpad, in terms of industry standard ports and I/O. They put as many I/O ports in it as they could fit. Wired gigabit ethernet, firewire 400/800 which was state of the art at the time, dual audio jacks, three USB ports, etc. The 2006 model even had a full size DVI port which could drive a 2560x1600 display. If Apple had continued the same design philosophy from the 2006 Macbook Pro and put it in the 2018 Macbook Pro, it would have as many ports as this Thinkpad and probably even more.
- appleiigs 8y agoGlad the haven’t phased out the USB Type-A, HDMI, SD Card ports. Looks like a real “pro” machine. Dell, HP, etc., can’t copy Apple fast enough... including Apple’s blunders.
- 4ad 8y agoThey have phased out real Ethernet port for the mini-Ethernet which requires a dongle. If they can't put in a real Ethernet I would have preferred an extra USB port, or something more useful. I can use my own USB->Ethernet dongle, I don't need the special Lenovo one. Still, pretty minor complaint. My main complaint is the 16:9 screen. Why is it that only Apple can put 16:10 screens in laptops... A 3:2 screen would be better yet. The Microsoft Surface has (had?) a 3:2 screen, but it came with too many tradeoffs to seriously consider it.
- lorenzhs 8y agoI think the argument for the ethernet dongle is that it's still a builtin ethernet controller, and all the dongle does it put the connector outside. It's just a bit of plastic and some wires. The advantage is that you can use any dongle and you'll always have the same MAC address. This is relevant in some DHCP setups. I'm not totally convinced by that, either, but at least the dongle is included in the box (X1C5).
- appleiigs 8y agoDropping the ethernet is more reasonable to me given how common wifi is now. Also, the latop form is expected to be mobile and not tied to the wall.
- lmilcin 8y agoThere are real reasons to have Ethernet. For one, many companies don't allow access to their resources over WiFi. I also do large part of my work on remote VM and lower latency of Ethernet makes it more smooth.
- llampx 8y ago
- colanderman 8y agoThey left out the most important property of the display: is it matte or glossy? Can't find it on Lenovo's website either. Anyone know?
- peterwwillis 8y agoAren't all touchscreens glossy and non-touchscreens typically matte?
- limeblack 8y agoNo. Lenovo actually sells basically a matte touchscreen thinkpad known as anti glare(much better then the consumer glossy displays). They are fairly uncommon but do exist in the Thinkpad line. I have used one.
- strmpnk 8y agoTypically their non-touch FHD displays are matte (I think that's what the parent was pointing out). I opted for that in my recent T480 build over the glossy HiDPI display with the face detection cam. It's definitely very nice not having sharp reflections on screen.
- zeveb 8y agoSounds very appealing, but combine Intel ME with the fact that the laptop is made by a Chinese firm and the fact that Lenovo has previously snuck spyware onto its machines — I don't think one can really trust it to be secure, even running Linux.
- zamalek 8y ago> snuck spyware onto its machines This is a very real concern. How can we be sure that they aren't doing this again? A security audit is not part of the review.
- stevesimmons 8y agoYou nuke the OS it comes with and install your own. (on the assumption the main risk is Windows crapware installed at the end of manufacturing rather than low-level firmware backdoors)
- zamalek 8y agoSuperFish was installed via BIOS on fresh install: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150812/11395231925/lenovo-busted-stealthily-installing-crapware-via-bios-fresh-windows-installs.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150812/11395231925/lenov...
- plainOldText 8y agoI think this is a legitimate concern. That’s one reason I only buy MacBooks. I trust Apple more than other companies.
- diffeomorphism 8y ago> I trust Apple more than other companies. Any particular reason why? Apple always seemed quite anti-user to me with "you are holding it wrong", walled gardens, incompatible ports,...
- 8y ago
- yourapostasy 8y agoAre there any HN posters who manage fleets of Lenovo ThinkPads who can comment on their personal QC trend observations? I've read on forums that the QC is hit-and-miss these days; when you get a good unit, it rocks, but woe be unto you if you happen to draw a short straw. Every manufacturer drops a lemon now and again. But I can't tell if Lenovo is letting their definitely-lax QC on non-ThinkPad lines leak into their ThinkPad lines, or if we're just hearing especially squeaky wheels. The recent trend seems to be if you want laptop reliability, you only select from the business-class product lines of the major OEMs, or Apple.
- bluedino 8y agoWe have a bunch of T-series from 440 to 480 and 540 to 570, a few W and P series...they're all problem free except one screen replacement on an almost-3-year-old W540 (which I think was physical damage)
- lmilcin 8y agoI have been using ThinkPads, exclusively, since the year 2000. I never had ANY failure of any kind of any of my 5 machines. I currently use T440s which I bought immediately after it became available in 2013 and I wish it broke so I had a pretext to buy a new one, but the sucker will not die. I had to hack firmware to get LTE modem to work and the screen probably aged and is not as bright as it was. Other than that everything works perfectly.
- tibu 8y agoSame here. We have tons of ThinkPad from the T series which perform really good. We had some issues with the early X series but those were replaced by Lenovo.
- starshadowx2 8y agoWe only have Thinkpads here and although it's an older model now, I've had to replace about 30 SSDs in the L460s. I don't know whether to say that's Lenovo's fault though, as they've all been Intel SSDs replaced with other brands. Other than that all of our T series laptops are great, the new L470s are great, desktops are great, etc.
- peterwwillis 8y agoLenovo, come on, it's mid-2018. How hard is it to add USB-C charging? Hasn't it been around for like four years? Do we really need more proprietary chargers?
- strmpnk 8y agoWhich is odd for a new SKU because the lenovo ThinkPad T480 I'm typing this reply on is USB-C based charging.
- Numberwang 8y agoI quite like Lenovos charger though. It's the only one I have not managed to destroy in a year of owning a laptop.
- drb91 8y agoIt could use magsafe. That thing has a death grip on my laptop.
- ReverseCold 8y agoApple definitely has a patent on that. (I'm not exactly sure how patents work, but they filed one on Magsafe as late as 2017)
- bdcravens 8y agoThere's quite a few USB-C magnetic breakaway adapters on Amazon etc
- ReverseCold 8y agoApple knows that if they tried to sue every random manufacturer making $5 magsafe clones they would end up losing more money on legal fees. If Lenovo did it though...
- 8y ago
- rc_bhg 8y agoThis looks really nice.
- nkg 8y agoI am amazed
- Rotdhizon 8y agoI have the Lenovo p51 and I'm mostly satisfied with it. The biggest drawback to me is the battery and the weight. Just using business apps the battery can go a few hours, but I like to get in some gaming on it and when gaming the battery drains so very fast. The charger for it is very flimsy. The piece that plugs into the brick falls out if you so much as cough in its direction.
- camelCaseOfBeer 8y agoI'd be excited if it were $950 cheaper. Lenovo users aren't buying these thing to look hip while we drink cold brew in the university center. So no that my mom won't buy my computers I'm expected to convince my employer to spend an extra thousand dollars on my wank-station? Perposterous.
- gargravarr 8y agoApple: "it may have a neutered processor, no upgradeability, limited GPUs and a REAL heat-dissipation problem, but the MBP is SO THIN!!" Lenovo: "here, have a Xeon in your razor blade"
- undoware 8y agoOk, but can it run Ubuntu 18.0x? Could someone who knows their chipsets please hazard a guess?
- strmpnk 8y agoYes. From the spec sheet, you can order it with Ubuntu pre-installed as well.
- JoshTriplett 8y agoImpressive specifications, and nice to see a lightweight larger laptop, but personally I've been hoping for an upgrade to a 4K screen in the X1, not a laptop that's several inches larger. I also hope this has the option of a 4K non-touch screen (rather than a choice of 4K touch or 1080p non-touch), and that it's possible to get the 4K with integrated graphics.
- zem 8y agoyeah, i'm unsure whether i regret having just bought an x1c or not :) on the whole i think i prefer the 14" form factor.
- vitriol_is_fun 8y agoHow hot is this thing going to get
- iliaznk 8y agoWhat I find with potential macbook replacements is that while specs can be higher, or even much higher, which is quite easy to achieve, it is the build quality that starts to drag behind, and even if something is comparable in that respect – cooling is what can easily spoil the entire picture. Like Dells, for example, whose fans never stop event when you're just browsing. At leas the ones I've seen. Does anybody know a performant laptop that can compete with macs in terms of quietness?
- robdachshund 8y agoNot really. Macbooks have notorious build quality. Go watch some Louis rossman videos.
- fyfy18 8y agoBuild quality of Thinkpads is usually a lot better than Apple in terms of robustness, and if something breaks it is usually easy to replace just the part that’s broken (Lenovo offer on-site repair option for most machines). This is their testing standard for most Thinkpads: https://www.lenovo.com/hk/en/thisisthinkpad/innovation/thinkpad-mil-spec-tested-to-the-extreme/ https://www.lenovo.com/hk/en/thisisthinkpad/innovation/think...
- EpicEng 8y ago>cooling is what can easily spoil the entire picture. Lenovo build quality is excellent he and MBPs have thermal issues...
- jhasse 8y agoMy Dell XPS 13 9370 is completely silent (fans turn off) when browsing or watching video.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mastry 8y agoWhy does Lenovo persist with the Quadro GPUs? None of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. I recently bought a gaming laptop (not a gamer) so I could have the GPU power for ML. Surely there's a big enough market for this to warrant a ThinkPad option by now?
- Rotdhizon 8y agoI think it's because lenovo really isn't a brand you buy for gaming. Sure they have a gaming lineup, but they are more business and production oriented, and the Quadro cards back that. The Quadro cards aren't bad for gaming per say, you can still do quite a bit with them. I have a P51 mobile workstation with what I think is NVIDIA Quadro M2200 4GB GDDR5, and it lets me play anything I've tried so far without issues. Granted the CPU and GPU get extremely hot on these things if you so much as think about loading up a game. My internal temps are constantly between 80-90 degrees. Also, gaming rigs and mobile workstations have differences in how the hardware functions. I don't have an intimate explanation, but gaming laptops are not meant for virtualization. If you have a gaming rig and mobile workstation with the exact same specs, the workstation will host VMs smoothly while the gaming laptop VMs will be slow and clunky.
- gargravarr 8y agoWorkstation-class machines seem to focus on executing multiple tasks in parallel and sharing resources fairly among them. Gaming laptops focus on giving one task 100% of the power.
- i_am_good 8y agoAs one of the comments mentioned, you can use an external GPU with USB-C for your ML needs.
- gaius 8y agoNone of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. Microsoft Surface Book comes with a 1060 option
- muro 8y ago
- bufo 8y agoReminder that Lenovo has been struggling with quality control lately (they're not the only ones) https://www.ultrabookreview.com/21014-dr-servicelove-learned-stop-worrying-love-site-warranty/ https://www.ultrabookreview.com/21014-dr-servicelove-learned.... It's really frustrating to read glowing reviews, buy a brand new laptop, and then feel you lost at the lottery. At least it feels like Macbook related issues get a lot of press so you know where things stand.
- Boulth 8y agoI wonder if this is more wide spread. I was a very loyal customer of Dell but my last XPS (9350) is a disaster. Reading this kind of reviews makes me hesitant to buy a new laptop.
- Xamayon 8y agoBought an XPS 13 last summer. When I got it, they had left some kind of paper/plastic backing strip inside the CPU fan. The system made a horrific noise when the fan spun up and started grinding against it. Luckily I was able to remove the errant strip and the system has been fairly nice ever since. Unfortunately, I chose 1080p matte screen before their terrible content-aware backlight adjustment setup was discovered. They released a firmware update to fix the 4k glossy screen, but my system with its otherwise fantastic 1080p screen will always have that undesirable quirk. Before that, my Lenovo X230t tablet went through three motherboards before finally stabilizing (bad clock, then bad displayport, then total failure) so yeah, I try to stick with what I have as long as possible, and buy at least one year of warranty to fix the near inevitable defects...
- agumonkey 8y agoI wonder if a mobile ATX is possible. Today IC size is so small you can have mainboard and daughter boards of average dimensions. The lack of swapping and replacing is also an economical dread because people feel bad whenever a thing fails.
- chx 8y ago
- enahs-sf 8y agoThis is a sweet machine but the price is eye watering.
- TD-Linux 8y agoI'm disappointed this didn't launch with the i7-8809g as was rumored - having an AMD GPU would be far better for a Linux machine.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoWhere once again we see it isn't "lack of suitable parts" that prevents Apple from producing a decent Macbook pro. I particularly like the ECC dimms available as I'm the weird guy who worries about bit flips :-). In general (caveat the Lenovo spyware stories) looks like a good candidate to replace my MBP2015.
- bubblethink 8y ago>Cheaper versions could potentially rely on Intel’s UHD 620 iGPU, but Lenovo is not announcing any such products today. The Nvidia tax is really annoying. Once you get to up a certain CPU (i7 or Xeon), Lenovo forces you to buy Nvidia. I just want a good powerful laptop without Nvidia.
- beenBoutIT 8y agoDoes anyone know when Lenovo's patent on the TrackPad expires? I'm looking forward to seeing the TrackPad replace touchpads on laptops outside of the ThinkPad line.
- bubblethink 8y agoYou mean the trackpoint ? Not sure about the patent expiration, but Dell and HP also license it and include it some of their products. So it is not that exclusive.
- beenBoutIT 8y agoYeah, I meant the trackpoint. Didn't realize it was used on other products.
- segmondy 8y agoI have a ThinkPad X1 carbon and it's crap. At least running Ubuntu on it is garbage. Battery life is terrible, sometimes the screen flickers which I suspect is video driver, suspend doesn't work and locks up the machine. Had to return 2 of them due to hardware issues when we ordered one for everyone on my team. I like the portable form factor, display, keyboard. But stability/usability has not been the best experience. Which is strange because the thinkpad are often well behaved when running Linux.
- kentosi 8y agoCan I ask which generation you're using? ArchLinux at least does a good job of listing any issues across all generations: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6) https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb...
- beefield 8y agoFor battery life you likely want to install tlp. https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-ma...
- davidandgoliath 8y agoThis! I had 15 minutes remaining one day in battery life, installed tlp & was good for another 45. Massive improvement. If you don't want that carbon though, I'll buy it off ya if it's a gen5.
- xjia 8y agoHave been running Ubuntu 16.04 for 2 years and now moving to 18.04. Had no problems at all.
- kentosi 8y agoIf I buy the non-4k model, can I still hook it up to my 4k monitor without any loss in quality? Or is it that the 4k model is built to handle this better? I'm kind of embarrassed to be asking this because I feel like I should know this.
- izacus 8y agoThe integrated (and both discrete, whichever you choose) graphics will handle 4K output just fine. It has HDMI 2.0 port which supports 4K output.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- datenwolf 8y agoAnd again a 16:9 screen aspect ratio on a clam-shell device. Seriously, I can't stand this aspect ratio. Microsoft and Google got the message and put 3:2 aspect screens into their notebooks. However the servicability ratings for the Surface Book and the Chromebook Pixel are terrible. Also the lack a trackpoint pointing device (and the keyboards are sub par); I usually disable the touchpad on my laptops, so having a trackpoint is a must. Lenovo does have mobile computers with a 3:2 aspect screen. But those are tablets, with the keyboard being an accessory. If Lenovo took that 3:2 screen and put it into a clam-shell design notebook computer it's an instant buy. The notebook computer I currently use as my day-to-day device is closing in on being 10 years of age: The display bezel is broken, the hinges worn out, yet only recently I bought a new battery, because quite frankly, in the past 5 years, there was not a single hardware offer that ticked all the "must" boxes I want to be checked for the next notebook computer I buy.