5 ms·

I used an X1 for a few months. It took me a fortnight of rage before I discovered you can switch fn and ctrl in BIOS. after that I really liked it. I'm going t

I used an X1 for a few months. It took me a fortnight of rage before I discovered you can switch fn and ctrl in BIOS. after that I really liked it. I'm going to be in the market for a new <= 14" soon but want more ram than the X1 carbon offers. A T490 caps out at 40gb and has decent specs on paper, I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts on the model though.

koyote 7y ago
I have a somewhat older T4xx model that's still running (bought in 2012/13 I believe). During its lifetime I upgraded the hard-drive, RAM, the keyboard (well, it wasn't an upgrade...coffee spilled on the previous one...) and even the screen. I have since upgraded to an X1 carbon which is significantly slimmer and lighter (although I never had any complaints about the previous laptop in that respect). I personally think the T4xx line is a perfect compromise between portability and power. So as long as you're ok with having a slightly thicker and heavier laptop you'll be very happy with it.
disposedtrolley 7y ago
I recently purchased a T490 and it works reasonably well with Linux. My model has the base 1080p display rated at 250 nits, and while resolution and colour are no match for an MBP, the display surprisingly gets bright enough for some outdoor use. Build quality is solid and keyboard is great. Speakers sound pretty rough but get decently loud. I got maybe 7-8 hours of use with the screen at 60%, and alternating between coding in Emacs and watching some videos. I've tried Manjaro and the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and have had no issues that would be a deal breaker. The only annoyance is jittery movement with the TrackPoint, but I've had that on every modern ThinkPad running Linux. I've been leaning towards using the trackpad more often and it seems to work okay.
- faizshah 7y ago
  Same, I bought a t480 but I went with POP OS. I bought it to see if I could switch to linux. On the plus side its a solid and stable dev machine, iterm seems slower than the linux terminal. Rubymine, pycharm etc are stable. Google cloud shell freezes in browser sometimes but firefox quantum and chromium work pretty well otherwise. It also works great with my uhd monitor even tho it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. But, I encounter screen tearing a lot on web pages. The trackpad is horrible in comparison to a macbook pro. There is some pretty nice support for multiple workspaces but they dont have the amazingly useful trackpad gestures. I honestly feel like if there was a thinkpad with a trackpad as good as a macbook pro 2012 then there would be no problem switching.
  - mdtusz 7y ago
    Learn to love the trackpoint and when you go back to a MacBook you'll be sad it's not there.
    - ahnick 7y ago
      honest question, how to love the trackpoint? I constantly overshoot or undershoot my target when applying pressure to the stick. Any suggestions? Should I adjust some settings? Do I need to just dedicate to using it for a couple of weeks?
    - disposedtrolley 7y ago
      The trackpoint is kinda crappy on newer ThinkPads. I'm not sure what they've changed, but movement is always jittery under Linux for me. My X230 is buttery smooth. The X1 Extreme and T490 I've tried, not so much.
      - faizshah 7y ago
        That's been my experience with my new t480. I wonder if there's some other drivers that could make it smoother?
torvald 7y ago
The new Lenovo x390 looks quite promising for being smaller than 14, but bigger then the x200 series (which is 12.5").
- Green_man 7y ago
  The x390 comes with a 13.3 inch display, as opposed to the previous 12.5 inch screens, but it's just 4mm longer and 7mm wider than the x290. They reduced the bezels on the screen to gain the majority of the new screen real estate, so the keyboard won't be any larger than the old one.
the8472 7y ago
> A T490 caps out at 40gb 48 according to the spec sheet.
mehdix 7y ago
I go everything working under Arch except the sd card reader.
cullenking 7y ago
Just bought a t495 for myself and my business partner. Returned both, the keyboard is horrendous. Lookup nkey rollover, typing on the keyboard was full of missing and transposed letters. Will never buy another Lenovo again.

koyote 7y ago

I have a somewhat older T4xx model that's still running (bought in 2012/13 I believe). During its lifetime I upgraded the hard-drive, RAM, the keyboard (well, it wasn't an upgrade...coffee spilled on the previous one...) and even the screen. I have since upgraded to an X1 carbon which is significantly slimmer and lighter (although I never had any complaints about the previous laptop in that respect). I personally think the T4xx line is a perfect compromise between portability and power. So as long as you're ok with having a slightly thicker and heavier laptop you'll be very happy with it.

disposedtrolley 7y ago

I recently purchased a T490 and it works reasonably well with Linux. My model has the base 1080p display rated at 250 nits, and while resolution and colour are no match for an MBP, the display surprisingly gets bright enough for some outdoor use. Build quality is solid and keyboard is great. Speakers sound pretty rough but get decently loud. I got maybe 7-8 hours of use with the screen at 60%, and alternating between coding in Emacs and watching some videos. I've tried Manjaro and the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and have had no issues that would be a deal breaker. The only annoyance is jittery movement with the TrackPoint, but I've had that on every modern ThinkPad running Linux. I've been leaning towards using the trackpad more often and it seems to work okay.

faizshah 7y ago
Same, I bought a t480 but I went with POP OS. I bought it to see if I could switch to linux. On the plus side its a solid and stable dev machine, iterm seems slower than the linux terminal. Rubymine, pycharm etc are stable. Google cloud shell freezes in browser sometimes but firefox quantum and chromium work pretty well otherwise. It also works great with my uhd monitor even tho it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. But, I encounter screen tearing a lot on web pages. The trackpad is horrible in comparison to a macbook pro. There is some pretty nice support for multiple workspaces but they dont have the amazingly useful trackpad gestures. I honestly feel like if there was a thinkpad with a trackpad as good as a macbook pro 2012 then there would be no problem switching.
- mdtusz 7y ago
  Learn to love the trackpoint and when you go back to a MacBook you'll be sad it's not there.
  - ahnick 7y ago
    honest question, how to love the trackpoint? I constantly overshoot or undershoot my target when applying pressure to the stick. Any suggestions? Should I adjust some settings? Do I need to just dedicate to using it for a couple of weeks?
  - disposedtrolley 7y ago
    The trackpoint is kinda crappy on newer ThinkPads. I'm not sure what they've changed, but movement is always jittery under Linux for me. My X230 is buttery smooth. The X1 Extreme and T490 I've tried, not so much.
    - faizshah 7y ago
      That's been my experience with my new t480. I wonder if there's some other drivers that could make it smoother?

torvald 7y ago

The new Lenovo x390 looks quite promising for being smaller than 14, but bigger then the x200 series (which is 12.5").

Green_man 7y ago
The x390 comes with a 13.3 inch display, as opposed to the previous 12.5 inch screens, but it's just 4mm longer and 7mm wider than the x290. They reduced the bezels on the screen to gain the majority of the new screen real estate, so the keyboard won't be any larger than the old one.

the8472 7y ago

> A T490 caps out at 40gb 48 according to the spec sheet.

mehdix 7y ago

I go everything working under Arch except the sd card reader.

cullenking 7y ago

Just bought a t495 for myself and my business partner. Returned both, the keyboard is horrendous. Lookup nkey rollover, typing on the keyboard was full of missing and transposed letters. Will never buy another Lenovo again.