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On a tangential note, I recently switched from an XPS 15 to a X1 Carbon. The thinkpad is a completely uncompromised device. It feels like a laptop from the futu
by koverda 6y ago
On a tangential note, I recently switched from an XPS 15 to a X1 Carbon. The thinkpad is a completely uncompromised device. It feels like a laptop from the future, where nothing sucks. The keyboard is great, the screen is great, the touchpad is great, the keys are all there, it's super light, but super solid, there's a bajillion ports. Anyone considering a new laptop should give a good look at thinkpads. They also have ridiculous sales from time to time - I got my X1C for about 50% of retail price.
- randlet 6y agoSame. I love my X1 Carbon.
- techolic 6y agoThe keys are all there - laptop review from 2020.
- koverda 6y agoIt's an important consideration!
- GordonS 6y agoWhat display did you go for?
- berbec 6y agoI got the 1080p low power. I get 8+ hours of full brightness Netflix!
- GordonS 6y agoI just had a look (in the UK), and it doesn't look possible to go higher than 16GB of RAM, which is a deal breaker for me - I regularly go above that when running VMs and containers for dev and test work. For such an otherwise powerful machine, I don't k ow why they'd limit it?
- rococode 6y agoDidn't fit their desired form factor for the X1, maybe. Their P53 line goes up to 128GB RAM and may be more suitable for your worklaod (I use an X1 but mostly use remote machines and don't need local VMs). I believe the construction is mostly the same as the X1 and T series Thinkpads, it's just bulkier and heavier.
- aquaticsunset 6y agoThe P series is such a workhorse. If I had purchasing power over my hardware at work, I'd crank one of those up and replace my workstation+laptop with it.
- organsnyder 6y agoYep, that's a good description. I have a P51 and T480, and the P51 is basically the same laptop, just supersized.
- vel0city 6y agoIf you're interested in Thinkapds but find the X1 a bit limiting, check out the T-series or the P1. They're only slightly thicker but often have a much higher RAM headroom (and often can be easily upgraded by the user).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- smacktoward 6y agoThe X models are designed to be ultraportable, aka as thin and light as possible. As a result, they're not great machines for people who need lots of RAM, storage, etc. The P series (https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/c/thinkpadp https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/c/t...) is more the "desktop workstation replacement" line; heavier and thicker, but with more room for components. You can get those with up to 128GB of RAM.
- combixtreen 6y ago
- maxmouchet 6y agoI'm hesitating between an XPS and an X1. What do you find better on the X1?
- combixtreen 6y agoX1 hands down. I sold my XPS13 and never looked back.
- rozab 6y agoThis sort of comment is all over this thread, and it really doesn't help me make a decision
- pimeys 6y agoAll X1 Carbons I've owned and the one my partner owns have been so nice to use. I mean you just need to get one into your hands... The rubbery cover, very sturdy design, super lightweight, perfect keyboard, in the later models perfect screens too (2k Adobe RGB 100% and HDR just nails it). And you can throw it everywhere, just travel with it and use everywhere due to it being so small and nice. And you can damage it and probably the floor tiles break before the laptop gets any real hit. Edit: oh and Linux just works so great in any of those business ThinkPads. Any linux. I'll go with Arch typically, but even more exotic operating systems, such as OpenBSD just work with it (running it in one of my ThinkPads for some years, and the experience is great).
- sp332 6y agoYou didn't answer the question at all.
- noisy_boy 6y agoNo op but for me the clincher was vastly superior keyboard and the expansion capability with dual ssd/dual ram slots that made me go for X1 Extreme Gen 2. I have used Dell in the past and after using this Thinkpad, I have to admit that I find the latter to be of better quality overall.
- 6y ago
- tengbretson 6y agoAlso got the X1 carbon. I have no idea how something that feels so sturdy can feel like its light enough to float away!
- koverda 6y agoExacty! The build quality on this thing is out of this world. Any time I unplug it from the dock and use it in more of a laptop mode, I get little dopamine hits all around.
- petschge 6y agoI have a X1 Carbon that is a few years old now. About 2 years ago I dropped it (lid closed) from about 2 feet up (70cm). And it hit the tiled floor, pointy corner first. I thought "welp here go $2000". But no! A 2x3 mm part of the black surface finish chipped of and I see the bare silvery metal now. Oh and the tile cracked.
- adtac 6y agothe X series and the T series are some of the best laptops ever built unless your work requires you to use macOS, you have no reason to buy a Macbook
- tokamak-teapot 6y agoMy sanity requires it.
- RussianCow 6y ago> unless your work requires you to use macOS, you have no reason to buy a Macbook If hardware is all that matters to you, sure. But some people actually prefer the software experience of macOS to that of Windows, for a variety of reasons.
- Insanity 6y agoYou can get Linux on those devices too
- RussianCow 6y agoThat's true, and it's really wonderful that you have that option, but it doesn't help if you prefer the software experience of macOS and/or need software that doesn't run on Linux.
- stratosmacker 6y agoI just have to say sometimes you can have it all http://x220.mcdonnelltech.com/ http://x220.mcdonnelltech.com/
- swalsh 6y agoHow is the driver support for Linux?
- Naac 6y agoDriver support on thinkpads is ( and has always been ) excellent.
- modzu 6y agowhat screen? i keep reading anything but the basic 1080 nukes battery life? i just cant imagine a laptop in 2020 doing 3 hours after having a mbp retina for the last 5 years which is capable of running all day
- cvdub 6y agoI'd go with 1080p if you're planning to run Linux. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23107338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23107338
- mdtusz 6y agoFWIW I have a t480s with the 1440p display and am using Linux and my battery life is typically around 6 hours or so for regular use. If I start running more dev tools and building things it plummets as to be expected, but the display really doesn't seem to make much difference. The biggest thing I miss from my MacBook is being able to open it after a week of being closed and still have battery. There's definitely something not going into deep sleep when I close the lid, but that's probably my fault.
- ggreer 6y agoTo use no battery when sleeping, you'll want to configure hibernation. I haven't done this because I only suspend my laptop for 10-12 hours at a time. Also it's tricky if you're using disk encryption with a swap file. The Arch wiki has lots of information on how to do this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_management/Suspend_and_hibernate#Hibernation https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_management/Suspen...
- koverda 6y agoI got the 1080 screen for battery life considerations. Totally satisfied with it, however I haven't spent much time on retina screens.
- bitwize 6y agoI've been issued MBPs at my past few jobs. On each of them "all day" is about five hours, tops. You must not be doing a heckin lot of dev work if you actually get all day out of a single charge of an MBP battery.
- blodkorv 6y agoi have an x1 carbon and i hate it. There is an bug with the trackpoint and mouse pad that makes the pointer drift randomly. I have had my computer back and forth and replaced everything. It still drifts
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- close04 6y agoThat's something that plagued my ThinkPads since forever, made worse when they moved from the rounded trackpoint nub to the flat one. Easy fix, take out the rubber trackpoint nub and put it back (maybe clean the area a bit). Or disable it if you're more productive with the touchpad.
- blodkorv 6y agosadly the touchpad is wonky too and sometimes its glitchy
- koverda 6y agoThe bug with the trackpoint is if you rest your finger on the trackpoint. If you lift your finger, it should stop drifting.
- blodkorv 6y agono it dont stop when i lift my finger.
- codemac 6y ago> There is an bug with the trackpoint and mouse pad that makes the pointer drift randomly. If it drifts in a single direction in that time, I found it was actually a physical problem and fixed it by cleaning around the trackpoint. I haven't seen this in software though, I currently have the X1 gen 6. Which do you have? Which bug is it? I'd love to see if there is a way to help.
- ksec 6y agoI am wondering, are there any Windows laptop keyboard that are better than Thinkpad? Long time ago the Thinkpad Keyboard was the closest thing to 2015 MacBook Pro Keyboard. It is just sad in 2020 we have to look for keyboards with all the keys and companies dont mess around with the key travels.
- kockic 6y agoBased on personal experience from using both Thinkpad T series and MS Surface Book, keyboard on Surface Book feels even better than the one on Thinkpad.
- jjice 6y agoI also love my X1 Carbon. Fantastic machine, and extremely affordable on the used market. The only reason I stopped using mine is because the BIOS is locked and I wanted to run Linux full time, and my model (gen 3) can't be reset like a lot of the other models (I can't remember what the process was). It's a great machine and after resale value, I spend ~$200 for two years of a solid machine, which I consider a win.
- RussianCow 6y agoAre you saying you sold a two year old machine for $200 less than the price you paid for it when it was brand new? How is that possible? Even MacBook Pros don't have that good of resale value.
- fencepost 6y agoI think he probably got it used, used it for a couple years, then resold it for ~$200 less than he originally paid which is entirely believable.
- RussianCow 6y agoYeah, you're right, I didn't think about getting it used initially. That makes way more sense.
- caycep 6y agoThat may be the way to go but our office cheaped out and got discounted T490s. It's a great laptop minus the screen and trackpad...but management doesn't want to spend more than $800 on a laptop
- logjammin 6y agoSeconded (well, eighth'd, if the rest of the comments are any indication). I got a 6th gen X1C at the end of '18 and it's brilliant. It'd be neat to have a Ryzen option on them in the future, as I have a desktop I build with an AMD CPU and love it. My only complaint about my X1? Windows.
- MegaDeKay 6y agoAre there any particularly good times to potentially catch a sale or do they come up at random?
- pianoben 6y agoBlack Friday is a good time. This past November I picked up a ThinkStation p720 for like 60% off. Not sure whether laptops are discounted to the same extent, but it's worth investigating. At any time of year, see if you are eligible for their "Tickets At Work" program which offers sizable discounts. They sometimes even stack with seasonal sales...
- fencepost 6y agoHolidays. Memorial Day next, July 4th, Labor Day, then probably not much until Black Friday sales. Could also watch or set up relevant alerts with model numbers on Slickdeals.
- eps 6y agoCan it run OK under Windows 8 or 8.1?
- efficax 6y agoThe current line up of X1 Carbons (the 8th gen) are absurdly priced! $2279 for a base model with an i5, low res screen and only 8gb of ram. For that price you can get the highest end 13" macbook pro, 32gb of ram and 2TB of SSD. baffling
- aeyes 6y agoI think what you are seeing on Lenovos page are placeholder prices, the device isn't shipping. Pricing was announced to start at $1499.
- ghostpepper 6y agoUnlike Apple, where sales are infrequent and minor, the prices on Lenovo's site are much higher than you'll end up paying if you wait for a deal (even from Lenovo). edit: My X1C gen7 with 1080p screen, 10th gen i7, 16GB ram and 256SSD was the equivalent of just under $1200 USD
- michaelmrose 6y agoI think the price is too high especially as you can still buy gen 7 which came out last summer fully loaded with 4K screen, 16GB ram 1TB ssd for about 2K. 32GB ram nor 2TB ssd are an option. The highest end 13" with 2TB of SSD and 32GB of ram actually costs 3000 Reducing it to a TB SSD and 16 Ram leaves it at 2200 for the mac.
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoThinkpad range is great. But I made the mistake of getting one of Lenovo's desktop machines (Lenovo Yoga A940) to replace our dead iMac, and to give my daughter a system with a stylus etc. for doing artwork. On paper it looks good. In practice there's been issues. Bleed and dead pixels on the screen, occasional reliability issues. Didn't want to pour out the cash for the Surface all in one, but kinda wish I had. Wish the Thinkpad quality would extend to their other products.
- dunco 6y agoI bought an X1 carbon about a year ago and it has been an absolute nightmare for me. It's true that the keyboard is nice, the display is good etc. basically it is perfect on paper, but I have had so many issues caused by bad firmware from Lenovo (thunderbolt/HDMI failures, bluescreens). I've had the mainboard replaced 5 times, the trackpad replaced twice, and I am currently using a laptop with a trackpad I am not happy with and speakers that are broken and I'm genuinely afraid to let lenovo touch it again because it always comes back with some new issue. If you use the physical trackpad buttons to click, it causes the pointer to stop dead for a second or more, which means no drag and drop, no text selecting etc. Not a massive issue, but I bought the laptop partly for the good inputs, and now it is no different to any other laptop with no physical click buttons because I can't really use them the way I like. I'm lifelong windows/linux, so really don't want to go mac if I can avoid it, but it just doesn't seem like there is a single windows laptop manufacturer that focuses on quality or reliability. most surveys I see put the failure rates at double mac level.
- modzu 6y agomac simply won the laptop war. no contest. the only people using anything else haven't tried one or have no choice (my linux homies waiting for system76 to catch up get a pass). at least that was the case until apple went all in on usb-c :/
- dunco 6y ago"no contest" might be a bit of an overstatement. I'd agree that there is no contest when it comes to quality, but this is definitely not the case regarding features. There are a huge number of features available from lenovo and other manufacturers that are simply not available from any mac laptop. connectivity is a total joke and I have no idea why they persist with the infuriating lack of ports, even on premium or "pro" models. no matte display options, faulty keyboards that take years to rectify (by reverting to a previous design no less) and not to mention the extortionate price of peripherals, total hostility to repairs. etc. etc. Carbon x1 is significantly lighter than a macbook air with a larger display, more connectivity and better travel on the keyboard.
- 6y ago
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago> I got my X1C for about 50% of retail price Wow. What was the original price? ~$2k? Where did you get such a big discount?
- fencepost 6y agoLenovo frequently runs significant sales on their own site, often focused around holidays. I'd expect to see a significant sale for Memorial Day up next.
- xenocyon 6y ago> It feels like a laptop from the future I've been using Thinkpads for close to 20 years now, and it's more correct to say that their greatness comes from feeling like a laptop from the past: excellent ergonomics, upgradability, durability, ports. Indeed, my current machine (X230, 2012 model) already inspired some criticism for deviating from the IBM-style keyboard of its predecessors. Newer models like the X280 have even more complaints arising from the unswappable battery, soldered RAM, and lack of Ethernet port. Lenovo apparently faces the same thinness-over-usability marketing focus that afflicts all electronics today.
- panpanna 6y agoX2nn series are definitely not "thin". Also, as a former die-hard x201 user I actually like the new keyboard. Agree on the memory thought
- mrslave 6y agoHilarious. Long time Thinkpad fanboy here until I finally needed Lenovo support and it took 1 month to get a faulty part fixed under a next business day support plan. The replacement was faulty. Replaced again (a little quicker this time) but there were still problems. They consider their job done. Never shopping Lenovo again. Then for a new role I got a brand new XPS 13. Put Ubuntu on it and everything Just Works(tm). Very happy Dell user now. (Shame the sticker price is so high but it is a quality system.) Also the Lenovo performance was never as good as it should have been. It turns out while it had a then current generation CPU it was a cheaper version than the competitors.
- SirensOfTitan 6y agoYeah, I bought an X1C Extreme last year, part of the screen casing tore to the left of the screen, a freak issue I’m convinced was a defect. I tried to get a quote so my accidental damage insurance with my credit card could kick in for the repair—Lenovo wouldn’t give me a quote without paying because I didn’t have their support plan (this was like 3 weeks after I bought it). The laptop still works fine, but I’ll never buy Lenovo again. Terrible company to deal with.
- cocolos 6y agoSame experience with the X1 Yoga. Power board issue. It took 6 weeks for them to finally tell me they couldn't fix it. They just refunded me, which was nice.
- new_realist 6y agoI find the Dell touchpads and keyboards superior.
- ekianjo 6y agobeen buying nothing but Thinkpads for years now, after a very positive experience with the X220 in the first place. My last thinkpad is a X1 carbon, and while it's a trade-off (thinner, less ports, no upgrade possible for RAM), the build is really solid (the keyboard is almost just as good as any other thinkpad's), and the case is a mix of metal and carbon fiber and feels extremely nice all around. It's also trivial to change the battery by yourself, this thing opens up for servicing with just a few screws. Really happy with my purchase. I only run Linux on it, and I have never had any issue with hardware support (except fingerprint sensor which I do not use anyway). Note that I have heard that Linux support on X1 Carbon Gen7 is somewhat poor (the only one so far with such issues).
- bacon_waffle 6y agoWhat OS are you using? How was the switch from 15" to 14"? I've had an XPS 15 running Ubuntu for about 2.5 years, and while it's certainly got a lot of objective things going for it, it's my least-favourite computer in the last ~15 years and I'm considering an update.
- znpy 6y agoI've been using a Dell Latitude 7390 and I think it could be the real thinkpad killer, if only it had the trackpoint. Give it a look, it's quite a marvel.