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I think my one quibble would be with your advice to stay away from the 3rd-generation processors - I suspect that the HD4000 graphics in most of them will be si
by fencepost 14y ago
I think my one quibble would be with your advice to stay away from the 3rd-generation processors - I suspect that the HD4000 graphics in most of them will be significantly better over time, and any kernel issues are likely to be ironed out in fairly short order.
The discussion I've seen on the keyboard difference seemed to be along the lines of the new keyboards still being best-in-class, but they are different so if you're shifting from one of the older ThinkPad keyboards you might object but nobody else should have problems.
Also of note is that the X230 (and all of the xx30 models, I believe) have mini-DisplayPort rather than whichever HDMI connection. I know the T430 also has a standard VGA adapter so it should be possible to drive at least 2 external displays; it's not clear whether the mini DisplayPort on them is DisplayPort++ which would in theory allow you to drive dual monitors fairly easily if they supported DisplayPort as well as HDMI.
UPDATE: For running multiple external monitors it's probably going to be at a fixed location where a dock is a possibility. In that case, Lenovo's Series 3 docking stations are worth looking at (http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/detail.page?&DocID=PD024298 http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/detail.pag...). The smallest has VGA only, the Mini Dock has VGA+DVI+DisplayPort but only runs 2 at a time, the Mini Dock Plus has VGA+2xDVI+2xDisplayPort and "many systems, including those with NVIDIA Optimus, allow for up to three ports on the dock to be used simultaneously."
- slashclee 14y agoI'm typing this reply on an X230 right now. There were some really annoying issues with Fedora 17 and Ubuntu 12.04; the iwlwifi driver would lock up and bring the machine down with it randomly under Fedora, and the Linux 3.2 kernel from Ubuntu would just randomly hard-lock for no discernible reason. After upgrading to Ubuntu 12.10, though, everything seems to be really solid. I haven't had any random kernel crashes or lockups since the upgrade. The keyboard, though, is flawless. I like it a LOT better than the Apple keyboards - I'd been using various different MacBooks for the past few years, including pretty much every model of Air, 13" and 15" Pro. The X230 keyboard is way better. I can't compare with the keyboard on the X220 since I don't have one, but I certainly have no complaints. (I wish there were a laptop with Cherry keyswitches, or buckling springs, but apparently nobody else thinks it would be worth the massive cost increase.)
- kami8845 14y agoYup I specifically mentioned that this was only an issue with older kernels. Regarding the keyboard I'd happily take a 10th gen (or however many iterations Lenovo/IBM has done on their keyboards) over their 1st gen chiclet-style. Might be just as good, might be better or might be worse, I'll gladly go with the thing that has a load more reviews and also received many awards being cited the "industry gold standard".