Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review | Hacker News Reader

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review

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110 pointsmcone130 comments

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...

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?

My last personal laptop was a Macbook Air, however I used a 4th gen X1 Carbon in my previous role and loved it so much I bought my own after I left. Unfortunately they're a lot less pragmatic without a corporate IT help-desk to troubleshoot issues and provide replacements on demand.

I consider myself very fortunate to live 45 minutes away from a Lenovo certified repair shop.

What brand would you recommend?

I don't have a recommendation, I'm not familiar enough with the current models.

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).

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.

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.

Let's not forget to mention a somewhat important detail: the T460 weights about 1.7 kg, while the X1 only weights about 1.1 kg. It's not a huge difference, but having a lightweight laptop is a big plus when carrying it around all day.

And it is MUCH thicker (or at least it seems so side-by-side)..

Which it has to be to have space for the ginourmous rj45 plug... (I can easily live with the small dongle to get native rj45 on the x1s)

The specs list it as 1 to 3mm thicker which doesn't seem like much.

This is because one (the X1) is tapered - you "experience" the thin side (keyboard) while the thick part is on the back.

The 450/60/70 is just a flat slab so it maintains its thickness along its whole surface (although the 460 and 70 cheat and they become thinner about 1 inch before the end, so they look a bit thinner when looked at from the front).

I have a 450 and don't mind it at all.

The T4[567]0s series are tapered at the edge as well. The -s suffix is the lighter version, basically similar to X1 series but with more ports/battery options/upgradability.

That's my pet peeve with my current (1st gen) X1 Carbon. I hate having to carry at least 3 dongles with me nearly everywhere. I usually travel with an mDP to VGA, mDP to HDMI, and a USB3 Ethernet adapter. I'd much rather have something like the T460s with two of those built in.

I don't have a scale with me but Lenovo lists the T460s at 1.4kg and the X1 at 1.13kg. So it's significant (~20%) but not that high. Note that the T460s is a different model to the normal T460.

Oh, I missed the "s" part and looked up the specs of the regular T460.

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.

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.

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

You're thinking of X1 Yoga

I looked at the X1 very closely then went with the T470P (I wanted the 7700HQ) with the 2560x1440 screen, 16GB on one slot (so I can go to 32GB if I want).

Now if UPS could just hurry up and deliver the thing I'd be a happy bunny.

You got two facts wrong:

- The T460s (and T470s) only has one free RAM slot, the other is soldered on as well.

- You're implying that the X1 has a soldered on SSD, but that's not true, it has a standard M.2 connector for the SSD. Maybe you were thinking about the MacBook...

I knew about the RAM but the difference is still significant. In the X1 your max is 16GB and only if you decide on that upfront. On the T460s you can go up to 20GB at any time. Didn't know about the SSD, thought it was soldered on, thanks for the correction.

I have a T431s and I love it. It's been going strong for years now!

It's a nice compromise between an ultrabook and a massive brick of a laptop. It is 'cheap', powerfuland easily upgradable but still very portable.

T460 is a fantastic machine. I have one with 32gb of ram and an i7 processor. It runs Debian like a champ and the keyboard is excellent.

That's a very different machine though. I'm talking about the T460s.

Seconding T460s as well. My company's dev team is mostly X1 Carbon, with some other T460s, and so far I'm having a great time with it. Maxed out specs (full mem, full SSD), running ArchLinux + Win10 dual boot. Arch has much better battery life than Win but it's good to cover all the bases when I need it for work. It's light, capable, good ports, and all. It's a real pleasure to use it every day. :)

I've been running the corporate Windows 7 install that came on the laptop inside VirtualBox with great results. Saves me from having to dual-boot and gives me nice extras like having the corporate VPN connected inside the Windows VM only for the things that need it while having the rest of the traffic on the normal network.

Agreed. Just switched from X1 Carbon to T460s. Got it with 4GB of RAM and stuck a 16GB stick in the slot (total: 20GB). It's hard to tell the difference with the X1 Carbon and the extra USBs, HDMI and such are welcome.

I'm fairly happy with my t540p, even has a socketed CPU for replacement. They're fairly cheap on eBay right now because they just came off lease from some larger companies.

How does that work 20GB of ram? One of the slots isn't full? It's not multiples of 4/8 I mean 2 sure, just curious.

Edit: nvm saw below 14 + 6

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I'm after the "keyboard to die for", though I might have to retrain for the larger keyboard (coming from an XPS, the keyboard of which is no match to Lenovo's but works really well for me as well).

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

Same here. I really hope the keyboard is as good as old-school Thinkpads and I'm crossing my fingers for 3:2 aspect ratio.

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

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.

Care to share whet eGPU solution you're using?

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

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.

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).

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

The T440p is waiting for you...

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).

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...

If you want something like a T420 my T460p has been making me happy. Well, there was something wrong with the original trackpoint cap but I replaced it very cheaply and now I'm happy.

I just can't get excited about the keyboard on the newer ThinkPads. I want the one from my T420. :(

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 :)

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.

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.

What proc is that ?

Intel i7-7600U @ 2.8GHz

For the X1 Carbon and Yoga, due to the thin profile, you are better off with an i5 CPU. The i7 will thermal throttle under load, so while you will get better burst performance, the i5 is actually better performance for longer operations.

I just got the X1 Yoga (i5 7300u, 16GB) and so far haven't had any thermal issues with it.

If only there were, you know, reviews from reputable publications that included such information.

The only way to get that type of information is to follow the user forums -- there's a lot of good info on reddit /r/thinkpad. I've been researching for more than a year before I settled on the configuration I picked up.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2017... https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2017...

Performance section: "The comparison of the two Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2017 devices shows that the Intel Core i5-7200U can keep up very well with the Intel Core i7-7500U during continuous load. The reason can be found quickly, since the temperature goal of the Core i7 is already reached after a few seconds, so that the performance has to be throttled considerably. Thus the advantage of the supposedly much faster processor drops to a minimum"

Unfortunately they don't seem to sell an i5 version of the X1 Carbon with 16GB of RAM.

Edit: It appears you can pay more to downgrade to an i5 on the high DPI versions.

The i5 7300u allows for 16GB (from Lenovo's configuration site).

Is there a good app (for windows), to monitor this? I've got an x1c, and never thought about this, and now I'm curious to how often and how much it throttles.

Isn't burst performance more important for nearly anything that is not a server?

The main application where I expect to care about sustained load on such a machine is watching movies, and even then I assume modern systems have good enough hardware acceleration that this isn't much of a load.

I'm same with the i7-7500U on my XPS 13. It's an example of Intel market segmentation where the most expensive isn't really any better, and i'm looking forward to my next Ultralight work laptop being an AMD job - the better graphics will be nice too.

If you're using Linux for work, be careful with AMD - I had no end of trouble with the video drivers. Everytime the kernel updated the screen would only be black with the drivers installed. I had to go through an elaborate process of uninstalling the drivers, booting in safe mode so the video settings wouldn't also black out, run updates, and then make several attempts to get the drivers back in. Happened for both Debian and Red Hat distro variants, and I never found a fix despite a lot of forum research. I'll never try an AMD with Linux again.

>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?

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

What about a different CPU governor to avoid throttling.

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.

Unfortunately that seems to be the staple of all modern thin laptops :(

My top spec 15" touchbar MacBook Pro happily locks it's 2.9GHZ CPU to just 1.2GHz after less than two minutes of running anything intensive (including games) and gets too hot to hold in the lap.

There's something wrong with your laptop, the new MBPs shouldn't do that in my experience. I'd recommend visiting a Genius Bar near you!

All of the laptops do that when they reach thermal limit. You can see that behaviour with Intel's power gadget.

(And yes, pattern appears on all MacBooks we have in the company, just at different points. The 2016 locks down the CPU when it reaches about 85 degress C. Even some new iMacs do the same due to inadequate cooling.)

I have the Gen 5 X1 (i7, 16GB RAM, 512 NVMe). I do not notice the type of performance you are experiencing. Although I am running Arch Linux, I can play SC2 on lower-moderate settings. It handles all the work I throw at it thus far.

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).

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

You could always use your thumbs to drive the trackpad and your fingers to drive the buttons.

Personally, I mostly use the nub, so the lack of additional buttons below the trackpad doesn't bother me much.

Have you tried keeping your left hand stationary and clicking with your left thumb, while mousing with your right hand? I find that position to be equally convenient for both the trackpad and the trackpoint.

Or setting the entire trackpad to respond to clicks / taps?

When I'm casually browsing, I find it very comfortable to put my thumb on the lower lip of the machine, mouse with my right index finger, and click with my right middle finger.

The track pad has two sets of buttons. One at the top for using with the red nipple in the keyboard and a set at the bottom of the track pad to use when you use the trackpad.

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.

As a X1 Carbon (4th gen) and X1 Yoga (1st gen) user with FHD and WQHD (2560x1440 if memory serves) repectively , I am going back to FHD on the next versions.

That resolution (WQHD) in a 14" notebook is way overkill for my late 30-something eyes... FHD looks like a sweetspot... (Also HIDPI does not work that great everywhere)

Also, the X-series are light ultrabooks, not workhorses.

If you want a work-horse take the P-series (take for example the P70, which is much larger and heavier, but is a beast).

A quick reinstall of windows combined with installing only the lenovo solution center (or whatever it is called today) fixes the crapware problem... (or install of a linux)

I am an extremely happy user with the given limitations... I do dev work, basic graphics work, database tuning/queries on it with no prolems....

I agree with the subject of the article, the X1s are done right.. even if I didn't actually read it (yet)..

I also know still-happy users on gen1 and gen2 (I had a W-series there myself)...

I'm using Linux and I'll never go back to FHD.

Works extremely well, even the fractional scaling.

2560x1700 13 incher here, running vanilla Ubuntu 16.04, no issues whatsoever and the screen is crystal clear.

Same here, looks great on Gnome/Wayland but the integrated graphics sometimes can't keep up on my XPS 13.To be fair it was the same on my old retina Macbook Pro (2013).

I know I lose battery because of the res, but it's pretty much worth it.

Same here. I've been surprised by how well it works.

I'm using Linux on Toshiba Radius 12 4k with either 1 or 2 4K displays (i.e. laptop itself or laptop and external display). I got it nearly 2 years ago for $700 on sale.

The screen is Amazing though I only realistically use browsers, sublime and a pile of xterms.

I'll take battery life over QHD for my laptops. honestly most of the time I can't even see the difference.

PPI wise FHD at 15" is almost same as my 2k 32" ultra wide at my desktop, and I'm supremely happy with it.

Not sure what you mean by FHD and 2k as they are essentially the same (2048x1080 vs 1920x1080). I assume you must mean 4k (or rather, UHD with 3840x2160) instead of 2k.

Dumb mistake, was supposed to be 1440p.

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.

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.

>> - 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

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.

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

At least Lenovo provide a choice. If you want a mobile Xeon workstation with 64GB ram, they sell it.

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).

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.

Does it have up to 5 years on-site warrenty (the fix it at your place) on the next business day.. 3 years are factory default, the 2 year upgrade costs peanuts (compared to the machine)?

In Germany atleast thats a yes to all of those. They even put a crazy warranty on top that says that if any part of your machine has a defect in the first year, you get the full amount paid back + can keep the repaired notebook.

Please post evidence... The danish models are either 1 or 3 year "standard" warranty..

The warranty doc says:

What Does this Warranty Not Cover? On-site service/repair, ....

So no on-site for the danish models (there is some mentioning of on-site as an addon, but no prices)... And the "full amount back + keep laptop" sounds to good to be true..

http://www.toshiba.eu/generic/reliability/

I'm not a sales rep, check where you can get the warranties you need. My supplier includes 3 years on site standard.

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

How does Linux run on it?

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.

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

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.

Has anyone gotten OSX stable on this thing yet?

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

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.

Possibly relevant: https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1iybjq/is_it_po...

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

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

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

> 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.

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.

Aside from speed? Nothing. Similarly to the desktop CPUs. More cores are just one way to achieve more speed.

> They all have dual core processors

I don't know what you mean - my pretty old laptop has an i7 with four cores and eight threads - an I7-4870HQ.

They also make dual-core i7 CPUs - the quad-core models aren't very common.

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.

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

Virtualization support, for one example.

And some laptops do come with more cores — my 2014 Thinkpad has 4.

Each step up gets more cache size, turbo boost, hyperthreading, internal graphics, cpu features, and power options, depending. Also, i3/i5/i7 isn't the only thing to consider - look at the product suffix (U/Y/T/Q/H/K) that adds or removes features to that model.

Compare the i3-6100U to the i7-6500U - both skylake ultra-low-power CPUs [1]. The i7 has about 30% faster effective clock speed (plus the turbo boost, which gives a small jump in clock speed when necessary, which can reduce battery usage) and 25% more cache. But another i7 model, the i7-6550U, has better graphics, even faster turbo boost, and a bunch of "Pro" Intel features that neither of the others have. Move up to the i7-6700HQ and now you have two additional cores, incredibly faster performance, even more cache, and higher limits up the wazoo.

Of course, newer microarchitectures may have have more optimal code paths, slightly higher clocks, smaller dies, better graphics, and use less power. So an i5-7200U may have better performance, similar features, and use less power than an i7-6500U [2].

[1] http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-6100U-vs-... [2] http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-7200U-vs-...

A large number of Skylake and Kaby Lake processors are quad core.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_micropro...

Also not really applicable to this review, but if you want a machine with say 32gb of RAM, that requires a bit higher of a processor.

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.

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