Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review
anandtech.com
anandtech.com
What gives?!
Basically, the problem the vendor has when selling a product with a large appeal is that they want to sell it at the highest price the buyer will bear. If portion A of the buyers budgeted $100, and portion B of the buyers budgeted $150 for your gizmo, how do you price your gizmo to extract maximum value from the buyers from A and B? If you sell it for $150, A won't buy. If you sell for $100, you're missing out on $50 from B.
The solution is to make minor modifications to your product to sell the Basic version to A for $100, and the Premium version to B for $150. If you've done your manufacturing right, the cost of one over the other is minimal, and you're getting the maximum value from both portions of buyers-- I mean market segments. :)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation
And to expand on your your issue with the availability of 16GB models... you represent a small enough niche at this stage that it's not worth Lenovo's effort to design and source parts to accomodate your segment.
Calling it segmentation would make sense if I could actually give a boatload of money to buy something that includes it. Getting a huge W workstation really isn't an alternative.
Otherwise it's great laptop.
shows
12.5" FHD (1920x1080) IPS Display 400nit, WWAN
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (1 SoDIMM)
1. http://ark.intel.com/products/85212
Edit: If the 2015 X1 Carbon is dual-channel, I'm not sure why Lenovo would lack a 16GB option. I guess mounting twice as many RAM chips could hit space constraints.
Just found them because I want a laptop without a webcam...
I have a laptop based on W230SD and I'm very happy with it. It contains a proper i7, not the underpowered U model and also has a 3k screen, 2x mSATA slots and is easily upgradable in a 13.3" chassis.
Not may people realise just how underpowered the U processors are for any real CPU intensive work. 4xxxU i7 processors are on a par with 2xxxx mobile processors.
You sacrafice ultrabook thinness and some battery life, but the return is a very powerful, cheap, upgradable laptop.
EDIT: aha, seems like a company called Intelligent Memory makes a single 16GB module [1] that works with X250.
[1]: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/now-16gb-ddr3-module...
You can select a 16Gb option for the X250. It does say "single SODIMM" though, which presumably means single channel memory => a very expensive SODIMM & sub-par performance compared to a dual channel equivalent.
> Memory: Up to 8GB (1 DIMM), DDR3L-1600 PC3-12800 1600 MHz
This is my story every day: "you wanna go left? No you wanna go PageUp!", "You wanna go right? Here's a PageDown for you!" "AAAAAAAARRRRGH"
I have a slightly older model that also moves the PgUp/PgDown keys to the arrow keys. I never really had the problem of pushing them instead of left/right, but I was annoyed at it at first because I couldn't find PgUp/PgDown. After using it for a few months, I actually prefer that layout.
What annoyed me more was the swapping of ctrl/fn from my older model (Fn is at the leftmost now). I got used to that too, though I would still prefer ctrl on the left.
As for the keyboard itself, I preferred the pre-chiclet keyboard on the old thinkpads, but of the current-generation laptops I've tried, it's still the best one by miles.
At least on my 5y old Thinkpad Edge 11 it was easy.
Use something like a credit card to remove the keys. And put them back with a firm press.
Not that I believe other manufacturers are innocent, but that's not really important. What is important is that reviewers take some responsibility in informing the public about what demands it should be making.
Not many people unfortunately I notice, care about their own privacy in the digital age.
And the fun thing at the end of the day is, the end users of these products are majority non-technical users.
It terrifies me that Lenovo is now responsible for pushing out updates to my Moto X (gen 1).
Relatively similar specs, great screen, and less expensive!
However this thin bezel sure does look sexy... :)
Really didn't want to support Lenovo after the whole Superfish thing but it's nearly impossible to find a PC laptop that is light, > 13", and not a complete underpowered pile.
The machine is really solid, and for a 14 inch screen it is really tiny. It's just a bit bigger then my 13 inch macbook pro but features a larger screen. Using ubuntu 15.04 on it also is really pleasent experience, nearly everything works, except the 3/4 finger gestures on the touchpad and audio. But since my worklaod typically exists of running virtual machines, ssh and chrome the sound doesn't bother me.
So glad they didn't say "this keyboard is better, get used to it" and instead listened to their customer base. It's still not as good as the keyboards on the T/W/520, although the backlighting is nicer than the thinklight when working in low lighting conditions.