Carbon-based evolution. While Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon series laptop has always been an impressive piece of hardware, some design decisions have polarized the audience. The X1 Carbon 3rd Gen answers the criticism with solutions which aim to please all parties. We explore the results in excruciating detail in our full review.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Ultrabook-Review.138033.0.html
I do not understand why they cannot just use one of those slide-out Ethernet ports instead of a silly adapter. If Lenovo want to copy Apple then they should copy their 16:10 panels with excellent colour reproduction, not Apple's foolish form-over-function obsession.
I think that 2 factors are very important:
1) this is touch screen so it would be good to check also non-touch IPS display. It should be much better but still not perfect in comparison to Dell.
2) The configuration with NVMe and 512 GB SSD with transfer up to 1.1 GB is sth worth mentioning.
I think that especially 2nd is worth investing if you would like to have good laptop with good keyboard especially for programmers or power-users.
If would like to see test of such configuration here too.
Thanks for review.
I am waiting for my own X1 to arrive (i7-5600, 512 SSD, non-touch 2560x1440 panel) and I did not resist reading your review. Thanks.
I wonder what changes in battery life when the non-touch IPS panel is considered. Battery life aside, what about brightness and contrast for the non-touch? And what about the difference in weight?
As kitarek points out in her/his comment, the 512GB SSD should boost the i/o speed, in principle by a 3x factor. In turn, this PCIe connected SSD should also allow ultrafast swapping when the RAM is low, thus improving a huge range of other computational/performance features at the same time.
As a personal note, I am going back to Lenovo after a 1.5 years with a Dell XPS 15. Yes, an amazing machine on paper, but full of little problems and - on the top of that - Dell offers one of the worst technical support ever. Btw, before Dell, with my Lenovo laptops neither I nor my colleagues had to call the technical support, never.
I'd suggest actually looking at the machine... It's not an "attempt to copy Apple", it's simply a limitation of the size of the machine. It's too thin to fit a full-size ethernet port or round power plug--hence the adapter and new power plug. Considering how few people actually use ethernet, this doesn't seem like a bad tradeoff. I fail to see what Apple has to do with any of this...
Are there displays manufactured by two companies around? Because the review by thinkscopes.com finds 86% sRGB coverage. Or is that within the margin of error?
Maybe I'm missing something, but is there any benefit with the rigid chasis of a Macbook Air vs X1C, that is not so rigid? I have customers with MBA with the corners bended after a fall, something I think won't happen to a a X1C, because of the construction and the degree of flexibility the X1C chassis has. But, like I posted before, maybe I'm missing something.
A parte from that, great review.
BTW, sorry if there is any typo or gramatical error, since english is not my main language.
Quote from: paul4on on March 17, 2015, 19:16:35
I do not understand why they cannot just use one of those slide-out Ethernet ports instead of a silly adapter. If Lenovo want to copy Apple then they should copy their 16:10 panels with excellent colour reproduction, not Apple's foolish form-over-function obsession.
wrgs
OK, I will answer myself. It seems Lenove has three displays(total for touch and non-touch) available for the X1 according to the FRU list. Mine(Non-touch) was delivered with the LGD LP140QH1-SPB1 which NBC has tested in the 2014 model.
wrg
Pros cons still in german :(
Were the X1 Carbons tested with the BIOS version 1.06 or higher? One of the changes in that revision promised improved graphics performance. In my own testing, (i7 5600u, 8GB model) I did notice increases in some tests:
3dMark Score Old:
7255
Sm2.0: 2563
SM3.0: 3045
CPU: 3618
X1 Carbon: 1.06 BIOS
3dmark score:
8056
Sm2.0: 2846
Sm3.0: 3384
CPU: 4002
Sorry, forgot to mention, that was for 3dMark06.
For Furmark, running at 1280x720, in three different benchmark runs.
Pre-1.06 Bios:
569
557
532
1.06 Bios:
631
620
632
IMHO, the absence of FHD option is a show-stopper. There are still lots of apps which won't properly resize with super-high resolution displays.
wrg
wrg
Hey I noticed in the pic of the M.2 SSD there is an empty slot above it. Will an mSATA fit in there?
No, this should be the PCIe slot for a WWAN module.
Tell me please, how you can give this laptop score 87% with such a bad display. Brightness of this one is ridiculous bad. Work on this more than half hour is impossible - eyes pain ... it is very bad product ...
In addition Lenovo Service is the worst ever. Wanted to check it out and got one.
My X1 Carbon came with a flickering screen caused by a crack hidden under the frame. Lenonvo refused to exchange since the crack meanwhile has spread over whole screen. That is called fraud not warranty.
Does anyone know if it's possible to swap the X1 Carbon 2nd gen keyboard with this new X1 Carbon 3rd gen?
The 2nd gen keyboard pisses me off so much. I constantly get the urge to drop kick it into an industrial shreader
Great Laptop. For the Aussies in here, www.nomarkup.com.au has Lenovo X1 Carbon ThinkPad's for COST PRICE. Gen 4 and Gen 5. Check it out https://www.nomarkup.com.au/shop/notebooks/lenovo-x1-carbon-g4-i5-6300u/
Yes you heard right. Nomarkup sells products at wholesale value. See for youself.
I do not have a meter for screen brigthness, but this laptop has a screen which (too) agressively adapts to external ambient light. By default this dims the screen even with AC attached (you can disable this feature in the extended power settings). With the feature disabled the WQHD panel should provide the listed 300 nits (the HD+ panel is 250 nits). Without any measurements taken I would guess that the 300 nits measurement is right for this laptop as it is just a tad bit dimmer than my ZenBook with its bright screen of 330 nits. So the QHD panel is definitely not 250 nits IMHO. Thanks...
Hi,
how is it possible that you have this laptop with NVMe disk? All over the internet is spread that x1 carbon 2015 BIOS doesnt support NVMe. Actually I bought 970 Evo NVMe and bios complains about this: Detection error on SSD0 (M.2). Any suggestions please?