Lenovo ThinkPad X1-Carbon 14" Ultrabook

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21

Frankly, I’ve had nothing but problems with the Carbon X1.

We’ve had three of those in our office and every single one of them failed within a year, all with same problem - a disconnected screen. To get it fixed you need to send it to Lenovo, and while the repair team was great, it took time and I doubt they’ll be as responsive with an old, refurbished unit.

Additionally, I think they are criminally under-appointed, all for the sake of mobility (because, you know a motherborad with an rj-45 jack adds a lot of weight…) Read the hardware specs carefully.

22

[QUOTE=arosiriak, post:6, topic:613612]
As far as the current options for “budget” laptops and chromebooks go, this is a pretty decent pick, potentially…

** - Graphics:** Definitely the weakest part. Intel HD 4400 is roughly the equivalent of the now decade-old (older actually, but whatever) Nvidia 7800 GTX. Don’t expect to game much on this, except at significantly decreased settings, especially resolution. If you cut to 1280 x 720 HD (1/4 of the resolution, hence calling the doubled scale QHD, or quad-hi-def), it should be able to eek out some titles. Even then, stick to casual stuff, to be safe.

** - Screen:** WQHD 2560 x 1440 is my personal favourite resolution for use, and despite being on a 14" screen, should scale decently for Win10, while still granting clarity. And the touchscreen is a bonus, though not especially useful in the traditional clamshell laptop form factor.

Cheers!
[/quote]

This is great F’in review- I don’t give that complement often. Given the specs it’s really a good deal also. I am a pixel whore and love the fact that the screen is 2560 x 1440…BUT, I’m worried that the HD graphics 4400 is going to be somewhat challenged pushing all those pixels around. I’m thinking that maybe a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 would have been a better choice considering the graphics processor. Do you see any lag or rendering issues? The other question I have is that it doesn’t appear like this folds all the way back on itself to form a tablet- or does it?

23

[QUOTE=gak0090, post:22, topic:613612]
This is great F’in review- I don’t give that complement often. Given the specs it’s really a good deal also. I am a pixel whore and love the fact that the screen is 2560 x 1440…BUT, I’m worried that the HD graphics 4400 is going to be somewhat challenged pushing all those pixels around. I’m thinking that maybe a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 would have been a better choice considering the graphics processor. Do you see any lag or rendering issues? The other question I have is that it doesn’t appear like this folds all the way back on itself to form a tablet- or does it?
[/quote]

I have the prior generation X1 Carbon from Woot and no, it goes flat like it shows in the most extreme picture but does not actually fold back on itself. If you want that, you need to look at the Yoga.

24

OH man that keyboard - I cannot stand that keyboard. I had setup so many of these for clients and they hated the keyboard too and wanted to return it.

I would have bought one if it wasn’t for that darned keyboard layout. I can even live with the touchscreen rotating F-Button/Controls.

25

[QUOTE=saxStriker87, post:23, topic:613612]
I have the prior generation X1 Carbon from Woot and no, it goes flat like it shows in the most extreme picture but does not actually fold back on itself. If you want that, you need to look at the Yoga.
[/quote]

Thanks. It make the touch part a lot less significant if it can’t flex back more than 180 degrees.

26

[QUOTE=ewhac, post:4, topic:613612]
Remember: The second-generation X1 Carbon has a… controversial keyboard layout.
[/quote]

What’s the controversy?

27

[QUOTE=spiderman459, post:5, topic:613612]
So…assuming this computer sucks for Photoshop..could someone point me to a good one for it? Like a pro photographer or someone that isn’t just going to scream mac
[/quote]

Non-pro photographer but pro computer guy here. This will easily run photoshop (in fact, I run CS6 on a laptop that’s not nearly as current without any issues at all). Anyone who tells you that a dedicated graphics card will help you with Photoshop has no clue what they’re talking about and should be ignored.

The real issue is the screen. Fortunately, you can buy a great monitor for $100 (not pro-quality, but good enough) and hook it up to this, and then you have the best of both worlds: portability and a great screen. But make no mistake, this is a pretty great screen for a laptop. The issue will be getting perfect colors, which few care about (I do most of my photo editing on my laptop screen and then color-correction on my nice work monitor. It’s often not necessary, but it depends on how much of a perfectionist you are).

This is a great machine at a great price.

28

[QUOTE=pwolf4620, post:26, topic:613612]
What’s the controversy?
[/quote]

Oh, I looked at the keyboard again and realized that it doesn’t have a caps lock and yes, it is a strange layout.

29

This is it exactly. If it were a 3rd or 4th gen I’d jump at it. I had a 2nd gen bought under this sale and it was possibly my worst Woot purchase ever:

Picture is wrong, but the model I selected was a 2nd gen. It was the quad HD touch model. Many parts of the form factor were nice but the following made it unusable for me:

  • The trackpoint does not have buttons (nor the trackpad). You have to click on the trackpad when you are using the trackpoint - and the trackpad clicking is awful. The pad actually depresses as a whole by a couple of millimeters. They totally screwed this up and all of the _40 gen thinkpads (T440, T540, etc) with that same trackpad. That why you can find so many of them on places like Woot still. They were horrid. Lenovo totally screwed up their reputation for good pointing devices with this one.

  • There is no true function key row. Many other keys are moved to inconvenient places. You will spend hours correcting incorrectly typed tildes, accidentally hitting page up/page down which are where caps lock usually is, hitting delete instead of backspace because they split backspace in half and crammed in delete up there. People who type from memory will HATE the keyboard. Some keys (print screen, break, etc) are missing entirely. I use print screen and ALT print screen all the time. The LCD shortcuts can’t be customized to replace the buttons you lost.

  • You have to use a dongle to have an ethernet jack or to have VGA. Less that convenient for walking into a conference room and plugging into a projector unless it is new enough to have HDMI.

So - as long as you don’t need to use the pointing device or type, this laptop is great.

I am a long long time ThinkPad fan, but I avoid ThinkPads from this year like the plague. Buyer beware.

30

[QUOTE=scottb, post:11, topic:613612]
Lost me at “no caps lock.” Huh?

Otherwise I would have pulled the trigger.
[/quote]

Well, home/end are where caps lock usually would be. You can turn on caps lock by holding the shift key (there is a light which comes on). It takes some getting used to… by which I mean it sucks.

31

This is an amazing laptop for $499. I’ve had a Carbon for almost 2 years now, and I love it. Mine is a i7 with 8gb, so somewhat more horsepower than the i5 here. This will sell out. The embedded battery has performed well. The caplock works well with a second click on the left shift key. The wireless works well. Extremely light and portable. The touchscreen is fantastic. The carbon is a little fragile and thin. My only disappointment is that it isn’t a 3 in one. The screen goes entirely flat, but the hinges don’t allow for full tablet mode. I’ve run both Win7 and Win10, and they both perform well. I use this Carbon for 10+ hours a day and I’ve never had a problem.

32

This or the Latitude 7370 I ordered yesterday with 256/8gb/M-6y54?

33

Everybody considering purchasing one of these should know that it has the worst keyboard ever integrated into a laptop.

34

[QUOTE=pwolf4620, post:28, topic:613612]
Oh, I looked at the keyboard again and realized that it doesn’t have a caps lock and yes, it is a strange layout.
[/quote]

It’s worse than that. Caps Lock is integrated into left-shift, and is easily accidentally activated.

35

[QUOTE=alanhoyle, post:20, topic:613612]
Anyone know how well this works with linux? Concerned about the keyboard.
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I’ve booted Mint Live USB with no problems. All the devices (wireless, trackpad, screen) work fine under Mint Live Key. I’ve NOT tried the webcam under linux, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t also work flawlessly.

36

[QUOTE=xmichaelx, post:27, topic:613612]
Non-pro photographer but pro computer guy here. This will easily run photoshop (in fact, I run CS6 on a laptop that’s not nearly as current without any issues at all). Anyone who tells you that a dedicated graphics card will help you with Photoshop has no clue what they’re talking about and should be ignored.

The real issue is the screen. Fortunately, you can buy a great monitor for $100 (not pro-quality, but good enough) and hook it up to this, and then you have the best of both worlds: portability and a great screen. But make no mistake, this is a pretty great screen for a laptop. The issue will be getting perfect colors, which few care about (I do most of my photo editing on my laptop screen and then color-correction on my nice work monitor. It’s often not necessary, but it depends on how much of a perfectionist you are).

This is a great machine at a great price.
[/quote]

As kindly as possible, that is incorrect, from both an amateur photographer (10+ years), and pro IT admin (5+ years), and Adobe’s own software requirements.

Photoshop has, for generations now, utilised a combination of CPU AND GPU for complex rendering and post-processing tasks, due to Open-GL acceleration, and the added benefit of dedicated VRAM (when available). In the case of a CPU like this with an iGPU (integrated graphics), Photoshop will then lean on the same bank of RAM as the CPU, which is dynamically allocating its resources between the functions.
It can be helpful to have a discrete graphics card in this instance, but will not always be especially noticeable.

With regard to Lightroom, the hardware reqs are definitely bound to CPU and RAM, since its usage is so different (library and exposure control vs raster image editing).

As such, I stand by my statement of this being adequate to run Photoshop/Lightroom, but I would hardly consider this an ideal primary machine on which to do that, because of the lower-powered CPU and inability to upgrade RAM.

Similarly, with regard to monitors, you have to be in the $350+ range to find a comparable resolution on a decent panel.
$100 panels will be FHD 1080P, either TN (mostly just used for gaming now, because it’s fast), or cheap IPS, which will yield horrible contrast and mediocre colour.
You would have to be in the Dell Ultrasharp series, Asus ProArt series, HP ZR series, or similar to start to approach the quality (not size) of this.
Some people may have had less than stellar experiences with this screen if they don’t calibrate (which I do). With a proper ICC profile, it is capable of a pretty good sRGB gamut. It isn’t AdobeRGB, but show me a good monitor that does for under $500, alone, and I’ll be mighty impressed. The panel is an 8-bit part, but with FRC, can emulate 10-bit, which, combined with gamut coverage is better than many laptops out there. This screen is still a highlight - not a drawback.

Other remarks
@wootski: Thanks. I’ll take props anytime.

[QUOTE=gak0090, post:22, topic:613612]
This is great F’in review- I don’t give that complement often…
[/quote]

Again, thanks for F’in praise :slight_smile: And to answer your question, for general use, the integrated graphics do just fine, even with that resolution. And video playback is smooth, thanks to Haswell’s fixed function decode ability. It just won’t game well. It can be done, but it won’t be impressive.
And as has already been answered, no, it only flips to 180 degrees flat.

37

[QUOTE=baboval, post:33, topic:613612]
Everybody considering purchasing one of these should know that it has the worst keyboard ever integrated into a laptop.
[/quote]

You mean “IMHO”?

38

[QUOTE=mitchd123, post:31, topic:613612]
This is an amazing laptop for $499. I’ve had a Carbon for almost 2 years now, and I love it. Mine is a i7 with 8gb, so somewhat more horsepower than the i5 here. This will sell out. The embedded battery has performed well. The caplock works well with a second click on the left shift key. The wireless works well. Extremely light and portable. The touchscreen is fantastic. The carbon is a little fragile and thin. My only disappointment is that it isn’t a 3 in one. The screen goes entirely flat, but the hinges don’t allow for full tablet mode. I’ve run both Win7 and Win10, and they both perform well. I use this Carbon for 10+ hours a day and I’ve never had a problem.
[/quote]

Another great review, by a user, which is really key, since most everyone else is just an observer. Thanks!

39

At this price point, it’s a no brainer. This is the laptop to get. If your purpose is not for gaming. Fantastic screen, sufficient RAM and fast SSD installed. The sum of its part easily exceed the asking price.

The keyboard is indeed controversial for this (Lenovo fixed it on the subsequent generations).

40

I happened to start looking for an ultrabook today, so this is great timing, and the stats are exactly what I needed, and I do prefer 14" over 13.3".

I travel a LOT so durability is important and from what I’ve seen on the specs, it’ll hold up, although some of the user reviews make me nervous there.

I’m disappointed by the keyboard for sure, and also nervous about the refurb aspect, but at the price point I think it hits nearly all the nails on the head.