Gaming Graphics, Battery Life on X220T vs. next generation.

[barrywohl]

I'm planning to replace my X201T i7 L640 laptop/tablet in the fall when Windows 8 RTM and Ivy Bridge come out. Right now I'm running Windows 8 Consumer Preview and I really like it.

Microsoft Flight beta is the only game I use on it, but it would benefit from better graphics. The more modern screen resolution 1366 x 768 will be better for Windows 8 than my 1280 x 800 X201T.

My current X201T gives a Windows 8 user experience graphics score of 3.3. What score do you get on an X220?

How much better is the battery life on the X220 vs. the X201 and how big an improvement (10%, 50% 100%) will Ivy Bridge be over the X220.

Maybe I should grab an X220T rather than wait for its successor.

My dream replacement machine would have 100% better battery life than my X201T, less weight, and 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, and faster graphics.

I'm resisting the temptation to try a New Ipad, because I really like the form factor of built in keyboard and expandable storage, and I want to keep a good bit of storage with me, at least 300gb on an SSD drive. (Right now I've got a 320gb 5200 rpm hard drive in my Windows 8 CP test machine.) I figure that resisting the New Ipad gives me an extra $1000 to put into the X201T successor.

[Kaze22]

New Ivy Bridge X230t probably won't come out until Nov.
That's a long time away.
They will be pretty expensive, probably in the 2 grand range.

Most likley they will have the option of Q resolution displays (retina displays)
The current resolution is gonna be a joke compared to the new ones coming.

With the current gen model X220t, when you read magazines through Zinio, the fonts can be very hard to read.
I would personally wait for the new X230t and see which model comes with Q displays and get one of those.

Plus the X220t have the ugliest batteries in the world. This will probably be fixed in the X230t.

The battery is almost certain going to be going down on the next gen X230t.
Quad Core, plus higher resolution display, new Intel GPU.
I can't see all these things adding up to less battery use.

[barrywohl]

Thanks for the ideas. I would love the high resolution display. I'll wait to see what comes in the fall.

[erik]

sounds like a lot of speculation to me.   i wouldn't take any of that as fact.

[barrywohl]

Erik, what is the Windows 7/8 experience score on your X220 for graphics and gaming graphics? Barry

[erik]

i use windows server 2008 R2 enterprise and it doesn't report WEI.   inventor and autocad both run great though.   no clue on games.

a quick google search for "X220 WEI" comes back showing around 6.2~6.4 for graphics scores on the i5-2520M.   i'd look for a better benchmark though.   WEI is pretty useless.

[Kaze22]

I get 6.3
Mind you my Quadro 2000 only gets a 6.9

[bill bolton]

how big an improvement (10%, 50% 100%) will Ivy Bridge be over the X220.

Until product specs are released, no one knows

Cheers,

Bill B.

[sanjuro]

My dream replacement machine would have 100% better battery life than my X201T, less weight, and 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, and faster graphics.

I think that you may have to wait a long time for all four to happen. With Ivy Bridge, you will definitely get faster graphics but probably at the same or slightly better battery life. The weight will stay more or less the same and you may get 1600x900 screens, if Lenovo feels like competing with others with higher resolutions and it can buy such LCD panels at same or slightly higher price than the existing panel.

It's sad that a new ipad pretty much offers a spec that equals or exceeds what you mention but doesn't run windows.