Laptop for school X200s, X61T, X230

[rayne]

Looking for a portable laptop for school. I'm in computer science, so it is going to be used for things like eclipse and matlab.

Have been temporarily using a netbook which I love for its weight (~2.1lb). But the resolution is bad and the Atom processor is painful.

My big wants:
(1) Higher vertical resolution (i.e. higher than 1366x768)
(2) Reasonably light

Narrowed it down to: X200s, X61T, X230. Assuming I can find one, leaning towards the X200s.

X200S
(1) How bad is the quality of the X200s screen? Read some people talking about it on this forum, plus have seen it mentioned here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 531.0.html. I can live without IPS. Is the screen just normal and only bad when compared to the X230 IPS screen?

(2) CPU wise, is this thing still powerful enough? Not going to be doing heavy compiling, but don't want another Atom experience. Here is on CPU benchmark: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu ... GHz&id=964

X61T (WXGA+)
(1) Is this thing too old for me to be considering?
(2) Seems like most use the 8-cell battery. Is it feasible to use the 4-cell battery? Would like to get the weight reduced from 4.25 -> 3.75 lb.
(3) Is the tablet functionality worth it? Particularly with Windows 8.

X230
(1)
If not for the resolution, this would be a no brainer for me. Does anyone know of any ways to work around the resolution limitations?
For instance, is there any program that can split the wide screen in half to create two virtual displays that can be stacked on top of each other? This program (Virtual Display Manager: http://www.ishadow.com/?tabid=115) does the splitting, but it can't stack the split display on top of one another.


Thank you for your help. Learning a lot on this forum.

[91011]

Got to admit I’m prejudiced but, since it’s not on your list, you might want to look at an x301.
Small, light, 1440x900 resolution, cpu that's better than your netbook.
LCD is decent for work, crappy for video.
http://www.cnet.com/laptops/lenovo-thin ... 55266.html

May not be the machine you need but worth consideration.

[ZaZ]

Does anyone know of any ways to work around the resolution limitations?

Most browsers, office suites, pdf readers have the ability to make text smaller, which has the same effect as getting a higher resolution, though it can be quirky at times. I would agree the X200s is fine for office and internet, but anything where color and viewing angles are important, it's average. If you're not in a hurry, you might want to hang out in the Lenovo Outlet. I've seen the X220 with IPS offered in the $500 range, though some patience will probably be required to get that deal if it come along at all. Good luck and welcome to TPF.

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

X200S
(1) How bad is the quality of the X200s screen? Read some people talking about it on this forum, plus have seen it mentioned here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 531.0.html. I can live without IPS. Is the screen just normal and only bad when compared to the X230 IPS screen?

It's bad, but if you're used to a netbook-quality LCD it probably won't hurt as much.

(2) CPU wise, is this thing still powerful enough? Not going to be doing heavy compiling, but don't want another Atom experience. Here is on CPU benchmark: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu ... GHz&id=964

It should be OK. Benchmarks of this nature are pretty meaningless in real-world-surroundings.

X61T (WXGA+)
(1) Is this thing too old for me to be considering?

No.

(2) Seems like most use the 8-cell battery. Is it feasible to use the 4-cell battery? Would like to get the weight reduced from 4.25 -> 3.75 lb.

No.

(3) Is the tablet functionality worth it? Particularly with running Windows 8.

Do bear in mind that SXGA+ panels are pen-only. If you're OK with that, I see no issue with running W8.

X230
(1)
If not for the resolution, this would be a no brainer for me. Does anyone know of any ways to work around the resolution limitations?

Not that I'm aware of.

I'd agree with 91011 in the respect of X301 possibly being another contender...definitely an easier find than a WXGA+ version of X200s as well...or X201s which would be an even more desirable unit than X200s...

[pianowizard]

It should be OK. Benchmarks of this nature are pretty meaningless in real-world-surroundings.

George, I agree with you >99.9% of the time but here I respectfully disagree. I have found PassMark scores to closely parallel real-world performances, though I understand that several other components in a computer also contribute to overall performance. Anyway, a score of 1,281 is quite good for a secondary computer, especially since the OP will be upgrading from a netbook (whose CPUs typically range from 300 to 600 in PassMark scores).

"(2) Seems like most use the 8-cell battery. Is it feasible to use the 4-cell battery? Would like to get the weight reduced from 4.25 -> 3.75 lb." No.

What did "no" refer to, the statement that "most use the 8-cell battery"? I believe it's feasible to swap out the 8-cell battery for a 4-cell one. The X61T that I bought from Lenovo 6 years ago had a 4-cell battery. It was still quite heavy, at 3.84 lbs, which was one of the three reasons I sold it after only one week of ownership. The other two reasons were the grainy appearance of the SXGA+ screen, and Vista had lots of problems at that time (but as I have said at least 200 times on this forum, Vista is now great).

[Atreides]

I'll put in my 2c that the screen on the X200s isn't that bad, obviously it won't match up to an IPS display but it's about the same as your average laptop display.

Unfortunately for the X-series you're forced to choose if you want resolution or IPS...I'm not quite sure where I stand after having used both a X200s and an X220.

If you want the resolution you'll have to look for older models (X200s, X201s, X300, X301) while if you want the IPS it will have to be the X220 or X230. If you end up getting one of those later models, do make sure you get the IPS though, (I think) it's one of the main selling points.

[91011]

An x201s showed up on ebay today, at the moment about 19hrs left, that may come closest to fitting your parameters (except IPS).
Small, light, fast i7 cpu, 1440x900 LCD, great battery life and this one has warranty left (probably extendable).

Pretty rare, only five have sold in the past month, in the low to mid-$500 range.
But I only remember seeing about four from March to November - at prices up to almost $1k.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad ... 19d79b1c7b

[rayne]

An x201s showed up on ebay today

Thanks for the heads up.

[DaKKS]

I second the x201s. I have a x201 (full voltage i5) and i have nothing but positive things to say about it. Even though it has a lower res screen (1280x800)...

That i7 performs rougly the same as my i5 and as a fellow computer sciences student (software design), mine works splendidly. That x201s + 8 gb ram and an ssd will do anything you ask. Might bring mine along to my SNDC studies next year.

Properly managed, mine does 5 hours on the 6 cell, the x201s will do even more.

[rayne]

Hey guys,

Following up:
Tried out the X61T, but didn't buy. Liked the resolution, but screen seemed to be a bit grainy from the digitizer on top of it. Main issue was the brightness seemed to be pretty faded (even at max settings) along with short battery life.

Didn't try X200s, but lost interest when I looked at other non-IPS laptop screens (been spoiled by long-term use of an IPS monitor).

Purchased a used (~ 2 months) X230i over the holidays. So far I am pleased for the most part. This one has a 4-cell battery which so far has fit my use case very well--student on bus and shuffling between classes.

Only ever used a netbook and an older Acer laptop (2005), so this is a fun step up for me.

Thank you for your feedback.

[JakeR]

The digitizer on the x61T is actually behind the LCD panel, I believe the grain comes from some part of the antiglare coating or writing surface. I suppose the source doesn't matter much. From personal experience though, the x61t is a very tough machine. I dropped mine about three feet to a tile floor, and the only part that broke was the SSD. I have no idea how that worked out. Don't leave them in the car in the sun though. I did that once over a whole weekend, and some kind of glue leaked out of the LCD and onto the keyboard, and also left some kind of air bubble along the bottom edge of the LCD. It kept working though.

What finally killed it was a series of unfortunate events resulting in sugary drink entering though the bottom, where the keyboard drains do nothing. Worked for the rest of the day though, so I assumed none had entered. I was wrong. I miss the screen all the time, and I'm looking for a new one right now, which I plan to abuse far less. It's annoyingly hard to find the SXGA+ version for the tiny price I'm willing to pay, though.

It could certainly use a brighter backlight. The grain doesn't bother me much, although I recall reading somewhere that the x60t's screen didn't have this grain, but I was not able to find a source for that so I'm probably imagining it.

I'm not really sure if this post will help anyone, but I suppose it was worth a shot. I'm sad that the only IPS screen I have to play with is one of these surprisingly cheap south korean 27'' 2560x1440 thing.

[Soul_Est]

I would recommend the X200s or X201s with a 9-cell battery. I have one in my X200s and I regularly get over nine hours of runtime. Makes my other friends and classmates jealous.

Just make sure that if you run a Linux distro on it, that you use ext4 for the filesystem. Btrfs is a bit too unstable if you have the hard drive spin down to save power unless you have 'btrfs filesystem sync' run every five to ten minutes.