Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I need a new laptop and at first x220 seemed like the perfect choice. However, after reading some reviews and forums, looks like there are a lot of problems with it. For example, fan noise and display frame bending in sunlight. I was excited about IPS screen, but not anymore since it also has problems.

My guess is that x220 is still a too new model, and it requires some time until all the common problems are fixed.
Right now I'm interested in x201 - perhaps it is a better choice. I even like the resolution and screen ratio more.

What do you think? Is there someone who has used both machines and can tell me about their personal experiences?

I need:
- a solid, high quality, durable laptop with a fantastic keyboard
- good battery life, but not heavy (so 6-cell is the obvious choice)
- linux compatibility

I do:
- mostly web browsing and coding

I like:
- high quality screen with vivid colors
- good resolution, but not too high (I don't want to squint)
- usable speakers for watching movies

I don't want:
- noisy fan
- bad cooling system
- low quality parts

I don't care:
- graphics
- top speed processor (i3 is fine)

I can't really answer that, I'm more or less asking myself the same question, but X220 vs.X201s. I'm definitely more inclined to take the x201s because of the 1440×900 resolution, but did someone had a chance to look at x220 1366×768 IPS and X201s 1440×900 screens side by side and could report on that?

If you are willing to take a X201, why not just go for a X60 or X61? I had an X60 and it was an absolutely amazing machine and they still use 4:3 screens. X61 suppors Penryn and up to 8GB RAM.

TBH, I would take the X220, but since you clearly don't like it, I don't think you will find the X201 much different.

Every laptop has its problems. Fan noise? Every laptop has it to an extent. Frame bending? Likely some particular faulty units.

For high-resolution purposes, the X201s with 1440x900 screen wins, but will it be too high for you? Depends on you.

For everything else - X220 hands down.

I own an x201s and my friend has an x220i. Another one of my friend's own the Apple 13 inch Mac Book Pro. Here is a quick breakdown on my opinion:

x201s wins in dimension and weight.
x220i wins in power consumption - according to review, we never tested these side by side results.
Apple 13 inch wins in display.

Even though the MacBook Pro lasted not as long as the x220i, the MacBook Pro delivers a better battery life experience. You do not need to sacrifice a lot in order to get the most out of your machine. Without using battery stretch to the fullest extent, I think the results will be different.

I personally love my x201s. I am a Computer Scientist (specifically a graduate student) and the x201s provides me the portability, weight, and the resolution I need. I own the x200 ultrabase with a 500 GB harddrive attached and this increases the temperature of the laptop a lot. I bought the ultrabase for a couple of reasons. First, I always wanted one for a laptop that I own. I hate attaching and unplugging everything and I wanted an extra hard-drive. I also bought another power adapter that I keep in my schoolbag. The fan is reasonably quiet. Also if the dock is not attached the machine does become warm after awhile.

My suggestion is get the x220 or the MacBook. USB3 is around the corner and the DisplayPort on either of these will allow you to easily extend your laptop to another monitor. While I love my x201s - I would be satisfied with the x220. Apple provides just as quality machines, but they do not allow you to upgrade things like memory or hdd. So if you do not ever upgrading your internals to your laptop, get an Apple.

My X220i is excellent. It did have an overactive fan when I got it, but the BIOS update has fixed that for me.

I'm reading this topic and it is pretty scary. There are people who got their x220 replaced and still have the same problem!
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... d-p/425965
FredGarvin, do you notice this problem on your laptop?

Regarding x201, there is this huge scary topic:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... d-p/227471

I'm not sure what to think about these problems. It looks like pretty much every x220 has image persistance problem with IPS and high pitched fan noise problem. And a lot of x201 laptops have these weird random shutdowns. Is this just a minority of machines?
It's very disappointing to read stories about replacing machines, having the same problem and then giving up on them, thus buying a different laptop instead. Doesn't seem like a huge minority of machines or just some particular faulty units.
Or am I wrong?

Yes, you're wrong.

Sure, a certain (very low) percentage of ThinkPads have issues. This is true of any single electronic device. On average, 1-2% failure rate is acceptable and normal. Chances are, though, that you won't have any issues.

Chances are higher of you having issues with your current laptop than a new one.

Take the plunge. You know you want to. PS Get the X220. It's spectacular

brus0li wrote:It looks like pretty much every x220 has image persistance problem with IPS and high pitched fan noise problem.

Not at all... some do, most don't.

Cheers,

Bill B.

My X220i had an overactive fan when I got it, but the BIOS update has largely cleared up that issue. No problems to report on the IPS front.

Thank you for your responses.
I'll just go for an x220(i).

There's another problem I'm having. I can't decide where to buy a thinkpad.
I must admit that I don't have a huge experience with buying laptops.
Would you recommend doing it at amazon.com? And what about buying at lenovo.com? Can I expect to receive the machine in less than a month? I'm staying near San Francisco right now.

Regarding the specs, I'd probably go for an i3 (or perhaps i5). Not sure if a slower CPU would raise battery life considerably. I don't need top speed, but it's always a plus.

I would buy it directly from lenovo.com to make use of additional coupons. Click here on the ecoupons link on top of this page so you get a coupon code and hopefully this great community gets some money (which lenovo pays, not you) to help this community.

I just got my x201 and x220, one new from lenovo, the other new from cdw..

The i5 with SSD are super fast.. it is freakishly fast. I would not look at a x60, I still have a x61 and its not nearly as fast and snappy as the new one.

The only thing I hate about the x220 is the 7mm hdd..

Great. I have just a few more issues.

I'll have to do a compromise between price and features.
I'd probably go for an i3 processor because of the price and it's probably not that much slower than i5.
Regarding the screen, I'd leave IPS and choose the good old TN screen. I won't be doing any image editing or something like that, just occasionally watching movies.

Right now I have Edge 13 (core 2 duo, 1.3 GHz, 4GB RAM) with a terrible glossy (hate it) screen and horrible viewing angles, but nice colors. It's a bit slow for my needs. Keyboard is good, but the layout disappointing. Build quality not impressive. Battery life pretty bad.

WLAN: 11b/g/n, PCIe Half Mini Card, Intel Centrino® Wireless-N 1000, 1x2
Is this WLAN card at least average in terms of signal quality? Googling says linux support should be fine, but have you tried WPA support? The card on my Edge is supposedly supported by linux, but WPA support isn't implemented in the driver yet.

For $50 I can't imagine not getting the IPS LCD, but that's me.

brus0li, the IPS display is not meant for photo editing. It is just for looking at an average display. In no way is this IPS display comparable with my external displays. But at least it is not as worse as the TN display lenovo uses. Lenovo uses one of the worst TN displays available on the market. If you shop very cheap and get an ASUS notebook with TN display, you have a much much better display! Don't see the 50 USD as an upgrade. See it as to get your display out of the "worst displays build ever" category. Lenovos non-15-inch-TN displays are mostly horrible. The IPS display you get for the 50 USD is a very good one for notebooks. I'd not even think not upgrade my notebook to this display.

i3 is perfect if you don't do data encryption or use virtual computers.

Agree with both Fred and ssd. For anything other than the most mundane pointless office work - a good display is probably the most important thing. I cannot imagine enjoying movies on the dull TN displays, especially considering the quality of the particular models Lenovo tends to use.

No issues with my X220, no noise at al,l even in turbo preformance and max processor temp. As to display the IPS panel is gorgeous!, keyboard and overall manufacture quality excellent as always.

Where to buy:

If you are associated with education ( student, teacher, Prof. whatever..) Check if kenovo has a program fpr rducation in your area/ at your school.
At least in europe this can easily make 10-20% difference.

No issues with my x220 - it's fantastic, and amazingly fast. Any outstanding issues seem to affect only a few people running continuous benchmarks on their machines, but a BIOS update is on it's way (in addition to the interim one released yesterday).

If you buy a standard config you can probably get one next day. Mine was a CTO but it took just one week to arrive from China.

Hope this helps.

S

I'm very interested in the issues with fan. People report that it's makes some very annoying high-pitched noise.
Did you notice it? Do you know someone who has problems with it? Should I worry about this? What are really chances that I will have a problem with it? It definitely doesn't look like just some faulty machines, more like a serious problem.

Some reported issues have been corrected with the new BIOS update.

Never had a problem with the fan, although I've only had the machine for a week or two so it's been pretty recent BIOS.

From my experience there seems to be nothing to worry about, but also reassuring is the updates that Lenovo ackowledges and is working on for regular release. Better than other laptop makes that I've had recent dealings with.

S

I just received an X220. I notice a soft constant tone when the fan is on no matter what speed it's running at. Either electronics or air whistling. The BIOS is up to date. I only hear it when everything else is quiet. When there's other noise, like a fan or in a meeting, I don't notice it. I wish it wasn't there, and if a further update fixes it, fine. At some point when I have more time I may take it up with Lenovo, but it's not enough to make me return the laptop.

As someone said above, these aren't perfect. I think we tend to focus on the most glaring thing to us. If it wasn't the fan, I might be concerned about something else I haven't noticed yet!

rsutoratosu wrote:I just got my x201 and x220, one new from lenovo, the other new from cdw..

The i5 with SSD are super fast.. it is freakishly fast. I would not look at a x60, I still have a x61 and its not nearly as fast and snappy as the new one.

The only thing I hate about the x220 is the 7mm hdd..

Do you have an equivalent SSD on the x61. Would you mind doing a compare with the SSD in the x61? Just to see the difference in both?

Vertex 2 on the X61s with the SATA3Gb/s custom bios runs pretty well. 180MB/s sustained based on CrystalDiskMark. Before the custom BIOS it was only 80MB/s.