Thinkpads Forum

I currently have a Samsung X360 ultra-thin laptop (Intel dual ULV 1.2ghz) with a 128GB SSD. Even after 2.5 years it's a fast laptop for everyday use with a class-leading LCD (300 nits) and only 1.3kg.

It's time to upgrade and I've narrowed the choice to the X360 successor the Samsung 900X3A which has a very fast SSD and even better screen (400 nits+ and non-glossy). The battery life is quite good and it's very stylish.

I've always loved Thinkpad's build quality and their classic look with excellent keyboard. What has put me off up to now has been the dim LCD screens. Along comes the X220 with IPS. I live in the UK but can source an i7 one with IPS screen from the US.

Can anyone from the forum advise me on their experience with the X220 and IPS. Is the screen as clear at the one on the iPad which has very vivid font and colours? The battery life of the X220 also seems to be 10 hours+ on a 9 cell under normal user with Wifi on and no screen dimmed. Is that correct?

Any advice greatly appreciated

mulleady wrote:I currently have a Samsung X360 ultra-thin laptop (Intel dual ULV 1.2ghz) with a 128GB SSD. Even after 2.5 years it's a fast laptop for everyday use with a class-leading LCD (300 nits) and only 1.3kg.

It's time to upgrade and I've narrowed the choice to the X360 successor the Samsung 900X3A which has a very fast SSD and even better screen (400 nits+ and non-glossy). The battery life is quite good and it's very stylish.

I've always loved Thinkpad's build quality and their classic look with excellent keyboard. What has put me off up to now has been the dim LCD screens. Along comes the X220 with IPS. I live in the UK but can source an i7 one with IPS screen from the US.

Can anyone from the forum advise me on their experience with the X220 and IPS. Is the screen as clear at the one on the iPad which has very vivid font and colours? The battery life of the X220 also seems to be 10 hours+ on a 9 cell under normal user with Wifi on and no screen dimmed. Is that correct?

Any advice greatly appreciated

Don't have experience with the Samsung 9-series. But judging by reviews, it's a very sexy decent laptop. If X360's CPU satisfies your need, the ULV Core i5 on the 9-series will blow your head off.

I don't really know much about the LCD on the Samsung and how it's compared to X220's. But the truth is, as long as it is IPS, typically it's hard to go wrong with Samsung's screen. X220's screen is made my LG, it's extremely bright and has very high contrast. It has the same length and pixel count on the shorter side of the screen as the iPad. LG is also one of the iPad's screen manufacturers, I wouldn't be surprised if X220's screen and LG's iPad screen were cut from the same panel.

As far as battery life is concern, I haven't used my X220 long enough to justify the claims (it only arrived a few days ago). People agree that you can get at least around 1 hour per cell (9 hours for 9-cell) under normal use, and that seems to be the case from my short experience.

The X220 with 9-cell is about a pound heavier, and thicker than the Samsung 9-series. The reason to go for the X220 is for performance (normal voltage CPUs), better keyboard, durability, battery life, and tons of configurable and upgradable options. But if ultraportability is very important to you, and it seems that CPU performance isn't too important for you, the Samsung will be a better choice.

Thanks for your very helpful insights khtse

The X220 seems to be a more durable machine and there are times I'd like the extra brute power. I love the durability of the Thinkpad. I dropped an x360 on the floor and the hinge became exposed and then broke eventually. Somehow the Thinkpad ones seem rock solid.

I hope to add a Samsung PB22 128GB if I buy the X220. It's a very close call, they are both superb ultraportables!

mulleady wrote:Thanks for your very helpful insights khtse

The X220 seems to be a more durable machine and there are times I'd like the extra brute power. I love the durability of the Thinkpad. I dropped an x360 on the floor and the hinge became exposed and then broke eventually. Somehow the Thinkpad ones seem rock solid.

I hope to add a Samsung PB22 128GB if I buy the X220. It's a very close call, they are both superb ultraportables!

Honestly, if I were to choose between X220 and an ultraportable (that is more portable than the X220), I would choose between the X220 and the new Macbook Air. Granted, the display on the Air is not IPS, but the quality is good enough (somehow Apple can always source some high quality TN panels, but Lenovo can't). I would have bought the Macbook Air if they offered 8GB memory and better battery life.

I'm using Crucial M4 SSD on my X220. They are slightly cheaper than the Samsung's ones and are slightly faster, you may want to consider that as well.

Thanks for putting me on to the Crucial SSD, very useful!

mulleady wrote:Thanks for putting me on to the Crucial SSD, very useful!

I had experienced some random pauses with the M4 initially, especially when the desktop is loading. My M4 came with 0001 firmware, and after upgrading it to 0002 firmware, the issue was fixed. So if yours also came with firmware 0001, you may want to installed the firmware before putting it into the X220 (you can upgrade the firmware afterwards, but then you have to bear with the random pauses for a while).

khtse wrote:I had experienced some random pauses with the M4 initially, especially when the desktop is loading. My M4 came with 0001 firmware, and after upgrading it to 0002 firmware, the issue was fixed. So if yours also came with firmware 0001, you may want to installed the firmware before putting it into the X220 (you can upgrade the firmware afterwards, but then you have to bear with the random pauses for a while).

There is also an option of hybrid storage on X220 (mSATA SSD + 2.5" HDD). I'm using Intel 310 80GB SSD, and i never experienced any "pauses" with it. Also, there is a widespread opinion that Intel SSDs are best for everyday usage, and while other SSDs beat intel's in various synthetic tests, in everyday life they are worse than intel's in terms of both performance and reliability.

Thanks to you both.

khtse wrote:The reason to go for the X220 is for performance (normal voltage CPUs), better keyboard, durability, battery life, and tons of configurable and upgradable options.

And last but by no means least: the TrackPoint.

penartur wrote: There is also an option of hybrid storage on X220 (mSATA SSD + 2.5" HDD). I'm using Intel 310 80GB SSD, and i never experienced any "pauses" with it. Also, there is a widespread opinion that Intel SSDs are best for everyday usage, and while other SSDs beat intel's in various synthetic tests, in everyday life they are worse than intel's in terms of both performance and reliability.

Well the pauses are fixed with the updated firmware, and so far the M4 is working like a charm. I'd agree with you about your comment on Intel SSD back in the X-25M days. But these days Intel has their own reliability issue (the dreaded 8MB issue) and there are number of non-Intel SSDs that perform faster even outside benchmark.

khtse wrote:There is also an option of hybrid storage on X220 (mSATA SSD + 2.5" HDD). I'm using Intel 310 80GB SSD, and i never experienced any "pauses" with it. Also, there is a widespread opinion that Intel SSDs are best for everyday usage, and while other SSDs beat intel's in various synthetic tests, in everyday life they are worse than intel's in terms of both performance and reliability.

How did you manage to fit the larger M4 SSD in the 7mm X220 bay?

The M4 has a removable spacer, removing it makes it a 7mm drive.

khtse wrote:The M4 has a removable spacer, removing it makes it a 7mm drive.

No other mods required, that simple? I'm tempted to get a 256gb one thanks to you. Have you run the Crystaldisk benchmark and if so what r/w speeds are you getting and Win 7 boot-time?