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X1 Carbon Gen 4 - thoughts so far

X1 / X1-Carbon (X1C) / X1-Extreme (X1E) Series/Generations
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micrex22
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X1 Carbon Gen 4 - thoughts so far

#1 Post by micrex22 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 8:34 am

So I've been using the X1 Carbon (4th gen) for a good week now after getting it. Thought I'd share what I think of the laptop so far.

The reason why I went for the 4th gen instead of the 5th gen, is because I prefer the hinge style on the 4th gen (Lenovo retrograded back to the static ThinkPad 'edge' style hinges which I both hate looking at, and the way they feel as they open).

The keyboard and trackpoint work well enough, so I don't have any complaints there. Despite being a chiclet keyboard, the spacing is done so that the keys are 'discreet' enough and the switch action isn't mushy. Although I'm still sorely missing the blue enter key :0)

I did run into a few problems when handling the laptop. The finish is a bit slick, so it tends to slide around on my lap or in my hand(s). And placing anything on top of the laptop will also slide. The other problem is where the vent is and the power button. If you hold onto the laptop on the right side (with your right hand), you risk accidentally holding down the power button and crashing the computer. If you hold it from the bottom with your left hand, you'll most invariably place it in the middle--which your fingers can cover the vent because Lenovo placed it very close to the middle of the rear.

Since I'm so used to the classic ThinkPad series, it's natural for me to assume the audio jack is going to be on the LEFT side of the laptop. With the X1 Carbon 4th gen, it has been moved to the RIGHT side. This also makes less sense from a headphone perspective; as the cord out of the majority of headphones comes out of the left ear. Therefore the cord doesn't have to 'cross over' as both are on the left. In the case of the carbon it does cross over (unless you have a pair of headphones where the cord comes out of the right ear).

The power jack feels feels awkward to use if it's plugged in just to where its location is (and unlike other ThinkPads, it appears the power jack is directly soldered to the motherboard). Battery life thus far is satisfactory (for me), looks to have about 8-9 hours with the screen at full brightness.

Since there are so many different FRUs for keyboards and TrackPoint assemblies, I don't know which is the better of the FRUs for the X1C 4th gen. I did try out a different X1C 4th gen and it had TrackPoint buttons that I had a better liking to than the ones I got from the Lenovo FRU roundrobin.

Pros:
*decent keyboard
*trackpoint works!
*matte screen
*better hinges than the 5th gen

Cons:
*trackpoint buttons could be a bit more crisp (could be solved by getting the 'more desired' FRU but I don't know the FRU #s)
*power button is located in a poor spot
*finish is very slick causing sliding
*audio jack is on the wrong side
*vent should have been moved over and not in the middle

w0qj
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Re: X1 Carbon Gen 4 - thoughts so far

#2 Post by w0qj » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:17 am

Nice choice on your X1C4 ;)

We bought our X1C4 because:
~Last model to support Windows 7 with Windows Update (we plan to use Win7 until supports ends in 2020)
~NVMe SSD support for future-proof storage
~16 GB RAM (first X1 Carbon model to support 16 GB RAM)

Do enjoy your X1C4 ;)
Daily Driver: (X1E3) X1 Extreme 3rd Gen | mobile broadband (WWAN)
Current Thinkpads: X1E3 | X1E1 | X1C10 | X1C9 | X1C4 | X1C3 | X230
Retired Thinkpads: X250 | T410 | T42 | 560 (circa 1996)

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: X1 Carbon Gen 4 - thoughts so far

#3 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Sat Jul 08, 2017 4:05 pm

Well, you could always put a WTB in the Market Place for blue spray paint :)
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

micrex22
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Re: X1 Carbon Gen 4 - thoughts so far

#4 Post by micrex22 » Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:29 pm

w0qj wrote:
Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:17 am
Nice choice on your X1C4 ;)

We bought our X1C4 because:
~Last model to support Windows 7 with Windows Update (we plan to use Win7 until supports ends in 2020)
~NVMe SSD support for future-proof storage
~16 GB RAM (first X1 Carbon model to support 16 GB RAM)

Do enjoy your X1C4 ;)
You know, I'm a bit skeptical about Win7 being restricted (it's true Intel and MS are trying to do something in a hotbed together so they can artificially lock out people to force faster cycles of PCs being purchased) but at the end of the day x86 is x86.

I mean... Ed Bott and other CNET people were paid by Microsoft to push the fact that you couldn't 'upgrade' from Win7 to Win10 for free by a certain date / which is false. I've just ran the media creation tool to upgrade a PC and it activated with a 'free' license no problem. So there's a lot of (deliberate) misinformation being pushed out for Microsoft by paid third parties. Microsoft wants everyone on Windows 10, so "free" upgrades will still be in order: because they get to sell your data to 3rd parties like Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon etc. Except Microsoft is doing it at a level we've never seen before, enough to make their competitors jealous :lol:
Thinkpad4by3 wrote:
Sat Jul 08, 2017 4:05 pm
Well, you could always put a WTB in the Market Place for blue spray paint :)
Actually I have painted some things before, if they're going to come in a lot of contact (or with human oils), you'll want an *enamel* based spray paint / and typically rustoleum is the best choice:
https://i.imgur.com/yNtQPd5.jpg

However, painting over the key would remove the text (and also, removing those modern lenovo chiclet keycaps is an art to itself, it's NOT easy and potentially irreversible).

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