Thinkpads Forum

Hi there

This is my first post and I am pretty much non-computer literate so please bear with me.

I need a new laptop soon, my T60 is on its last legs, but has lasted a great length of time. I am considering buying either the x220 or the x230, but I live in the UK and the X230 is only available with 2 processor options, the i5 3210 or else the i7. The latter makes it considerably more expensive and probably is too much for what I need. Lenovo is also not letting me upgrade the screen from the default option, as the upgrade is the 3 x 3 antenna (?) so I can't get the webcam.

I was originally going to really spec up the 220 and go for that, but I have heard about screen warping problems (my other half has a t400s and has been plagued by the chassis cracking at the palm rests) so I want to avoid that. I know all the other major X220 problems such as throttling have been fixed, one of the benefits of getting a tried and tested machine.

I guess my question really is which one should I buy... I am not a gamer, I will be using it for running SPSS, a statistics package; watching movies and streaming etc.

Would I be better getting the sale price on the 220 now or do I wait to see if the x230 has more configurations for the uk in the next couple of months? (does lenovo usually increase the options for configuration?) I don't want to lost a good deal on the 220.

What do I do? I am very confused!
Many thanks for your help

Alison

X230 is available with i7 on the UK site.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I know it is available, but I think that it is more processing power than I need to be honest, and it is an additional cost that I didn't want to shell out for. I would though upgrade the x220 to the older generation of i7 if it would make a difference to the performance of the x220 vs the new i5 in the x230.

I am basically just wondering whether lenovo has a history of changing the specs of available machines within the first 2 months or so of release... as I would like to upgrade the screen so I can have the better screen with the integrated camera and go for an i5 processor I think.

Given the above should I go for the x220 or x230?

If you can get he X220 considerably cheaper, that's the way I'd go. From a design perspective, the X220 and X230 are very similar. For the CPU Ivy Bridge only offers a modest performance bump. The GPU is considerably better if that's important to you. The other major difference is the USB 3 the X230 gets whereas the X220 only has it on the i7 equipped machines. The biggest change is the keyboard has been switched to an island style keyboard. If you use the shortcut keys a lot, Lenovo moved a bunch of them around and it will throw people off who use them a lot, though the actual typing on the keyboard is very good.