The ThinkPad I've been waiting for ... (Pic)

[Medicopter]

Today was a very happy day for me! UPS delivered my long awaited new ThinkPad X230

I have already posted this in the shipping thread, but here are the specs again:

Intel Core i7-3520M Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Display type 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 3x3 Antenna
Total memory 8 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard Backlit - US English
UltraNav without FingerPrint Reader
Hard drive 180GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Integrated Mobile Broadband (Sierra Wireless MC7700 - Gobi 4000 for AT&T LTE and HSPA+)
Microsoft Office Professional 2010
3Yr Priority Support Onsite Warranty

When I unpacked the ThinkPad I had the usual concerns: visible damage from shipping, dead pixels, built quality, but luckily the machine is perfect! My other anxiety was about the new keyboard: to be perfectly honest the new chiclet style keyboard was the main factor that kept me from immediately purchasing the X230. I've been so used to the traditional ThinkPad keyboard and did not have pleasant experiences with other chiclet keyboards on other computers so I was hesitant in embracing this style on the ThinkPad. I am happy to say I was wrong about my fears-- the keyboard still feels like a "true" ThinkPad keyboard, the response is precise and clean.

The X230 is a high quality machine-- visually appealing and from what I have seen so far, very well built. I think Lenovo still takes pride in the ThinkPad line like IBM did, which I am extremely happy about.

An interesting thing I noticed is that the Fn symbol along with that on the spacebar and on the Fn keys at the top are white for me, not blue like on the website image. This doesn't bother me, I think it looks a bit more professional with the white markings rather than blue ones, I just thought it was interesting.

I've only had the X230 for a few hours, but I am already attached to it; it felt immediately familiar, is exactly as I wanted it, meets my expectations, and is so far a great piece of machinery. Hope it will accompany me as long as my current 600X: 12 years and counting

[ausmike]

thanks for your post !@! congrats !
yips ..... x230 nice machi9ne .. am waiting for LeNOOOOvo to release their X230 Gorilla Glass tablet - for personal use (that I can buy) ............and still DONT LIKE THE 'chicklet' keys - sorry old DIE HARD TP lover !
IMHO- why mess with reinventing the Wheel - its round and works well - however I do understand that with 16;9 format screen - there would be extra space left over on keypads eg TP Edge E520 series ...

but then in mean time .......I have a new MAC PRO - with Retna Display to play with this weekend !

Ok enough rant - congrats and enjoy your toy !
Cheers

[Medicopter]

Hello everyone!

I am surprised by the mixed reviews I have read regarding the X230. I have had mine for about two months now and I have to say that I love it. I have also been a Thinkpad user for almost 20 years, starting with the 700C

I will admit that I was not thrilled about the chiclet-style keyboard and that I seriously considered purchasing the X220 to get the "traditional" Thinkpad keyboard, and that I used to think the backlighting looked... Well, cheesy... But I am happy to say that any doubts I had are completely unwarranted. I feared that the Thinkpad X series was being watered down or on the way to being indistinguishable from any other laptop on the market. Boy am I glad how wrong I was!

The X230 is perfect. The keyboard has the same great feedback and feel as that on my 600X, the machine is intuitive and extremely customizable (as most Thinkpad users probably know and expect it to be ).

My initial skepticism toward the widescreen display is also gone now, after getting used to it, it is not bad at all. This machine is the first widescreen display I have owned and I like it quite a bit.

Most of the criticisms I have read seem a little strange to me, so here are some of my thoughts...

Some people dislike the new position of the Page Up and Page Down keys, as they are no longer on the upper right corner of the keyboard but rather integrated into the set of arrow keys on the lower right. I do still occasionally reach up to where they were before, but all in all it makes much more sense in my opinion to have them with the other arrows. It is convenient because you don't have to shift the position of your hand anymore and now all the scrolling controls are in one location instead of spread out and separated.

Volume control took a little getting used to for me, I have to resist the urge to press Fn PgUp or Fn PgDn to change the volume like I had to on my 600X. I think it's just a matter of getting used to really. The more I use the X230, the more comfortable I am with the new volume controls. It's really no big deal and it's a little silly to use that as a complaint against the whole machine (almost as silly as my rejecting the Thinkpad X230 on account of the keyboard style, without having used it ).

I have also heard some complaints regarding Lenovo Priority Support (which to my surprise still goes back to the original IBM Thinkpad Support Service) that I wish to address. I have recently been dealing with them a lot (I have Priority Onsite Warranty) and have to say I am pretty pleased for the most part. On my keyboard the PgDn key was so sensitive that I only had to touch it and it would run to the bottom of my document. As you can probably imagine, it was quite annoying. I wanted to fix this as soon as possible so I called Lenovo Support and had them send me a brand new keyboard. The service was friendly and professional, and within a few days I had a new keyboard at my doorstep (at first they didn't want to send it without a technician, but I convinced them to just send the part by having them make a note in the case that "customer requested part to be sent without technician" to make sure they are not liable for any damage).

I also replaced the IPS display because there was something under the pixel layer, which once you knew it was there you automatically saw. The process of fixing that was a a little more rough than the keyboard issue. I called and asked to have the display sent (again without a technician because I have taken apart my other Thinkpad so often and I have the maintenance manual) but they refused to send just the part. Their policy does not allow them to send LCDs without a technician because if anything were to go wrong the warranty would be void. This meant we had to plan for a time when the technician and I were both available and schedule the visit. The drawback was that there was a bit of wasted time, waiting for the technician, rescheduling and such.

A word to those using Priority Support to get parts on warranty: have the correct FRU part number and have them confirm it with the machine you currently have to avoid getting the wrong part! Check and recheck! We were sent the wrong part at first and I am not sure why (or who was ultimately responsible). A flaw in their process/system is that the representative that takes your call only sees the part number and no description, meaning if you tell him/her "can you please confirm that the part number I gave you is in fact the HD Premium, IPS Flexview Display" they will respond "I am sorry I only see the part number and no description of what part that is." It makes no sense why their system can't show part number as well as description like the IBM FRU parts list does, it seems like that would take care of any confusion regarding parts...

Here is hoping for many happy years with my new Thinkpad!

Cheers!

[barrywohl]

I agree with Medicopter.

I've had my X230T for about six weeks, running Windows 8 RC x64, 500 gb SSD drive, 16 gb or RAM and I love it much more than my top level X201T.

My Windows
The new keyboard feels fine to type on. The position of the keys has some advantages and some disadvantages. The placement of the Delete key upper right corner is wonderful.

The back light on the keyboard is great. I do a lot of work from 5 to 7 am before there's any light in the room. The lower level of keyboard back light is perfect. The X200T, X201T and X220T never had a Think Light.

My Windows Experience Index is 6.4, based on mid-line graphics processing, but I have an 8.1 WEI on the hard drive and 7.3 on the i7 processor.

It runs cool and quiet with excellent battery life.

I wish it has 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, but I miss it less than I thought I would. I've got high resolution on an R50p, W700 and T61p that I still use. This screen works great.

I can't wait to get my hands on Windows 8 Pro RTM x64!

Ausmike, tell us about your new Mac with Retina display.

[ZaZ]

I wish it has 1920 x 1080 screen resolution

We're going to disagree on that one. I like my HD screen as it's easy to read and scrolling on the stick is quite good.

I think people's dislike of the keyboard is not from the quality of the keyboard itself, it's quite nice, but that Lenovo moved around a lot of shortcut keys that had been the same way for a long time. It'll just take some time to get used to, but will be overcome eventually.

[Medicopter]

Love, love, loving it.

That sums it up after 3 months of usage. On my machine all applications open instantly and run super fast. No regrets whatsoever.

I do have a question about the Wireless WAN Radio: when I turn it off using the F5 window, WAN sometimes turns on again on its own when I wake the computer up from sleep mode. I'm aware of the hardware wireless radio switch on the left side of the ThinkPad. My questions are: is this normal, which application triggers that (if any), and which setting am I overlooking to prevent this from happening?

P.S. I think the X230 model doesn't deserve to be in the non-classic Lenovo hardware section. Yes, it is not a classic ThinkPad anymore, but nonetheless a ThinkPad with a beautiful, practical and evolved design. Any thoughts?

[Medicopter]

One year later ...

Long story short, the way I specced my X230 made it a wonderful and fast little machine, and the build quality of my ThinkPad so far, is excellent.

I added another 8 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 and the Gemalto smart card reader.

As many others, I was skeptical about the new keyboard, but to be honest, I love it. The only thing I haven't gotten used to is having the PgUp and PgDn keys next to the arrow keys. What seem logic may not always be practical.

I'm also quite happy with the Win7 64bit version. Very stable and simple OS.

I thought Lenovo would be rolling out the X240 by now? Anyone know anything?

[tabpclover]

X230 t : Fantastic computer, great screen, great keyboard, BUT... I have tried but I just can not get myself to get used to the 5 inches of height that is left with the top ribbon in microsoft office. F11 is my favourite key while using browser. The taskbar is on the left vertical column. Still cant help feeling nauseated while using it. Seems like I am trying to see through a pin hole.

Just the wrong form factorn IMHO. Even increasing the resolution will not make it a comfortable computer for any serious work for me. Just browsing is what it is good for, but for that there is ipad.

Sorry it may just be me.

regards,

(typing from X60 SXGA tablet- poor old dull screen, slow laptop but still more usable just because of the form factor and that I dont feel like squinting through a pinhole)

[RealBlackStuff]

Try this to recover space in M$: http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

[pianowizard]

The taskbar is on the left vertical column. Still cant help feeling nauseated while using it.

I too can't stand having a vertical taskbar. It's really designed to be at the bottom.

Seems like I am trying to see through a pin hole. Just the wrong form factorn IMHO...Sorry it may just be me.

Definitely not just you. On this forum alone, I have seen dozens of people who say they can't stand 1366x768. The small screen size of 12.5" doesn't help either. The 12-inch size range is a legacy inherited from around the year 2000, when laptop designers decided that 12.1" 1024x768 laptops had the best balance between portability (averaging ~3.5 lbs) and usability (1024x768 was considered quite good back then), e.g. the Thinkpad X20, Dell Latitude LS, Sony Vaio Z505, and Compaq Armada M300. But nowadays, this form factor no longer makes sense, for at least four reasons:

1) As screens got wider and wider, their total surface areas kept shrinking. A 12.5" 16:9 screen is actually 5% smaller than a 12.1" 4:3 screen (66.75 sq. inches vs. 70.28 sq. inches), and the reduction in height is even more dramatic, 6.13 inches vs. 7.26 inches.

2) Now that laptop manufacturers are so good at miniaturization, it's no longer necessary to design laptops to be so small in order to make them ultraportable. For example, the 14.0" X1 Carbon weighs as little as 2.8 lbs; the Sony Pro13 with a 13.3" FHD touchscreen is only 2.3 lbs (without touch, it would probably be only ~2.1 lbs); and the 15.0" Samsung Series 9 weighs 3.5 lbs. Even the Dell Precisions, which were notorious for being super heavy and bulky, now include a 15.6" configuration that weighs barely over 4 lbs.

3) The resolution requirements of many programs and web sites have kept increasing over the years. Microsoft Office is an obvious example. While it's possible to have 1920x1080 on a 12.5" screen, things would look awfully small. Sure, one could just scale things up, but by doing so, a 1920x1080 screen would display the same amount of information as a lower-res screen, defeating the main purpose of increasing resolution.

4) People's computer usage habits have changed. Back in the early 2000s, most people including myself were used to viewing just one maximized window at a time, because most people only had one fairly small monitor with low resolution. But monitors have gotten bigger and higher-res, and multi-monitor setups have also become increasingly common, e.g. my current main computer drives 7 monitors totaling 18 megapixels, equivalent to nearly 9 FHD screens. Consequently, many people have formed the habit of viewing lots of information at once, and they feel crippled by small, low-res computer screens.

Thus, in 2014, I consider 13.3" to be the new 12.1", and laptop designers seem to agree because most ultrabooks are 13.3". One can no longer justify making laptops in the 12-inch range, especially ones that weigh as much as or even more than some 13.3" laptops. The X220 did have one special appeal: it was one of the very few IPS-equipped laptops in the market. But now, IPS laptops are everywhere.