Hello
I did the upgrade a week ago and it's time to document all of this in order to give all infos to people that could find this topic.
1/ The parts
1.1 / The complete non-touch lid
According to the previous posts, the easiest way was to get a complete lid (with wifi antenna + webcam + hinges + cover) and a lcd (obviously).
After days of refreshing ebay, I've been lucky to find a complete x250 Top LCD Cover Lid Webcam Hinges Front with Bezel from US for less than 15$. The shipping costs was high but it worth it since buying the parts one by one is more expensive and require to assembly everything.
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FRU/Ref : 04X5359 and AP0SX000400
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Pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/2ddjyeT
1.2 / The 1080p IPS non-touch Matt LCD
It's the part that costs me the most : we can find many of these LCD at a good price (between 49€ and 69€) but there is only ONE seller that has been able to confirm me the two references of the LCD. It costs me around 90€ to buy to this specific seller. He also had a lot of positive user reviews about the the LCD he's selling. I prefer to be safe and to don't face to any bad surprise, and it's worth it too. It has been really well shipped, it looks brand new. Seems like a perfect hit.
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FRU/Ref: 00HM745 and LP125WF2-SPB2
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Pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/a1oqhnK
2/ The assembly process
2.1 / Disable internal built-in battery from BIOS and remove the base cover
From Lenovo website:
Before servicing the computer, disable the battery pack in the UEFI BIOS.
1/ Turn off your computer and disconnect the ac power adapter and all cables from the computer.
2/ Turn on your computer. Press F1 to enter the ThinkPad Setup program when the ThinkPad logo is displayed.
3/ Select Config -> Power. The submenu will be displayed.
4/ Select Disable Built-in Battery.
5/ Follow the instructions on the screen.
Then the battery pack is disabled in the UEFI BIOS. When ac power is reconnected, the battery pack will be automatically enabled.
We just need to disconnect the built-in battery since we don't need to remove the motherboard.
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Video: This Lenovo's video explains how desactivate built-in battery and remove base cover :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzga4MHACoQ
2.2 / Disassembly of the LCD unit
It's an easy step which only requires to unplug the lcd cables from the motherboard (wifi antennas, webcam, lcd), remove some hinge screws, and pull off the lcd. Take care of the original cables positioning in order to remember how to reassemble it "safe and clean". It's the same process whether it's touch or non-touch LCD unit.
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Original positionning:
https://imgur.com/a/K8jItZq
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LCD Unit Removal Movie:
https://support.lenovo.com/fr/fr/videos/vid100222
The second step is to assembly the complete lid with the new LCD. Take care to push the cables inside the hinges as shown in pictures. I used the eDP cable that came with the x250 complete lid I bought. The sticker of this cable has been removed (by the seller himself?) so i'm not able to give the FRU. I gave it a chance to work fine.
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Lid/LCD assembly:
https://imgur.com/a/d3dEvCP
3/ The final test
3.1 / Reassembly
Just repeat the same steps in the opposite direction. Take care of the cables positionning, especially at the hinges level. The trickiest part has been to reconnect the wifi cables because the plugs are really small. I used some tap in order to keep the cable in a good position before pluging it. Don't replace the bezel before testing if the new LCD works (it's not important but in case there is something wrong it's more easy to come back to previous steps).
Because of the built-in battery has been disabled, the unit needs to be plugin to the AC in order to boot.
3.2 / Final test
The new LCD should be recognized directly.
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First boot with the new LCD:
https://imgur.com/a/6Dzfu8C
4/ Conclusion
This upgrade is a way more easy than changing the keyboard or the trackpad, from my personnal point of view. The most difficult has been to find the complete lid at a good price (the others I saw were as expensive as a new LCD) and to be sure to get a
REAL LCD.
The final look of a 1080p screen on a 12" is really nice, it's like getting a new unit (I've upgraded trackpad and keyboard weeks ago). I bought a Matt LCD since it's more comfortable for long work sessions and light reflections.
I'm using Manjaro Budgie and the OS automatically supports HiDPI. I've changed the text scale from 1 to 1,10 (it looks small but enough bigger to be able to read system fonts easily).
Browsing is a little bit différent, we can change the font size directly in the browser's settings, but the websites are a little bit small. Firefox needs the use of a plug-in in order to scale it. It's possible to change it directly from the settings if using Chromium, the best scale seems to be 125%.
The angles are amazing in comparison to the original 720p touch LCD as you can see in the following pictures:
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Different angle views:
https://imgur.com/a/VAU6TWL
It seems like this 1080p non-touch IPS consumes a little bit less than the original 720p touch screen. I'm not sure since I've reset to a new and fresh OS and I use the screen lighting at 30% instead of 50% with the touch. It consumes 4,37Wh on "standby" (reading a pdf).
I hope it will help to people who would like to upgrade from a (ips) touch to non-touch ips LCD. Thank you also for all the precious informations that RBS and Geartooth gave to me
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