Buying first thinkpad, need some pointers :)

[JSenSA]

Hi all, I have wanted a Thinkpad for some time now and I am finally in a position to get one I am looking at the X2xx series and I have a couple questions. I am mostly hung up between the X200 and the X200 tablet.

1) I understand that the screen on the X200 tablet is far superior to those of the X200 or X200s, would it be better to get an X200 tablet or get an original X200 with the affs screen mod?

2) Given the cost of buying and upgrading (RAM, SSD etc) would it be wiser to just buy a newer model? Say the X201 or X220? I have a budget of about £300 in total, maybe more if anything comes specifically recommended.

3) Is it true to say the original X200 has a bit more 'ohmff' than the tablet version all other things equal?

This is going to be an investment for me so I am looking for something that will last quite a while. If anyone owns both, which do you prefer and why?

I appreciate the help and look forward to becoming a proud thinkpad owner!

[rjwilmsi]

X200 tablet screen is much better than X200s screen, I have both. Tablet has good viewing angles, colour reproduction and contrast. X200s has narrow viewing angles and poor colours/black levels that are apparent when viewing any dark background or video playback.

I can't say anything about an X200 with a screen mod. This sounds difficult to me for your first purchase, and I expect it would be more costly overall than buying the tablet.

Parts upgrade costs: when you buy used you normally need RAM (GBP £10 to 15 for a single 4 GB DDR3 DIMM), charger (£10 to 15 for a genuine used 65 W Lenovo) and an SSD (£50 to £60 for a Crucial/Samsung/Intel 120 or 128 GB used). However, whether you buy the X200, X201 or X220 series you will normally need these anyway, if the newer machines had an SSD the drive would probably be pulled by the owner before the machine was sold. So really either way the parts budget is around GBP 80, SSDs make such a difference you don't want to skip that upgrade.

CPU: X200 has P8400 or P8600 35W CPUs, X200s or X200T have lower voltage SL9300 or SL9400 17 W CPUs. But the SL9x00 CPUs were expensive when they came out, not cheapo options by any means, so unless you are planning lots of transcoding I don't think you would see much difference in general use. Difference in ratings at CPUbenchmark.net is less than 20% overall rating.

As I have the X200s and the X200T: I have the X200s with the smallest battery for travel as it's 1.3 kg and I use it for work/internet so screen quality matters much less. I have the X200T at home as my Windows machine to (amongst other things) watch Sky Sports on, viewing angles and colour/contrast are great for that, machine at 3 1/2 years old came with battery > 95 % of original capacity and was predicting 4:30 runtime on light video playback (69 Wh), but it's 1.8 kg. I would not give up on either as I have the two for separate uses. You trade weight and slimness versus screen quality and battery life. If I could only have one of the two it would be the tablet due to the screen.

[ZaZ]

Unless you want touch, I'd say the X200 is the way to go and probably the least expensive option if you don't mind getting your hands dirty. Keep in mind the touch surface does effect PQ and not all screens are equal with the Hydis considered the best.

If you've got the money, I'd vote for the X220 with the IPS. It's a great screen and it doesn't require you to do anything to get it. It's also a LED screen, which means it won't dim like the Hydis may over time, though the Hydis has better color. The other plus for the X220 is the mSATA option, which means you can do a SSD and hard drive. I had a SSD in my X200 and X200t, but disliked having to carry everything on the external. Of course SSDs were more expensive back then and perhaps you don't need much space.