Thinkpad X100e dual-core experiences

[codedivine]

Hi All.
I am new here

I have a dual-core X100e (AMD Neo X2 L335) and it is a fantastic little machine. Good build quality, good keyboard, and sufficient performance. Runs a little hot, and battery life is around 3+ hours under normal circumstances. However, after undervolting it slightly and putting it in power saver mode, it seems to run longer. But overall I am very happy with my purchase as I dont need long battery life but do want a portable machine with good ergonomics.

I also posted my detailed impressions in this forum: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=71686
I can copy all the content I posted to that thread if that is encouraged rather than linking.

I will be happy to answer questions. I am running Win7 Pro and Ubuntu 10.04 dual-boot.

[emtee3511]

Very informative write-up -- thanks and welcome to the Forum

[Danoc]

Do you know where I can find reviews of that dual-core model?

[The Solutor]

Do you know where I can find reviews of that dual-core model?

Afaik there's not a single review of the Athlon X2 or Turion X2 models.

But you can look at the reviews of the Thinkpad edge with Amd engine to have an idea of the performances and the reviews of the single core X100e to have an idea of the ergonomics, the sw installed and so on...

You can also ask here, i posted my impressions on a different thread.

If you have a specific question you have just to ask.

[Danoc]

Afaik there's not a single review of the Athlon X2 or Turion X2 models.

But you can look at the reviews of the Thinkpad edge with Amd engine to have an idea of the performances and the reviews of the single core X100e to have an idea of the ergonomics, the sw installed and so on...

You can also ask here, i posted my impressions on a different thread.

If you have a specific question you have just to ask.

Ok I will check the Thinkpad Edge 13, it looks like the same configuration (CPU / GPU couple). I was interested by this one also, but I can't find a model in Toronto, I need to touch before purchasing.

Otherwise the form factor and the performances of the x100e are what I need. I trust the quality of the brand. My only concern is the heat of the dual-core x100e.

[Danoc]

Thanks to the Victoria Day in Canada, there is a coupon ( CAPVICTORIADAY ) for all thinkpads until May 24th. 20% off, and 30% off over 1500cad.

As a result, is the following worth 680 cad = 640 usd (both before taxes)

AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual-Core L625 (1.6GHz, 800MHz, 1MB L2)
Windows 7 Professional 32 authentique
11.6" HD AG, Black, L625
AMD M780G with ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
4 Go PC2-5300 DDR2 (2 DIMM)
250 Go, 5400 tr/min
6 Cell, Li-Ion Battery X1
ThinkPad b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe
Integrated Mobile Broadband (3G WWAN) - Qualcomm

I am still hesitating. I checked today the laptop (single core version) in a shop in Toronto. The quality is really good. I also saw the Edge 15" which isn't so bad (very few keyboard flex).

[GrandMasterKhan]

BTW sells for less than $500 in the US. Can't you have your friends in Detroit buy it for you and pick it up on a visit? Never heard of Victoria Day. Ford Crown Victoria is a car normally used by 5-0.

[Danoc]

You're right, I checked the US Lenovo website. And I guess the US sales taxes are less too. It is not worth.

Morevoer I read on notebookreview.com :

Also I just found out that AMD just recently released the Turion II Neo N54L, which is a dual-core 2.2 GHz processor that supports DDR3. Since it's a 45nm chip, it should run cooler and consume less power than the Turion Neo. Plus it's based on the K10 microarchitecture, instead of the older K8, so it should be faster as well. The new HP dm1 will use this chip (or maybe its slower brother the N40L), so hopefully Lenovo will also adopt this chip for the X100e as well. In addition, the processor also uses the Radeon 4200 as its IGP, which is pretty similar to the 3200.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6220240-post49.html

[GrandMasterKhan]

BTW that is the price you pay for living in a small market country. I think you might even get a better deal if you just take a weekend trip to Detroit and do some shopping.

[The Solutor]

You're right, I checked the US Lenovo website. And I guess the US sales taxes are less too. It is not worth.

Morevoer I read on notebookreview.com :

Don't expect great improvements on the power consumption side...

The processors itself will consume a mere 3W less than the older generation, and the vga presumably will consume the same as the previous generation.

BTW, a little improvement should be expected because the new processors are more powerful than the old ones, so the same task it will be completed earlier and the processor will stay in idle for more time (how much this affects the consumption has to be seen in the real world).

Don't forget the vga, in the x100 it takes a good slice of the battery, as happens with the nvidia ion on the ion equipped netbooks, so if you want a good graphics card you get a shorter battery life and viceversa, no matter if the processor is an atom, an ULV or an AMD vision one.

[Danoc]

And what about the heat?

Actually in my comparison, I wanted the 4g RAM model. It's Interesting to note that the first version in the USA comes with only 1g of RAM; 2g in Canada. Then 4g of RAM is a 130usd option in the USA, or a 65cad option in Canada, which makes the final price 629usd in the USA.

Actually the price tag difference between USA and Canada with 20% off coupon isn't so big (10 usd before taxes!).

[The Solutor]

And what about the heat?

The head is directly related with the consumption, a notebook that drains 15 W from the mains/battery, will produce 15 W of heat.

About the price is hard to tell given the fluctuating €/$ change in these days, but here (in Italy) the version I bought (7 Pro, wwan goby, 2 gigs of ram, 320 gigs HDD) sells at about 600 euros with tax (500 euros before tax), at the actual change this means 668 canadian dollars before tax.