ThinkPad X1 Carbon
www3.lenovo.com
www3.lenovo.com
I had a T530 for a few years at my first job and just hated it. It had fantastic specs but it felt awful and unreliable and like I had to babysit it. I got a 2015 MBP to replace it after IT damaged it (broke off a bunch of plastic bits from two grills) and while it was a migraine getting Windows and Ubuntu to dual boot, I don't think twice when closing the lid and slipping it into my backpack to go home. Tossing my backpack into my trunk, or in the overhead carry-on.
I would pay a fortune to have a solid chassis (not case) metal non-Apple laptop available.
Yes it has screw holes and grills... it's a working-person's laptop :). The new ones don't, because they're becoming more like apple - which means I cannot as easily replace battery, hard drive, memory, etc as I do on the older Thinkpads.
Titanium?
walk over to my work T530, leaned up against the wall...
What 'cover' on this is made out of titanium? It's all black plastic. I've heard it has a magnesium skeleton...? Maybe you mean the hinges? I guess those could be titanium - they're some kind of metal.
Dude - the whole case on this thing is made out of plastic. I'm scratching the whole thing to find anything on this that's metal at all. What are you talking about?
Different people give these factors different weights according to their resources, needs and preferences.
There is one more factor - the image the laptop projects. To each his own, but if you give the image a high score compared to the other factors - be honest about it.
The body is made out of carbon fiber. Technically this is 'plastic', but not in the context of your comment.
Here's for example the maintenance guide for T560 http://ok1.de/thinkpad/HMM/t560_p50s_hmm_en_sp40k04930.pdf
The Carbon X1 is made from carbon fiber. It super-robust and light-weight at the same time.
It feels light years ahead of the super-heavy aluminium-nonsense Apple is trying to peddle. Count me happy my laptop doesn't double as a bench-press.
I wonder if it's the Valley culture? There is no way a Macbook can compete with a proper Thinkpad [2] for programmer productivity: the keyboard, the UltraNav, the swappable batteries (you can fly around the world with a x260 + spare battery), a nice docking station, upgradeable storage/memory and a trouble-free Linux distro. Plus, they don't burn you with ice-cold aluminum every morning.
The gap is huge! If a Thinkpad is a 100, the prev. gen Macbook Pro would be 60 and everything else lingering in misery under 10.
Full disclosure: I am 100% Macbook right now because Photoshop/Sketch, the struggle is real, I miss everything about Thinkpad, hence this passionate comment.
[1] Another 100% Linux, 100% Thinkpad company was http://www.acunote.com
[2] Properly configured, i.e. IPS, Intel graphics, etc.Cut the bullshit and just run Linux on the bare metal, your program will run faster, and your laptop battery life won't be halved.
You will have to claw my x201 out of my cold dead hands, I've not found a single notebook (even the newer ThinkPads) that are as comfortable to use. I've got no crummy trackpad wasting space and a 16:10 display that's designed for work, and not watching cat videos.
Spare parts are dirt cheap, and since the magnesium alloy rollcage is on the inside I don't have to worry about ugly dents, I just swap plastic panels out on the cheap when I think they are getting a bit too worn.
Your criticisms are pretty almost all a matter of taste, and we're in disagreement just about throughout.
> I wonder if it's the Valley culture?
I'm not in the valley. I've never found any non-apple laptop with a good (or even decent) trackpad, and I like that OSX has a community of indie developers who actually care.
> the keyboard
I don't enjoy thinkpad keyboard.
> the UltraNav
Same as above but much stronger, I absolutely hate this thing, and I love Apple trackpad. In fact the trackpad is one a huge reason for remaining on Apple laptops despite other shortcomings: I can and even enjoy using MBPs without a mouse.
> the swappable batteries
have never been something I've needed, plus that requires carrying additional batteries.
> a nice docking station
Meh. "nice" is in the eye of the beholder, the thing's ugly as sin. And with type C/TB3, you can actually replicate it without being beholden to Apple (!).
> upgradeable storage/memory
That is indeed a really annoying "feature" of Apple over the last few years. Though of course you can get a maxed-out MBP.
> Linux distro
and I don't see that as an advantage.
> The gap is huge! If a Thinkpad is a 100, the prev. gen Macbook Pro would be 60
If you like thinkpads more power to you, but all my experiences with them were disappointing, I'd put the 2015 rMBP at 70 and the average thinkpad at 40, maybe 50.
Today's Dell and Lenovo laptops are good Linux dev machines. I've never had a problem with putting Linux one one, either my Dell Inspiron at work or my XPS at home. My old first gen carbon can even run FreeBSD-11 fine. Everything worked straight off with a stock kernel and the current linux-firmware package.
At one time, Macs were more cost effective for the specs you got. But with all the ram and SSD storage you can pack into modern laptops, they're really good dev machines.
Keyboard and UltraNav are more taste than anything else. I have a T450s for work and a 15" rMBP and vastly prefer the keyboard/touchpad on the latter. It doesn't help that Lenovo's QA is shit. My T450s keyboard is bulging in the bottom right of the keyboard deck, and several of the keys stick for a millisecond on the way down. As if they're not quite seated properly and hitting the key causes something to click into place. I suspect it's temperature related, because it goes away after typing for awhile, but comes back after a bit of non-use.
> upgradeable storage/memory
Programmers are expensive. No reason not to buy a maxed-out machine to begin with.
Also, it's hard to get over Lenovo's penchant for shit displays if your job is to stare at text all day.
And MacBooks have the best touchpad of all laptops.
Right now I'm the only programmer in my department that has a Thinkpad (and the only one that has Linux on a Thinkpad). Which is a strange thing for me, I always thought that Macs are more for designers or endusers not programmers/hackers (as you mostly are very limited at hacking on Mac, quite the opposite of Linux).
Maybe they are better these days, but I need to spend more time with one. But they changed the keyboard, the trackpads were almost laughable, and the battery life was an utter joke - not even enough juice for a MSP-LAS flight. Not to mention (at the time) laughable resolution, and miserable build quality compared to the IBM nameplate T-series.
I'm looking for a nice 14-15" laptop like an old T60 that is built like a tank with amazing battery life.
It's tempting for me to try the T-series line again, especially if they bring back the classic keyboard they so stupidly did away with. But for some time it was utterly stagnant and more or less unusable trash.
I want to like the X1 Carbon
Isn't this one of those YMMV kinda things that really depends on the person, though? It seems equally wrong to say that no one could be productive on a MBP as it is to say that no one could be productive without a MBP.
the Carbon X1 doesn't have swappable batteries.
Macs are beautiful, hermetically sealed devices that work perfectly until they explode.
Linux (or thinkpads) are like M1 Abrams tanks you can service yourself, run forever on a nuclear battery, and people think you're weird if you have one.
You completely missed the most important productivity tool for a programmer, the display and no thinkpad can compete with a macbook in that regard.
In addition new Mac keyboards are better than new thinkpad keyboards. Mac trackpads are better than thinkpad trackpads, the ultranav is not good, battery life on macbooks are better than thinkpads and you don't need to carry extra batteries, and macbook docking solutions are better than thinkpad docking solutions.
Also why would you want to use linux when that will 100% give you shorter than 4 hours battery life along with a host of other issues when you can use OSX and get good battery life along with a fully posix compliant os?
If I'm honest I have no Idea why there is an ad for the X1 on hackernews today. The page itself is 404-ing for me.
That said, I held an X1 carbon last september when shopping for a new laptop with my girlfriend. It was a fucking glorious machine.
In the end we wound up buying the lenevo yoga because it comes with an i7, SSD, & 8gigs ram (the three checkboxes I need on a laptop) - this was the cheapest with all my boxes ticked.
X1C was a lot more expensive, but you could feel why when you held it. What a beautiful machine.
(Again, why is it listed as a link on HN? Just so we can moon over it? Fair I guess)
It has been my main laptop since release and it is by far the best laptop I ever owned...
There's still some give when I pick it up one handed. I'd happily trade some weight and thickness for a more durable feel, but I might be in the minority.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon: Starting at 2.6 lbs (1209 g)
MacBook Pro 13: Weight: 3.02 pounds (1.37 kg)
I think that's a pretty stone-age point of view given modern material technology.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon: 2.51 lbs (1.14 kg)
MacBook Pro 13 ......: 3.02 lbs (1.37 kg)
or about 17% lighter
The light weight actually makes it feel flimsy / cheap at first, but having used it for the best part of a year, I realize there is a stiffness to it that you don't get with cheap plastic.
It's made out of aluminium, has a glass touchpad and costs around half of what a similarly priced MacBook pro costs in Germany.
It's my first non-Mac after 20 years. I've owned it for a good week and so far I'm very happy. It has superb battery life, great build quality and is fast. Only 1 minor con: the fan always runs, but it's not too loud and I can live with it...
Can't beat that.
[1] http://www.amazon.in/ZenBook-UX360CA-13-3-inch-Touchscreen-W...
(I find the shiny brushed aluminium look to be embarrassingly tacky, though not quite as bad as the rose gold model.)
They had two models of ssd, but one laptop sku. One model went to review websites, the other's performance degraded to actually be noticably slower than a hard disk. You could replace the ssd, but it was a non-standard form factor, so you needed to buy an expensive m.2 converter.
The keyboard dropped keystrokes.
The screen was meh for the time.
This was their flagship laptop that year.
After it has been a full decade, I might consider buying another asus laptop.
Are there laptops where it doesn't? I've had 4 different models from 4 different makers, including a MacBook Pro, and every one has run the fan 100℅ of the time.
Is this really a serious reason to buy a laptop, or not, the design? You buy a computer because of its performance, not its appearance- which is something completely subjective in the first place.
I agree about the toughness requirement, but, like others said below the X1 Carbon is called "Carbon" as in "carbon fiber", which it's made of (although the fourth gen model has a lid that's a mix of carbon fiber and plastic).
I've stepped on my second gen. Carbon a good few times and I've dropped my fourth gen on its lid from a coffee table, and they're both hale and hearty.
My job provides me with an HP Ultrabook. When I type on it, the plastic near the trackpad creaks. If I bought it retail it's something like $1400. And it creaks.
If I'm spending $1400 on a piece of technology I expect to have for 3-5 years, and I'm going to be hauling it between locations (on-call schedule) I really need to feel like "Yeah, this won't get broken if I accidentally put something a little heavy on top of it (e.g. in my bag)".
It's partially a performance story, but I rather pay an extra $100-200 for a solid chassis that makes me think the motherboard won't bend when I put pressure from my wrists on it.
Yes.
> You buy a computer because of its performance, not its appearance
For a desktop/workstation maybe, and even that is debatable (I would not buy a desktop computer with plexiglas panels and LEDs all over).
For a laptop though, the design is part of the function and has an impact on it. Design is part and parcel of a laptop's usability and usage, and impacts its effective lifespan (you can get mileage out of a laptop while it's falling to pieces but that's not an enjoyable experience).
And of course a laptop is not stashed away in a corner of the desk (or under it hidden from you), it's usually right in front of your face and right under your fingers, liking how it looks is a pretty good idea.
> which is something completely subjective in the first place.
That just means the design you want is different from the design I want. Maybe you like the Surface Book and I don't (I do, but bear with me).
I don't think that's a fair characterization of the thinkpad experiance. I own one, and every other owner I know, hasn't had these things crap out. Also, if they do crap out there are guides telling you exactly what to do. The case also exposes the screws you need to take out to fix certian problems.
Spill coffee on your laptop and need to order a new keyboard and trackpad module? Flip over the laptop and the screws are labeld with pictures of a keyboard and a trackpad.
> And of course a laptop is not stashed away in a corner of the desk (or under it hidden from you), it's usually right in front of your face and right under your fingers, liking how it looks is a pretty good idea
A computer is a tool. Would you buy a shovel if it was very bad at shoveling and had a pre-determined lifespan just because it was colored to match your khakis?
I buy a laptop to use, and if I have to use a spongy keyboard, a stupid pointing nipple, a subpar trackpad, or deal with a creaking, bendy case, then the 8 to 10 hours I spend in front of that damn thing every day are not going to be very pleasant for me, and I cannot stress the importance of that enough.
They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere.
The "flimsy and bendy" feel is more than just aesthetics, but owning two generations of the Carbon, it really doesn't apply to it. For the second gen. the term "brick shithouse" comes to mind. The fourth gen. has more plastic on the lid (which though feels "smooth as a baby's butt" according to a colleague) but its innards are tough as nails and knowing that's enough for me.
In any case, like I say what I need from a computer is performance: fast processor, as much RAM as you can fit on a laptop and plenty of storage. If I really cared about durability and toughness that much, I'd get a Toughbook [1].
_____________
[1] http://business.panasonic.co.uk/computer-product/products-an...
I've come very clost to buying one, several times. I just like the idea of a computer I can take with me on the beach and use to browse the 'nets while lying on an inflatable mattress in the sea. That'd be cool and it'd border on "design" trumping specs even in my book. On the other hand, I'd look a bit of a pillock so I've never gotten round to it.
This Touch Bar is the worlds worst idea. I literally now have to look at the keyboard to type again, like I'm 10 years old. I haven't looked at a keyboard in decades. The machine is going back this week. What a disaster.
And, don't tell me to learn to use Caps Lock for ESC or to type control-[. I've been using VI since 1988, I'm not about to retrain that length of muscle memory.
For any reference, there are hundreds of sub-references with different combinations of hardware.
The keyboard was very nice. Though the trackpad was terrible. The #$*(# thing is a damn sticker. And I had to replace the sticker twice because it would wear smooth where I used it most.
In short, this is the good non-Apple laptop that you're looking for.
I've been researching into the XPS series, and online there are plenty of reports of problems with Linux.
Can anyone here confirm first-hand that they have an XPS 13/15 that's running Linux flawlessly?
They are almost too good to be true. What's the catch?
Have you had any issues running Linux on them?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-S306-Subnotebook-Revie...
The X1 is actually really impressive. First gen had a short battery life and the display wasn't high resolution, but they addressed that pretty quickly.
+1 to the Chromebook Pixel being amazing hardware. Thinkpad touchpads drive me nuts.
Especially because it is aluminium an Linux just works on it.
I have an HP Folio 1040 G1 which is a few years old now and is just as sturdy as a MacBook air, nearly as thin, but has better specs. Also much cheaper. The only place the Apple really outshines it is the tracked (and OS X if that's your thing.. it isn't mine).
[1] http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-laptops/15-18/no...
I've been doing research, looking to replace this Macbook some time in the new year, and it looks like the new T470 is keeping the abysmal displays of the T460.
I use a Surface Book as my main computer and it's absolutely wonderful. I get a PC in tablet form with a pressure-sensitive stylus when I want a tablet and I get a moderately beefy laptop with a dedicated GPU when I want a laptop.
Build quality is outstanding, tablet is great for browsing on the sofa and multi-pressure pen is awesome for photo editing. Chews through heavy compiling/development very well. Decent gaming for what it is.
I feel like Microsoft was trying to do the whole tablet PC back in early 2000s and I think that the surface book is the actual realization of what they were trying to achieve.
- It is huge and unwieldy, like a cafeteria tray (and comes with a sizable power brick)
- The touchscreen doesn't have an oleophobic coating, so it becomes a smudgy mess within hours (unlike my iPad, which looks pristine for weeks despite being even more heavily used)
- The screen seems dim or washed out no matter what I try (then again, I have a retina MacBook at home...)
- Battery life is poor(ish) on the i7 model. I can only partially blame all the corporate junk we have installed.
- Wi-Fi seemed flakey at times (and you need a proprietary dongle for Ethernet)
I've seen the 2016 models (which don't improve on the above) and they share the good bits:
- Very decent (if somewhat mushy) keyboard, with lots of travel (perhaps a bit too much)
- Relatively lightweight (considering the size)
- Pretty decent touchpad (not on a par with a MacBook, but good enough for three-finger gestures, although maddeningly imprecise at times)
- Despite the color/brightness issues, the HIDPI screen is sharp and readable under Windows 10
- The fingerprint sensor actually works (but doesn't hold a candle to TouchID)
- DisplayPort or HDMI output (depending on model, mine has both, and I use my Apple dongle for DP->VGA)
I disabled TrackPoint within a month due to RSI (I used original IBM laptops for years and it was a recurring issue for me).
TrackPoint is much more precise than the trackpad for accurate positioning, but I'd rather carry a Bluetooth mouse and retain the use of my fingers (whereas I'm perfectly fine with the Mac trackpad for drawing diagrams and pixel-level positioning).
Edit: Oh, and I run Linux on it through Hyper-V and Docker, since I need to run Windows 10. Had no trouble booting a couple of Ubuntu/Elementary Live USB drives for playing around, most of the hardware seemed to work.
- The brick is tiny. Sure, not as tiny as the 50 gram mac one, but is very small compared to most laptop bricks.
- It's huge? Some peope want more screen real estate, and 14in is good for that.
- Battery life is 6+ hours; less if I spend them watching youtube of course
- Never had a problem with WiFi
The only thing I agree is with the ethernet dongle (which I have only actually used once, when setting up the wifi at a new place).
Like I said, we run a fair amount of extra stuff that may be to blame, but my experience carrying it around to customers for over a year is that I always need to sit near a power socket by noon.
Comparatively, my peers toting Surface 4s (who work on the same accounts and whom I travel with) outlast my laptop by a couple of hours.
- The computer sometimes seems to turn on after it's closed and asleep in my bag
- The CPU gets pegged constantly, even on the i7 version (admittedly, this may be due to some background processes that were installed by my employer, but sometimes in task manager it just seems like a generic Windows process it taking up all of the CPU, so it's hard to tell).
- The fn key placement is awful. Seriously, I think Apple started this trend, and I wish other manufacturers would stop following it. Years of muscle memory have trained me to put my pinky in the bottom, left-hand corner of the keyboard for ctrl. At least you can change this in the BIOS on this computer, unlike a Mac, but that's still less than ideal.
I and my family have owned several Thinkpads. I just bought a Thinkpad this past cyber Monday, and the power brick it came with is significantly larger than prior Thinkpad models' bricks. So much so that I was a little disheartened when I saw it. Since you mention you have a slightly older model, I suspect that your adapter is tiny, as you say, on par w/ MBPs'. But the current models from Lenovo have regressed in this respect.
Just so you can see, here's a photo[1]. The smaller brick is from an older T500, and the larger one is from my new T460p. The small Lenovo and the MBP appear to output roughly the same. The larger, newer Lenovo one is capable of pushing more power, but at quite a cost in size.
- The lid was wobbly.
- It's big, thick and just looks mediocre to me. Display rim is too big.
- The coating is susceptible to smudges / fingerprints. Why are they even making those in 2016? Unacceptable.
- Display was way too dim.
- Colors were yellowish but that's probably fixable.
All 5 points are relative to the (few years older) Samsung. It's a shame they don't care much about laptops anymore. I mean, it's 8+ years old and it's hard to find a replacement (which I'm looking for because it has 4 GB of RAM).
I don't know if my requirenments are so unique or if there's a big mismatch between market demand and supply. Which would seem odd to be honest because laptops is a mature and competetive market.
HP and Dell have much nicer screens these days.
I use the same wallpapers on my Mac and Windows machines (a set of coloured trianglify patterns), and EVERYTHING looks so much nicer on the Mac that it's just sad.
Here is my original X1 Carbon review: http://blog.itaysk.com/2013/05/04/lenovo-x1-carbon-touch-rev... And here are my thoughts on the X1 Yoga: http://blog.itaysk.com/2016/12/30/from-lenovo-x1-carbon-to-l...
High DPI is still half baked in Windows.
I don't find any problem criticising what's wrong and commending what's right. I do that openly with "my employer" products, and the competition as well.
51nb (chinese forum) has been addressing the need for upgraded specs in the old chassis with things like their Thinkpad X62 https://imgur.com/a/As6On#uHTzOer (you can find the boards on ebay)
There's no products that fit the old ultraportable form factor. The T5xx series is great but can't be lugged around easily.
The X62 looks nice though :D
Main questions:
- Are these "up to 15.5 hours of battery life" numbers purely theoretical? Even brand new, my 2nd gen only got about 6 hours of normal usage. I run Ubuntu so maybe these power saving tweaks are the result of closer hardware integration with Windows?
- The mobile broadband option (Qualcomm Snapdragon X7) is intriguing, it would save me carrying around a separate hotspot. Has this worked for any Linux users? What carrier do you recommend?
- Any reports of the Wigig Dock working on Linux?
Pros that I can see:
- Real function keys! The adaptive touchpad on my 2nd gen is awkward and silly -- can't believe Apple followed their lead on this. Good riddance.
- That the 5th gen is even smaller and lighter boggles the mind. My 2nd gen is already ridiculously thin. After 5 years of hauling 5-8lb T4x models around NYC my back was killing me, and I was probably on the verge of permanent physical injury. The X1 was a godsend.
- Same old Trackpoint I know and love. Not for everyone, but a mouse on the home row + vim is ergonomic heaven for me. Never change, Thinkpads!
Cons that I can see:
- Looks like almost the same display as my 2nd gen, a 2560x1440 WQHD IPS. A small bump up in nits but that's it. Viewing angles are better than on older laptops, but I still can't read my screen in bright environments, and it gets gummed up with debris and smudges way too easily. Apple continues to dominate in this dimension.
- Matter of taste, but the Silver design feels like Lenovo is trying way too hard to look Apple-y.
All in all, though, it is fine, and the hardware is very nice. I did have trouble getting any other distros besides Ubuntu to install and run properly, though, YMMV.
It looks like they included a different LTE chipset this time, though, so maybe compatibility is better there.
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X1%20Car...
I don't remember having any serious trouble with any of the hardware, including the wifi (which can be a pain point). Connecting an external monitor also worked fine- I think that's another common pain point.
I couldn't find a clickpad driver that would support gestures as well as the proprietary Synaptics driver on Windows (but I tend not to use gestures anyway), and the battery seemed to drain faster on Linux than on Windows, but that's about it.
If memory serves (I've had this machine for a while) the only complain I had was that booting into grub2 was noticeably slower than booting into the Windows boot manager.
I also got the fourth generation model a couple of months ago but haven't yet installed Linux on it, mostly because I can find so little to grumble about. Either Windows is getting better or I'm getting old :)
On the other hand, the palm detection does not work or is just terrible because I find myself constantly randomly tapping or moving the cursor when typing. Indeed it's moving around as I type this.
I ended up just disabling tap to click which I actually love using, but besides that it's great. I definitely long for the day when Linux touchpad support will match OS X's. Still, I really like the keyboard and the little nub thing is pretty awesome too, although I haven't really gotten used to using it.
synclient "PalmDetect=1" synclient "PalmMinWidth=5" synclient "PalmMinZ=40"
Or soft link to a file from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf.
To get middle-button scroll with trackpoint:
From https://askubuntu.com/questions/578600/how-do-i-get-the-trac...
edited /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d\11-evdev-trackpoint.conf upated the line:
MatchProduct "TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick"
to
MatchProduct "TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
Sorry if they don't make sense, but the links are where I got my information, so they should help. The changes made a world of difference.
I had to make one change in the bios, to disable secure boot so Ubuntu could use certain drivers.
I've read that the fingerprint sensor on the newer X1's doesn't have linux support yet, and I've never tried the wwan stuff. That might not work either. I haven't tried bluetooth yet.
Probably will be a similar experience having to install non-free wifi drivers and possibly some kernel graphics drivers not working well.
Here is a snapshot of the page: http://archive.is/L1o6h
I really applaud dell for trying to make the XPS 13 somewhat Linux friendly but they really do feel cheap.
Lenovo thinkpads, while not having the quality they had during the IBM era, are still head and shoulders above Dell in this regard.
This is the Linux laptop to get in 2017.
The X1's keyboard was larger, had more key travel and all, but was subjectively somewhat less comfortable to type on (matter of get using to, I suppose, but still).
The X1 had a much worse display, and was overall bulkier and clunkier, yet more expensive. Went with the Dell and didn't regret it.
Edit: running Ubuntu on it
I'm really interested in the XPS 13/15, but don't want to end up with a brick.
Had to use a custom kernel for skylake/nvme; 4.5-rc7 for wily run ok for me, though there are some boot warnings. Still having (rare, like once a month) problems with the touchpad. Battery charge lasts much shorter than Apple notebooks.
I believe Dell's developer edition has the slightly more expensive Intel WLAN option, but I have no trouble with mine (Broadcom?).
If you're looking for a developer notebook for Linux and can wait until it's delivered (1-2 weeks or more?) I think Dell's developer edition XPS 13 with preinstalled Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is one of the best, if not the best, option available.
Back when I needed one, this offering wasn't available in Germany, but cyperport.de had a plain XPS 13 available in retail store, and I needed it asap. I liked that cyperport.de shops had the XPSs and various Lenovos available in store (unlike eg. big retailers here which have hundreds of cheap/crap notebooks with glare screens etc. but not a single pro notebook), so they got my money.
I have the non-touchscreen variant (I hate glare screens). But I believe next time I have to reconsider because a notebook in that price range shoud have HiDPI today.
I wiped their Ubuntu install and put on Debian and that's been working fine for me.
The screen is also terrific and very noticeably better than my work mid-2014 15" rMBP. I wouldn't have optioned the touchscreen if I had a choice, but the 4K IGZO is only available as a touchscreen. I actually use it sometimes, and the hinge is good enough that it doesn't flop around and it feels solid when tapping on it. I only really use that for casual browsing.
My past few personal laptops have been Dell Latitudes since they're typically made from metal and have nicer parts (keyboard, hinges, touchpad, etc) than stuff like the Inspiron series. Parts are cheap and easy to find (e.g. an extra power adapter is $35 shipped in bulk packaging) and they're generally easy to repair, with repair guides, service manuals, and Dell's great service code look-up readily available. If it blows a motherboard or drains a battery tomorrow, I know that I can keep it running for relatively little money. Dell also has great business warranties if you can find a used one with a year or so of warranty left.
TL;DR it's still a huge PITA to get even the latest Ubuntu working right with a top-of-the-line Windows laptop, and even then it's less nice and doesn't "just work" as well as a Mac, but I paid about 1/3rd of what a comparable MBP would cost, and since it's just a personal laptop for my side projects and electronics hobby stuff (microcontrollers, audio measurement, open source, etc) it's totally fine.
Tell me more. What exactly do you mean by "up to 10 free data sims" ?
- I can upgrade the hotspot/phone separately (right now I'm at 150Mbps LTE, which is very nice, and I started doing this in 1998 with the Ericsson SH-888... a few orders of magnitude slower)
- I can place the hotspot/phone away from me (typically near a window), and get excellent mobile signal regardless of where I have to sit
- I can share the bandwidth among multiple devices
Having spent over fifteen years at telcos and mobile operators, I can assure you that this is the sanest option both due to mobile hardware deprecation (you will _never_ be able to upgrade embedded 3G/4G/LTE in the same way), performance (embedded designs are a lot more trouble to get right) and, yes, price gouging from telcos.
Even before leaving the sector, I never saw SIM slots as an advantage in laptops -- they're just a way to charge you more for an effectively worse mobile experience.
Project Fi allows you to add extra data sims for free, so the cost is the same as tethering.
Small but important difference in my opinion.
On the one hand you've got a laptop that is online the whole time, on the other hand you've got a situation where you have to have to fiddle with two devices to get online.
Moving onlineness from a deliberate, modal thing to a continuous thing changes the way you interact with the network.
Because not having to tether is better. And every mobile-operator under the sun offers twin-SIMs for your laptops and tablets and what not.
Usually free of charge, if it's already a business-subscription.
Separate device would be one extra thing to carry and remember.
This has been true for quite a while now.
Most office environments where developers run Linux are full of Thinkpad T4xx, X2xx, and X1s.
I ended up going with the Dell Developer Edition Ubuntu laptop line after talking to a few people who swore that their XPS 13 was the greatest thing they'd ever owned. Personally, I went with a beastly 17" Precision because I wanted a desktop replacement. Should be delivered any day now, but I'm excited. Btw, I'm switching from a Mac.
I'm currently typing this while USB-tethered through a stock Android phone, which 'just worked' when I first tried it - the only settings screen I've ever seen when USB tethering is the one that toggles it on.
It is normal for linux to perhaps have a driver issue with a very new laptop, but it's usually sorted out in a month or two, especially with thinkpads as they have a large linux-using population.
The certifications on this page are done by the vendors (typically RedHat or Ubuntu), against specific OS releases.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X1_Carbon_(3rd_Gen)
Ubuntu in particular:
https://certification.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Lenovo/?...
When I was shopping for a laptop recently, I was told that to order one with Ubuntu pre-installed I needed to call sales during business hours. Ultimately, I went with a Dell Precision T7510, left Windows 10 in place, added an NVME ssd, and installed Ubuntu on that (Dell Precisions also offer Ubuntu pre-installed and at a discount).
I run Fedora, I like it more than Ubuntu or Debian and like the fact that I don't have to worry about random underlying features breaking all the time when I update (which wasted a ton of my time when I was using Arch Linux).
Edit: 6th generation of mobile Intel CPUs have models with 4 cores and 8MB of L3 cache (i7-6970HQ), using 45W [1]. However, in 7th generation there are only 2-core models [2].
[1] http://ark.intel.com/products/family/88392/6th-Generation-In...
[2] http://ark.intel.com/products/family/95544/7th-Generation-In...
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Classic-ThinkPad-models-...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nymnxfm8xmdcl0s/Screenshot%202016-...
I don't see a 5th-generation listing under Lenovo's products pages. Does anyone know what the release date will be?
Edit: closest hit I can find is a rumored launch at CES in a few weeks -- http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/leaked-new-lenovo-thinkpa...
CES is next week, we'll likely get more details then, shipping products are still likely a few months out.
Now that I have Google Fi I'm kicking myself for not getting the cell radio builtin as Google will send you a data only SIM for free! I would never have to deal with another terrible airport or hotel captive portal again!
My coworkers are all Macbook Pro users and ask why I don't get one too. I just don't see the point. I think MBP's build quality is nicer but otherwise I get twice the machine for the same price and get to develop on the same OS as my project primarily targets (Linux).
Oh, I forgot Fi would send us this, thanks!
> I think MBP's build quality is nicer but otherwise I get twice the machine for the same price and get to develop on the same OS as my project primarily targets (Linux).
I just looked at the X1 carbon specs and my 3 year old MacBook Air is faster than the base model carbon and I spent about the same amount of money.
The build quality is huge for me as I spend 50+ hours a week directly-on or with peripherals cabled to my laptop. If I wanted, I could install a Linux on it, but really, OS X just works without having to fuss with it (e.g. trying to get the touchpad feel anywhere near as nice).
As for writing Go, isn't cross-compilation pretty good? I spend most of my time writing in VHLLs (js, python, etc) and OS X is (still, even after some iOS-direction changes) quite good as a dev environment -- spinning up a VM for when I need to compile something lower-level and test on a target OS is trivial.
Go's cross-compilation is near perfection unless you use cgo which needs to use a C compiler to link against native libraries. Then you need all of the normal tools and libraries for cross-compiling C; Go just puts a decent on it.
I still (slightly) prefer my Mid-2014 13 inch Macbook Pro though, but it's very close.
"X1 Carbon is available with Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Signature Edition. No more trialware or unwanted apps. No more distractions—and easy provisioning for IT pros."
So do that with every version, and stop feeding people "unwanted apps" altogether. You just admitted that nobody wants them, and this irresponsible attitude is exactly why you got bopped for pre-installing the Superfish MITM malware.
And there will always be trialware and unwanted apps as long as the company gets money from including these. Because who doesn't want free money?
[0]: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Signatu...
Companies don't give a shit as to who wants them or who doesn't, because they get free money for each install that includes the bloatware, and that's all that they really care about; maximizing the profits.
Microsoft's profits are probably negatively impacted by the bloatware in the form of a bad experience, and probably pays the OEM some amount to offset the removal (I don't work in sales, I have no idea how those deals are made or what they contain) so that users have a better experience with Windows.
OEMs can choose to go that route, or not, and the reason why most computers are not is that they probably get more money from having the bloatware in there; otherwise, we'd see Signature Edition as the default.
I am using 5 yr old Macbook Air for development, it works well. I always imagined that I will use ThinkPad /w some Linux distribution in future. It is not trivial to use Linux on your laptop. While a lot of things will be faster, browser most likely will be slower and there will not be as many tools. What I would mostly miss is photography tools, Lightroom is essential for processing photos. I can't not do it.
Let me add one more thing to this fairly random post :). I think X1 is better then Macbooks and Airs at the moment, docking station makes a lot of difference.
The keyboard is great so if you do a lot of writing (e.g. you are a developer) this is a very good machine. But if you are doing other stuff then maybe this is not the machine for you.
With that said, checkout darktable (http://www.darktable.org/ ) which was discussed a few days ago on HN.
Again, thank you for reference.
The laptop with the most promising keyboard/trackpad combo, that I have found, is the Dell XPS (it has physical trackpad buttons, but at least they're located at the bottom), which is probably not accidental; it looks a lot like a MacBook, too.
As for the keyboard, my favorite was the "old thinkpad" keyboard (X220 generation), but I have to admit the new thinkpad keyboard is better than I expected. Travel and resistance are very comfortable. Compared the "new macbook" keyboard with tiny travel and those useless up/down keys, it's vastly better.
Nicest part is you leave the keyboard very little so for the few things I used the mouse for I'd have it but otherwise it'd be out of my way.
That said, I prefer Apple's trackpads these days because over all Apple hardware has been better to me than ThinkPads.
And besides, Apple's trackpad is best in class, they don't really need another mouse input.
The trackpad is nice, though; I almost don't miss the trackpoint any more, but I do miss the separate mouse buttons, and especially the middle button.
The "type cover" looks decent, but in the YouTube videos I find, it looks like it's less rigid/solid than a fully integrated keyboard. I see that some people prefer to detach it and use it flat on a solid surface for that reason.
(Though I'm probably not a useful counterpoint for you, because I think Apple laptops have rather iffy ergonomics. Cold hard wrist rests, too slippery to hold when closed, sharp edges, annoyingly grippy trackpads)
Specifically the rapid charging. Hell I'd be fine with current battery life (6-10 hrs depending on usage) if it could recharge fast.
Same goes for the phones.
If something like the current generation Thinkpad hardware (T or X series) could run OSX, it would be what the Macbook Pro used to be... Remember the first generation Intel macbook pro in 2006 which had a full complement of ports? Everything relevant and needed except RS232.
Just look at the broadcom wifi chipsets: if you mistakenly buy a thinkpad with one directly from their website (and they obviously don't advertise it as such when configuring the hardware), and then ask their support to get it fixed/changed (even on your own dime) they'll just stonewall you. Once they got money out of your pocket, you mean nothing for them.
The only solution is to buy a supported (intel chipset, for the wifi) FRU aftermarket (and good luck finding it, since Lenovo's support won't tell you that information).
At least, with a Dell or a Chromebook I have a recurse if the hardware they sold me has incompatibilities with the Linux version they shipped it with
Moreover: I won't support a company with such an horrible and embarrassing security track record as lenovo
On the security point, SuperFish was on a different product line - Ideapads, Lenovo's consumer line (with quality that parallels Dell's consumer stuff) - and I would have no trouble believing that some idiot SVP in the chain of command who had nothing to do with Thinkpads made that decision.
For me it's honestly the TrackPoint and the modularity of the laptops. There's just nothing else out there that comes close to what Lenovo figured out 10 years ago, unfortunately.
I really liked the Lenovo X1. From 2012 to now I've went from the MacBook Pro to MacBook Air and now the MacBook Pro Retina. With the Lenovo, the touchpad wasn't quite as good, the power adapter wasn't quite as compact, the battery life wasn't quite as good (but all were good enough).
The screen and keyboard were very good. The trackpoint is a nice addition. The Mini DisplayPort worked with my 27" Apple Cinema Display without issues in both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu worked perfectly BTW). Build quality on the machine was great. Didn't run hot or anything, had all the ports that my Mac did.
Later on they sabotaged the function key row and ruined the touchpad. After a year of customer complaints they put it back, but the things were so expensive I just stuck with a Mac. If I needed a Windows/Linux machine however, they would be my first choice.
Maybe you are thinking of some other device?
Of course this applies to all Laptops where you can not change battery.
Thanks and have a better 2017!
I wish they ditched SATA option for m.2 only and used the extra space for more battery (or cooling for HQ cpu)
Unfortunately this is becoming common on HN posts that praise or even merely discuss another company.
Enough has already been written about the new MBPs and why many of us will no longer consider them. I've already tried the Kaby Lake Razor Blade Stealth but returned it due to shocking quality and support issues. I considered the Asus Zenbook but it has too few ports to be a serious contender and the HP offerings all have screens with a lower resolution than I want.
I've always avoided Lenovo, party because Apple were building machines I wanted and partly because my experience of Lenovo to date has been low end cheaper models which suck. I'm willing to give them a chance at the upper end with this though. The sooner to market with this the better
(I've always owned windows PCs, though I've used MBP at work for 2 years now, and have had a MacBook Air that I resold because it was too small and didn't have a niche to fill after my ultrabook and my ipad.)
The frame is carbon fiber(according to lenovo), and the outside is matte plastic. It doesn't bend, creak, or otherwise make me think it's cheap. It doesn't feel as "solid" as the 15" MBP on my shelf, or the 15" MBP(with touch bar) on the shelf next to it. And before you ask - work buys all this kit, not me.
So, in summary...I use one every day(the t460) and it doens't feel cheap. Compared to the 1st gen X1 carbon(also on my shelf, but not 2nd or 3rd gens), it feels significantly heavier, but not any more or less sturdy.
In a city of 5mm I also can't find a brick & mortar store where I could even evaluate what's on offer. Any place selling laptops these days are all targeting home users, and sifting through online offerings isn't much better.
Maybe my expectations are unrealistic, but I'm convinced we've taken a step backward in the last year or so.
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-yo...
16GB ram, 14" WQHD OLED Touchscreen (300 nit), 1TB SSD, Intel® Core™ i7 vPro, Trackpoint (touchstick), retractable keyboard in convertible mode, rechargeable & dockable pen, WWAN (Project Fi free data only sim), touch fingerprint (not the swipey kind), Thunderbolt 3, USB-C (docking is amazing now), WiGig docking.
All starting at 3 lbs. (my W510 is 6 lbs w/extended battery).
Mmmmmmmmm, now that is a sexy machine!!! Only thing better is if it would come with Ubuntu pre-installed and everything working out of the box.
I am gonna get one of these and install Ubuntu or Apricity on it!
Dell XPS put a 13" display in 12" a chassis and a 15" display in 14" a chassis.. But a 14" display in a 13" chassis. Now that’s innovation.
I'm just interested in general - I'm a Mac owner now, but used to be a happy thinkpad owner back in the day.
(not that it makes it any better)
Here's an image of the page: http://imgur.com/szPrPuN
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/53ri0m/warning_micro...
If only they were fanless.
Indeed. I'm not sure what they mean here.
As in, a smaller screen bezel.
Is this their OLED screen?
The T series is what you are looking for.
Try find any laptop of that size with 32gb ram and quad core option. It doesn't exist.