Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ThinkPad X1 Carbon

www3.lenovo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 540 posts

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#311

Post by ageofwant »

s_kilk wrote: post #225
techwizrd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dell XPS 13 is great. It runs Linux very well. The WiFi is excellent. It's got an aluminum chassis. The part where your hands rest is carbon-fiber composite so it isn't cold in the morning. The HiDPI touch screen is incredible, and the performance is pretty amazing. There is a single hinge stretching across most of the laptop for the screen (like the Macbook), unlike the flimsy set of two hinges on most laptops.…

> It runs Linux very well. 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?

I have the XPS 13 9350 (dmidecode c&p). The only issue is the BCM4350 Wifi card, and its a biggie. Do not buy the BCM, get the Intel Wifi card fitted. Or replace it yourself with this one: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Generation-Wireless-Computer-No..., they cost about $15.

I also had suspend/resume issues occasionally, a recent bios upgrade fixed that, I think.

Apart from the original WiFi, I'm very happy with the XPS 13.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#312

Post by lunchables »

s_kilk wrote: post #225
techwizrd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dell XPS 13 is great. It runs Linux very well. The WiFi is excellent. It's got an aluminum chassis. The part where your hands rest is carbon-fiber composite so it isn't cold in the morning. The HiDPI touch screen is incredible, and the performance is pretty amazing. There is a single hinge stretching across most of the laptop for the screen (like the Macbook), unlike the flimsy set of two hinges on most laptops.…

> It runs Linux very well. 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 actually make an XPS 13 Developer Edition preloaded with Ubuntu.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-linux

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#313

Post by rayiner »

Kalium wrote: post #269
NikolaNovak wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Errr.... T530 had titanium cover and endoskeleton chassis. My friend routinely walks over his while it's powered on, as a demonstration. How is it possibly an example of a "plastic, flimsy, bendy" laptop? 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…

Laptops are status symbols now. Design commentary is beginning to reflect that. Screw are so declasse .

The MacBook has screws. What it doesn't have is cheap plastic held together with clips (like most Thinkpads).

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#314

Post by friedman23 »

old-gregg wrote: post #155
josteink wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy 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.

When we got accepted into YCombinator back in 2011 (Mailgun), I remember PG looking at our Thinkpads running Linux and asking something along the lines of "what's wrong with you?" , with almost [1] all YC teams using Macbooks. 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 f…

>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

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?

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#315

Post by chris_wot »

adamweld wrote: post #246
NikolaNovak wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Errr.... T530 had titanium cover and endoskeleton chassis. My friend routinely walks over his while it's powered on, as a demonstration. How is it possibly an example of a "plastic, flimsy, bendy" laptop? 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…

Yes, this is Hacker news. Since when did having screws accessible to the user become a bad thing?

There were quite a few models where the RAM wasn't upgradable - I believe they were soldered directly to the main board. Is this the case for this revision? I can't tell!

Seriously, I used to be able to tell from product spec sheets, but Wikipedia also used to have model lists for each major product line with detailed specs. Wikipedia doesn't do this any more? Not even as part of Wikidata?

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#316

Post by bhauer »

masklinn wrote: post #221
munchbunny wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently Linux is a bit finicky on it? 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.

> I use a Surface Book as my main computer I've heard that it's fantastic hardware but had lots of software and driver teething problem, what's your experience with that?

I picked up a Surface Book on launch day. i7, 16 GB, 512 GB. As others have pointed out, there were several software glitches for a few months after launch. Ultimately, the software problems have been worked out.

For me, the ultimate deficiency is the Surface Book's inability to drive two 4K monitors at 60 Hz. Although not promised in so many words during the launch event (they said "two 4K monitors" without specifying the refresh rate), I had assumed it would support 60 Hz rather than 30 Hz. This limitation convinced me to retire my Surface Book to a purely mobile role and use a proper workstation for 90% of my computing.

I expect that a second-generation Surface Book will resolve that specific hardware limitation.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#317

Post by gonzo »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #224
Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I want to be excited by a good non-Apple laptop. But they're all just so terribly designed. They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere. 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 damag…

Errr.... T530 had titanium cover and endoskeleton chassis. My friend routinely walks over his while it's powered on, as a demonstration. How is it possibly an example of a "plastic, flimsy, bendy" laptop? 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…

The Carbon-X1 has screws, and the battery is easily accessible. https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/PD103715

The body is made out of carbon fiber. Technically this is 'plastic', but not in the context of your comment.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#318

Post by tsomctl »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #224
Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I want to be excited by a good non-Apple laptop. But they're all just so terribly designed. They're always some sort of plastic, feel flimsy and bendy, have grills and screw holes and uneven surfaces and stickers everywhere. 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 damag…

Errr.... T530 had titanium cover and endoskeleton chassis. My friend routinely walks over his while it's powered on, as a demonstration. How is it possibly an example of a "plastic, flimsy, bendy" laptop? 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…

I have a T530 laying on my lap right now. I would call it plastic, flimsy, and bendy. Pick it up by one corner, it creaks and I can feel it flexing. I can see and feel the screen flex as I adjust the angle. Close the screen by pushing down on the top right corner, and it doesn't latch properly because it flexes so much. I can feel and hear it flexing as my left wrist rests on the palm rest while typing. I would not want to walk on it, I would be willing to bet money that I'd break it. This is not a solid laptop, and I will not be sorry when I replace it. My previous one was a T500, and it was well built. My next laptop will probably be a Dell Latitude, the ones I have held were solid as a brick. I saw one that was kicked as hard as possible by a large guy. The screen was broken, and it was visibly bent, but still solid.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#319

Post by matt2000 »

Does Lenovo's history with malware give anyone pause when considering this laptop?

I'm just interested in general - I'm a Mac owner now, but used to be a happy thinkpad owner back in the day.

Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon

#320

Post by chris_wot »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #160
old-gregg wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we got accepted into YCombinator back in 2011 (Mailgun), I remember PG looking at our Thinkpads running Linux and asking something along the lines of "what's wrong with you?" , with almost [1] all YC teams using Macbooks. 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 f…

I don't understand it either, the thing that always gets me is most developers setting up vagrant on their Mac just to get a working environment. 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…

I thinkimux is rather hit and miss when it comes to battery life on Linux.

I've never really quite understood why, as I though ACPI is meant to handle this. But I'm not terribly au fait with this interface, so there might be good reasons, I know Torcalds criticised it early on as a "design disaster" and there were and I think still are concerns about the way that bytecode has unfettered access to the system.

Post reply on HN