Contents
Introduction
In the box
Specifications
The exterior: build quality and finish
The exterior: connectivity and lights
Performance and battery
Operation and ergonomics input options
Operation and ergonomics: fingerprint scanner
Display and use as a tablet
Multimedia Applications
Software: Lenovo "bloatware"
Connecting to other devices
GPS
Support from Lenovo
Installation of Windows 7 Ultimate
Summary of a year of use
Conclusion
Updates to this Review
Introduction: Why a Thinkpad?
since November 2007 I had a Lenovo 3000 V200 laptop. This gave birth to excellent, but I really been a Thinkpad. These are known as super solid and reliable workhorses that I wanted to have. Now I had the money, I bought this Thinkpad X201 Tablet. thought it would be incredibly handy to have. touchscreen You can use it as you would with an iPad: browse websites and make notes. For example, the minutes of a meeting, or interactive presentations for my work as a teacher. The "real" job, I think an iPad is insufficient, and this Thinkpad is still a fast laptop with keyboard. An ideal combination. In the box The box is a relatively small box, with large letters written on Thinkpad. I am glad that the store still has done for sending a box around it , in the box:
:)
The Thinkpad X201 itself
The 8-cell battery
Quick Start Guide printed in many languages
AC adapter from 3 meters
Pen or stylus on the screen, including 3 spare tips
It is complete and not excessive. Obviously missing a recovery DVD, this is a partition on the hard disk reserved. I think the 3 feet of the AC adapter to the short side, fortunately, you can easily get to universal longer cables. The adapter is otherwise grounded, and the grounding continues into the laptop. Specifications The main specifications of this model are:
Processor: Intel Core i7 640LM 2.13 GHz
L2 cache: 2 MB
Memory: 4GB DDR3, 1066 MHz
Hard Drive: 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue (5400 rpm) (after a week replaced by Seagate Momentus 7200rpm drive
Display: 12.1 inch WXGA, 1280x800, matte coated
Gigabit Ethernet
Intel Ultimate-N 6300 AGN Wifi Adapter (802.11a/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
Built-in 3G modem
RJ11 modem
Fingerprint reader
8-cell Li-ion battery, 67 Wh
Weight: 1500 grams without battery, 1950 grams with battery (put yourself on the scale)
The most striking is the presence of a Core i7 processor in an ultraportable laptop, the presence of a 3G modem and the absence of a CD or DVD player. The latter is sometimes offset by the laptop can boot from the internal SD card reader. And of course a USB stick. exterior: build quality and finish a Thinkpad is known that the build quality is unsurpassed. The X201 is a tablet, wherein the hinge of the screen is in the middle. This is perhaps the only part which is a bit wobbly, the rest feels very solid. The plastic around the keyboard you a little push. The laptop itself can hardly twist, and the screen is very sturdy. It is so strong that you can easily pick up on the edge of the screen the laptop. It takes less effort than picking at the bottom, the screen is easier to reach. Also you can see the whole laptop so fresh hoot across the room if you really want, or leave the laptop in circles through the air. The screen really is not twisting it, and you do not see any spots on the screen because of this. This is truly amazing sturdy, though you may wonder how wise it is in order to move the laptop. Every day You can if you do not want to be disturbed so of course also do the whole laptop between two fingers just hold left or right of the touchpad. That there is more meant for, but dents the plastic as I said there what. The whole thing weighs only 2 pounds, so it will be easier with this model than with a W700 , which pick up not just on the screen. Recently I open the laptop screwed to see if the hinge can be more securely put. Answer: No, you can not. The hinge is in the straight-ahead position of the screen in a kind of hole, which makes the display needed a boost in order to be rotated. In the straight-ahead position, the screen wobbles as soon as you turn the screen is certain. So it should be, though it does not feel very solid. But that's about it, because you can run with the laptop ... so rounds in the air , the chassis of the laptop is made of a lightweight alloy with aluminum and magnesium among others, what Lenovo calls a "roll cage". Hence, it is difficult to twist the laptop stuff is just too strong for that. The screen is made of this alloy, because the WiFi antenna. The alternative to that is reinforced with carbon fiber plastic. Everything under firmness ... Nice detail is the key: it is "spill-resistant". At the bottom of the laptop holes icon sitting next to a keyboard and a drop. In addition, the water that you throw on the keyboard back, again. Also inside the laptop shows that the drainage system can do its job well, as long as you do not tilt the laptop after an action to empty mess pouring him. All the buttons you need to push away and they feel solid, even the mouse buttons feel good firm. However, the surface of the buds begin to be used by many, after 7 months. Slightly slippery Lenovo provides a 3 year warranty on the whole. About the appearance Opinions are divided. The Thinkpads have changed little in design over time, and that also applies to even the Thinkpad. Compare this but agree with the A31p 2002. You do not look directly at him is new, because the "old" design. I should explain that the laptop is really new, despite the design. Enough to colleagues But the design exudes it indestructibility out I think, and that's worth something. He's almost boring of solidity, but that makes him actually nicer than the fragile appearance of many consumer laptop. The modern Thinkpads that are more focused on consumers (the Thinkpad Edge series or the Thinkpad X121e ) are a much more rounded shape, which radiate the soundness of the X201 does not really matter. I am well aware that this person is and I know people are going to talk me back. They do, but the finish is pretty good, you should look for sloppiness. The only direct eye-catching sloppiness that I can find, the sticker with "X201 Tablet" on it. This is a little crooked. Furthermore, the modem connection is skewed in the housing. It does not bother, but it's not quite neatly. It is also one of the rubber feet on the bottom loose, but is now back with the original glue. That struck me at, coincidentally occurred to me when he was loose and I was not lost. And yes, after a while, do not pay attention, the cap is indeed lost. , the battery is in the back of the laptop, and then pushed it snaps perfectly. There is one slide that you can disconnect the battery or even fix. Meanwhile I lost that tab, it is aborted. I thought Thinkpads are sound, but this piece has apparently not been so strong. I have to do for a pen to the battery disconnect. The battery is pushed under the edge and is only held by two plastic hooks. Also, the battery remarkably another color than black, the laptop itself. Sloppy! If you want to pick up the battery, the laptop then you feel that you can not do it better. Even if you use the laptop as a table to move a whole load of loose debris instance with the laptop to another room then you better not get him to the battery. The laptop itself will survive use as a table, but the battery is not. It's nice to mention that the hard disk called "airbag function" has (as Lenovo calls it). It means that there is an accelerometer in the laptop sits, which detects shocks. If they feel a shock, then parked the hard disk directly, so it does not rupture. You can display a status display of the accelerometer, and you can also adjust the sensitivity. On the sensitive he reacts when you put the laptop on your lap. The center position is good enough to work on the bus, the disk blocks only when the bus is on a threshold. And the least sensitive setting is not sensitive enough, then you should go throw the disc is parked with the laptop. I was not planning to. The hard drive itself is encased in rubber pieces, this is to go. Against shock and vibration There roam on YouTube enough movies around of ThinkPads that are thrown, where cars drive over or out of a window of 50 kilometers per hour from concrete to throw be . Thanks to the roll cage and the air data on the hard disk in all these cases remain intact. I will not try, I do believe that it is right. exterior: connectivity and lights at the back of the laptop is the battery alone. On the left you will find successively: a Kensington Lock connector, power, VGA, Ethernet, one USB port, an ExpressCard54 and a slider to turn WiFi on and. On the front is an SD card reader. And right there is a USB port, a hole for the stylus, the disk valve, an RJ11 modem, a hole which I shall return later, microphone input, headphone jack and a USB port. The list is pretty complete, all the space is used. Most important: there are 3 USB ports, and HDMI or DVI missing. The latter is probably done because this type of laptops for business users only, and they often use a projector. Projectors are often still VGA. I can only use it on my work VGA. Want your home to connect a DVI or HDMI display, then you have the X200 Ultrabay needed. Which cost another 230 euros ... Indicator lights there are plenty, and they are not too bright. They are all green, not that annoying blue. If the battery is 20% or less, the battery indicator is bright orange. That's not so on. Strikingly, the VGA connection is complete with screw holes. You can use a VGA cable screw so if you want to. Certainly not all laptops have that, and it's nice to not suddenly hit you if some coarse play with the touchscreen. Rid of your image in the middle of your presentation, performance and battery For speed makes the Core i7 processor. It is a "low voltage processor." This means that the processor in idle consumes much less power than when it is fully addressed. At full load the laptop draws about 35 watts of power from the battery (according to Lenovo Power Manager). At rest, this does not exceed 11 watts out. brightness of the screen makes a big difference in power consumption. The difference between full brightness and the lowest brightness is 4.5 watts. I have an artificial benchmark done with SuperPI. It takes 23 seconds to 1 million decimal counting. Pi decimal 19 times out In the power saving mode that takes up to 50 seconds. Then the laptop is not faster than the average netbook. Cinebench gives a benchmark score for the CPU and OpenGL performance. The CPU gets a score of 1.78 points. Click on the picture above to compare desktop processors. In comparison, a Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo, 2.53 GHz from the end of 2008) takes 1:48 points. Really much faster than that, this laptop is not. The graphics performance you'd better not watch it because it is dramatically bad. 1:46 fps, so frames per second! Games on this laptop, but you better leave out of your head. Also for Photoshop, which nowadays can make the GPU, also did not use a lot of extras on here. Therefore a major problem with fast processors the heat. With this laptop is not at issue, since the heat remains pleasantly low. You can easily use the notebook on your lap all afternoon. He feels at full load it warm, but not hot. And if everything is warm, turn the fan on. This barely hear you, you feel just come off some hot air from the left. Another rate-limiting factor is the hard drive. The laptop is equipped with a low power 5400-RPM disk of 320 GB. The disk is theoretically quite fast (up to 85 MB per second, average 60), but it seems as if it is a bottleneck when Windows gets busy. The access time of 20 ms is not great fast. If one program much data should be fresh jeer, Windows runs very close and you can only wait. The latter happens sometimes, especially at startup. Booting to log in without a hard drive activity, it takes about 40 seconds. Coming back from hibernation lasts between 1 and 10 seconds, depending on the mood of the hard disk and the position of the moon. Just work with Windows (these types of reviews and now have open 10 sites) is of course excellent. Update: Today I had managed to get the same installation of Windows on a faster hard disk. See the HDTune results above, the disk has a capacity of 500 GB and runs 7200 rpm. On average, the disk 15 MB / s faster, and the maximum transfer rate is 20 MB / s more than the original 320 GB drive. The access time is 3 ms shorter slightly better. You notice more that the drive is present, you can hear him clearly and in turn a large data transfer you hear rattling him gently. The battery life I have not tested it yet but it seems not to fall. Moreover, I do not know what I could add to objective benchmarks. If anyone alternative benchmarks can still bring that something to add, please write a comment below! summarize: laptop is called, generally fast but much hard disk activity, the sensation of speed pretty messed up. The battery is an 8-cell Li-ion battery with 67 Wh capacity. The battery is larger than the standard battery, so it protrudes about 3 inches from the back of the laptop. He adds 450 grams quite some weight. You do get a long battery life in return. At "just work" on the laptop: 10 tabs in the browser, open MS Word or similar, possibly even something, the battery about 4-5 hours. This is not just clean, but just good. In the power saving mode (brightness down, no Aero, CPU on the lowest setting) the battery can last 6-7 hours. There is also a "Battery Stretch" mode, yet this is really all energy eating off: Windows goes to a Basic theme, sound goes out and even more so), the battery last longer. Are you going to start Photoshop or video conversion, then the battery will "only" 2-3 hours straight with it. Recharge finally takes 3.5 hours. Updated July 17: The battery has not deteriorated after 7 months. The capacity is still 67 Wh, while it is designed for 66 Wh. The battery has only 117 cycles on, but still. I use the laptop every day, and every day, the battery will be empty first time to 20% and full again. Operation and ergonomics input options The key to a laptop's keyboard and mouse. Who always use so that you just have to be good. The keyboard is the same for years on a Thinkpad. It is a full size QWERTY keyboard with U.S. layout. Esc and F1 sits above the upper right is a patch of 6 keys with Delete, Insert, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down. Those six you see on a laptop often freely chosen badly seated, with this laptop they are at least together. Even more striking things: above the left and right arrow keys are two that work in the browser "back" and "continue". Finally, there is a blue ThinkVantage button. This starts the Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox (see Software below) . In the past, the Thinkpad keyboard is often praised for its precision and "tactile feedback" that's no different here. You feel good when a button is pressed. Press to briefly heavy, then suddenly the real key is pressed (the "tactile"). This you can hear a bit (the "Feedback"). The keyboard is definitely not the quietest, but it really works perfectly. It reminds me of my good old IBM M keyboard 1994, and that may Lenovo as a compliment. Modern keyboards types almost never better. The keyboard has two drawbacks. First is the red trackpoint between the G, H and B. If you have a G or H to type, you often accidentally ram the red trackpoint. And another drawback is the placement of the Fn and Ctrl. Fn is left, sits beside Ctrl. This is so for years, but Lenovo is as far as I know the only manufacturer Ctrl place not far left. I'm used to (I had a Lenovo), you can turn it around in the BIOS, but that turns the imprint of the keys to yet ... As for the mouse, you have two choices: a touch pad and the familiar "trackpoint" (the red button on the keyboard). The trackpoint was there before, so I start with it. For those who do not know: IBM trackpoint first used in 1984, from an ergonomic point of view. You do not get to control the mouse your hands off the keyboard which saves time and again three-quarters second (source: Wikipedia). With your index finger, push the red dot in the right direction, after which you can print. With your left thumb of the left mouse button Also works on the red tip tapping but is not great. You must be pretty hard hit, the real mouse works easier. Later there came in between the mouse buttons in a scroll key, which is the same as pressing the wheel on a wheel mouse. The operation of this whole takes a lot of getting used to, but it is a fairly precise way that - as I said - it is ergonomically sound. In the beginning you do quite often you aim at the screen overshoot, good motor in your hands is required. TouchPad finally. This is the X201 with it came the forerunner X200 had only a trackpoint. Since the X201 is an ultraportable, there is little room under the keyboard. And because there are mouse buttons for the trackpoint on it, is the touchpad become very small: 60x28 mm. The precision is also happy here again very good, with your finger, you can move the mouse a little, and with a great sweep you go to the other side of the screen. It is clear that compromises have been made for the touchpad, it is really really small. Fortunately, he is so good, that I'll never long for an external mouse. The touchpad also has scrolling capability as a Mac that is. You can scroll to the right with two fingers at a time from top to bottom, or left. This is better than drawing a line in the rightmost piece touchpad to scroll, but the combination trackpad + scroll wheel is more precise. Zoom in and out, you can also do it the Apple way: thus two fingers to zoom out, move together and apart to zoom. This is fine, but not all applications. Internet Explorer is the example better than Firefox because IE is modified by the Windows Touch Pack. Yet you can use it more often than you think, for example, zooming in and out on Google Maps. , I find that I most often use the trackpoint. On every other laptop I am searching for the trackpoint, and bland enough, most laptops do not. Operation and ergonomics: fingerprint scanner is a separate chapter for the fingerprint scanner? Yes, because you can very much with it. In Windows, you should scan your fingers first time, then you can use them. First, you can replace the BIOS password by fingerprint. This works smoothly. You can also log into Windows with the fingerprint, but it takes a few seconds because the Windows driver to load. Every time, when you log on again, or switch users. You can also turn on the computer or have come with the fingerprint from hibernation and then it logs you in automatically in Windows. That's nice. The only thing not, is the password of Windows' UAC replaced by the fingerprint. If you want to install something as a regular user and you must be able to login as an administrator, then you have to type in a password every time. Precisely where that fingerprint was now invented. There are indicator lights on the fingerprint reader, which indicate when you can scan, and whether a scan is successful or not. Geinig and practical. Display and use as a tablet The screen is a capacitive multitouch screen, which "Wacom Penabled" is. That means you can control (like an iPad), and that it is both a Wacom tablet. It with your fingers The big difference with a drawing tablet is that you draw directly on the screen or write. The brightness of the screen is good, the screen is almost as dark, but also to screw up the brightness that an average desktop display has up. The viewing angle from all sides to mention very good, especially because it is a tablet, this is ideal. The color reproduction is pretty good, but it certainly gets no prize. For a business laptop is excellent but color fastness is not for this screen. To convert the laptop into "tablet mode", turn the screen 180 degrees and fold yourself over him. Then click into place. Here you have five buttons and the fingerprint reader at your disposal. The buttons are: Ctrl-Alt-Del key, a key to tilt the image 90 degrees to the left, a button for a menu with volume, brightness, presentation mode and more, and a button to turn off the tablet buttons. Once converted to tablet, it has actually become an iPad, but with Windows. You control Windows using just your fingers. The pen works better, because it is more precise than your fingers. Controlling the Windows Explorer goes nicely with your fingers, but buds smaller than 1 cm 2 is very good aim. After calibration of the touch screen (both finger and pen) control with the fingers is usually good, and certainly good with the pen. The pen is sensitive to the angle of the screen. Right above the screen, the mouse pointer just below the pin, but if you tilt it, which is wrong sometimes. On the side of the Wacom pen clipped into the laptop, which you slide out easily. And with the pen, you can write, for example, to connect to Microsoft OneNote. Rapid entry You touch the pen of course easily lost and a replacement pen costs 60 euros! I would come back in a hole on the side of the laptop: it can be used to attach a string to. The other end of the string may be in the appropriate hole in the pen. So you do not lose it, I just need to find a suitable string:. Long enough, but not continuously on the laptop dangling Windows has handwriting: You can write text with the pen and Windows "translates" it into typed text. This works to type, short texts you're not all like writing stories. An url goes well, a quick e-mail is just and this review is just too long. Ordinary Dutch text is good, but not Windows. Recognize non-Dutch words Just write www.tweakers.net , so that's wrong. Actually, you may want to select this (see "problems" at the bottom of this review). Language Add a time to the dictionary, and it is now good. It also helps to learn Windows. Your handwriting to I write a z instance with a line through it in order not to be confused with a second, and that it only recognizes windows as I teach him. Yet the most impressive handwriting, a few years ago this was not nearly as good as now. Windows detects roughly 90% of what you write, as long as you write normal sentences. In every sentence of 15 words you need to change about one word. Often the word is what you really wanted in the list of suggestions. Crazy characters as a%, @, £, {and} go really well if you do learn a time. There is also an on-screen keyboard, but then just please choose the real keyboard. On-screen works, but really slowly and with one finger. So does the iPad then better, but hey, who has no alternative. course you can use the tablet mode for browsing and occasionally see a YouTube video. This last is the only real drawback emerges: the volume buttons are hidden under the screen. You should therefore adjust the volume using the tablet menu as shown above, or the too small windows icons right. , you can decide how you want to see. the image on the tablet A book or a new blog you prefer to read in portrait mode, but the "normal" landscape mode also works. Here's a button, but you can also use the accelerometer to tilt the screen automatically. This works - after calibration - reasonable, but not as smooth as on an iPad. The laptop always chooses the right direction, but the screen must be black as a second, the image is rotated. An iPad animates this rotation ... Multimedia Applications Here we can be brief about this: this laptop is not designed for it. Do you want a laptop that you want to watch movies every day, or want to listen, then look a bit further. Music Now the motivation. It is to begin no CD player in the laptop. Just watch a DVD is not on. Of course you can install something like Daemon Tools, on another PC to make an image of a DVD and then watch on the laptop, but save you the trouble please. It all works well, but it will never be easy. The sound of the two speakers is terribly bad. Any other laptop that I meet has better sound. The speakers seem just made for calls such as Skype. If you would listen to blind you just might think that the sound comes from a phone as well. Any kind of bass is lacking, the sound is very shrill and lacks any detail. The speakers can also not very hard. The front speakers sit under the palm rest, so if you are the laptop on your lap you connect the speakers. A headset provides more relief, but then you hear the sound chip is not the best. The chip has difficulty with complex music, then it looks as if some of the pieces of music to be "over beaten", the chip is not in a position to reinforce things clean. I can hear better music with my mp3 player or my new phone, because they are both better. IPhone is a much better example. then where the whole it was created for: speech. The microphone of the Thinkpad X201 works fine, the other side can hear me fine with a Skype call. I can also hear the good side from the speakers, if the volume is high enough. And the webcam completes the picture: the picture is fine and adapts well to the ambient. For me it did not have to do the webcam, because this is a business laptop, but it's a nice extra. Software: Lenovo "bloatware" Lenovo has a whole load of software installed. This software is often derisively "bloatware" because it's so useless. For example, I call a power manager, access connections for network settings, update manager, ThinkVantage diagnostic tools, software Fn-key combinations F reacts and the fingerprint software. Another example: SimpleTap. This is intended to eliminate the aforementioned drawback of the tablet: tap with two fingers simultaneously twice on the screen or on the touchpad, and you get a number of touch-friendly buttons to adjust the volume setting or brightness to turn on the computer. hibernates Very nice, but can only tap on the desktop and not in any application, such as your browser. And the first boot takes 23 seconds, then run it immediately. This program is so nice thought, but it defeats the object completely gone. You get a lot of possibilities with the software, with the aim to. easy access to popular functions So far, so the utility, because the effect is moderate to very poor. Especially the startup time is dramatically (and the sensation of speed was not great). Once it has started, first time it works pretty well. I have not tested how fast Windows would be without this software, "bald" but I'm pretty sure it's faster. , the update manager to update the above Lenovo software, and Windows Update is immediately also integrated. Choose for yourself how useful you think. If there is enthusiasm for it, I can write more about the software. Connecting to other devices I have no objective benchmarks designed for the range of wifi and bluetooth, but I can say something about the practical use . The wifi adapter has a wide range: home routers which are 40 meters away, just be recognized. A nice comparison: in a concrete house has wifi adapter 5 meters away from the modem, with 40 cm of concrete between them, 4-5 dashes range. Another Compaq laptop gets there 3-4 dashes and a USB WiFi adapter has two dashes. The Lenovo is very good. At work I can still receive wifi 30 meters from the wifi adapter from, but there is hardly any concrete between. The laptop then gives two dashes range, while other laptops wifi adapter'll see, but can not connect. And a phone with wifi not. Sees the whole wifi adapter Bluetooth works as you expect. I can connect my Blackberry and use the laptop as a headset. I see no point directly, but it's quite funny to type in a phone number on the laptop and then call. More useful is music on the BlackBerry device to play through Windows Media Player, with small touch-friendly buttons right below. Internet via 3G, I have now also been working. The laptop is equipped with a Qualcomm Gobi 2000 modem, which turns out to be. Very standard Many providers assume that users use a USB dongle from Huawei, and have their software adapted accordingly. I have a cheap AH Mobile Internet Prepaid SIM card, but the software AH Mobile only recognizes a Huawei modem. And that I have not. So The software from Lenovo offers fortunately answer, because it recognizes the SIM card and the network immediately. Only major prepaid credit retrieval features like Internet do not work because you so the AH-software need. The Lenovo software also supports receiving text messages, but only after I turned it yourself. The software is in the program an xml file are from 2006, with providers in it. Vodafone has been around longer than today, so that in the list. If you manually type in there that SMS functions should work, so it works. Send me a SMS is not yet succeeded. Strangely enough, it is easier to make it through the Windows interface connected to the Internet is the Internet with your laptop via the SIM card, then fine. Lenovo software also adapts accordingly, by showing text messages. Immediately Of course Windows software and are not very friendly prepaid. If you have not put, Windows Update manually and have not turned the updates of various programs (virus, Java, Adobe, etc.) then go happily eat your complete credit. Self just think, and the Internet is on the way excellent. And once again there is wifi in the neighborhood, the Lenovo software will report that immediately. GPS
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