General questions about the x201s

Hello,

I'm thinking about purchasing an x201s (with a Core i7 640LM) over an x201 because of the roll cage and the screen resolution. However, few reviews are available for the x201s and are not really complete unfortunately. I currently own a dying T43 (the USB ports died recently after 4 years and a half, but it's fair enough as it has been badly mistreated...), but I have always been annoyed by the noise and heat of the T43, even after cleaning it up several times or running at 2/3 of the maximum CPU speed. Does anyone can provide some feedbacks about that? Is the x201s noisy/hot even when being stressed out at 2/3 the CPU speed? What about at full CPU speed?

Besides of that, I have already been amazed by IBM/Lenovo support service, because when I had a problem with the hard disk or motherboard battery or palm rest, I phoned them and got them straight away, and they always agreed to send me the parts by mail (so I hadn't to send them back the laptop) without problem (I have no problem unmounting the laptop completely to replace a part) because as I use my laptop all the time for work and personal stuff, I can't afford to send it back... I can't remember though if I had an on site or depot warranty... I would like to know if it's still like that (I haven't contacted them since a year and a half)? Also, would they send the part on a depot warranty? Is it still possible to open the laptop to clean it up without losing the warranty? Any feedback would be welcomed!

Thanks much!

Cheers,
Arnaud

 

By what I've seen so far, I'd say the X201s is a pretty quiet machine, although perhaps a tad bit noisier than the X200s.

Lenovo support still often sends parts for simple repairs/replacements such as keyboards and palmrests under the depot warranty, so I guess that aspect hasn't changed.

 

Its a little noisier than the X200s, but still very quiet. I've got an SSD in mine so it does not heat up very often. The only situation I've heard the fan go into overdrive is when I'm transcoding a film in handbrake.

Lenovo support is still really good. Probably better than any other PC manufacturer. I've done several "upgrades" on my machines without breaking the warranty.

 

i just finished a quick review for x201s vs x200, try it here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=473741

 

My first impressions with the x201s...I've recently added a SSD to the machine, and I'll write up my installation experience after this post

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=470943

 

Hi,

I have finally purchased an x201s with a 320GB hard drive which I have quickly replaced by an Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD.

I'm not impressed by the screen which is far nicer than the one on my T43 (which has been reported by many people), but well, I already knew that and as I usually plugged in an external monitor, it's not that important. Also, the case seems a bit more flexible around the screen for example (which doesn't necessarly means that the x201s is less solid than the old generations laptop).

Besides of these minor issues, I must say that the x201s is a fantastic laptop (running cool with no noise and really powerful thanks to the Core i7). I completely removed Windows in favor of Debian GNU/Linux, and almost everything was working fine out of the box. I'm really happy with it!

Thank you very much for all the advices. Along with the other reviews and comments on notebookreview forums about the x201s, It was really helpful and did help me to decide.

 

congratz!!

do you have any problem with external monitor?
like, blinking, black screen, etc..

 

Hi,

Thanks. I'm using Debian GNU/Linux. No, I don't have any problem with the external monitor, it works fine. I had problem with the suspend to ram/disk on the second suspend because of an ACPI bug in the BIOS which can be easily circumvented by passing an option to the kernel.

BTW, Lenovo has already provided updates of the BIOS to fix this issue, which is worth noticing as laptop manufacturers do not generally care a lot about non Windows OS. I remember that, on the Dell laptop I had few years ago, Dell never did any updates on the BIOS to fix serious bugs (well, Dell sucks so it might not be a good example though).