Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Review Discussion

The ThinkPad X201 is the newest 12-inch ultra-portable business notebook from Lenovo. As a refresh to the X200-series, the X201 showcases Intel's latest Calpella platform. One of the most interesting new processor options included in the X201 is the new 32nm Core i7-640LM dual-core CPU clocked in at 2.13GHz. In this review we take a look at the entire X201-lineup including the X201, X201s, and X201 Tablet and see how well they stack up against previous models.

Read the full content of this Article: Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Review

Related Articles:

• Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad X200s Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Review

 

Thanks for the great review! I'm so getting one of these.

 

I was looking for one of these this morning... Nice job.

I did not see the i5 coming.

How does the i3 compare to those i5 and i7 models?

 

Wow, these are great - fantastic review, Kevin!

 

I wonder who I would have to bribe at Lenovo to get someone to insert the sunlight readable screen into the X201 and sell that to me. Can anyone say "most perfect laptop ever"?

 

I wonder if the touchpad is standard or optional? Looks like a great refresh though! More power, more battery life, not more heat as many expected! I was worried about the heat and battery life with the core i. I wonder if the wxga w/ camera will be an option on the 201s. Beautiful laptop.

I wonder who I would have to bribe at NBR to get someone to accidentally mail me their x201 review model that was sent to them. PM me with your routing number and bank account number and I'll respond with my address.

 

The review didn't talk about the speakers at all, but its okay, other reviews say they are horrible.

 

No HDMI or DisplayPort...

Looks good otherwise though... although it sounds like it'll cost a pretty penny.

 

So when does this officially go on sale? Tomorrow I take it?

 

Prices are listed in the review under the specifications for each model they tested.

X201 retail is $1625, X201s retail is $1335, and X201 Tablet retail is $1900 for the configurations they got.

 

really? all that power with no hdmi or any digital video output?

what's sad is because i require that, a su7300 low powered cluv laptop looks better to me.

and i hate to even think that such a underpowered machine is more admirable to me than these

 

Kevin, are the systems upgradeable to 8GB of RAM?

 

Is the 6-cell flush with the body?

 

These are business machines.

Try walking into any boardroom/conference room and looking for a projector with a HDMI or DisplayPort.

I once had a professor with a Macbook. She was forever forgetting to bring her dongle adapter with her and/or losing it, and we'd spend 10-15 minutes waiting for her to FTP the lecture notes to the lectern machine.

The new projectors with wifi are great, but they're probably not very widespread. And unless you use the facilities often, you're probably going to waste a lot of time configuring them for (hopefully before) the meeting.

VGA it is.

EDIT: PS, the upcoming docking station has DVI and Displayport. So if you want to hook it up to a display at your work desk, that's the way to go.

 

Yup, the 6-cell we had in the X201s was flush mount. Only the 8 and 9-cell batteries stick out.

 

Finally! A touch pad! Incredibly, that's all I needed to swing me away from from the VAIO Z to the X201. Hopefully the dock for this will have a DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort connector. That would be a dealbreaker if it's missing that.

Anyway, when can I buy this thing? I went to the Lenovo Canada site and their Thinkpad page still "recommends Windows Vista Business" so that's not good sign at all. Even the Lenovo US page is only listing the X200. I wanna buy this tonight while I'm still giddy with excitement and not thinking straight!

 

One question - compared to X200/X200s, are X201/X201s louder than previous models?

 

A great view! I know many have been looking forward to the X200 being updated. Some questions, both relating to DIY ViDock implementation.

1. How many mPCIe ports does it have (real mPCIe, not WWAN)? Perhaps can post an Everest Southbridge screenshot like this??
2. The PM55 chipset claims pci-e 2.0 2.5GT/s support. Does that mean it can do a x1 2.0 link?

 

Shoot, I figured you'd be one of the first to dismiss these machines since they can't have two drives loaded in.

I just want a super-tiny machine with 2x2.5" 3.0Gbps SATA slots. Looks like the 13-inch MacBook Pro is still the best bet in this arena.

Impressive benchmark numbers though. Calpella hauls.

 

Google couldn't answer my question... does this still have a Wacom digitizer, or am I stuck with some silly N-trig thing?

 

The dock is the same as the last gen x series. It has displayport (I use it). No audio pass through though like on the new T series.

 

hmmm... how is the 1440x900 resolution on a 12" screen?

and any word on when and what HP will be coming up with to replace the 2530p?

 

An acquired taste.

 

Thanks for the review!
I know that x200s doesn't come with a built-in camera, is it still the case with x201s?

 

Kevin about the battery tests: were the machines sitting idle or did they do something? You write the wireless was active, was there data actively transferred?

Why I am asking .. I wonder if your estimated 14 hours on the X201s with 9cell would hold up with real world usage?

 

Thanks for the review Kevin. I'm surprised the X201s would be cheaper than the X200 configuration. Can you confirm the $1,335 is right? That's actually not a bad price at all if so. Hmmm.

 

This is really an attractive ultraportable. Now that it has a functional trackpad, it appears to be a perfect replacement for my aging X301.

 

Those boot times of around 20 seconds sound good. I am going to assume that 20 seconds is with the SSD I want one of these as well but as others mentioned I am also curious to if they improved upon the X200 speakers

 

so... no displayport and no webcam? hopefully the x210 will be more worthwhile.

 

How many speakers? Still one?

 

The service manual states that the tablet and 201 come with stereo speakers, and the 201s comes with a mono speaker.

 

Thank you!!! I will get x201!!!

 

oo looks good with the extra touchpad. i hope they make that bezel go away. they can conceptually put a larger screen in the same overall package

 

I strongly tend to get the X201 when it's available.
Does anyone know if the SATA drive is still 2,5'' like it was in the X200?

BTW: I don't understand why the X200s should make it for more than 13h. If you project the measured 433min runtime to a 9cell battery, you should get like 94/57 * 433 = 714min which is not even 12 hours.

 

What about a Card Reader??
Do they support the new SDX or whatever it's called??

 

Well the 9cell is 94Wh battery, and the review said the X201s draws 6.5 to 7 watts.

94/6.5 = 14.46
94/7 = 13.42

So thats how they probably calculated the 14 hours.

The Lenovo press release says 12.2 hours for the X201s with the 9cell. The press release can be read here.

Note its very tricky, it says: The new ThinkPad X201s, the X Series’ featherweight fighter, weighs in at under 2.5 pounds(4) and now achieves over 12 hours(5) of battery life.. However, if you read notes (4) and (5), you will find out that its under 2.5 pounds with the 4 cell (4) and over 12 hours with the 9 cell (5) battery. God, I hate marketing.

 

Our battery test has the notebook actively refreshing a webpage at set intervals through the entire process. Right now I am actually putting the X201s through its full battery test with the 9-cell borrowed from the X201 to get an actual number.

 

Great! Will you update the review itself when you have completed all additional tests you might be doing?

 

I will swap out that line in the review with the actual number. Right now the X201s is sitting at 33% and has been on for 8 hours and 36 minutes.

 

Until I realized the start icon was just slightly smaller on the X201s I thought the resolutions were the same. Even my tired old eyes that look at computer screens all day had no problem viewing the panel.

 

Can you detail the X201s temperatures and noise levels more specifically?

I've really had trouble with my X200s, first getting it and now with a warped frame. Being within my return period still, I'm trying to decide if I should try to pressure them for an upgrade to an X201s, or just for accessories. Do you think there are any negatives going from an X200s to an X201s?

 

And I have to say, with the pixel density, it really makes the panel look better than it is.

 

Give me a scenario that you want tested and I will grab the numbers from it. The sound readings were taken when a 3D-stressing app and CPU stressing app were running full tilt while I was recording each new step in the cooling fan speed.

Temperature readings are taken after two benchmark runs through 3D/PCMark.

 

So the 9-cell battery for X201 has higher capacity than the one for X200?

My X200 9-cell battery is listed as 85WH, while the one in your review is 94WH. Any idea regarding compatibility of the new battery with X200?

 

I would be interested in a scenario, where all threads are 100% loaded (like running prime).
Is it possible - using the Think Vantage Fan Management - to make the machine very silent under 100% load for multiple hours?

 

Yup this past generation I have seen all the Lenovo batteries jump from ~85Wh to about 95Wh. In fact most of these newer batteries like the one in the X201 report at ~104Wh in BatteryMon.

Hmmm... well I suppose I could use TPFanControl and turn off the fan or have it on really slow. If it bursts into flames and/or all the blame falls squarely on you

 

I loooove that keyboard layout.

And now that it includes a touchpad . . . great laptop. I used to own an X61t and despite the reasons I got rid of it, I did like the device itself a lot.

 

Well, I'm not so much interested in a different scanario. It just seems like all the sound/temp testing was done with the X201, while I'm interested in the X201s.

 

Used the X201 with the Core i5 for this test:

Using tpfc it took 56 seconds of wprime running before the CPU previously at 40C rocketed up to 84C. At that point the bios took control of the fan and cranked it up to 75% or so and cooled it down. Now it is sitting at a temp of 70C and not budging. If I manually set the fan to 100% the temp levels off at 68-69C.

Basically with the processor completely loaded across 4 threads it won't go above 70C if the fan is working like it should. If you turn off wprime and keep the fan cranked the CPU levels back off at 38-39C.

 

Since the x201s was left at my house today while it was doing the battery test over night and into the morning I will bring the dB meter home and get readings now that I know tpfc works on the newer systems.

I will get the base ambient reading and list out the dB values for each of the 0-7 fan stages.

EDIT: I picked the X201 since it offers the same cooling system but it was stressed with a faster processor.