Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Review Discussion

I know...I saw the video on the training site and swaping out the RAM and hard drive is SO much easier on this laptop than it is on my old Dell.

 

Huh???

Are these overheating and "throttling" (whatever that is...) accusations true?

I hope not, cause I like what I'm hearing about this laptop.

 

So, what the heck is "throttling" anyway???

Do you think that disabling the turbo feature that automatically speeds up the system when it detects a large load...would help?

 

It's all very well saying this laptop looks like the ultimate mobile business warrior's tool. Sure it has the specs, and the dependable looks. I followed the advice of reviews like this one and shelled out $1,200 for a high-spec X220 but when the laptop's casing developed a crack on the side by no accident or fault of mine, I was in for a ride from Lenovo Customer Service. The following thread on the Lenovo forum gives you a pretty good idea of what I've been through:

Crack in X220 casing + poor support - Lenovo Community

My opinion after owning an X220 for seven months: not only is this laptop of low quality build, but you can forget customer service. My experience of customer service at Apple on similar issues was lightyears ahead of this. Also: "milspec tested"? Give me a break! And what does "milspec tested" mean without actually getting some kind of milspec certification anyway? You can "milspec test" a fisher price toy and it would come out better than the X220, I'd wager.

 

I like how an engineer claims the crack was a result of excessive pressure on the palmrest area. Wonder if mil spec folks put pressure on theirs? You paid a premium for that system and clearly it's either not built to spec or there was a manufacturing defect at the crack point. So it's a lemon. Might be a one off thing, but who knows?

After the poor and untimely level of support you're getting you'd be well within your rights to escalate the problem to the CEO if you must, requesting your money back and go to a vendor that does provide a quality product, or support to fix one if it's got any defects.

A shortcut path to a remedy may be via your credit card if used to purchase the unit. You might have insurance against faulty products, enough to at the very least enough to purchase a new base, have it fitted and decide if you want to offload the unit on ebay.

Thank you too for highlighting your support experience. I have previously had some inclinations to try a Lenovo product "grass is greener" just to deviate from my Elitebooks. After your sorry tale I'll be steering well clear unless I can get one at throwaway prices.

 

Yeah, I'm going to buy mine with our company credit card...where I could do a forced charge back for up to a year to get a refund, and after that Visa provides two year replacement warranty.

So, during all this time if a serious problem is found...I'll have the upper hand against bad customer service as in...getting me money back or product replaced.

The situation you are experiencing is obviously a rare manufacturing defect since nobody else is reporting similar experiences...either that, or you broke it and aren't telling the story correctly.

Either way, this laptop is considered to be one of the best by nerds everywhere

 

This doesn't surprise me at all. I had to escalate to upper management just to order the stupid thing, and that's usually the part most companies excel at, since they want your money. It was a huge headache. I am not impressed with my experiences dealing with them, nor am I impressed with the laptop itself. Sure, it's small, light, and fast, and I love the keyboard and trackpoint (which are the only reasons I would even consider another Lenovo product in the future), but it doesn't come close to meeting it's main claim to fame, the long battery life.

I've mentioned it before, but I'm lucky to get the battery life doing next to nothing with it using the slice battery with the screen turned way down as it was shown to get in reviews with the screen turned up higher and no slice battery. It's nowhere close to what Lenovo claims either. I'm not the only one with this problem, and as far as I know there's no explanation or fix, the only possible reason seems to be the i7, which shouldn't make that big a difference, and if it did Lenovo should have made this clear, since the battery life is the big selling point with this laptop. When the time comes to replace it, I'll be looking elsewhere.

Winmute, as to your problem, while I understand where they're coming from, and I'm sure many people do cause damage then say they didn't do it, it does seem to me they're blowing it off prematurely. Reading through that, I got the impression they probably never even looked at it, but as you said just took it in so they could say they did. The thing is, once they had it, it seems to me enough time and money had been spent they should have just replaced the part, had a happy customer, and been done with it. This isn't a low-end computer bought at Wal-Mart. This is a high-end, flagship device, that's proclaimed to be super tough. EVEN IF you had "exerted excess force" or whatever they said, that should not have done this if it was properly designed/built and as tough as they claim, nor does it represent the quality of their products well, which are known to be tough. It's things like this that tarnish and eventually destroy a reputation a company worked so hard to build.

This statement is the one that really got me: "The analysis says that the damage was caused by the extensive pressure on the palmrest area. It means that if this damage had been caused in manufacturing, you would have noticed it at delivery and reported the machine as DOA. Because this damage occurs later after purchase, it might have been caused by leaning on the palmrest area (when machine was not fully placed on a table)." That's akin to saying "Sure, we didn't put any thermal compound on the CPU, but it worked when you got it and for roughly 10 minutes after, so it wasn't DOA, the damage occured after purchase, and therefore it's your fault, not ours." There is just no logic in what they said.

In order to finally have my situation resolved, I ended up having to "carpet bomb" the Lenovo execs. You could try this, but I would suggest working up the chain first. The only reason I didn't was because they are very good at making it extremely difficult to find any contact info for anyone higher in the chain than the reps you talk to when you call the main line. I now have all their contact info, so I'll help you out by providing it here (I can't guarantee they're all still at Lenovo or have the same email address or are in the same position):

xxxx at lenovodotcom
xxxx at lenovodotcom
xxxx at lenovodotcom (xxxx - the guy who actually got the ball rolling)
xxxx at lenovodotcom (xxxx - the guy xxxx asked to resolve the issue)

xxxx was very nice and helpful and got the situation resolved in no time. I think your best bet is to email him and calmly and cooly sum up what has happened so far and ask him if he can look into it as you truly feel it is a defect and should be fixed. Then go from there. Let us know what happens.

TLDR: Lenovo customer service sucks until you get to the top, the X220 is overrated IMO (crappy battery life even though that's it's biggest selling point), and contact info for some execs that can maybe help out.

 

Well, it's odd that most people that have commented on this laptop were happy with the batter life, isn't it?

Sure your view concerning the laptop isn't skewed due to your dealings with people that were not doing their jobs properly?

 

I've read quite a few other posts of people not happy with their battery life, where it is similarly bad. Even those that are happy with it that have posted what their battery life is, often it is not what it should be based on Lenovo's claims and on independent reviews. Also, many of those people have an i5, and as I mentioned, that seems to be the difference.

And I'm pretty sure my view concerning the laptop is skewed by the fact my battery life sucks. As I clearly said, otherwise it is an excellent computer.

 

OK, so it's an excellent computer that does decently on battery life with an i5, and most seem to be saying it is ahead of comparable laptops concerning battery life...

It is what it is, and of course their marketing department overstated battery life a little and failed to mention i7 eats up more battery life than i5... this is all par for course living on club earth interacting with fallible human beings...

I guess I fail to see the problem....

What was your original problem anyway...they didn't want to allow you to buy one and you had to go upstairs and ask management to please sell you one?

Aside from your perception of battery life not being perfect, what is it that has you so ticked about the company itself?

 

On the topic of battery life. I'm pretty happy, it's not reliably getting 12 hours like Lenovo says, but haven't seen a laptop where the manufacturer rated battery life was actually accurate.

Engadget got 8 hours out of the 6 cell, which means their average power consumption was about 7.9whr, which would put them close to 12 with the 9 cell. Slightly less than 8whr drain average is very much achievable with light webpages, low to low medium brightness, and possibly a capped CPU. I generally find myself going over that, I would say my power consumption while surfing the internet is closer to 9 or 10 whr than 8 which results in about 9-10 hours from the 9 cell and 6-7 with the 6 cell. 12 hours with 9 cell is not an unreasonable number for Lenovo to claim imho, it just not an everyday situation.

 

Hey vertigo_2_20, thanks for the support. I have definitely described the situation correctly (to address another comment) - maybe this is rare, but then the combined factors of the advertised durability, the price, my description of the situation, and the fact that there is no evidence of accidental damage or excessive force... these things mean that Lenovo should according to the warranty and statutory protection fix or replace the machine. In dutch the official term is "ondeugdelijk product", a product that doesn't live up to a basic standard of quality.
Vertigo_2_20, is there some way to get in touch with you directly for advice on escalating the issue? As you can see the moderators have removed the contact info... You can tweet me (wimute).
Also, I have started a thread on lenovo's forum to try and establish the weak spot in the casing as a design flaw (this seems to have been attached to the original thread): X220 design fault (weak spot in casing) - Page 3 - Lenovo Community
Oh, the laptop just arrived back from the "lab". 9 days. And a nice final touch: the box they chucked the laptop in. I will post a picture or two on the above lenovo thread. They're really taking the mickey.

 

Kind of symbolic of the quality of service at Lenovo:

 

C'mon man, the box obviously didn't look like that when it left the repair center...this was done by the delivery service, postal service, or whoever was in charge of shipping. You're just piling on now because you are "upset" and still "got your feeling hurt"...oh, poor baby :cry:

It sounds like you expect everything to be perfect in life...but, apparently you have not yet learned that many things in life are not actually perfect. Even what you yourself do for a career needs to be greatly improved upon as you fall far from being perfect as we all do. Aren't you glad folks aren't out there publicizing your skrew ups to the entire world...or, are they?

The bottom line here is that the company execs took care of whatever your perceived problem was which is what a company is supposed to do when there is a problem...so, you should be good to go now.

I sure hope that someone that has a bad experience in your work life doesn't make it their lifetime crusade to let the world know how bad you really are and go out on the internet to cry in their beer concerning your actions, or inactions.

Sometimes it's better for the soul to let people fix their mistakes (like company execs did for you), and just move on...

 

I was under the impression that Lenovo didn't fix the problem.

Though, the box issue was definitely your postal service.

 

No, he said one of the higher ups took care of things promptly... he's still upset and feeling the need to pile on so he can feel better about himself after they did him wrong and all.

 

Now that we got that out of our system, let's stay on-topic now. Thanks.

 

I typically get 2/3s of rated battery life during typical use. That's true regardless of manufacturer.

Edit: just saw the post directly above mine. Sorry...

 

Uh, what? No exec fixed the mistake. It's a straightforward issue of product quality, customer service quality, and Lenovo not sticking to the terms of the warranty.

But I like the pop psychology, corkgrz!

The relevance of this experience is that I read this review of the X220, went out and bought the X220, and the experience should serve as a warning for others reading this review.

 

...as a warning of what, that Lenovo relies on carriers like UPS and Fedex instead of personally hand-delivering the product to you?

A package damaged in transit IS NOT THE SHIPPER'S FAULT.

 

I think it's absolutely rotten that Lenovo would have you mail in your X220 just so they could do nothing and mail it back to you.

Plastic cracks, and the X220 is just a plastic cased notebook, despite all the claims about milspec durability and a magnesum roll cage. I've seen posters complain about cracks around the screen latches of the Tx20 series, something that can't be the result of user abuse, at least not any sort of user abuse scenario I can think of.

So, yes, I believe that Lenovo should have repaired your system and that you've been unduly inconvenienced by this farcical depot inspection. Give Lenovo the choice of giving you a full refund or a replacement system, since Lenovo has apparently refused to fix it, and failing that, use your local legal system. Shoot a video demonstrating the problem, post it on Youtube, set up a free WordPress blog with pictures and accounts of the issue and post on multiple forums.

 

Why you so upset about the box Mitlov? It's just a box...

 

Is that true?

 

I like how they removed the email addresses for the execs stating it's because it's "private contact information." It's @lenovo.com, that's not private, it's corporate. And the info is out there, just difficult to find. I simply put it all together to a) help others and b) try to prevent people from having to bother the execs unnecessarily by providing the option to contact people lower down first. So if anybody wants the info, just PM me and hopefully I get an email so I can respond.

Wimute, while I'm generally on your side about this issue, I have to agree the damage to the packaging is very likely to be the fault of the shipper, not Lenovo, and I'm hoping Lenovo packaged it well enough that even with that damage the laptop itself wasn't affected. Also, this is one of many reasons to remove the hard drive before shipping in for repairs (just let them know ahead of time you intend to do this, they shouldn't have a problem with it unless the hard drive is the problem).

As for the battery life, I realize manufacturers state higher than realistic times, but in this site's and another's independent reviews, the battery life was found to in fact be very good. Even so, with screen brightness turned way down and the computer idling, not even web surfing, I get maybe, if I'm lucky, 11-12 hours. That's with the 9-cell AND the slice. So yeah, I'm not happy with battery life. I still love the computer, it's just not very portable, which was a big selling point to me, since I can barely make it through a full day with moderate use. Sadly (and at the same time it's kind of a good thing) I can't find anything better almost a year later. If I could just get even 150% of the battery life I'm actually able to achieve, I would be happy, but unfortunately, it's not happening.

 

Something is not right with your system's configuration. A similar specced 2560P can idle at 4.9W after DC_optimizing it. I'd get over 20hrs of idle battery life with a 100Whr 9-cell.

A X220 with 9-cell (94Wh) + slice (64Wh) equals 158Whr total. So with a 4.9Whr idle it would get 32hrs of battery life.

Pls measure your idle power consumption with BatteryBar and apply tweaks to get it under 6Whr (with HDD).

 

Thanks nando. I'll have to mess with that later. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now, maybe in a month or so. Luckily my laptop is permanently attached to the wall right now...

 

this thing is a joy - screen bright spots pissed me off though, I got this fixed under warranty ftw.

 

what brand of hard drive is recommended that makes a 7mm 7400 rpm drive? no ssd

 

Travelstar Z7K500 | Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
or
Travelstar Z7K320 | Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

 

KewL... you da man!

Thanks for the links!

Now, I did not opt for the WLAN thingy in my X220, so do I have room for a second hard drive?

 

Do you mean WWAN that goes in the spare full-height mini PCIe slot? If you don't have a WWAN/3G card you can put an mSATA SSD in there. You have to remove the keyboard and palmrest to get to it. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60739.pdf

There are some expensive SATA3/6Gbps mSATA drives that are out now, but the X220 can only do SATA II/3Gbps. I have an intel 310 in mine.

 

OK, someone was telling me that if I did not order the WWAN for the laptop, I could a sata drive there.

I could have sworn I saw an article somewhere on how to put a sata drive where a SSD would normally go. Is this not possible?

 

The WWAN slot is for mSATA, which is a mini-pci express form factor with SATA signaling.

You can shove a regular 9.5mm HDD in the 7mm bay without the rubber caddy, but you will not be able to remove it and the plastic will bulge. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/583998-9-5mm-hdd-t420s-x1-x220.html

Alternatively you can remove the plastic housing ("spacer") from some 9.5mm SSDs to get them to fit correctly, but it may involve voiding the warranty of the disk. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/572243-list-drives-compatible-x220.html

In any case, you can have a maximum of one drive in the bay plus one mSATA SSD in the WWAN mini PCIe slot. Many people use this as an mSATA SSD + 500GB HDD setup and it is pretty awesome to have it in such a small package.

 

I have to agree, the mSATA + HDD is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

I hate the crap that's on it that Lenovo put on there. It didn't come with just Windows, it has numerous manufacturer programs that I don't want on there.

So, I called Lenovo and gave them a song-n-dance about how I needed the Windows install discs in case I ever needed them (I got the guy to admit that a few years from now they will not support this thing anymore).

So, do you think the Windows install discs will install just Windows only being that these are the Lenovo install discs?

There are two other discs that are labeled "Recovery Media for Windows 7 Products", so I figured these are the ones that install all the Lenovo crap.

I just want straight Win 7 Pro 64 bit on there and then I'll build my software collection as I want.

So whaddya think... should I try using the Lenovo install discs, or plan of buying a retail version of Win 7 Pro 64 bit? (I'm buying a larger HD and will leave the OE drive unchanged so I can always put that back if needed.)

 

Don't bother. Just get a legal/genuine ISO and throw it on a USB stick with the Microsoft USB download tool.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

Use the license code on the bottom of your laptop, call microsoft's automated hotline, and you're good to go.

 

This guide has everything you need for clean install
http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...uide-clean-installing-windows-7-thinkpad.html

Also, no need to buy. The machine came with W7Pro64 originally, just get the clean iso (legally) here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...r-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html#post7822528

 

OK, this describes me... so where does one find all the needed drivers?

Wouldn't that be included the Win 7 installation?

If not, how will I know what drivers I need and where do I get them?

 

Go to device manager after the install, anything that is unknown or has an exclamation point needs a driver. Add to this what you know is inside your system based on its hardware config.

Drivers and software - ThinkPad X220 & X220i

 

Seems really odd that Windows wouldn't already have drivers that will work with most hardware, if that hardware is Win 7 compatible.

There shouldn't be too many drivers missing, should there?

And, don't they have software that scans your system to let you know what drivers are needed and which ones need to be updated?

 

On this Win 7 download file... can you just drag-n-drop on to a USB memory stick and use from it?

I don't see why I need the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool

And... if I'm using the product key on the bottom of my laptop, why would I need to call the Microsoft Automated Hotline?

 

You would call the MS hotline to activate Windows. Unless you back up the activation as suggested by the guide I linked to.

Also, from the download, you get an iso, you have to put the contents of the iso on the USB stick, not the iso itself. That is what the tool is for.

As for drivers, from guide

 

I don't understand... if my product key is good, and it should be, then I should be able to enter it when Windows prompts for it and be connected to the net at that time so it can verify the key itself... seems like that is all that would be needed.

And, Microsoft's page seems to say the download tool is just that... a download tool, and it not a program to convert the ISO file to some other state allowing the install.

The following from their website seems to suggest that Windows can be installed directly from the ISO file...

 

The key has already been activated, its not valid for a new activation anymore. Thus you either call MS to get it activated again, or backup the activation you already have and restore it onto the new install.

 

So how do you do this?

 

Read the guide, it walks through everything step by step.

To answer your question, use Activation Backup and Restore.

 

OK, there seems to be numerous "Activation Backup and Restore" programs out there... would you happen to have the URL of the one you are talking about?

 

It's in the guide, I'm tired of clicking through and copying stuff for you.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...uide-clean-installing-windows-7-thinkpad.html

 

Thanks... I'm hearing from those that are into the legal side of things that, this guide is recommending illegal activity in that you cannot backup the activation.

You're supposed to activate online or call Bill to activate after the clean install.

Any word on the legality of what this guide is suggesting concerning backing up the activation?

 

And... the digital river download... is that the RETAIL version of Windows, or is it the OE version of Windows?

I can't seem to find where it says what the download is