Buy Thinkpad X230 Laptop Lenovo, 12.5" Ultraportable Notebook(Newer

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,299.00
Sale Price: $1,285.99
Today's Bonus: 1% Off

I bought this off of Lenovo's website. My configuration:

Processor Intel Core i5-3210M on MB

Operating system Windows 8 64

Operating system Language Win8 64 English

Total memory 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)

Hard drive 320GB HDD 7200rpm

Optical device NONE

Battery 9cell, ThinkPad Battery X44++

Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 w/ antenna

WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino WL-N 2200

Wireless WAN accessories Mobile Broadband upgradable

Warranty Type 1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

Custom images NONE

AC Adapter and Power Cord 65W AC Adpt US (2pin)

Accessible Optimized Preload NONE

Adobe Acrobat NONE

Adobe Elements NONE

Adobe Lightroom NONE

Camera X230 720p HD Camera

Custom Image Language NONE

Display Panel X230 12.5HD Premium WWAN 2x2

What I like:

-i5-3210M processor can handle anything you throw at it (play HD video, edit PDF's using adobe acrobat, casual gaming)

-Customizable, can install aftermarket RAM or hard drive

-Always-on USB port can charge devices even when laptop is turned off

-Very little bloatware

-Fingerprint reader is nifty

-Island keyboard prevents crumbs/hairs from falling in between keys

-This is my first Lenovo, so to me the keyboard is very accurate and a pleasure to type on

-Backlighting of keyboard has 2 brightness settings

-Excellent viewing angles and brightness with IPS display

-Really well-built, no creaks

-Soft grippy texture

-Coming from an Acer Aspire 12 inch laptop, the 12.5 inch display strikes a perfect compromise between a more portable 12 inch and the typically heavier 13 inch

-Lenovo update manager keeps all drivers up to date

-44++ 9 cell battery can easily last 7+ hours of movie-watching

What I don't like:

-Trackpad. This is hands-down the worst trackpad I have ever used on any laptop. It has a small area, has a bumpy surface, feels cheap, and is difficult to press. What's more, the mouse cursor does not move smoothly; it tends to jump around whenever using the trackpad (not an issue when using the red cap or a USB mouse). This problem is well-documented on Lenovo's support website but there does not appear to be a solution, and the latest drivers do not fix the problem

-In order to install anything in Windows 8, I have to go into compatibility mode and have the computer pretend it's Windows XP

-Some Lenovo utilities, such as the Power Manager, do not function with Windows 8

-Attracts fingerprints

-Somewhat heavy

-On Windows 8 versions, Lenovo will not give you a product key or sticker. The activation key is hard-coded into the bios, so to re-install you need to put in a Windows 8 boot disc/USB drive and the bios automatically authenticates the copy rather than you typing in a key

Advice:

-Go for Windows 7

-Go for the premium LCD dispay (IPS)

-Use a USB mouse rather than the trackpad

-Backup the OS onto USB drive or DVD immediately and keep a copy

-44+ 6-cell battery is good for 4.5 to 5 hours of web surfing, 3.5 to 4 hours of movie watching. It does not bulge out the back of the laptop, but does lift the laptop by 1cm

-44++ 9-cell battery is good for 7 hours of movie watching. It bulges out the back AND elevates the laptop by 1cm. I find the bulge is nice to hold onto with one hand and is well-worth the extra weight for the excellent battery life and marginal cost increase

-If you want to install an aftermarket SSD, you need one with 7mm thickness such as Samsung 830 or 840, or Crucial m4. 9.5 mm SSD's will NOT fit because they are too thick

-Check out Lenovo's support website. Almost any problem you can think of will be addressed by the helpful community there

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

In most areas, this laptop is good. The keyboard is well designed physically (although it has some baffling design choices; namely the left Ctrl key has been swapped with the Function key for some reason. Fortunately you can fix that in the BIOS). The computer is sturdy and well made. It even looks decent, although it is more utilitarian than your average Ultrabook competitor.

It's fast, the screen is quite good (although the viewing angles and color accuracy isn't exceptional for an IPS display), the battery life is impressive (you can get 11 hours of actual use with the 9cell), and the little trackpoint dot is functional, although using it will never be as fast as using a well calibrated touchpad.

Which brings me to this laptop's major and inexcusable failing. While it appears to have a trackpad shaped space, this is entirely for show. Nobody will ever be able to use this touchpad effectively; it is just not reliable enough. It isn't just worse than modern contenders: it is so bad that it can't be compared to the trackpad on my 6 year old Dell, or any other laptop I have ever used. I'm not sure if the problem is hardware or software: I don't really care. Everyone with this laptop has complained about since release, and Lenovo has done absolutely nothing to fix it. If the hardware is flawed, they should give users the option of replacing the touchpad. If it's software, they should patch the software in a way that actually fixes it. It's not like this problem could have come as a shock; through 3 installs, (2 different OS's), and multiple drivers, it has been constant. The forums indicate everyone has it. They do release patches, but I have no idea what they're fixing about the touchpad, since it doesn't seem to affect this issue.

Similar situation when I upgraded to Windows 8 (a selling point Lenovo played up when I bought this laptop with Win7). Most of the Lenovo specific software just doesn't work properly; you don't have advanced battery manager software, the mic button no longer works, and the network card just dies at random. Again, lots of complaints to Lenovo, no real evidence that Lenovo has really tried to fix the issue.

In summary: good laptop physically, with some of the worst driver issues I have ever had. Only buy it if you actually do not use touchpads (ever!), and don't want Windows 8.

Best Deals for Thinkpad X230 Laptop Lenovo, 12.5" Ultraportable Notebook(Newer

Let me start with the improvements (over the X201). In my view, the keyboard is a huge improvement. The lack of a backlit keyboard led me to other laptops in between my X201 and the x230 even though I was a huge fan of the X201. A backlit keyboard is essential for working from bed or on dark plane flights. The new keyboards backlighting is fantastic. I agree with other reviews that the lack of a print screen button, etc, is a bit of a pain but happy to trade it for backlighting (although I'm not sure why you can't do both).

I also find the new built in speaker mute and mic mute buttons really handy. I use them all the time.

I think the new screen is an improvement, as well as the port configurations. Have both a VGA and display port is nice, and there are enough USB ports to get by.

This might be idiosyncratic to my specific laptop but I've had a lot more reliability problems with the X230 than I had with the x201. I'm running the same version of Windows (7 Enterprise) but it crashes, programs freeze and have to restart, and the system just seems generally less consistent then my X201. It have been a very long time since a new processor has made any noticeable difference for me in day to day work, so consistency/reliability is really the measure of a good processor/hardware configuration (and battery life).

As the title suggests, all of this is really moot however, because the trackpad makes the laptop almost unusable for me outside the office (where I can use an external mouse). I have no idea how it made it through Lenovo's product testing/QA process. Someone must have been under pressure to get it out the door and rationalized that it would be OK. It is not OK though, it's a total disaster, and unlike the print screen button it is absolutely fundamental to everyday use. I have no idea why it's seen as a benefit to get rid of the two trackpad buttons (to be more cutting edge/Apple-like most likely) but it's a terrible idea in general if it makes the feature at all less reliability/usable, and this execution is particularly bad (although I've used a couple other similarly designed trackpads from Dell, etc and they have been bad as well). I would say less than 30% of the time the left click button works for me on the first try and right click less than 10% of the time.

The trackpad also thinks I am trying to do some kind of gesture every 10 minutes or so and totally screws up whatever I am working on. This has been a significant productivity hit for me and it just makes me not want to use the laptop outside the office, which is obviously a huge problem. It amazes me that for something this fundamental, the equivalent of a car's steering wheel or voice quality on a phone, they wouldn't have just decided to stick with the previous hardware until they were sure they had it right. No one would have bought a different laptop instead of the X230 because the other had a buttonless trackpad, but as this and the other reviews demonstrate, lots of people are going to move to other laptops because of it.

Honest reviews on Thinkpad X230 Laptop Lenovo, 12.5" Ultraportable Notebook(Newer

I custom-ordered from the Lenovo/Thinkpad site. My configuration:

Thinkpad X230 Tablet

+ Core i7 2.90 GHz Ivy Bridge processor

+ 8 GM RAM

+ 128 GB Solid-State Drive

+ 1366x768 Matte Multi-Touch Screen with Active Stylus

+ 9-cell extended battery (sticks out the back and adds a bulge at the bottom; the 6-cell battery just sticks out the back)

+ Windows 7 Pro

+ Ultra-Base 3 with DVD/RW optical drive

No discrete graphics card option

I've been a long-time Thinkpad fan--including 600E (late 1990s), R40 (early 2000s), T42 (mid 2000s), T420 (late 2000s)--for the rock-solid dependability, non-nonsense styling, and in particular the king-of-them-all keyboard. I mistakely tried a Dell Latitude E6400 for a couple of years, and I truly hated it, despite its own pointer stick and solid construction. When I decided to get this X230 Tablet, the only thing I was worried about was how the new keyboard was going to feel. Well, have no fear. I am a big fan of the new keyboard. It's got deep travel, its motion is the perfect blend between smooth travel and pleasing resistance, and the contoured surface actually feels comforable. This new keyboard is a winner. Other than that, there really isn't anything that needs to be said about this machine that the prospective buyer wouldn't already know. I loaded it up to the gills with the fastest and best of everything, except a 3G cellular card--totalled over $3000 MSRP before a the Ultrabase 3 and extra power adapters. On paper, the only thing the X230T lacks is discrete graphics, but the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics that comes with the Ivy Bridge chipset is good enough for my occasional Engineering analysis and 3D modeling work--just make sure to get a least 8 GB RAM to share with the inegrated graphics. Plus, the Ultrabase 3 is able to support dual monitors via its dual VGA+DisplayPort ports. Just one final tip--get the Multitouch keyboard; you'll be ready for Windows 8 Pro when it's released.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Thinkpad X230 Laptop Lenovo, 12.5" Ultraportable Notebook(Newer

I had the possibility to test this device today head-to-head with its predecessor, the X220. It's a nice laptop for sure. But unfortunately, Lenovo traded design for functionality in redesigning the keyboard. Don't get me wrong: I tried it and the tactile feedback is still as crisp as on the old models. However, there are two main differences: 1) The keyboard layout. Some function keys were removed, some keys changed position. If you're a serious user (e.g. coding) who needs special keys on a regular basis, you will have to re-learn the layout for the new generation of the ThinkPadsnot only the X230. 2) Island keys. Lenovo has already indirectly admitted in their blog that the sole reason for changing from the classic key shape to the island/chiclet keys was for esthetic reasonsthat is, to run after a current design trend. Unforgivable for a device that is (was?) aimed at professional users. The classic key shape has some advantages, e.g. you automatically position your finger in the middle of the key, resulting in better orientation when moving to distant keys. During my test of the new keyboard, it seemed that the force/path response is different depending on if you hit the key in the middle or at its borders. Due to the lack of the "inner curb", you don't know if you're hitting it in the middle, though, and this degrades the typing experience.

For me, the new keyboard does not compare favorable to the old one. It is still a good keyboard compared to what other companies throw on the market, no doubt. But compared to the old keyboard, there are _only_ disadvantages. My recommendation to current ThinkPad users is to get one of the old models (X220, T420...) as long as they are still available. And then reconsider the market in three years from nowmaybe the folks at Lenovo come to their senses. Unlike many of the furious ThinkPad-"followers" who ranted about the new keyboard on the net, I actually tried itand for me this is a technological step backward. Unacceptable for a top-notch business device.

For any user switching from another brand to ThinkPadgo for it, you won't be disappointed.

At my job, I work with computers from morning to evening. Many generations of ThinkPads have gone through my hands, as well as business models from Toshiba, Apple... Also, I'm a desktop keyboard enthusiast. I own several mechanical keyboards for work and leisure, including keyboards with different Cherry MX keys and a buckling spring device. From that point of view, I hope that my review is somewhat qualified.