Lenovo X1 Extreme

[hajime]

What do you think of the X1E based on the review?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenov...GTX-1050-Ti-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.335608.0.html

The battery life seems to be short. I read that the FHD version can last about 8 hours but the screen is not good and the resolutions is too low for me.

 

[SDColorado]

I am not a fan of synthetic benchmarks, because they have little real-world meaning, to most people. I get about 8 hours with the 4K display, which is about on par with what I was getting with the MBP.

I would have to imagine the FHD does better. I saw a post from a rep in the Lenovo forums saying that the 4K version uses 70% more power than the FHD version. That really makes no sense to me and I am guessing it is a poor translation. I suspect what he meant was that the 4K version uses 30% more power than the FHD, not 70% more. Unless he just meant the display itself and not taking into account other components such as memory, SSD, etc? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I posted a comment to that review yesterday because I thought it odd that he stated something about the extremely glossy screen is a problem, when in fact the screen has an anti-glare/anti-smudge coating that makes it less glossy than many others I have seen in the class. Particularly the Gorilla Glass clad models such as the Surface Devices ( like my Surface Pro) and the Dell XPS 2-1. But comparing it even to my wife's 2016 MBP (and the screen hasn't changed noticeably from the 2018's I had in my possession), it is in my humble opinion less glossy than the MBP. The MPB is one of the better ones for glare. I could not post a photo to his review because my post count was too low, but the MBP display is on the right. Much shinier, clearer and more reflective, almost mirror-like. Oddly when I looked at his review of the MPB, Dell XPS 15 2-1, Surface Book 2, etc. He makes no mention of the glossy screen problem, despite them being glossier.

When the displays are turned on, the MBP is brighter and that levels the playing field, but I still found the comment puzzling.

Edit: Oh and that notebook check review also made some mention of not being able to confirm the Lenovo fast charge claim of 0-80% in 1 hour because after 70-some minutes he had only achieved 70% percent. Which is very different from my experience. I drained the battery and let it sit at zero for 12+ hours. Set a timer and charged the laptop for 60 minutes. My result was an 84% charge, doing better than Lenovo's claim.

 

[Thysanoptera]

@SDColorado - thanks for the pictures, just gave my MBP 2.2/32/2TB to my sister, too late to return it to store, no issues with it, I'm just too old to change my habits I guess, realized that I was forcing my way through it rather than using it. For now went back to XPS 15, I will most likely get X1X, but will wait until some reviews of the FHD screen show up, I had a windows box with high dpi display and it was a scaling mess, although that was some years ago, when they first started to appear. But good to know that the reflections are lower than on MBP, that's good enough for me, but I'm disappointed that this screen is so slow, almost as my XPS15 FHD and I know that this will bother me.

 

[c0ppo]

Lenovo makes great laptops. For me personally, best keyboards, excellent choice of ports, and by far the best build quality.

But their screens are some of the worse in the market. Unless you go all in with latest models. I'm using X1C with HDR screen at the moment. This screen looks way better to me then rMBP 15 screen. Deep blacks, and I do mean deep... It looks like a OLED screen actually. Brightness is great as well, not like MBP, but really great.

But their FHD screens are a complete mess. First thing you'll notice is lack of brightness. It's like screens on sub 1000$ laptops. So avoid those screens if you're gonna purchase any Lenovo laptop.

As far as scaling goes on Windows, it's still a complete mess. And I highly doubt that things will be any better in the near term. I highly doubt they will be any better in 2-3 years time. But I hope that they finally do manage to fix this issue. It's a complete disgrace to MS, because every other OS doesn't have any issue with scaling.

 

[hajime]

Lenovo makes great laptops. For me personally, best keyboards, excellent choice of ports, and by far the best build quality.

But their screens are some of the worse in the market. Unless you go all in with latest models. I'm using X1C with HDR screen at the moment. This screen looks way better to me then rMBP 15 screen. Deep blacks, and I do mean deep... It looks like a OLED screen actually. Brightness is great as well, not like MBP, but really great.

But their FHD screens are a complete mess. First thing you'll notice is lack of brightness. It's like screens on sub 1000$ laptops. So avoid those screens if you're gonna purchase any Lenovo laptop.

As far as scaling goes on Windows, it's still a complete mess. And I highly doubt that things will be any better in the near term. I highly doubt they will be any better in 2-3 years time. But I hope that they finally do manage to fix this issue. It's a complete disgrace to MS, because every other OS doesn't have any issue with scaling.

Do the letters in your X1C look small? You have the WQHD screen?

 

[hajime]

Lenovo just told me that in practice, the 4K version of X1E should get about 9.5 hours. Anybody got that long?

 

[SDColorado]

Lenovo just told me that in practice, the 4K version of X1E should get about 9.5 hours. Anybody got that long?

In practice, I should be about 20lbs lighter as well, but I am not and it does not. 9.5 hours from a 4K with an 80wh battery would be impressive, but I get about 8, much as I did with the 2018 MBP i9 I had with has an 83wh battery.

Perhaps if you really went minimal by turning the screen down to 100 nits and moving the slider to best battery life, you might eek a little bit more out of it, but I doubt you would ever get 9.5hrs from the 4K model.

On the bright side, my testing of Lenovo's 0-80% in 60 minutes, exceeded Lenovo's claim. In my own test I achieved 84% in 60 minutes, charging it from 0 with the lid closed.

 

[hajime]

In practice, I should be about 20lbs lighter as well, but I am not and it does not. 9.5 hours from a 4K with an 80wh battery would be impressive, but I get about 8, much as I did with the 2018 MBP i9 I had with has an 83wh battery.

Perhaps if you really went minimal by turning the screen down to 100 nits and moving the slider to best battery life, you might eek a little bit more out of it, but I doubt you would ever get 9.5hrs from the 4K model.

On the bright side, my testing of Lenovo's 0-80% in 60 minutes, exceeded Lenovo's claim. In my own test I achieved 84% in 60 minutes, charging it from 0 with the lid closed.

In practice, I should be about 20lbs lighter as well, but I am not and it does not. 9.5 hours from a 4K with an 80wh battery would be impressive, but I get about 8, much as I did with the 2018 MBP i9 I had with has an 83wh battery.

Perhaps if you really went minimal by turning the screen down to 100 nits and moving the slider to best battery life, you might eek a little bit more out of it, but I doubt you would ever get 9.5hrs from the 4K model.

On the bright side, my testing of Lenovo's 0-80% in 60 minutes, exceeded Lenovo's claim. In my own test I achieved 84% in 60 minutes, charging it from 0 with the lid closed.

They mentioned:

“Right now it is about 9.5 hours if you have the graphics card "on" but if you put it in hybrid mode it would be 14.9 hours”

I don’t believe in 14.9 hours! They just suggested me to buy and try it first before considering other models.

 

[SDColorado]

They mentioned:

“Right now it is about 9.5 hours if you have the graphics card "on" but if you put it in hybrid mode it would be 14.9 hours”

I don’t believe in 14.9 hours! They just suggested me to buy and try it first before considering other models.

That I would do. It’s a nice computer and definitely worth a try. But 9.5 hours? I thought I lived in the land of legal weed in Colorado.

Maybe they will release some sort of firmware update or something to improve it?

Maybe I should call Lenovo and ask why I only get about 8 in hybrid mode and would likely get between 6-6.5 with the graphic card on.

Notebookcheck only got about 6.5 in their synthetic benchmarks, but I never found synthetic benchmarks particularly useful. But I can all but guarantee you won’t see 14.9 or 9.5 hours on a 80wh battery.

 

[hajime]

That I would do. It’s a nice computer and definitely worth a try. But 9.5 hours? I thought I lived in the land of legal weed in Colorado.

Maybe they will release some sort of firmware update or something to improve it?

Have you tried to turn off the 1050 NVIDIA GPU and observed the battery life with only the integrated Intel GPU on?

If they could make it near 10 hours, perhaps I should overlook the weight a bit.

So try X1E and MBP2018. If doesn’t work out, move on to SB2, X1C6, X1Y3 and T480s. It would be much better if there were Lenovo store in my city.

 

[SDColorado]

Have you tried to turn off the 1050 NVIDIA GPU and observed the battery life with only the integrated Intel GPU on?

If they could make it near 10 hours, perhaps I should overlook the weight a bit.

So try X1E and MBP2018. If doesn’t work out, move on to SB2, X1C6, X1Y3 and T480s. It would be much better if there were Lenovo store in my city.

There isn't a Lenovo store in my area that carries the X1 Extreme. Best Buy carries Lenovo, but they said they won't carry the X1E because it is considered a "business computer" and Best Buy apparently doesn't carry business computers. I think maybe Microcenter carries them, but I ordered it online. It shipped from the assembly plant in North Carolina, so it arrived quickly.

I haven't experimented with turning off the 1050 NVIDIA GPU altogether. I have mine set to the hybrid mode in BIOS. I may give that a try.

X1C6 is obviously going to get better battery life. No 1050 GPU, no 4K. Surface Book 2 will also obviously get better battery life because it has a massive battery in the keyboard. But the SB2 had some shortcomings for me, including no USB-C. I will be interested to see if MS offers an updated SB2 or SB3 tomorrow though. I love my Surface Pro and wouldn't mind another Surface. I have until 10/11 to decide on the X1E.

The X1E does have some advantages in being able to easily upgrade RAM and SSD and has 2 SSD slots, so can be configured in RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations. Access is easy. 7 safety screws (the type that doesn't come all the way out) and the bottom pops off.

 

[c0ppo]

Do the letters in your X1C look small? You have the WQHD screen?

Small letters?
Nope. Normal sized letters and kb, best kb on any laptop without a doubt.

I do have WQHD HDR screen, best screen I have ever used. Contrast on this screen is excellent.

 

[hajime]

The X1E does have some advantages in being able to easily upgrade RAM and SSD and has 2 SSD slots, so can be configured in RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations. Access is easy. 7 safety screws (the type that doesn't come all the way out) and the bottom pops off.

At the beginning, I was thinking about easily upgradable RAM but for simulations that require more than 16GB RAM, I probably will run them for days and the laptop will become hot/noisy. In that case, I may need to also spend money to build a workstation.

 

[SDColorado]

At the beginning, I was thinking about easily upgradable RAM but for simulations that require more than 16GB RAM, I probably will run them for days and the laptop will become hot/noisy. In that case, I may need to also spend money to build a workstation.

The X1E will support up to 64GB, though I can’t imagine anyone needing that in a laptop. You are probably far better off with a workstation if you really do need that much.

 

[maflynn]

Its odd that I still cannot find any reviews, I've googled and so far I've not seen any actual hands on, I've used this for a while, type of reviews.

 

[hajime]

The X1E will support up to 64GB, though I can’t imagine anyone needing that in a laptop. You are probably far better off with a workstation if you really do need that much.

That is very true. I do need to buy a portable laptop with 8-10+ battery life for doing basic productivity work and development though. Time to retire my MBP 2010 17".

 

[SDColorado]

Its odd that I still cannot find any reviews, I've googled and so far I've not seen any actual hands on, I've used this for a while, type of reviews.

I know right? At first, I thought maybe reviews were being delayed do the assembly plant in North Carolina being impacted by Florance. But I am surprised that there still aren't any other than a kind of scattered/disjointed one from Notebookcheck. Which seems to be kind of their style. It seems they often don't even finish them before moving on to something else.

 

[hajime]

I know right? At first, I thought maybe reviews were being delayed do the assembly plant in North Carolina being impacted by Florance. But I am surprised that there still aren't any other than a kind of scattered/disjointed one from Notebookcheck. Which seems to be kind of their style. It seems they often don't even finish them before moving on to something else.

Anybody knows how to contact Lisa of Mobile Tech and Dave Lee to ask them what is going on? I recall somebody asked her via Twitter?

 

[SDColorado]

Anybody knows how to contact Lisa of Mobile Tech and Dave Lee to ask them what is going on? I recall somebody asked her via Twitter?

You could also maybe message her on FB I suppose..

https://www.facebook.com/MobileTechReview/

Edit: Everyone is too busy reviewing the danged phones maybe?

 

[KarmaRocket]

I think Lenovo does slow releases. Seems like Europe and Asia gets the new models first and they slowly trickle into the US afterwards. I haven't seen that many reviews on Reddit. Maybe people who pre-ordered received them first.

Other than Lisa from MobileTechReview, I don't really see reviews of Thinkpads. I guess they aren't flashy like gaming laptops. They are pretty generic looking and have had the same iconic design forever. One thing that I do like about them. I guess some reviewers find them boring spec wise as well. With the X1E we're just seeing Lenovo release a Thinkpad with an Nvidia 10 series dGPU.

Would love to see a Thinkpad with hexacore CPU and Nvidia GeForce 1070 or 1070 MaxQ.

 

[SDColorado]

I think Lenovo does slow releases. Seems like Europe and Asia gets the new models first and they slowly trickle into the US afterwards. I haven't seen that many reviews on Reddit. Maybe people who pre-ordered received them first.

Other than Lisa from MobileTechReview, I don't really see reviews of Thinkpads. I guess they aren't flashy like gaming laptops. They are pretty generic looking and have had the same iconic design forever. One thing that I do like about them. I guess some reviewers find them boring spec wise as well. With the X1E we're just seeing Lenovo release a Thinkpad with an Nvidia 10 series dGPU.

Would love to see a Thinkpad with hexacore CPU and Nvidia GeForce 1070 or 1070 MaxQ.

They should have arrived in the states I would think. I did not pre-order, but it shipped quickly from the North Carolina factory, though the configurations where limited at the time.

But you are likely correct about the attention. Not much fanfare about the release. No big event like Apple or MS. They just kind of slid it out there like “Oh, BTW we are releasing a 15” version of the Carbon with an Nvidia GPU and 4K display. Thanks for checking our booth.” Like everything else they do, it isn’t flashy and doesn’t really take and risks. Just a solid performer with nothing that’s cutting edge.

 

[hajime]

I think Lenovo does slow releases. Seems like Europe and Asia gets the new models first and they slowly trickle into the US afterwards. I haven't seen that many reviews on Reddit. Maybe people who pre-ordered received them first.

Other than Lisa from MobileTechReview, I
Would love to see a Thinkpad with hexacore CPU and Nvi

But then we will complain about thermal issues and worse battery life.

 

[hajime]

What screen is that? The image is quite beautiful. At first he mentioned that the weight is 1.7kg so it should be FHD but then later he said that it is 4K. I am a bit confused.

Also, is it easy to remove those ugly fingerprints both around the keyboard and at the bottom of the case?

Another example of ugly fingerprints all over the laptop:

[doublepost=1538502671][/doublepost]

I think Lenovo does slow releases. Seems like Europe and Asia gets the new models first and they slowly trickle into the US afterwards. I haven't seen that many reviews on Reddit. Maybe people who pre-ordered received them first.

I recall that the first P1 review was made by a Korean guy.
[doublepost=1538502796][/doublepost]Am I correct that the keyboard is nosier than that of the MBP2018?

 

[SDColorado]

What screen is that? The image is quite beautiful. At first he mentioned that the weight is 1.7kg so it should be FHD but then later he said that it is 4K. I am a bit confused.

Also, is it easy to remove those ugly fingerprints both around the keyboard and at the bottom of the case?

It has a bit of gloss to it so I am guessing it is the 4K version. The 4K has an anti-reflective/anti-smudge coating. But still somewhat glossy.

Bottom of the case is a metal hybrid. I have heard it called aluminum alloy and I have heard it called magnesium alloy, but either way it isn’t the plastic of the body/display.

A dampened microfiber usually does the trip to remove smudges / fingerprints. If stubborn I have read you can use a tiny bit of dish soap on the microfiber. I have also found a little spray of “Woosh!” to work.


Fingerprints may be the biggest annoyance, but they aren’t alone in this. Dell, Razer and a few others seem prone. Apple and Microsoft with their Aluminum / Magnesium alloys respectively are probably among the best for hiding them. Not so sure about the colors though such as the upcoming black Surface Laptop.

 

[KarmaRocket]

Dave Lee reviews the Thinkpad P1 which is the "pro" version of the X1E. Seems like it has better outer material that reduces fingerprints. No issues with thermal throttling.