On the other hand, the new MBPs have these comically massive trackpads which also scared me away. Less room to rest your palm, lots of accidental clicks, etc.
Overall, I don't think about it which probably means it's good. There's also the optional trackpoint/nub. I use it occasionally for fun, but I'm not a fanatic about it yet. Nice to know it's there, I guess? Might be handy for some kinds of games on the go.
If you happen to use the trackpoint, I suggest replacing the default rubber piece with a concave one. Here is an example: [0].
And there's your title right there
I wish it had better speakers though and I still feel like the low power CPU in a thin package might get bogged down when thermally throttled compared to full wattage one in a bigger config. But so far no such problem.
While I did end up doing that (it wasn't as scary as I thought), turns out just adding `acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1` is sufficient on many distros (I presume ones with recent kernel/systemd versions, older versions seem to require hitting power to wake up).
> I wish it had better speakers though
I find the speakers fairly comparable to my old MBP, fwiw.
> and I still feel like the low power CPU in a thin package might get bogged down when thermally throttled compared to full wattage one in a bigger config.
Yea, kinda mixed feelings on this. I really like how cool/quiet it runs with the default config, but you're right that the throttling is fairly aggressive. I mostly went with the i7 for the L2 cache size rather than max freq so it doesn't bother me too much.
You can override the throttling thresholds a fair bit. The whole machine is fairly hackable (in the good sense). I plan to play around with underclocking at some point to get a few extra hours.
I'm curious how you tuned the thermal throttling, though!
TL;DR Booting Linux the throttling triggers at much lower temp than on Windows. Fixed by overwriting some MSRs I think.
Why does Lenovo (and Dell) make it so difficult to actually buy an X1 without being a product expert? The shop page has 6 or 7 base configurations that all can be customized. To me, this is a really good sign they are not consumer focused, but instead catering to the direct enterprise buyer. Someone who is more willing to spend hours deciphering the subtle difference between every configurations and go through multiple customization flows to find some ideal configuration for a large multi-unit order.
Can someone explain why it's so hard for PC companies to move away from this purchasing model when the simplified Apple flow is generating 10x or more sales directly to consumers.
When I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 years ago, it came with a 3 years on-site warranty included, extendable to 4 years for a small fee. On-site as in "a technician will come on the next business day and do their best to change all components to make it run again in front of your eyes". Has this changed in recent years or just with the X1 Carbon?
In fact, I probably wouldn't have gotten the extended warranty at all if it wasn't so cheap. I feel comfortable with the build quality of the device that I'd risk it and possibly do repairs myself.
Related blog post: https://medium.com/@shazow/my-computer-is-my-home-5a587dcc1d...
Thinkpads are popular in the Arch community (and vice versa), so there's discussion and documentation available if that's your cup of tea.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop/Lenovo
It appears the X1C 6th generation doesn't have a page yet, but it's likely extremely similar to the 5th generation one.
That laptop has Intel graphics, which have great Linux support. It will run practically any distro without any extra effort.
But if OpenBSD runs, it’s a good indicator that the hardware will be extremely well supported and work with the absolute minimum fuss, even if running Linux rather than OpenBSD.
I actually bought the XPS 13 first since it's much cheaper. But Dell messed up by having the keyboard totally unusable for fast typists. See the post at https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9370-Keyboard-Skip.... Thinkpad's build quality does seems reliable still.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2018... is the most objective/detailed review I've seen.
One of my biggest anxieties was the fear of "upgrading" to an inferior device after a decade of being on Apple devices. Thankfully, that has not been the case.
- The 14" WQHD HDR screen is remarkably more vibrant with similar DPI.
- The battery life is almost double what I had before.
- It runs cooler, faster, and quieter than my rMBP.
- It's more than half a pound lighter than my 13" rMBP and is smaller despite having a larger screen.
- The keyboard is just amaaaazing, I forgot what a good keyboard feels like. It's a joy to type on.
- The build is excellent, still has that "Thinkpad" feel to it--like I could use it as a sledgehammer if I had to, despite looking quite slick.
- Everything works on Linux except the fingerprint reader and S3 suspend required an easy tweak before working properly (add a boot flag).
- I added a 4 year warranty for $140 USD, fair bit cheaper than Apple's. You don't get the Genius Bar experience but the Thinkpad brand is strong world-wide and there are certified local repair centres pretty much everywhere. (Fun fact: IBM still has a repair contract with Lenovo for the Thinkpad brand). In general, the machines are very serviceable with standard screws/components/etc. For every MBP I've owned, I've averaged bringing it in for repairs about 2-4 times per MBP. I've never had to repair the Thinkpad I had before that, and I hope this one holds up as well.
I bought it the week it was released, so only the maximum spec version was available for about $2000 USD. (Lenovo perks sites or discount coupons usually get you 15-20% off the retail price, or buy from Costco.)
My second choice was the 13" Dell XPS with 4K, but the deciding factor was the build quality and 4K is a bit too much (the battery/perf penalty wasn't worth the DPI gain over what the X1 Carbon offered). In general, it seems the Thinkpad build quality is much more consistent than Dell's.
If budget was really tight for me, I'd strongly consider getting an older Thinkpad and replacing the internals. The Thinkpad modding community is very active, it's kind of remarkable.