zen Posted March 3, 2012 Posted March 3, 2012 A thread to review your latest gadgets and recommend/not recommend them. I will start with the review of: Lenovo Thinkpad X220 My requirements for a new laptop were specific: powerful, lightweight, good battery life, good screen quality and durable. This new laptop would be my new workhorse and companion in the b-school, which I would be going to in the near future. I looked at a few ultrabooks from the likes of Asus (13" Zenbook) and Toshiba (Z830), along with light-weight offerings from Dell (V131), Lenovo (T420, X220), Sony (Z and S series) and Toshiba (Tecra R840). Looking at my requirements, there were mainly two laptops that were fitting the bill: Lenovo Thinkpad X220 and Sony Z series. Between the two, the X220 had the reputation of being more robust, having an excellent keyboard and being one of the few laptops that gives you the option to pick an IPS display. I did not care much for the graphics card in the ultraportable form factor. The decision was easy in the end. A couple of days ago, the X220 arrived with the following specs: i7 2640M, 12 GB RAM (8 GB added by me), 12.5" Premium IPS display with 3X3 antenna (no camera available with 3x3 antenna), Fingerprint reader (you can power on and log in with a swipe), 7200 rpm HDD, Bluetooth 3, Intel Ultimate N-6300 Wi-Fi card, 1 USB 3.0 port (only available with i7 on x220) and 6 cell battery. As you can see from the specs, this one is like a powerful dynamite. The IPS display (FYI, iMac and iPads have IPS displays) and the famous Lenovo keyboard adds to the overall computing experience. Despite being a 12.5 inch laptop, the keyboard size is not compromised. The clickpad though is on the smaller side but I guess you can't have it all. Since the X series, along with T and W series, forms the premium Thinkpad line, the build quality is brilliant. If I am not wrong, these Thinkpads are also built to military specs (whatever that is supposed to mean). When I picked the Intel Ultimate N-6300 Wi-Fi card (450 MBPS support), I knew that you need the 'right' infrastructure to be able to support and make proper use of it but even in my home network (54 MBPS), it performed better than the card on my other laptop (a 17" desktop replacement). While watching previews on IMBD, there was no lag for buffering. At first I wanted to get the 9 cell battery but it tends to protrude from the back so for aesthetics and a slight weight advantage, I went with the 6 cell. So far, the 6 cell battery has shown a lot of juice too. I haven't used the laptop much but with the optimum setting, you could make it last for 6 hours or so (currently showing 7+ hrs with 97% remaining). There is also an optional battery slice available for extended battery life. To cut the chase short, so far, the X220 has kept up to its billing! Highly recommended. :nice:
zen Posted March 3, 2012 Author Posted March 3, 2012 Btw, the 'chickens can't fly' windows 7 theme is pretty cool!
vvvslaxman Posted March 3, 2012 Posted March 3, 2012 Toshiba Portege is one model which has got rave reviews. I bought R705 model. Great laptop. 3 lbs. Now it is Z835. http://reviews.cnet.com/best-thin-light-laptops/?tag=leftnav
zen Posted March 4, 2012 Author Posted March 4, 2012 Toshiba Portege is one model which has got rave reviews. I bought R705 model. Great laptop. 3 lbs. Now it is Z835. http://reviews.cnet.com/best-thin-light-laptops/?tag=leftnav Oh yeah, the protege line up is pretty good looking and light. Z830 (with matte screen vs Z835) is one of the laptops that I had considered .... the bummer for toshiba in general is that its screens are a bit washed out. this can be said about many laptops though. In the thin and light category, probably only X220 with IPS and Sony Z series (not IPS but a very good TN panel. Z also gives you an option for a full HD display) have good displays .... Displays are something the laptop manufacturers have to improve upon p8MO-XaCZ_8 TN vs IPS panel^ .... it is in German though but serves the purpose :P
jf1gp_1 Posted March 5, 2012 Posted March 5, 2012 Toshiba Portege is one model which has got rave reviews. I bought R705 model. Great laptop. 3 lbs. Now it is Z835. http://reviews.cnet.com/best-thin-light-laptops/?tag=leftnav Screen of z835 is too flexible for my liking, Dell recently launched xps 13 ultrabook; if some saw/bought it would like to hear your exp
zen Posted March 6, 2012 Author Posted March 6, 2012 Screen of z835 is too flexible for my liking' date=' Dell recently launched xps 13 ultrabook; if some saw/bought it would like to hear your exp[/quote'] I haven't seen the xps 13 but the specs seem to be good. Also it has the profile of an 11 inch notebook so I m not sure how comfortable the keyboard would be
vvvslaxman Posted March 6, 2012 Posted March 6, 2012 Oh yeah, the protege line up is pretty good looking and light. Z830 (with matte screen vs Z835) is one of the laptops that I had considered .... the bummer for toshiba in general is that its screens are a bit washed out. this can be said about many laptops though. In the thin and light category, probably only X220 with IPS and Sony Z series (not IPS but a very good TN panel. Z also gives you an option for a full HD display) have good displays .... Displays are something the laptop manufacturers have to improve upon p8MO-XaCZ_8 TN vs IPS panel^ .... it is in German though but serves the purpose :P One that i have is really good. Display is pretty good. I have no complaints. Also Portege is the only one that had hdmi, vga, ethernet, cd rom drive, wireless display for that size. But in a 13 inch screen full hd can cause eye strain. More importantly it is damn cheap for a decent configuration. This is my R705 model which was the highest rated thin note book couple of years back. But Dell XpS 13 has got some rave reviews. But it is missing lot of interfaces that i need. I have both IPS/TN panel monitors.. Yes.. you can see the difference. But for regular use that is negligible.
zen Posted March 6, 2012 Author Posted March 6, 2012 One that i have is really good. Display is pretty good. I have no complaints. Also Portege is the only one that had hdmi' date=' vga, ethernet, cd rom drive, wireless display for that size. But in a 13 inch screen full hd can cause eye strain. More importantly it is damn cheap for a decent configuration. This is my R705 model which was the highest rated thin note book couple of years back. But Dell XpS 13 has got some rave reviews. But it is missing lot of interfaces that i need. I have both IPS/TN panel monitors.. Yes.. you can see the difference. But for regular use that is negligible.[/quote'] I agree that as an all-round machine with good connectivity, protege is a good choice. Also a few yrs ago, screen quality was probably similar amongst window based laptops
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