Lenovo x121e netbook

You can get them in a variety of places but the big auction site springs to mind. Bear in mind that most (all?) Thinkpads have a whitelist of accepted wifi cards coded into the BIOS, so you'd need to check which cards will do, or hex edit the BIOS :cool:
 
My trusty 8371 has died, so I'm looking at getting one of these, they seem rather perfect for my needs. When upgrading the SSD, did they find the battery performance went up? Either way I'm thinking of getting one of these with a 128Gb 7mm crucial m4, and 8Gb of RAM. :)
 
This lappy is looking increasingly like the one for me. I would like I know what owners think about performance and customisation options:

Is this much more powerful than a similar intel atom netbook?

Customising this on the Lenovo website I'm torn between the SSD and regular moving drive. Would it be better to save £100 an buy a crucial M4 at a later date? Is this a simple case of swapping the drives and reinstalling the OS?

Is 8Gb RAM worth it over 4Gb?

Any other tips on spec?

Thanks!
 
Guys how to you find the 11.6" display, stuck between this or the E320. Currently got a 10.1" tablet as much as I love it I don't really use it that much and tend to use my 15.4" laptop for most things or desktop as I still heavily use Windows or OSX.

Looking to ditch my tablet and current laptop (battery has died and oem batteries are quite pricey) and get a portable laptop to use while watching tv, bed etc. I know the tablet is perfect for this but it's lacking in creating content which I use an actual PC/laptop for.
 
MasterPlan1 said:
My trusty 8371 has died, so I'm looking at getting one of these, they seem rather perfect for my needs. When upgrading the SSD, did they find the battery performance went up? Either way I'm thinking of getting one of these with a 128Gb 7mm crucial m4, and 8Gb of RAM. :)
Click to expand...
I honestly didn't check or notice any difference in battery life. If there was any then I'm guessing it would be pretty minimal.
tom_nieto said:
This lappy is looking increasingly like the one for me. I would like I know what owners think about performance and customisation options:

Is this much more powerful than a similar intel atom netbook?

Customising this on the Lenovo website I'm torn between the SSD and regular moving drive. Would it be better to save £100 an buy a crucial M4 at a later date? Is this a simple case of swapping the drives and reinstalling the OS?

Is 8Gb RAM worth it over 4Gb?

Any other tips on spec?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I haven't got any experience of an Atom netbook but I moved to this from my Samsung Q320 and haven't noticed any slow downs or difference in performance. I only use it for work and the occasional youtube so can't comment on game/video performance. Also, I have an SSD in mine which makes a huge difference to performance.

Save your money and put in your own drive, it's easily accessible and you just have to reinstall the OS as usual.

8GB would be debatable depending on your usage. Either way save your money and do it yourself once you receive it!
 
I'm looking at this model also. Just specked the i3 Intel model and with a sleeve plus the most expensive wifi option and using the quidco code it comes to £371.
My questions are - what's the screen like as read some reports saying it was very bad?
Do I need to pay for the most expensive wifi option? - wifi connection is crucial to me but don't really understand the difference here.
Are there better after market sleeves?
Am I missing out much by going for the i3 as opposed to an i5 or i7?
cheers :)
 
I assume that the second option for the x121e should read i5 processor rather than i3 duplicated twice? Not much extra - I'm tempted!
 
They're both i3 I think.

Part of me is preferring the edge 320 now, just for the slightly bigger screen I think. Would be good to get an i5 too.
 
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Would somewone kindly answer a couple of questions please.

I'm guessing this at 40 quid or so more than the HP DM1 it's a much better machine?
Of the options of WIFI card, which is best to go for, the intel one or the thinkpad a,b,g,n ?
Is a 6 cell battery a good upgrade ?

Cheers.
 
The i3 is better than the AMD E450. I doubt you'll notice much difference when it comes to WIFI performance, and yes, I generally stand by as many cells as you can get the better.
 
My x121e fell of the desk and survived without any scratches. I am impressed that it managed to survive a 3ft fall. My HP DV4-1000ea on the other hand had to be completely replaced after having the screen shattered and the motherboard damaged when it fell of the same desk !!
 
Is the x121e loud when it's used by apps heavy on CPU?Does the fan work well?I found an x121e with 64gb SSD Crucial M4 for 399, is that a good price, 8gb of ram,6cell,fingerprint reader,intel wifi card and used for about 4 months?
 
Hi folks - I have a x121e and seem to having an inter-mitten fan problem. Sometime when booting I get a startup bios error about the fan.
Can I ask if anybody else has had problems?

Many thanks
 
Just got my x121e i3 laptop. So far impressed, but I have a query.

If I look at the keyboard it is not 100% level. I noticed it straight away, even though it is very subtle.

If I lie a straight edge eg a big piece of card across the keys from left to right i.e. `12 --- 90-=
or qwertyuiop[]
the card will seesaw over the 3/4 keys or e key. You can also see it if you look at the keys from the side.

It is only by a few mm, but it is visible witout the card and looks like the keyboard had something trapped underneath it when the lid/keyboard was screwed down. To me there is a visible bulge around these keys.
Can someone check if theres is the same or not? I'm guessing it should be totally level.

Does anyone know what is under those keys and what the keyboard may be pressing down onto. In 2 minds as to whether to ignore it, or whether I should get replaced it in case it is squashing something important.
 
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Hi newbuyer17 - no rocking on my keyboard!

The hardware manual is available on line (search google for 0a96013.pdf)
This may help identify what the issue is?
 
Thanks for checking. I had already found the hardare manual, and it looks to me to be directly above the CPU/heatsink.

Spoke to Lenovo who confirmed this and said they would treat it as a DOA. Annoyingly the quickest way to get a replacement seems to be to order another, and at the same time return this one for a refund. Thank goodness for credit cards!

Feels like I am being a bit fussy as I am sure some people wouldn't have even noticed, but really dont want anything pressing down on the CPU or it may well cause problems later on in the day. Still, the guy on the phone said he thought he might know what it was, so doesn't sound like I'm the first.

Thanks again. Will be back when the new one arrives. Looking forward to it - was very impressed with the machine in all other respects. Only minor was the trackapd but I'm sure a few tweaked settings will help.

I know it is very subjective, but is there a general consensus on the best trackpad settings that I can uses as a starting point?
 
Hi guys!

Do you know if is there any possible way to upgrade the i3 processor to a i5 or i7? I know that Lenovo is not offering any option while buying, but maybe later is possible. I am not so familiar (anymore) with different intel architectures so I thought you might have some idea.

thanks
 
crucial is giving me both 1.5 and 1.35V options for the ram upgrade. Which is the better to go for? Does 1.35V use less battery? ANyone know what the original ones are.
Thanks
 
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My x121e is still going strong, having purchased it last summer.

I dropped it from around 3 foot whilst holding it the other day, it didn't do any damage of all, luckily. The laptop turned itself off as it landed, which I expected as it does regularly short out.

As for why it keeps shorting out, it is something in the bottom right hand corner of the machine. I believe it to be the wireless card, so I've added some sticky padding to its surface which should hopefully finally sort it.

It's a brilliant laptop for the money; upgrade the RAM and lash a SSD inside and you will be golden.
 
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