Lenovo x121e netbook

Bigsy · 12 Aug 2011 at 18:16

Anyone getting crazy tracking info from ups?
Check this:

Warsaw, Poland 08/12/2011
Almaty, Kazakhstan 08/12/2011
Incheon, Korea, Republic of Shanghai, China 08/12/2011
Castle Donnington, United Kingdom 08/11/2011
Shanghai, China 08/12/2011
China 08/11/2011

So it was in the UK yesterday... back to China... now in Poland?

Bigsy · 12 Aug 2011 at 18:25

harry66 said:
Somebody over on another forum I frequent found this latest review on the X121e
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-X121e-204562U-Laptop-Review.58880.0.html

Worth a read. The performance stuff is quite reassuring for me as I currently have a T400 with 2.2ghz Core2Duo and I was a bit concerned about going to a 1.3Ghz processor. I don't play games but do watch 1080p films and mess about with Adobe Lightroom and Elements.

Hmm.. not liking the fan noise comments :-/

defoerate · 12 Aug 2011 at 19:57

They do come from China, maybe their database is playing up?

Art · 12 Aug 2011 at 23:33

Bigsy said:
Anyone getting crazy tracking info from ups?

I can't remember where, and I haven't been able to find it again, but someone else posted on another forum about the same thing. I've no idea why, but crazy shipping seems to come as standard.

Serav · 13 Aug 2011 at 18:14

Bigsy said:
Hmm.. not liking the fan noise comments :-/

I noticed that as well. This review also mentions it:

http://agentdynamics.wordpress.com/lenovo-x121e-review/

Worrying since I'll be using it in quiet environments with other people.

Snotuk · 13 Aug 2011 at 20:01

Serav said:
I noticed that as well. This review also mentions it:

http://agentdynamics.wordpress.com/lenovo-x121e-review/

Worrying since I'll be using it in quiet environments with other people.

Hi,

I'v lived with this machine for 10 days or so now.

Yes the fan comes on now and then, but when on you can hardly here it. (Very quiet)

I just finished watching a 1080p mkv file via MPC HC then came here to read this thread. I had to pick the lenovo up and put it to my ear to hear if fan was going, It was.

While typing this post the fan has now gone off.

The above review make out the fan is on constantly, Not true in my experience.

I did a clean install of Win 7 Ultimate x64
, Installed drivers only and thats it.

It's the quiettest fan iv heard on any laptop iv had or used, I think.

Hope that helps.

Serav · 13 Aug 2011 at 20:23

Thanks Snotuk. That reassures me a bit. Waiting for it to ship atm.

silmonli · 14 Aug 2011 at 08:45

Bigsy said:
Anyone getting crazy tracking info from ups?
Check this:

Warsaw, Poland 08/12/2011
Almaty, Kazakhstan 08/12/2011
Incheon, Korea, Republic of Shanghai, China 08/12/2011
Castle Donnington, United Kingdom 08/11/2011
Shanghai, China 08/12/2011
China 08/11/2011

So it was in the UK yesterday... back to China... now in Poland?

Mine seems a bit more normal but I still think it's crazy that my new laptop has travel more times in one day to so many countries than I have in 1 year!

Koeln, Germany 08/12/2011
Warsaw, Poland 08/12/2011
Almaty, Kazakhstan 08/12/2011
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 08/12/2011
Shanghai, China 08/11/2011

harry66 · 14 Aug 2011 at 09:43

silmonli said:
Mine seems a bit more normal but I still think it's crazy that my new laptop has travel more times in one day to so many countries than I have in 1 year!

Koeln, Germany 08/12/2011
Warsaw, Poland 08/12/2011
Almaty, Kazakhstan 08/12/2011
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 08/12/2011
Shanghai, China 08/11/2011

Mine showing the same locations & dates and now showing confirmed delivery date of Wednesday 17th. A bit crazy it took less than a day to get to Germany from China but now 5 days just to get here from Germany. Guess it might be coming via ground for the last leg?

Another interesting point, in the 2nd review above the writer claims that using his own benchmark tools, 'The X121 is twice as fast as a Lenovo T400 Centrino' - which is great news for me as I am replacing a T400 with the X121e

NuclearWinter · 15 Aug 2011 at 06:08

Has anyone installed Ubuntu on the x121e? If so, which wifi adapter did you get?

Nephand · 15 Aug 2011 at 12:01

Don't know if it's a good deal or not, but you can upgrade the hard drive to a 128 GB SSD for £135 on the lenovo site's config page (today only - 15/08/11). It seems a reasonable price, but don't know which SSD they use.

Am I right in thinking an SSD improves battery life? If so, is it a good amount or negligible?

sandys · 16 Aug 2011 at 12:38

NuclearWinter said:
Has anyone installed Ubuntu on the x121e? If so, which wifi adapter did you get?

The AMD E350 version of the x121e is Ubuntu certified on 11.04, Sandybridge not so much, it will no doubt come.

the AMD version has broadcom chips.

NuclearWinter · 16 Aug 2011 at 17:02

sandys said:
The AMD E350 version of the x121e is Ubuntu certified on 11.04, Sandybridge not so much, it will no doubt come.

the AMD version has broadcom chips.

Thanks, I should have specified that I'm interested in the sandybridge version.

Unfortunately I see a lot of reports of Ubuntu have problems outputting video through HDMI with the Intel HD 3000 graphics. So my search for the perfect lightweight Linux machine continues.

Is the AMD version much less powerful?

Bigsy · 16 Aug 2011 at 18:29

Got mine today, like it so far, only thing troubling me a bit is the wobbly touchpad.

harry66 · 17 Aug 2011 at 08:58

NuclearWinter said:
Thanks, I should have specified that I'm interested in the sandybridge version.

Unfortunately I see a lot of reports of Ubuntu have problems outputting video through HDMI with the Intel HD 3000 graphics. So my search for the perfect lightweight Linux machine continues.

Is the AMD version much less powerful?

According to the Passmark website CPU benchmarks:
AMD E-350 728 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+E-350
i3-2357M 1,621 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-2357M+@+1.30GHz

Also read a review somewhere else where they compare the E350 with 2375M - huge difference in non gaming usage (ie the i3 blew the AMD) - cant remember where I read it.

harry66 · 17 Aug 2011 at 09:02

Bigsy said:
Got mine today, like it so far, only thing troubling me a bit is the wobbly touchpad.

Got mine too on Monday. Still setting up etc.

One thing I noticed yesterday, I was copying about 100GB of files from a USB drive to the X121e and I could continue to use the PC for surfing, exploring the HD and even managed to play a 720p HiProfile MKV file whilst the file copying was happening in the background. Pretty sure that with my Thinkpad T400 (2.2ghz core2duo) when I copy large files the laptop becomes slightly unresponsive.

And yes the fan is noisier on the X121e than my T400 in normal usage. Not noisy all the time but it does seem to come on more often as the T400.

Bigsy · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:34

Yeah the fan is getting on my nerves, it goes from not on to being on and too loud to being not on again.... how about some middle ground lenovo?! Grrr

Also the trackpad is horrible, everytime I tap it the mousepointer moves down a few mm, very annoying.

harry66 · 17 Aug 2011 at 18:48

Bigsy said:
Also the trackpad is horrible, everytime I tap it the mousepointer moves down a few mm, very annoying.

Do you think perhaps you have a faulty trackpad? I am using an external mouse, keyboard etc. But I did try my trackpad several times and the tap action to click works fine - no pointer movement

DavidB · 18 Aug 2011 at 00:50

harry66 said:
Do you think perhaps you have a faulty trackpad? I am using an external mouse, keyboard etc. But I did try my trackpad several times and the tap action to click works fine - no pointer movement

I find it terrible too, the worst part of the laptop by far. Fantastic bit of kit other than that though.

Serav · 18 Aug 2011 at 03:06

Bigsy said:
Yeah the fan is getting on my nerves, it goes from not on to being on and too loud to being not on again.... how about some middle ground lenovo?! Grrr

Also the trackpad is horrible, everytime I tap it the mousepointer moves down a few mm, very annoying.

I just received mine yesterday. Couldn't agree more on the touchpad. Tap to click behaves exactly the same way on mine. It verges on being unusable. I'd like to know if this is a universal problem or not.

As for the fan, mine is the same except by default it just stays on constantly. Download TPFanControl (the installer version for Win7) and select the "smart" profile. It's night and day.

Also the screen is terrible. It washes out immediately if you look at it from even a few degrees above perpendicular.