Lenovo x121e netbook

Where did you guys go to track the movement of the package? I can see it on findmyorder.com (linked from the confirmation of purchase email) but is it also there that I will be able to see where the package is currently in the world?
 
Well an update from me regarding RMA process and Lenovo

Firstly laptop 1 that I ordered but decided against due to heat and noise concerns of Intel machine and returned at my own cost within 7 days unopened.

Laptop would appear to have gone walkabout and still have not seen a refund, Royal mail claim the laptop has been received by Ingram who manage Lenovo returns :( so I am still out of pocket over 1 month later :( :( :(

Lenovo apparently have no record of a return....

If you decide against your order and can't stop the courier from delivering (courier delivered to my nieghbour when they couldn't get me aaargh ) might be easier/safer to sell on yourself.

Fingers crossed it gets resolved, I can't just loose £370, not sure what my next steps are.

Laptop 2 with the broken screen a much smoother RMA though still very time consuming, when the machine has broken Lenovo will send a courier to collect, they accepted the machine as faulty and have refunded my money, this took 3-4 weeks.

Pretty happy with that :) though I am still running a crappy eeepc 1000H which I need to find a robust replacement for, which I can't afford until Lenovo refund me for laptop 1. :rolleyes:
 
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So can anyone recommend a decent SSD for one of these? Would only need a 64GB one if I got one of these laptops; thinking of going down the AMD route for the longer battery life.
 
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Riv4L said:
Where did you guys go to track the movement of the package? I can see it on findmyorder.com (linked from the confirmation of purchase email) but is it also there that I will be able to see where the package is currently in the world?
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They sent me a dispatch email which had a tracking link on it. This took 3-4 days from order if i recall correctly.

SSD Recommendations - if you're not needing to watch every penny, then the Intel 320 is a safe choice. (There were some early firmware issues, make sure you do the upgrade and all will be fine). The drive is reasonably quick, not unreasonable in price and has some nice features like ECC covering against an individual flash chip failing. Also 5 year warranty.
There are no doubt better value options, and perhaps better performance, but the 320 is a decent "Know where you stand, and know you've got a decent warranty" drive.

If you look at other brands, make sure its 7mm height, not 9.5mm unless you want to resort to bodges
 
MSTRBKR said:
After messing about with this for a few days I've come to the conclusion that the trackpad is really poo - at least the buttons on it are anyway (not the ones above the pad, the clickable parts of the pad). There is a right click button there somewhere, but it always triggers the left click.

The keyboard is amazing, if only it were backlit.

Otherwise this laptop is pretty astonishing. It runs Portal 2 and Fallout New Vegas at pretty good quality with fast frame rates which I never expected.

As for fan noise and heat, some of you are really picky. It's so quiet and is just about warm to touch under normal usage - I don't see the problem. The AMD version would be a massive mistake for the sake of a few dB and small amount of heat.
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Yes, the trackpad is pretty awful, but I'm a nipple man anyway ;)

The keyboard is really good, as for backlights - well you can buy a thinkpad X1, but i don't think there is much in this class with a backlit keyboard

Portal 2 - yes, very playable, I weren't expecting this either.

Heat isn't an issue, noise - well its noiser than my old machine, but its still really not offensive.
Intel vs AMD. If you buy the AMD, you're getting a slightly larger netbook. If you buy the intel you're getting a subnotebook.
 
Would also like an SSD recommendation.

Also, can anyone confirm if you can use the VGA and HDMI out at the same time? If so can you also use the built in display too?
 
Wakinglimb said:
Would also like an SSD recommendation.

Also, can anyone confirm if you can use the VGA and HDMI out at the same time? If so can you also use the built in display too?
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Ok, I have the X121e now for a week, so I feel I can made a reasonable judgement.

I joined the forums just for this, I based my decision on what people here said, so I think its only fair to give my input.

I got the i3 one, but also tried out the AMD one before at a friends.
Before I start, I should just say that I have split my past 10 yrs computers between Apple & IBM/Lenovo. I now have a 2009 iMac and after passing on my 2009 macbook to my wife, I was looking for an ultraportable for the road. I briefly thought about a MB Air, but the people that use Apple these days have made this a politically dangerous decision lol. Like BMWs so to speak. Hence I decided on Thinkpad.
Pondered on the X220 for a bit, then read about the fan problems and thought again. Then I saw the X121e. I figured that for £360 it was a good deal, so I went for it.



Here it goes:


Case/Build/Design:

Not really a proper Thinkpad, still not flimsy. Just don’t expect Milspec, you can’t just abuse it expecting it will weather it. Nothing squeaks, but I do feel uneasy picking it up from one end.
Design wise, I’d rather it had the shape of the X120, but at least the cover is matt. Still looks mean, sorta like Darth Vader’s netbook. The rounded corners spoil it a bit though.


Ergonomics:

The trackpad is absolutely crap when you get it out of the box. Played with settings an inordinate amount of time to get it to acceptable levels. The stock nipple works nice, but I prefer the cat’s tongue, so I went for one. A shame lenovo does not include the 3 types available with every laptop. Cost me £3 on ebay.
Had to dead-zone trackpad at the top part to avoid random taps. I am now using it with nipple and touch gestures for the pad.
I also have a macbook, coming from that Godly trackpad there was no way I could use the X121e’s shoddy one.
Still, I so much love the nipple that I really have no problem. Keyboard is fine, certainly not perfect, but still pretty good. I’d say on par with a macbook’s keyboard (have different feeling though).

Display:

Awful. The worst part is that Lenovo does not give the option to upgrade to an IPS panel. This one has good horizontal viewing angles, but the vertical ones are lousy. 10 degrees above/below and you’re lost.

Performance:

For starters, drop the stock memory. Don’t upgrade through lenovo, just go to Crucial and order 2x4GB. The i3 has dual channel memory.
I used it for a couple of days with its stock 2GB, it was fast.

But, with 8GB in the bay, the thing F L I E S.

Make no mistake, this is no netbook. The i3 is apparently almost as powerful as my 2009s iMac’s 3.06 Core 2 Duo (I think Wolfdale – must check). It is freaking unbelievable how fast everything works. Compared to a 6GB memory AMD one, this one absolutely wipes the floor with it.

I’m sure Windows will slowly drag everything down, but I must say, the thing is very damn fast.

Memory seems to drag the graphics up, cause this thing can certainly game. It can drive 2 monitors, it can open as many windows you want, I can CAD, I can photoshop, I can run ARMA, its just perfect.

All this comes at the price of slightly increased noise. Basically, the difference is at low CPU loads. Where my macbook is absolutely silent, the X121e’s fan spins at probably 2000rpm, hence being quite audible.

However, I can live with the noise and to be honest, it is cheap & fast enough to forgive this. I experimented with energy settings a bit, and if you drop down CPU performance when on battery, the fan does not kick in. Haven’t tried TPFan yet, but trust me, the noise is not really that annoying. I suppose it may annoy me in the future!

I alway thought my standards are quite high, both my MB and iMac are very silent machines. At the end of the day, I made a conscious decision going for a “road warrior” lappy and some compromises come with this. Compared to an X220, for less than half the money, I got a machine which is nearly as capable. What can I say, I love the thingy. Then again, the X220 is (imo) overpriced compared to many other things out there…

Having spent approximately £400 on this including memory upgrades, I honestly am a very happy camper. I’d really like to see two things in this model from Lenovo:

a) A screen upgrade. The X220 has it, this should also have it, seriously.
b) A Fan fix so that it doesn’t kick in when the CPU is coasting.

Not perfect, but a damn good value/cost ratio.
 
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Jay794 said:
Love the look and the specs, but hate the pointer/mouse thing. Stick with trackpads
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Each has its uses - imo, the nipple is superior when it comes to accuracy. That said, a good trackpad makes intenet surfing etc a pleasure.

But, if you use your laptop on planes, there is absolutely no substitute for the trackpoint. It just works.
 
Mine has been shipped!

I got this spec -
- Intel Core i3-2357M Processor (1.3GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz DDR3)
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
- 2 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
- 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
- 6 cell Li-Ion Battery xx Whr
ThinkPad 11W Sleeve Case

For £320 inc postage (I have EPP from my old company)

Have 2x4GB Corsair RAM waiting for the laptop and an Intel 80GB X25-M SSD on the way from an auction site.

Anyone know about WWAN modules? Will any PCI-E one work? Do you still have a sim card slot on the non-WWAN versions?
 
I've just placed an order for AMD E350 6 cell 2gb RAM for £326 including shipping. I probably should've waited for a discount code for October but oh well. I also used quidco for 6% cashback.

I've also ordered a 4gb stick from crucial. Can I run this alongside the 2gb stick already in the laptop?

I already have an old white acer aspire one netbook, but it is pretty dated now, and really underpowered.

I'm hoping to use the new laptop for taking notes in lectures (that is if the fan isn't too loud!) and work at uni in general as I'm just joining 2nd year Computer Science.

How long are people generally waiting for it to be delivered?
 
ductions said:
I've just placed an order for AMD E350 6 cell 2gb RAM for £326 including shipping. I probably should've waited for a discount code for October but oh well. I also used quidco for 6% cashback.

I've also ordered a 4gb stick from crucial. Can I run this alongside the 2gb stick already in the laptop?

I already have an old white acer aspire one netbook, but it is pretty dated now, and really underpowered.

I'm hoping to use the new laptop for taking notes in lectures (that is if the fan isn't too loud!) and work at uni in general as I'm just joining 2nd year Computer Science.

How long are people generally waiting for it to be delivered?
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It will work fine with 6gb. The e350 is single channel so no worries with not being a matched pair.

I ordered mine on weds and has been dispatched already.
 
Quite impressed with what people's thoughts on this are, I've been looking at a tablet but part of me thinks I'd be better off with a new netbook, I've been erring toward the Asus Transformer tablet with the keyboard but something like this would be a lot cheaper and more powerful... found my last netbook very slow but it did have the bog standard Atom CPU at the time (N270!) so I'd imagine either the AMD chip or the i3 would be much much better than that!

Only thing I can see that this wouldn't do better than a tablet is as an e-reader... but I think I might be better just getting a Kindle for that to be honest!!!!
 
Been using my AMD X121e for a week now and must say I'm dead happy with it.

Purchased it for web browsing and general use, so I'm not a power user. Handles HD video without a hiccup. Battery life is great.

Thought I might re-kindle some casual gaming and installed Team Fortress 2. Currently playing at native resolution with most settings on low (textures on Medium). Also using a custom config. Must say, performance is good considering the spec/cost. Certainly extremely playable.

GPU is really bottlenecked by the CPU. All we need is a way to overclock it :D

Will probably purchase a 2GB stick to drop in at a later date too.
 
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