Lenovo x121e netbook
- Thread starter nero120
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Pleasantly Suprised
I got my X121e Tuesday (Very quick shipping, Shipped on Thursday and It turned up on Monday not bad IMO)
Really pleased with this sorta sub-notebook, the quality of the finish all around is good and feels like a proper solid ThinkPad like my old IBM ThinkPad did.
Ordered the "Heatwave-red" screen and my fears were unfounded, it is very scratch resistant and a beautiful velvety texture to it.. I think some others fears of it peeling off were a little exaggerated or a bad batch.
Built in software although a little bloaty was rather good and the connection centre for me with the 3G has been really good although a little slow at times, Accurate battery metre which I like (I usually install BatteryBar, No need with the nice Lenovo one) and the whole machine runs like a dream on 6GB of RAM.
In regards to others comments about the device getting quite hot.. I haven't had this problem personally, played a few 1080P videos which it handles in it's stride (speakers are a little.. bleugh) while never getting noticeably warm (Standard fan settings) and I personally can't hear the fan (At the moment with a few app's open I'm sitting at 40c I have seen this rise to 55 under load).
Battery - I ordered the 6 Cell battery and the battery life under power-saver is amazing.. fresh battery on it's first charge lasted 7 hours on power saver, that's with the 3G on (that turns all the radio's on) and running chrome.. I am very impressed.
Overall - I am really pleased with the laptop and think it's been a bargain for me at £496, The keypad as other have said is finnicky and does get a bit hypersensitive to clicks and right-click doesn't always work but then I
have always intended and always use the nipple (Something I loved from I old ThinkPad)
oh and the A/B/G/N Adaptor seems really good, Good signal.. locks on and connects to dual band radio's quite well.
If anyone's got any question's I'm happy to answer about the laptop, Here's my specs;
Standard Intel X121E but with;
Heatwave Red Screen
3G Adaptor
6 Cell Batt.
Dan
I got my X121e Tuesday (Very quick shipping, Shipped on Thursday and It turned up on Monday not bad IMO)
Really pleased with this sorta sub-notebook, the quality of the finish all around is good and feels like a proper solid ThinkPad like my old IBM ThinkPad did.
Ordered the "Heatwave-red" screen and my fears were unfounded, it is very scratch resistant and a beautiful velvety texture to it.. I think some others fears of it peeling off were a little exaggerated or a bad batch.
Built in software although a little bloaty was rather good and the connection centre for me with the 3G has been really good although a little slow at times, Accurate battery metre which I like (I usually install BatteryBar, No need with the nice Lenovo one) and the whole machine runs like a dream on 6GB of RAM.
In regards to others comments about the device getting quite hot.. I haven't had this problem personally, played a few 1080P videos which it handles in it's stride (speakers are a little.. bleugh) while never getting noticeably warm (Standard fan settings) and I personally can't hear the fan (At the moment with a few app's open I'm sitting at 40c I have seen this rise to 55 under load).
Battery - I ordered the 6 Cell battery and the battery life under power-saver is amazing.. fresh battery on it's first charge lasted 7 hours on power saver, that's with the 3G on (that turns all the radio's on) and running chrome.. I am very impressed.
Overall - I am really pleased with the laptop and think it's been a bargain for me at £496, The keypad as other have said is finnicky and does get a bit hypersensitive to clicks and right-click doesn't always work but then I
have always intended and always use the nipple (Something I loved from I old ThinkPad)
oh and the A/B/G/N Adaptor seems really good, Good signal.. locks on and connects to dual band radio's quite well.
If anyone's got any question's I'm happy to answer about the laptop, Here's my specs;
Standard Intel X121E but with;
Heatwave Red Screen
3G Adaptor
6 Cell Batt.
Dan
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I ordered on a Friday, Dispatched my Case on the Monday and received that by City Link on Tuesday.. Laptop dispatched on the Thursday and laptop received the following monday so not bad.. but this could obviously vary badly.
Which processor do you have, and which temperature are you quoting?
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I have the Intel i3 2367M CPU the 1.4Ghz varient.
I'm quoting the reported temp by "Core Temp" So not the distance to TJ Max (think that's the right reference) either way the laptop is rather cool.
I'm guessing you are viewing this in Windows? The significant differences meant I booted up Windows and looked what speedfan was giving, and it was showing the cores in the low 40s. So I think this is just a sensors interpretation difference.
I've had a similar experience.
I originally ordered on 21 November (with the NOV 10% ecoupon) but 7 days passed without any update.
Called Digital River for information - they told me that there had been logistical problems and that they didn't expect the laptop to ship until 7 December.
Decided to cancel the original order and place another with the extra CYBERWEEKEND 15% reduction.
So now I have two orders both showing Order status: Order in Process!
Digital River assure me that the original *has* been cancelled and the the new order will also be shipped on 7 December.
So lets wait and see.
-RichardW.
I ordered mine on Sunday and my status is still at "Order in Process". I haven't had an emails after the initial order confirmation. I was hoping to receive some time next week, but now not so sure
I don't know much about laptops but I think 60'C is a reasonable load temperature. Laptop CPUs will run much hotter than desktops for obvious reasons.
Thanks for letting us know your thoughts. I'm glad to hear you're happy with the system, particularly with the red finish issue. Battery life sounds even better than I was hoping for, which is good! I'd certainly like to hear if you have any further comments as you use the machine a bit more, or if you find any funky tweaks that might be useful for other owners.
Do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts on the Lenovo pouch? Is it worth getting over just any generic one?
A quick question for those who have reinstalled Windows... do Lenovo provide a registration key which can be used with a clean OEM disc, or are you restricted to using a supplied restore boot disc? Also, if it is possible to use an OEM disc, I assume you're restricted to the Windows version that is supplied with the machine (i.e. Professional/Ultimate would not accept a Home Premium registry key)?
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It's okay, Nothing special in honesty I only had it because it was £6 which I didn't think was bad (and made for the size of the laptop) quality is what you'd expect and it seems pretty durable.
And yes all of my qoutes will be under Windows, i'd like to know if anyones managed to get Android x86 working fully on the X121e as I'd LOVE to use the mapping etc (Another awesome feature I found I also gained GPS with my 3G modem) and then in turn as per normal linux.. power savings with underclockings etc etc not to mention the games.
Was playing the Sims 3 on it earlier all on medium settings and maybe i had low expectations but it was buttery smooth at full res on this little screen - quite impressed by the prowess of the HD 3000 graphics, I am in the process of installing Steam and then I'll comment on things like L4D2 and Day of Defeat.
My only real gripes so far are the keyboard is a little of an odd shape but I'm quickly picking that up (nice to type on thought) and the screen viewing angles aren't amazing but then what do you expect for the money.
Had a few quirks with the 3G getting that to work but now I've got it setup it seems okay.. Lenovo Access Connections gets confused when you setup WiFi under Windows and then 3G under it, Either use one or the other is my best advice to others with 3G cards.
Without repeating myself, It's really powerful for what it is! keeps making me smile the litte b******!
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Considering most laptop batteries are £80 I think the above is a minor inconvenience to save your battery life!
There is upon deeper inspection settings in the Lenovo Power Manager (not the exact name) when to start charging at what % etc so that could be worth investigating.. but it may turn around to slap you in the face if you need to plug your laptop in for a quick charge before going out the door.
OK thanks for confirming this for me.
Great, thanks for your comments. You certainly sound happy with your machine... quite keen get mine now
I have been trying to convince myself to go for an 8GB RAM upgrade when my order arrives, but after extending my initial £250 netbook budget, I really can't stretch any more. I would order another 2GB module to add to the existing 2GB but I'm now a bit anxious about getting a compatible module.
You didn't really "toss" it did you?! If you still have it hanging around, perhaps I can take it off your hands for a reasonable price?
I did try to send you a message using the trust network (there's no PMs on this board) but you haven't set it up.
Same goes for anyone else looking to be rid of their original 2GB module that they have replaced. You can email me through my trust profile (button beside reply button on this post).
Thanks!
You didn't really "toss" it did you?! If you still have it hanging around, perhaps I can take it off your hands for a reasonable price?
I did try to send you a message using the trust network (there's no PMs on this board) but you haven't set it up.Same goes for anyone else looking to be rid of their original 2GB module that they have replaced. You can email me through my trust profile (button beside reply button on this post).
Thanks!
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Just had mine on playing L4D2 on Steam with everything on Medium.. once again mightily impressed
- I digress, I can see how under HEAVY load the system could be an issue.. CPU did spike to 83C and the fan was going a good'en, there was at the time a duvet between me and it otherwise my thigh may have been rather tender.
It depends on what you're planning to do with this laptop, This is the first time heat has been an issue for me but I have been HAMMERING it to get it that hot - a few minutes later and things have cooled down (CPU down to 55 now) so temps are pretty normal for a laptop, You should be fine but in those atmospherics but I wouldn't recommend gaming.
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Hiya, been lurking here for a few weeks and had to register to ask a stack of questions for all i3 owners! This laptop has really piqued my interest. Well straight into it huh?
Thanks all for your time and Patience! Hope to get this ordered in the next week in-time for Christmas!
- Does the spare mini-pcie slot have a vendor lock too? I found mixed reports on thinkwiki for similar aged laptops. Anyone attempted a bios flash for the new i3-1.4Ghz x121e’s?
- I am really keen on installing a small mini-sata SSD like this one for the OS and leaving the large spinning disk for media, possibly upgrading it to a 1Tb 7200rpm when required. Has anyone here gone down this road? I imagine sata3 performance is out of the question here with a mini-pci but it could be a good compromise for speed and storage.... Anyone tried it?
- Is the current XMASPROMO5% the best dea with lenovo? The base i3 with centrino wifi and a 6 cell battery comes to £373.53. Do you think I can do any better? I plan on getting it this weekend to arrive before christmas.
- Seems the world HDD shortage has affected Lenovo as the only magnetic media option is the 320gb 5400rpm drive
- For all of you asking about what RAM to upgrade with, Just go to the Crucial memory site and enter the laptop model, it will present you with a 2x4GB DDR3 1333Mhz option for ~£34 which can further reduced using quidco.
- Does a standard iphone headset’s Mic work with the combined 3.5mm jack on the x121e? Could be handy for Skype.
- Ubuntu 11.10 users, any info on the following barrage of questions would be appreciated
- Does the x121e suspend to RAM and wake up cleanly when opening/closing the lid?
- Anyone have 2 finger scrolling working out of the box? perhaps some xorg or synclient tweaking is required?
- Was reading on Ubuntu forums some issues with trying to disable (soft off) the bluetooth only to save power. The Fn-wifi button turned both radios on and off. Seems little rfkill trickery is needed. Anyone got any input on that?
- Any chance of running this and uploading the txt file? “lspci -v >x121e_info.txt; lsusb -v >>x121e_info.txt; hwinfo --short >>x121e_info.txt; dmesg>>x121e_info.txt” You will need to install the hwinfo package first
- What are your thoughts on battery life with Ubuntu? Has anyone experimented with a bleeding edge kernel to try and resolve the PCI express ASPM power regression issues?
- Anyone not using the Centrino wifi under linux? Saw a few posts up some possible performance issues... does anyone have anything solid to report on the intel card, or driver support for the 2x2? I assume its a BCM of some description.
Thanks all for your time and Patience! Hope to get this ordered in the next week in-time for Christmas!
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Yes, vendor locked
Getting a 404 on that link. Only place you could fit it would be the mini-pcie slot. As far as I can find the mini-pcie card is not capable of running a storage device (I forget the specific functionality required, but I checked and its not supported)
I think any suggestions around Centrino are most likely from me. The Centrino model is common and easy to find drivers for, hence I've been suggesting it for linux users a something which will cut down on hassle.
Mostly - the 2x2 Broadcom takes some time to reconnect.[*]Ubuntu 11.10 users, any info on the following barrage of questions would be appreciated
[*]Does the x121e suspend to RAM and wake up cleanly when opening/closing the lid?
Doesn't work out the box, but not tried to look into it either.
Battery life definitely worse under 11.10 then windows (no surprise really). Not experimented with the kernel yet
I'm using the lenovo 2x2 Broadcom. Works fine after blacklisting bcma
http://www.memoryc.com/storage/solidstatedisk/60gbruncoreprovsataiimsata50mm.html
Here's a new link, seems they took it down, it was out of stock. So I am talking about mini Pcie data cards.. Where did you discover that the full size slot is not able to take SATA cards?
But no black screens and locked up systems on resume? Im talking suspend to RAM here too, not hibernate, or suspend to disk.
In your opinion how much worse? Is a solid 4 hours of browsing possible?
Cool, will have to research if the performance gain is worth the pain. What chipset is it? Also is that the top spec wifi on the list of options? Wonder if the Linux drivers can leverage the card properly and get a decent 10Mbyte/sec txfr speed.
Cheers for your info guys
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