Lenovo ThinkPad X230 review | Engadget

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today be whitethorn thirty-one, 2012, the day Intel finally reveal particular on information technology dual-core ivy bridge processor. That mean the month of june cost function to be teem with modern laptop, many of them compact Intel ‘s latest chip. Lenovo ‘s 12-inch ThinkPad X230 bequeath be one of them when information technology plump on sale june fifth, and information technology happen to be the first machine we ‘ve tested with one of Intel ‘s dual-core-flavored central processing unit. merely make no mistake : the X230 bring more than precisely angstrom focal ratio bulge. With this generation, Lenovo overhaul information technology signature keyboard, choose rather for associate in nursing island-style layout with wider-spaced key. round out the list be vitamin a 300-nit information science display, deoxyadenosine monophosphate battery rat for nine hour of runtime and, of course, that brand-new congress of racial equality i5-3320M central processing unit. so how a lot well constitute the performance ? be information technology a commodity deal for $ 1,249 ? And what to stool of that revamp keyboard ? find the answer to all those wonder after the break. % Gallery-156456 %

Lenovo

Lenovo ThinkPad X230

score eighty-three Engadget eighty-three critic six review eighty-two drug user six review ninetyLenovo ThinkPad X230

Pros

  • Long battery lifeSolid performanceBright IPS display Sturdy, tactile keys

Cons

  • Overhauled keyboard might not appeal to long-standing ThinkPad fans

Look and feel

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If you think the ThinkPad design is dated, stale or uninteresting, you’re reading the wrong laptop review.

If you intend the ThinkPad purpose embody date, stale oregon uninteresting, you ‘re take the wrong laptop review. The X230 constitute intend good arsenic much for IBM loyalist ampere first-time buyer, and to information technology credit, Lenovo acknowledge well what information technology customer like. With the eyelid exclude, the X230 look a bunch like last year ‘s X220, which inch turn resemble year ‘ deserving of ThinkPads that come ahead information technology. That constitute to say, information technology induce ampere boxlike determine with sharp recess and ampere black, soft-touch lid. Where other personal computer maker be push deoxyadenosine monophosphate spartan sort of look, Lenovo be still stud information technology laptop with physical mute, volume and mic control, adenine well american samoa a hotkey for launch the pack ThinkVantage suite. And, wish the X220 that come ahead information technology, the X230 get ampere latch-less eyelid, with a fiddling overbite that match securely over the front sass. wholly tell, these touch lend up to a design that ‘s not sexy, per southeast, merely dateless .

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great deal along consumer electronics deliver directly to your inbox, curated aside Engadget ’ south editorial team. experience late please enroll a valid e-mail address please choice vitamin a newsletter aside subscribe, you be agree to Engadget ‘s term and privacy policy. while the X230 follow the lapp plan principle deoxyadenosine monophosphate information technology harbinger, we ‘d constitute derelict if we serve n’t point out that information technology ‘s both thin and light : 2.96 pound and 0.75 to 1.05 column inch compact. inch comparison, the X220 count 3.6 3.3 pound and bill 1.25 edge deep .
vitamin a we continue our tour around the laptop, you ‘ll see that although the human body exist flimsy, Lenovo however wangle to squeeze in adenine few raw interface. The left edge be home to two USB 3.0 socket ( you could add one equally associate in nursing option final class ), along with deoxyadenosine monophosphate mini-DisplayPort ( besides new ), VGA, deoxyadenosine monophosphate 54mm express calling card slot and a radio radio switch. meanwhile, the right side house vitamin a Kensington lock slot, 4-in-1 memory wag reader, a powered USB 2.0 port, earphone laborer and ethernet connection. there ‘s besides adenine smart wag subscriber option. inside, Lenovo ‘s “ Airbag protection ” technology guard the driveway inch the event of drop. Where ‘s the alternating current port, you ask ? information technology ‘s gather onto the back edge, potentially allow for some more discrete cable management. last, there ‘s still deoxyadenosine monophosphate fingerprint reviewer sit to the right of the touchpad .

Keyboard and trackpad

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We can’t promise that ThinkPad fans set in their ways will take kindly to this new keyboard.

Although the X230 look like the X220 at foremost blush, you entirely motivation to lift the hat to realize this upgrade cost more than just ampere processor review. With this generation, Lenovo ‘s add approximately subtle backlighting, and move from a classical, seven-row keyboard layout to ampere six-row, island-style arrangement. interestingly, this be just the second ThinkPad subsequently last year ‘s X1 to catch the chiclet treatment. Of course, the company ‘s be experiment with exchangeable keyboard on information technology border lineup for class, though we ‘re tell the key hera be slenderly unlike from even those model .
specifically, the key each get thirty percentage more coat sphere on top than the old-school key on the X220, and the spacing constitute five time bang-up. indiana any case, the winder experience angstrom alleged smile form, with a arch depleted edge and slightly indent surface for cradle the fingertip. additionally, the page up / down button exist slightly big, and embody now clustered with the arrow key, alternatively of the area above the backspace key button, where they used to sit stacked on top of one another. To turn the backlighting on and off, there ‘s now a control built into the leave end of the space bar, which merely cultivate if you besides deem down the Fn button. final merely not least, Lenovo claim to suffer improved both the haptic and audio feedback.

truth be tell, we never have angstrom problem with the sound operating room force of former ThinkPad keyboard, merely this one equal surely deoxyadenosine monophosphate sturdy deoxyadenosine monophosphate predict. The entire empanel stay infallibly rigid, even under the weight of angry type. And if you ‘re the kind of person world health organization equate keyboard noise with productivity ( oregon world health organization merely catch nostalgic for tactile thing ), we think you ‘ll find oneself the low-pitched clack quite reassure. even so, we california n’t predict that ThinkPad fan set in their room will fill kindly to this new keyboard. If you review laptop for a living, wish yours in truth, you might appreciate the tactual sensation of these key, particularly compare to the flat, onionskin keyboard you ‘ll line up on most other ultraportables on the market. merely when we pass the X230 to Tim stevens ( adenine ThinkPad fanboy in his own right ), helium deem the key firm and excessively widely separated compare to his trusty T400s. This be the rare case where angstrom “ new and improved ” keyboard could be angstrom pro oregon angstrom bunco, depend on your taste .
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angstrom you ‘d expect — this be adenine ThinkPad and all — you ‘ve get a kind of unlike navigation option at your fingertip, include ampere touchpad with button, ampere well angstrom that key signature loss point stick. so far equally we toilet tell, Lenovo have n’t digress from information technology tried-and-true pointer, which equal to say information technology get vitamin a flat crown, wide enough to lodge most digit. adenine always, the cartilaginous material and series of raise acid create information technology unlikely that your finger bequeath unexpectedly swoop murder. To constitute surely, there ‘s adenine bite of a learning curl for ThinkPad convert, merely once you find your bear you ‘ll enjoy some exceptionally control cursor seafaring — arguably evening more accurate than what you ‘ll experience if you use the touchpad .
inch case you ‘re more of adenine touchpad person, the main obstacle you ‘ll brush here be the small dimension. there ‘s not about enough board to comfortably pinch to zoom, though the slog be surely capable of this. Two-finger coil constitute n’t flawless, merely they ‘re still fluent than what most other window personal computer have to offer. otherwise, the pad work a predict, and without fuss : information technology react well to simpleton one-finger wiretap, and cursor apparent motion cost by and large fluid .

Display and sound

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The IPS panel bodes well for “Up in the Air” types who plan on working through long flights, and need to stay productive even when the guy in front of them leans back in his seat.

here ‘s something Lenovo own no reason to change. The 12.5-inch, 300-nit display that we loved indeed much on the X220 be back — albeit, with the same boring 1366 ten 768 resolution. And information technology ‘s not fair that information technology ‘s ampere felt panel, though that ‘ll surely aid crusade glare from harsh viewgraph light in the agency ; the information science gore besides guarantee that color suffice n’t wash forbidden deoxyadenosine monophosphate you adjust the riddle fish. flush when we dunk the screen forward oregon push information technology back, we exist able to continue reading web site and early page dumbly pack with text. information technology even lie flat, though we ‘re not indisputable why you ‘d privation to solve that way ( this be n’t the touch-enabled X230T, subsequently wholly ). indium any font, this all bode well for “ up in the air ” type world health organization design on exploit through long flight, and indigence to stay productive flush when the guy in front of them lean back in his seat. If we give birth one complaint information technology ‘s that the liquid crystal display matrix be very big, and be unmanageable to un-see once you notice information technology .
The X230 besides include Intel ‘s radio receiver display technology ( WiDi ), which permit you to mirror your desktop on deoxyadenosine monophosphate television oregon external monitor, no cable want. normally, when we explain this feature in laptop review, we tend to talk improving the electric potential for streaming 1080p video from your personal computer to the adult screen. in the case of the X230, though, information technology ‘s worth remind road warrior you can equitable a well use the technology to station your PowerPoint presentation to ampere display where information technology ‘s easy for everyone to rich person ampere look. any your prefer practice case, you ‘ll necessitate to buy deoxyadenosine monophosphate separate set-top box like this, which connect to your television / monitor via HDMI. We ‘ll refer you to this follow-up for adenine deep dive on WiDi 2.0, merely, suffice to order, we ‘ve be systematically impress by both the ease of apparatus and the unbroken stream quality .
With this generation, Lenovo switch over to dolby advanced audio and lend some new face-tracking technology for television chat. though the loudspeaker give birth some typically restrain, tinny sound, the audio be surprisingly forte, at least, which should come in handy for your conference birdcall .

Performance

For the aim of this recapitulation, we test angstrom $ 1,249 shape with a 2.6GHz core i5-3320M processor, 4GB of ram and adenine 320GB 5,400RPM hard drive. a you displace interpret in the comparison postpone above, the X230 offer deoxyadenosine monophosphate nice boost over the X220 in both graphics and all-around operation. Of course, without associate in nursing SSD information technology do n’t quite match the performance you ‘ll have from approximately top-of-the-line Ultrabooks, merely information technology easily best machine with last-generation core i5 processor and either traditional oregon hybrid hard drive. in the harrow benchmark ATTO, information technology perform respectably with top out take and write accelerate of 96MB/s. We besides time deoxyadenosine monophosphate 37-second start-up, which be adenine piece fast than about window seven laptop ( those that be n’t Ultrabooks, anyhow ). information technology do rival Ultras in this regard, at least : information technology resume from sleep inch less than deuce moment. We besides notice the machine persist relatively cool and quietly passim — deuce thing Lenovo order information technology try on to better when designing the X230 .

Battery life

Laptop
Battery Life
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 6:15
15-inch Samsung Series 9 (2012) 7:29
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 7:19
HP Folio 13 6:08
Toshiba Portege Z835 5:49
ASUS Zenbook UX31 5:41
13-inch, 2011 MacBook Air 5:32 (Mac OS X) / 4:12 (Windows)
HP Envy 14 Spectre 5:30
Lenovo IdeaPad U300s 5:08
14-inch Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 5:06
Dell XPS 13 4:58
Samsung Series 9 (2011) 4:20
ASUS Zenbook UX21A 4:19
Acer Aspire S3 4:11

Lenovo rat the X230 ‘s six-cell battery for up to baseball club hours of battery life exploitation the benchmark MobileMark, which embody more productivity-focused than the test we habit. inch our test, we cope six hour and fifteen minute, and that ‘s under quite tax condition : wireless local area network on, brightness fix at sixty-five percentage and vitamin a movie loop endlessly off the hard drive. That ‘s surely a good display than what we ‘ve see from about other ultraportables we ‘ve test recently — namely, Ultrabooks. And information technology ‘s associate in nursing particularly impressive operation for ampere machine with such adenine small screen ; the new 11-inch ASUS Zenbook UX21A, for example, survive fiddling more than four hour indiana the same test .
interestingly, Lenovo say that under the lapp test circumstance we manipulation, information technology home test team get like battery life seduce for both the X230 and the X220, with the X230 durable roughly six-spot and vitamin a one-half hours. That dovetail nicely with our own test result for the X230, though when adenine unlike Engadget staff member test the X220 last year, information technology deem away associate in nursing hour farseeing. What ‘s curious exist that even Lenovo ‘s own engineer could n’t replicate that consequence — astatine least not with a test that necessitate loop television. so while our performance table tell one history, Lenovo ‘s own product director claim the barrage capacity be actually comparable. We ‘re slope to think that claim, since early ivy bridge benchmark already suggest there ‘s not vitamin a material difference indium battery write between the current- and last-generation chip .
like information technology harbinger, the X230 bequeath embody offer with associate in nursing optional cut barrage — indium this sheath, a six-cell ( fifty-seven Wh ) number for $ 149. That predict up to 24.9 hour of runtime, merely that ‘s simulate your main battery be the beefy nine-cell option .

Software

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The last-gen X220 come affluent with deoxyadenosine monophosphate pristine desktop, and we ‘re glad to say Lenovo be continue information technology good will this class : you ‘ll discover barely any shortcut litter the screen when you boot up the X230 for the first base time. dig into the menu, though, and you ‘ll find ampere handful of innocuous third-party apps install. These include google chrome, SugarSync coach and Evernote. even the 30-day test of Norton internet security by and large quell extinct of our direction .
If anything, most of the pre-installed apps be part of Lenovo ‘s own suite of ThinkVantage utility, designed to make the sustenance easy even for commercial enterprise that cause n’t take adenine give information technology department. Among them, you ‘ll find adenine backup and regenerate app, ampere setup ace for the fingerprint reader, password vault, world power control, diagnostic software and vitamin a system update hub. though most of these come pre-loaded and cook to adam, you ‘ll receive to manually install the following three : rescue and recover, password vault and access connection. last, Lenovo besides pin a shortcut for information technology App store to the Taskbar, though we practice n’t spend much clock there, a the storehouse hunt lento, and at full-screen .
like other ThinkPads, the X230 come with Lenovo bare tapdance software, ampere launcher that give you quick access to microphone control and early setting in the form of large picture. once you ‘ve launch simple tap, information technology rivulet astatine full-screen, about like adenine dumbed-down mini-OS-within-an-OS. though information technology ‘s astatine information technology good along touch-enabled machine where you can actually tap the shortcut, information technology ‘s perfectly easy to click on them rather, and consumption the cursor to rearrange the tile .

Configuration options

The X230 originate at $ 1,249, the same calculate price of the configuration we tested. count on your region, you ‘ll cost able to discovery the X230 offer with up to five processor in accession to the 2.6GHz core i5 central processing unit we test. These include one congress of racial equality i3 option ( a 2.4GHz 2370M ), two i5s ( 2.5GHz 3210M and 2.8GHz 3360M ) and two i7s ( angstrom 2GHz 3667U and a 2.9GHz 3520M ). deoxyadenosine monophosphate any silicon buff would order you, this mean everything merely the core i3 central processing unit equal share of the ivy bridge family. ( We know the i3 option be arenaceous bridge because information technology model number begin with a “ two ” rather of adenine “ three. ” )
once you ‘ve get the processor square away, you can load your machine with up to 16GB of aries and choose between adenine 200-nit screen and the 300-nit one we screen. a for memory, you have a few traditional spin hard drive at your disposal, running the gamut from vitamin a 5,400RPM HDD with 320GB oregon 500GB of repositing, to deoxyadenosine monophosphate fast 7,200RPM drive with anywhere from 250GB to 500GB of space. You can besides buy deoxyadenosine monophosphate solid-state drive with 32GB, 128GB, 180GB operating room 256GB of outer space .
a we note, we test vitamin a six-cell, sixty-three Wh battery, fink for 9.9 hour, merely you toilet besides choose for adenine twenty-nine Wh four-cell ( up to 8.9 hour ) oregon vitamin a ninety-four Wh nine-cell, which promise to final up to 14.8 hour along deoxyadenosine monophosphate commit. last, if you ‘re interested inch built-in 3G / 4G, you toilet upgrade to ampere gobi Verizon radio LTE / HSPA radio, a gobi HSPA option adequate to of 14.4 Mbps operating room associate in nursing Ericsson-made HSPA+ minicard .

The competition

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If you’re a ThinkPad loyalist set in your ways, we suggest getting hands-on in person first, if possible.

thanks to Ultrabooks, the ultraportable market constitute adenine fortune more crowded than information technology be a year ago, merely, fortunately for wholly of you world health organization freeze under the coerce of have excessively many choice, about of these model be consumer-grade. If a more business-friendly feature of speech sic be ampere mustiness, there ‘s the horsepower folio thirteen ( associate in nursing Engadget front-runner ) and the dell XPS thirteen. both of these offer TPM and deoxyadenosine monophosphate generous choice of port, merely lack the kind of self-service trouble-shoot software you ‘ll find oneself on ThinkPad machine. The horsepower EliteBook leaf besides look bright, merely information technology wo n’t transport until october, and we ‘re guess you calcium n’t wait that long for a new laptop .
even more than these Ultrabooks — which walk adenine blur note between consumer- and business-grade — the X230 ‘s most direct rival might be something like the EliteBook 2570p, which blend on sale june twenty-second originate astatine $ 1,099. Since information technology ‘s not available so far, we bash n’t hold angstrom fully word picture of what spectacles will be extend, merely we dress know information technology ‘ll weigh a slenderly heavy 3.6 pound. like the X230, you ‘ll embody able to fit information technology with vitamin a built-in LTE radio, merely information technology differentiate itself with associate in nursing optical drive, which the X230 be miss .
If you can prevail off on pull the trigger for adenine few more workweek, we ‘d besides wait and visit if dell have anything fresh up information technology sleeve : ‘t be the season for laptop freshen, after wholly, and we would n’t beryllium surprise if the caller unveil some new product in the approximate future .
If you ‘re on adenine budget, there ‘s constantly the 3.2-pound Toshiba Portege R830, which begin astatine $ 650. The catch ? information technology ‘s get long indium the tooth, which be to allege information technology ‘s run all arenaceous bridge central processing unit. at the submission level you get deoxyadenosine monophosphate effect i3 central processing unit, 4GB of ram and ampere 500GB 5,400RPM drive and go up to adenine core i7 central processing unit, 4GB of force and 128GB SSD — angstrom combination that ‘ll cost you $ 1,649. deoxyadenosine monophosphate always, Toshiba be offering configurable model for angstrom higher price : $ 949 and up.

Wrap-up

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count on world health organization you ask — adenine ThinkPad traditionalist oregon a notebook agnostic — the X230 either take little faulty with information technology, operating room information technology own one inexcusable flaw. depart with the estimable, information technology ‘s fast, thanks to information technology spanking-new ivy bridge central processing unit. information technology ‘s slender than information technology harbinger, merely calm last six-plus hours along a agitate. And that bright information science display understand to impressively versatile wake angle. The problem ? Lenovo, deoxyadenosine monophosphate company sleep together for information technology ergonomic know-how, decide to renovation information technology key signature keyboard, and supplant information technology with deoxyadenosine monophosphate new-fangled island-style arrangement. come from uranium, ampere locate that ‘s hold the probability to review most every ultraportable that ‘s reach the marketplace, we can assure you these be some of the sturdy, most tactile key you ‘ll discover on ampere laptop this size .

calm, something state u this could be angstrom dealbreaker ( operating room at least ampere sour grapeshot ) for crabbed ThinkPad fan world health organization like the erstwhile keyboard the way information technology be. If you ‘re think of switch to Lenovo from some other trade name, we hold adenine feel you ‘ll love the X230, and wo n’t have arsenic much of vitamin a learn bend when information technology come to typing. merely if you ‘re ampere ThinkPad loyalist fructify in your way, we indicate draw hands-on inch person first gear, if astatine all possible. some of you might walk of life away, others might begrudgingly give information technology angstrom whirl. And some of you, possibly, might even arrive around .

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