Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 3 - Premium, Lightweight Business Ultrabook
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 3 - Premium, Lightweight Business Ultrabook
2015-04-08
I can't remember who it was and I'm
actually not sure where this particular
viewer got the idea from but someone got
it in his or her head that I'm somehow
professional enough to review a business
laptop and suggested that I take a look
at the lenovo x1 carbon gen 3 a premium
lightweight business ultra book by the
way if you enjoyed our cherian
sennheiser factory tours stay tuned
because assuming this video gets posted
on schedule I just got back from touring
the omron Factory in Japan and that's
coming very soon
the Coolermaster Nova touch tkl is
powered by Topor hybrid capacitive
switches for the ultimate typing
experience and is now available for a
reduced price click my face to learn
more
now the specs of ultra books aren't
really that variable so when I went on
the Novo site and saw that my CPU
choices ranged from a Core i5 dual core
with hyper threading to a slightly
faster Core i5 to a slightly faster than
that core i7 dual core with some extra
cash to go along with its hyper
threading with the only performance
differences being slightly different
clock speeds I wasn't surprised what did
surprise me was the completely
unnecessary limitation on the 5200 you
equipped model where it can only be
configured with 4 gigs of RAM with $100
5300 you option being required to
upgrade it I mean first of all 4 gigs is
pathetic for any modern computer and
second of all those CPUs literally cost
the same with the 5200 you have in no
place in a business grade laptop anyway
since aside from being the same as the
5300 you or worse across the board it
lacks business grade features like Vee
Pro and trusted execution technology so
the entry-level starting at 1199 Bottle
is a total laughs anyway this is what
Apple does right instead of offering
their customers stupid options that make
no sense just to have a lower advertised
two starting price point they build
computers that will please their
customers and slap a price tag to match
on them but that's not to say that Apple
does everything right either and Lenovo
didn't send me one of the asinine
configurations of the x1 anyway so let's
take a look at what we do have in front
of us today it's got a Core i5 5300 u 8
gigs of ram HD graphics 5500 clocked at
900 megahertz a 256 gig solid-state
drive intel 7265 AC wireless with
Bluetooth 4.0 a 50 watt battery that
managed about four and a half hours in
my standard PC market test although it
should be noted that when you're not
pushing it really hard it can run a lot
longer than that but of course people
don't buy think pads for their specs
since
lots of portable computing devices that
offer great battery life in specs they
buy them for the legendary quality
something that Lenovo hasn't seemed to
mix up since buying IBM's computer
division and the back to business basics
style something that the last generation
x1 carbon actually did kind of mess up
with those bizarre adaptive capacitive
buttons along the top but the gen 3 x1
carbon features none of that nonsense
the screen lid which is surprisingly
strong for being so thin by the way is
plain scratch resistant black with a
single red LED dotting the eye in the
ThinkPad logo and the underside is
pretty much the same with only the
intake for the single cooling fan which
is satisfactorily quiet even under heavy
load and kept my CPU under 65 degrees
Celsius by the way and the shockingly
bad bottom mounted speakers they
actually get reasonably loud but I had
to double check if there was an audio
control panel with like an auditorium
preset enabled or something since music
had this distant sound as if it was
being played on a super loud Bluetooth
speaker from the other end of a football
field
io is fairly run-of-the-mill the right
side consisting of a vent a proprietary
mini Ethernet port and a USB 3.0 port
with the left side having power and dock
connector side by side HDMI and mini
display port another USB 3.0 and a
4-pole audio jack but things get more
interesting once we flip the screen up
on this puppy because it's 2560 by 1440
matte IPS touchscreen display is unlike
any that I've ever used before I've seen
some reviews online say it's not the
brightest to display on the market and
this is true but it's brighter than I
needed in any situation where I used it
and I really liked both the resolution
choice 1440p looks great at the size and
requires less dramatic text scaling
which makes the issues associated with
it less noticeable than some of the 3k
displays on the market and the matte
finish that feels nice on my fingertips
and helps reject fingerprint smudges
from using the touchscreen as much as it
helps reduce glare from nearby light
sources so kudos on the display lenovo
and while we're singing this notebooks
praises holy crap
this keyboard rocks the key caps are a
little bit slippery er than I prefer but
considering how thin this thing is like
1.8 centimeters they have an
astonishingly long travel and typing on
the rounded chiclet keys on the x1
carbon is the second best typing
experience I've had on a notebook with
the one notable exception being the msi
gt80 Titan with its full-size mechanical
keyboard and the layout is with the
exception of the why on earth did you do
that swapping of the function and
control keys very good - with full size
up and down arrow keys dedicated page up
and down in print screen keys and some
useful Windows 8 shortcuts from f8 to
f12 so there a fingerprint reader along
the right-hand side just super handy and
fast to use by the way I've never had a
PC with one before and the function
control swap that I mentioned before are
pretty much the only unusual thing oh
sorry did I say only unusual things I
guess I forgot to mention the big red
swollen nipple in the middle of the
keyboard the young kids might not
remember the days when track pads were
unusual partly because they totally
sucked and the most nubbin reigned
supreme but this laptop and I guess this
leads pretty well into the conclusion
for this product was made for people who
want high-end performance in a
superlight carbon-fiber
design but do remember the days of
nubbins with dedicated buttons for them
positioned right below the keyboard and
unfortunately no one else the touch pad
on the x1 carbon is so close to being
awesome but has one deal breaking flaw
for me the glass surface feels great and
it tracks very accurately but right and
left click rely on having a finger
pressed down on the top surface of the
trackpad
so my casual leaning against the bottom
of the touchpad use would cause frequent
miss clicks if the kind of thing I could
get used to but I feel like I shouldn't
have to dedicated right and left
switches under the pad next time please
Lenovo and while we're at it where the
actual heck is the 16 gig configuration
option it's like you and Dell got
together in our back room somewhere with
cigars and decided the best way to sell
the 2016 models of the x1 carbon and XPS
13 was to cripple this years with
gigs of RAM max so I guess that's pretty
much it for the x1 carbon thanks for
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