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Tested: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Update W/ Intel Broadwell, Self-Encrypting SSD
MojoKid writes Lenovo just revamped the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and in this third generation of the machine, they've adopted Intel's latest 5th generation Core Series Broadwell processors, along with a few other updates. In addition, they've retooled the keyboard and trackpad area, returning back to more traditional roots versus the second generation machine, which was met with some criticism due to its adaptive function key row and over-simplified, buttonless trackpad. Notable upgrades to this 3rd gen model are a faster Core i5-5300U processor and a self-encrypting Opal2 compliant SSD. Performance-wise, the new ThinkPad offers up some of the best numbers in utlrabooks currently, though battery life is a bit middle of the road, but still able to last over 8 hours under light, web-driven workloads.
I still use and love my x60t. It's a great linux laptop. I could live with 8gb of soldered ram because it's 8 gb, although a bad ram chip will not be fun.
The real thing I want to know is how Linux-friendly this new laptop is, and can you get it without a Windows tax.
...and it rocks. Seriously. I've got Arch Linux loaded on this thing and it screams. The keyboard kicks ass. The trackpad is easily the best I've ever seen on a PC laptop. Picked mine up for a reasonable price with a 10% off coupon (I5, 8 gigs, 128 gig SSD which I upgraded to 512 gig on my own later in an effort to avoid the extortion like upgrade prices Lenovo charges on their site) for around $1100. I'm getting between about six and eight hours of battery life in Linux at the moment.
It's a sweet piece of hardware. Superfish? Who gives a fuck? I didn't even boot the M.2 SSD the thing came with. I immediately opened up the laptop and changed out the SSD as my first order of business. Buying a laptop this nice just to run Windows 8.x probably just means you are some kind of moron. Do yourselves a favor and move onto a better operating system.
Still while it is a great Linux laptop - it's not perfect - yet. The Trackpoint buttons dont work quite right in Linux yet but numerous patches (libinput, xorg synaptics driver and the kernel) are making their way into source trees everywhere. So for now it's a trackpad only experience as the trackpoint is useless without working hardware buttons.
In any event I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase.
I love idealists not because I am one, but because they make life bearable for pragmatists such as myself.
How much does it cost for the password?