Impressions: ThinkPad X230

Honestly, I never had a strong need for a laptop. Back in college I was like most students — I really wanted one, because it’s portable, it’s fashionable, it’s badass. But as I got deeper into using computers, I started to dislike laptops, because they’re just so un-upgradeable. Who doesn’t want to upgrade the GPU, RAM, or CPU every now and then? With a laptop, basically you can upgrade the RAM and that’s it. Still, right now I’ve got a renewed need for a laptop, and the reason is a bit silly: I often want to find a quiet, empty place and just use a computer in peace. I already have a cheap Dell laptop, but the eye-searing screen, the garbage keyboard feel, the pathetic i3 SNB performance, and the tragic battery life even with a 9-cell — none of that meets what I need. Especially the screen. Anything can be bad, but how can the screen be bad?

So my requirements for a laptop were basically set: high performance + good screen + strong battery + good keyboard + portable.

Why not an ultrabook?

These requirements obviously amount to needing a laptop with excellent build quality that focuses on the user experience. I think the first things that come to mind are probably Apple MacBooks or ultrabooks. Honestly, I seriously considered both. First, the fruit: basically perfect in every way except the OS. Oh, fine, I know you’re going to say Mac OS X is an excellent system and its combination with the MacBook is just flawless, but I don’t think it’s good to use. At least I’m tired of Mac OS X and have no love left for it. And I have no interest in arguing with Apple fans about whether it’s good or not. The fact is, I just don’t want to buy it. As for ultrabooks, that’s a tangled question. How should I put it — right now we’re right in the early Haswell launch period, and a lot of 4th-gen ultrabooks are starting to show up. The biggest advantage of Haswell is supposed to be power efficiency and battery life, but I can only say that 4th-gen ultrabooks are using that biggest advantage to shoot themselves in the foot. Faced with a more efficient CPU, instead of keeping the same battery capacity to improve battery life, they chose to keep the same battery life and cut the battery capacity. And in some ways, the new ultrabooks aren’t built any better. At first I had my eye on the Vaio Pro 13 and even handled it twice in a store. What happened? I really couldn’t stand the carbon fiber material — when you type, you can literally press the keyboard down until it bends. That kind of flexibility, you try it? Sure, it’s carbon fiber, but the motherboard inside isn’t carbon fiber, is it? Another point is that current ultrabooks are all new things — how long will they last? That’s still unknown. After all, the battery is built in, the shell is mostly plastic, and there’s no comprehensive warranty and system update service like Apple’s. Whether they can take a beating is hard to say.

Why the ThinkPad X230

Given all the above, I gave up on ultrabooks. After thinking it over, a traditional laptop seemed better — and in fact it really is. By chance I came across the ThinkPad X230. Sure, it’s not Haswell architecture, but at least it has a standard-voltage CPU, so performance is guaranteed. The so-called ultra-low-voltage CPUs are just trading performance for battery life. The X230 is a standard laptop: all kinds of parts can be replaced, and you can freely add an msata SSD and a 3G module and so on. The only annoying thing about this machine is probably the screen resolution — still the cursed 1366x768. Even though an IPS screen is optional, it can’t make up for the resolution being a hard flaw. Later I considered that the screen itself is only 12 inches, so the pixel density is enough, and if it really comes down to it I can use an external monitor. Plus, based on some info that was leaking out at the time, the X240s laptop would still be 1366x768. Thinking about that, I let it go.

Of course, I never expected that the X240s could later be configured with a 1080p screen! Man, the regret. But regret is useless — I can only comfort myself by saying that a 12-inch screen at 1080p would be eye-searing anyway… Quick review on arrival

I bought the machine as a Hong Kong import, the i7 top spec, IPS screen, backlit keyboard, for 6000. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB, then got an msata SSD from Taobao (the first one they sent me was actually a used item; after arguing with the seller, they sent a brand-new Plextor M5M and that was that).

The machine’s shape has the typical ThinkPad style — black, square, and tough. That’s my kind of thing. The build quality does have shortcomings in the details, like a slightly large gap on one side of the hinge, and the battery doesn’t clip in tightly. Still, among comparable laptops it’s already excellent. The X230’s keyboard is probably the most criticized part. Many people say they can’t accept the chiclet keyboard, but I think it’s fine. After all, I’d used this model before. Even though it’s chiclet, it doesn’t feel that bad — actually it’s a bit more comfortable than the traditional one. The X230 also keeps the ThinkLight design, which seems to have been cut on the later X240. The physical buttons for the TrackPoint are still there too, and those are also about to be cut later. In short, the X230 still retains some traditional elements, while future ThinkPads will probably move entirely toward the ultrabook direction, with fewer and fewer classic elements, and the ThinkPad fans will complain more and more bitterly. For me, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Improvement has to happen sooner or later; whether it’s actually good to use after the improvements remains to be tested. The last thing I want to say is that the TrackPoint really is great. I’d never used it before, but after using it I fell in love with it.

Finally, the screen. Even though I agonize over the resolution, I still have to say: even at 1366x768, having a high-quality IPS screen is worth it. It really doesn’t hurt my eyes — very comfortable.

Mods after arrival

I got the ThinkPad X230 as a Hong Kong import. Even though I chose the IPS screen, installing the SSD still requires doing it yourself. Unscrew the screws on the bottom marked with the keyboard icon, then gently push the keyboard off the front, lift off the C cover, find the msata slot, and insert the SSD.

Another thing worth mentioning: all non-US ThinkPad X230s come with a Realtek wireless card by default. How garbage is this module? I don’t want to elaborate. I’ll just say that within only 4 meters of my machine and the AP, the laptop kept dropping the connection. The fix is simple: buy a new PCI-Express Wi-Fi module on Taobao for anywhere from 20 to 120 yuan. Remember to choose one with the RFU mark, which is ThinkPad-compatible. The replacement method is similar to the SSD — after all, the wireless card is right next to the SSD. I bought an Intel 6300, which has 3 antennas, while the X230 only has two Wi-Fi antennas inside. In that case, you might as well plug the built-in red antenna into the middle connector. Supposedly the red one is for the 3G module signal, but at least I’m not going to install a 3G module in this laptop. After replacing the card, the laptop’s wireless performance improved greatly, proving it was worth it. System stuff

As someone who doesn’t like to tinker, I usually use Ubuntu. After all, once you get used to it, it’s pretty good. I didn’t run into any problems during setup, and the various drivers were basically perfect — of course, that’s version 13.04, and I also upgraded to the latest kernel. With that garbage default kernel, random freezes are guaranteed. But what I’d recommend even more is manually installing the 3.11 RC3 kernel from the Kernel Mainline PPA. It’s satisfying in terms of both power saving and hardware support.

Although I mainly use Linux, Windows also needs to be installed. I hate Windows 8.1’s setting that only lets you log in with a Live account, so I installed Windows 8. No driver problems there. I didn’t install the whole set of ThinkPad notification tools, just the key press notification — I don’t use it much anyway, so whatever.

But Windows 8 at 1366x768 really makes me anxious. So I just went ahead and dragged the taskbar to the left side, learning from Unity.

The built-in HD4000 graphics feel sufficient to me — I don’t play games much anyway. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that under Linux, running Dota 2 on Steam makes character and tower models invisible. The fix is to manually update Mesa to the latest version. But I don’t recommend using that Xorg-edge/PPA — after using it, the system becomes very unstable…

Bluetooth mouse

My ThinkPad X230 has built-in Bluetooth, so I got a Bluetooth mouse and thought this cool-as-hell thing would completely crush those stupid 2.4G wireless products. In reality, I was completely wrong. This was clearly a case of getting crushed by 2.4G products. Bluetooth’s transfer rate itself isn’t high, and more fatally, the thing needs pairing — endless pairing. It took me ages to get automatic pairing and connection working under Ubuntu. The method is pretty dumb: when pairing, don’t choose “automatic”; instead pick one of the pairing codes below like 0000 or 1234. That way Ubuntu will never forget your Bluetooth mouse, and every time you boot you can shake the mouse for ages and pray the system connects automatically.

Of course, this doesn’t happen under Windows. But if you’ve completed automatic pairing under Ubuntu, then under Windows 8 your automatic pairing will be lost. So that’s the situation where you can’t have both systems — just disgusting.

One more thing worth mentioning: under Windows, please uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” for your Bluetooth device yourself, otherwise the mouse will randomly disappear. Linux doesn’t have this option, but once you install tools like TLP and Laptop Mode Tools, you’ll get the same situation. Also worth mentioning is hibernate and suspend: after hibernating or suspending, Bluetooth can never be used again. At least for the mouse.

So my solution was to buy a Logitech T400 as a replacement.

Battery life

I do care about laptop battery life, since I also need to use it unplugged for long periods. Under Windows 8 with Powersave mode, it shows about 6 hours remaining. Whether that’s real I don’t know — I’ve never used it that long under Windows anyway. Under Ubuntu, if you don’t enable power-saving tools like TLP, the battery lasts at most almost 4 hours, since the CPU will casually jump to 28W. After enabling it, battery life is satisfying.

As for battery maintenance and all that — maintenance my ass… when it dies, just swap in a 9-cell. Conclusion

Anyway, I personally think the ThinkPad X230 is pretty good. If the resolution could be 1080p it would be almost perfect. Of course, nothing in the world is perfect. Even the seemingly perfect X240 that follows has removed many unique designs that only the X230 has, and the price is hardly cheap — at least over 10,000, I’d say.

Strong performance, good feel, adequate resolution, and a reasonable price. No more agonizing — I’ll use this machine until the generation after next after next of laptops comes out.