Hi guys,
I'm looking at getting myself an ultrabook and didn't particularly want to spend too much considering I won't really be a heavy user.
Is $250 too much to spend on this second hand laptop?
It seems to have decent specs just not sure if there was any major known issues with the gen 1.
Thoughts?
Yeah I've kind of accepted that its battery life may not be up to scratch after so many years. Seller believes that it gets roughly 4 hours which I think is satisfactory considering its age. It's still running Windows 7 too which I think may be weighing it down with respect to battery life but then again Windows 10 could make it worse.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 1 is from 2012 and it comes with crappy 1600x900 TN panel. I have a ThinkPad S430 with the same panel and it's hard to get back to after getting used to all the IPS 1080/1440P displays :)
However if there's no major defect, then $250 is a good price. You can certainly check eBay for price of 2nd hand/refurbished ThinkPad from that era — for example X230 & T430. You can also buy replacement battery for X1 Carbon, and servicing it yourself seems to be quite straight forward.
My only concern with something like a t430 is how heavy it may be and chunky.
We still use X1 Carbon gen 1 at work and we have hundreds of them.
They are working well, Windows 10 make it works better but I think battery life suffer a bit.
Personally I think $250 is good price.
What sort of battery life are you getting on them?
Let me test it on Monday and get back to you.
I know they last more than 3 hours.
Thanks for all the replies. I ended up purchasing it and so far so good. When I first went to charge it though Windows 7 said "Plugged in, not charging" which concerned me. I looked up Google and it said to download the Lenovo power app which I did. I found a setting to reset the battery or whatever it was and that did the trick. Have upgraded now to Windows 10. Does everyone recommend installing all the Lenovo apps for this laptop?
The only other thing that concerns me is the trackpad. It's kind touchy and jumps sometimes when selecting things. It feels a bit loose and may require replacing. Would this be straight forward to do?
hey neo-x
not sure if you've found he answer to your qs - none of the lenovo apps are useful and considered as bloatware. This is especially true if you are using a machine that's older than 3 years as any useful updates provided by these apps would be limited. Critical updates would of course be the risk but unless you live under a rock, a quick browse to the lenovo support section for your model would enable you to download the needed bios/patches.
in regards to your finicky trackpad - i'm afraid the only the only upgrade component is the harddrive. The ram is a single stick soldered ram. When first released - even the i7 version came with a standard 4GB and the max someoe could custom it to was 8GB.
The best option to future proof your purchase - a dock/port replicator may be a good option for wifi AC connectivity via a usb wifi dongle and perhaps the logitech unifying usb for the mouse (if your built-in BT module is maxed at BT 3.0)
It's been a few weeks, and I was wondering how the X1 was holding out for you? I've seen a refurbished one on sale for close to $400, and I really like everything about it, but the only question mark for me is the battery life. I would be mainly using it for writing and the odd bit of browsing.
I've had the Gen 1 X1 for about a year now and it's been great! The only drawback is the battery which only lasts like an hour. It's to be expected though on such an old laptop. Which generation is the one that you are looking at?
Ah dang. I'm pretty sure it's the Gen 1, but I'll double check. Was this with a new battery, or the one that came with it?
Still has the original battery. I was thinking of putting a new one, I believe they go for about $80 for a genuine one but u don't use it enough to justify a new one.
Haven't used Gen1 myself but one thing to be mindful of is that battery milage will vary depending on usage pattern of previous owner(s).