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That's it, ThinkPad Ordered.
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I don't get why Microsoft need to monitor and process our interactions with Cortana beyond product improvement though. That's what puts me off.
I never cared about how Apple uses my voice data with Siri but Microsoft are trying to copy Google and Facebook with the whole get rich from selling our info business.
One area where I hope Apple, for the love of god, refrain from :-(
Your choice of the ThinkPad OP seems like a good one. At least to me and my basic computer needs. I have a 2014 rMBP 13" and have been a lifelong Mac user. But the way Apple has been going and will continue to go has me looking at the Windows world more closely. As much as the new MBP look good and are nice and light the non-user upgradeable nature of the Mac is very frustrating for me. If I want more ram or storage I have to order it from the start instead of upgrading later when I have the need and more money. Not everyone can afford to up their specs at the time of initial purchase. With my first MB (late 2006) and my MBP 2011 I was able to upgrade ram and HDD at a later time. I can't do that with the 2014 MBP. I'd have to get a whole new Mac with higher specs. I've used Windows many times over the years but have never owned one. Would the switch be a huge undertaking?
To be honest, it's a matter of writing down what you do on your computer, and what software you use. Then, link it up to the software Windows has. In my experience, the likes of Microsoft Word etc are actually slightly better on Windows anyway since it's their native platform so I've had not many issues so far. The thing you'll lose is the perfection of the hardware quality - although Lenovo for one seem to be as good as Apple for it - and the ecosystem having everything in sync. But for the price difference of almost half my last Mac, I don't think I'll come back from Windows. Im enjoying the full HD screen, discrete graphics and SSD at a fraction of the cost of a Mac
Good for me, anywayTo be honest, it's a matter of writing down what you do on your computer, and what software you use. Then, link it up to the software Windows has. In my experience, the likes of Microsoft Word etc are actually slightly better on Windows anyway since it's their native platform so I've had not many issues so far. The thing you'll lose is the perfection of the hardware quality - although Lenovo for one seem to be as good as Apple for it - and the ecosystem having everything in sync. But for the price difference of almost half my last Mac, I don't think I'll come back from Windows. Im enjoying the full HD screen, discrete graphics and SSD at a fraction of the cost of a Mac
yeah makes sense. I miss being able to upgrade my Mac myself. I had a 2011 MBP and did what the guy in this video did. Was so nice.
That's what i would've done to my 2011 MBP if it didn't suffer from the GPU defect that rendered it useless.
I didn't notice that issue on my 2011 but I sold it before getting my 2014 rMBP 13" Kinda mad I didn't go for the 15". Now I'm trying to find a good external monitor with either 2560x1440 or full 4K.
No, they only replaced the logic boards with repaired logic boards that would fail. Luckily, I was not affected by this, but its not something that I would care for, if I was.
Not only did they replace the defective boards with defective boards, their requirements for determining which macbooks they would consider repairing involved running a specific diagnostic tool. If the tool didn't display the problem then Apple refused to repair it even if it was from the batch that Apple acknowledged was defective.
My MBP was affected and got to the point of no longer powering up. That made it ineligible for the repair.
sure can.
I still use an insanely modded x220 as my travel buddy. 9 Cell plus slice still gives me about 18 hours of battery. got the SATA 512GB SSD card in it plus a 5T spinner in the 2.5" bay ( have to dremmel off the two bumps to use a 9mm drive ) and 16 GB in a machine I grabed in .... late 2011. best part no case, dongles or charger needed
OP, one tip on the some of the thinkpads if they come with a bunch of crap pre loaded is download the mocrosoft windows install tool and create a windows 10 boot USB stick and then clean load the machine after you grab drivers from the Lenovo support site. then you don't need to worry about slowdowns or bloatware, I have done this with my P50 which had some junk, my P70 didn't need it but I clean loaded it anyways since I added a pair of 2T PCIE cards to it.
I'm using an X220 as my main laptop (just web surfing on the couch) and it does run like a champ. I've installed an IPS screen which is so much better than the original. I've modified the bios to remove the lenovo parts whitelist too so I could install a osx compatible wifi card and installed el capitan on it.
mine is still on 7 pro with an el cap VM. running 16GB, a 512GB SATA card + a 2T hard drive. with the fresh battery and its slice im happily enjoying 22 hours of battery on my old clunker, I really should do the screen and BOIS mod though. but its been a trusty and abused road warrior.
Been using my t420 from the couch as well.
Been using different distros of Linux and Windows 10 testing OS's for a HTPC. Think I'm going to wait to see what the next Mac Mini has to offer though. Although the t420 has been doing great.
NICE. You got MacRumors on the TV?
Makes me want to set up a HTPC. Something I've never done as I typically just watch YouTube in the living room via the Xbox.
NICE. You got MacRumors on the TV?
Makes me want to set up a HTPC. Something I've never done as I typically just watch YouTube in the living room via the Xbox.
I would typically use ATV or PS4 for Youtube however their web interface is the best experience IMO.
I'm definitely sold on the idea of an HTPC however I have a 4k TV that supports HDR (10 bit). Building an HTPC with HEVC 10-bit support especially in a SFF size is appearing to be a bit difficult. NUC is a possibility but I would prefer MacOS on a Mini.
However if all you wanted was 1080p my 6 year old ThinkPad is great. You could build something very cheaply.
I'm currently comparing the MKV of a movie to my encode side by side both stored on my NAS. And it's playing the MKV and decoding the m4v without a hiccup.
I ordered an X1 Carbon 5th gen last Friday.
I went with the i5 7300, 512 SSD and 16GB of RAM.
Hope it ships soon as I really want to get my grubby paws on it..
I went with the i5 7300, 512 SSD and 16GB of RAM.
Hope it ships soon as I really want to get my grubby paws on it..
Thinkpad Yoga 370 ordered! Should get it by the 31st! It was between this, iPad Pro and the Surface 4 for a computer that can take notes. The serviceability of the Thinkpad, despite the less than stellar screen, won me over
So far into my one month ownership of the ThinkPad it's damn fast, beautiful screen and amazing keyboard. For half the price of a MacBook it was a steal too. i5 7200U latest gen, 2GB discrete graphics, and Windows 10 is actually good!
To think this is the cheapest ThinkPad. It is plastic, and probably won't last as long as a metal MacBook but the fact that if something does break I'm looking at under £50 for most things bar the screen. That's genuine parts. No 'take it to the apple store for £300 and 90 days warranty' repairs.......
I have fond memories of the Mac but I'm not sure I'll be back.
To think this is the cheapest ThinkPad. It is plastic, and probably won't last as long as a metal MacBook but the fact that if something does break I'm looking at under £50 for most things bar the screen. That's genuine parts. No 'take it to the apple store for £300 and 90 days warranty' repairs.......
I have fond memories of the Mac but I'm not sure I'll be back.
Yeah my almost maxed out X1 was less than the Macbook Pro..
My X1 Specs as ordered. Price after discount: $1576. Now that's for an i5 / 16 / 512 SSD with an integrated LTE card... The RAM is non user replaceable but the SSD is...
My X1 Specs as ordered. Price after discount: $1576. Now that's for an i5 / 16 / 512 SSD with an integrated LTE card... The RAM is non user replaceable but the SSD is...
- Processor : Intel Core i5-7300U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)
- Hard Drive : 512 GB Solid State Drive, PCIe-NVMe OPAL2.0
- Memory : 16GB LPDDR3 1866
- Operating System : Windows 10 Pro 64
- Display : 14.0" FHD (1920x1080) IPS Anti-Glare Non-Touch
- Graphics : Intel HD Graphics 620
- Body Color : Silver
- Keyboard : ThinkPad Backlit Keyboard English with Finger Print Reader and C-cover, Silver
- Security Features : Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- TPM Setting : Hardware dTPM2.0 Enabled
- Camera : 720p HD Camera with MIC
- Pointing Device : UltraNav (TrackPoint and ClickPad)
- Battery : 3cell Battery 57Wh
- Wireless : Intel Dual Band Wireless AC(2x2) 8265, Bluetooth Version 4
- Integrated Mobile Broadband : Qualcomm Snapdragon X7 LTE-A (Sierra Wireless EM7455)
- Integrated Wireless Antenna : WLAN+WWAN antenna
Not sure I'd have gone for silver, but then again it might be more rare / sought after in the future should Lenovo stop offering them. I love the black and red theme.
I'm telling you, you will NEVER look back on the keyboard. It's Great. And that's coming from someone using the cheapest ThinkPad with a none backlit one, the X1 Carbon is probably going to be even better.
Sorry to Apple, but the MBP keyboard especially now cannot compete for comfort IMO.
My reasoning for the silver is twofold. One it's unique and two the carbon black machines always look like a hot fingerprint and smudge smeared mess after a few hours of use.. I used a Dell XPS 13 for a few months and that thing looked like it had went through a war zone after a day of use. My old black X1 was the same...
The Silver should keep the machine looking cleaner as I do not deal well with a hot-sticky-fingerprint-smudge filled mess.. My OCD does not allow it.. LOL
The black plastic ThinkPad E470 I have is a NIGHTMARE on the lid. It can be cleaned back to perfection but one touch and its greasy looking again. Honestly confused as to why they chose that finish
The X1 Carbon is the same, and even worse in my opinion.. The deck gets all mucked up from palm rest, fingerprint smudges ect.... I had the X1 3rd gen and I swore never black carbon again.. Then I had to borrow an XPS 13 for a while from my brother and man that was the same... A smudged filled mess after an hour of use..
I assume the Silver should fair better but since none are out in the wild yet it's hard to tell. If anything, silver should do a better job of hiding them..
So I spent the day with Yoga 370. My thoughts:
Build quality:
- Very good keyboard with very good feedback. Not as great as the T series but still good nonetheless. I like it better than my MBP 2015. The keys are solid and not wobbly.
- Display is good but not as vibrant as on my MBP. I knew this anyway and this is not that big a deal cause I rarely need 100% color accuracy on my laptop
- Trackpad: This comes with a precision touchpad and this is definitely leaps and bounds better than it was before on Windows. Dare I say, I don't really miss trackpad on the MBP. It would be awesome if there was a BTT for Windows, Have not looked yet.
Software:
As expected, this was the most frustrating part of this device.
Windows 10 ... one word : frustrating.
- There was candy crush, some revolt game, age of empires and some other bloatware. Quite a few apps occupying 100s of megs each. I was surprised that Lenovo did this on a Thinkpad! So I downloaded a Windows 10 ISO and re-installed the OS. And guess what, the damn games were still there.
And then I thought Lenovo did worse! Maybe they were still mucking around with the Windows platform table. Looked around and realized that Lenovo did not do anything with the Thinkpads. Relief! So I reinstalled Windows again - making sure I formatted the disk - and the damn bloatware was still there!
Then it dawned upon me...the bloatware was pre-installed in Windows! I was appalled! What is crazy is that the bloatware is downloaded from the Store post Windows install. Even if you delete it, it is installed again upon restart! WTF! Had to muck around the registry to fix this. Microsoft, in my eyes, has stooped to a new low with this one.
- There were other issues as well. For some reason, the laptop could not show the right time! :-D It kept re-setting to UTC. I had to fiddle around with a time service. Double tap stopped working. I had to restart. Night Shift refused to work and then all of a sudden, started to.
And of course, no rant on Windows is complete without a shoutout to the Settings menu. Hopping between Win XP era setting windows and Win 10 setting windows is quite jarring.
Frustrated...installed Elementary OS. Worked perfectly and looked great but realized that there is no decent inking software for note taking in Linux and general support for touch screen laptops on Linux is not very stable yet. So I came back to Windows.
I will be sticking with Windows for some time. Now that I have set it up the way I want to, I think it should hold. But I am disappointed. On one side, I have Apple's real fine software and their pricy soldered mess of a MBP; on another side we got Windows; good in some parts and just plain horrible in others but decent hardware. Not great but for now, it looks like it is Windows for me.
On a positive side, inking on this thing is amazing! I am excited at the potential of this machine. No regrets buying this. Once I get past the teething issues with the ecosystem, I should be golden.
Build quality:
- Very good keyboard with very good feedback. Not as great as the T series but still good nonetheless. I like it better than my MBP 2015. The keys are solid and not wobbly.
- Display is good but not as vibrant as on my MBP. I knew this anyway and this is not that big a deal cause I rarely need 100% color accuracy on my laptop
- Trackpad: This comes with a precision touchpad and this is definitely leaps and bounds better than it was before on Windows. Dare I say, I don't really miss trackpad on the MBP. It would be awesome if there was a BTT for Windows, Have not looked yet.
Software:
As expected, this was the most frustrating part of this device.
Windows 10 ... one word : frustrating.
- There was candy crush, some revolt game, age of empires and some other bloatware. Quite a few apps occupying 100s of megs each. I was surprised that Lenovo did this on a Thinkpad! So I downloaded a Windows 10 ISO and re-installed the OS. And guess what, the damn games were still there.
And then I thought Lenovo did worse! Maybe they were still mucking around with the Windows platform table. Looked around and realized that Lenovo did not do anything with the Thinkpads. Relief! So I reinstalled Windows again - making sure I formatted the disk - and the damn bloatware was still there!
Then it dawned upon me...the bloatware was pre-installed in Windows! I was appalled! What is crazy is that the bloatware is downloaded from the Store post Windows install. Even if you delete it, it is installed again upon restart! WTF! Had to muck around the registry to fix this. Microsoft, in my eyes, has stooped to a new low with this one.
- There were other issues as well. For some reason, the laptop could not show the right time! :-D It kept re-setting to UTC. I had to fiddle around with a time service. Double tap stopped working. I had to restart. Night Shift refused to work and then all of a sudden, started to.
And of course, no rant on Windows is complete without a shoutout to the Settings menu. Hopping between Win XP era setting windows and Win 10 setting windows is quite jarring.
Frustrated...installed Elementary OS. Worked perfectly and looked great but realized that there is no decent inking software for note taking in Linux and general support for touch screen laptops on Linux is not very stable yet. So I came back to Windows.
I will be sticking with Windows for some time. Now that I have set it up the way I want to, I think it should hold. But I am disappointed. On one side, I have Apple's real fine software and their pricy soldered mess of a MBP; on another side we got Windows; good in some parts and just plain horrible in others but decent hardware. Not great but for now, it looks like it is Windows for me.
On a positive side, inking on this thing is amazing! I am excited at the potential of this machine. No regrets buying this. Once I get past the teething issues with the ecosystem, I should be golden.
The crapware you saw is installed by Windows NOT Lenovo... Not much can be done about that as you found out by doing a fresh ISO direct from MS.. On the bright side, most of them are just placeholders where if you click on it you are taken to the store to install and they are easily removed...
Windows overall is not as bad as it use to be.. I think Windows 10 has come a long ways.. There are some minor irritations sure but there are some irritations with MacOS as well... I do prefer MacOS over Windows but the gap is narrowing..
Windows overall is not as bad as it use to be.. I think Windows 10 has come a long ways.. There are some minor irritations sure but there are some irritations with MacOS as well... I do prefer MacOS over Windows but the gap is narrowing..