2018 X1 Carbon display

[Weogo]

Hi Folks,

Tomorrow I'm buying a 2018 X1 Carbon for my wife.

Am considering three displays:
FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS anti-glare, 300 nits. Supposed to have best battery life.

WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS anti-glare, 300 nits. High res might be easier for her to use for longer periods of time?
Screen is probably good enough for our video watching.

HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS glossy with Dolby Vision, 500 nits. I don't think we need Dolby,
Does this screen make photos look better, or only video?


Does 8GB RAM save much power over 16GB?


I'm still chugging along with my X201T : -)

Thanks and good health, Weogo

[w0qj]

1. In practice, the default desktop of many 14" X1 Carbon users is FHD (1920 x 1080), and 300 nits LCD brightness is plenty enough for indoor use (and the occasional outdoor use).

If you do photo editing and feel you need WQHD (2560x1440), then by all means get the 300 nits LCD brightness one.

There is no major difference in power consumption between these two (FHD 300 nits vs WQHD 300 nits), to my knowledge.
For my X1C4 (4th Gen X1 Carbon), I use the WQHD 300 nits LCD, and it does not use much power when sleeping the machine.

2. HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS glossy with Dolby Vision, 500 nits has a thicker LCD lid, and uses more power, hence your battery power time would suffer as a result.
The upside is that 500 nits is very bright, which is good if you consistently work outdoors.

3. Strongly suggest 16 GB RAM, especially since you are doing photo editing.
Opening browser with multiple tabs, email program, and opening your photo editing program may well exceed 8 GB RAM.
Using the Swap Drive while exceeding 8 GB RAM would cause unnecessary wear and tear on your (expensive) SSD, and it WILL slow down your computer from my own experience.

Do have FUN choosing your new X1 Carbon!

www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X ... 682.0.html
www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X ... 428.0.html

[Weogo]

Thanks for the information!

She went for the high-res, 300nit panel, i7 and 16GB.
No WWAN, a second hard drive will go in that slot.

I did a good bit of research and think she will be pretty happy with it.
Less than half the weight of her current laptop!

Good health, Weogo

[Thinkpad4by3]

Ive heard problems with the HDR panels and you can always scale up with a higher res but you cant scale down with a lower res. Also glossy panels suck. Good choice.

[Weogo]

Hi,

Thanks for the display choice confirmation!

What is the best second hard drive to go in the WWAN slot, the Samsung 970 Pro?

Thanks and good health, Weogo

[Thinkpad4by3]

Hi,

Thanks for the display choice confirmation!

What is the best second hard drive to go in the WWAN slot, the Samsung 970 Pro?

Thanks and good health, Weogo

You can only get drives that are 2242 M.2 sized. The 970 is 2280 and won't fit.

https://www.amazon.com/KingSpec-2242-25 ... B01G0N4T8Y

Something like that SHOULD work. Do some research first....it looks like you may have compatibility issues from a quick google search but it might work.

[Weogo]

Hi,

Well darn.

Do you know if the 970 fit in the primary drive slot?

I may be calling Lenovo and seeing of the X1 already shipped - if not, spec the 1TB primary from them.

How about this one for the second slot? :
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... -_-Product

Thanks and good health, Weogo

[Thinkpad4by3]

970 will work just fine in the primary 2280 slot.

Theoretically it SHOULD work but I've heard about wierd incoompatibilities with the way the X1's WWAN slot is wired up. That drive claims to be using SATA III which that slot may not be able to handle since the WWAN card only needs the PCIe lanes.

EDIT: Yep...no SATA compatibility on that port. Only NVMe...which limits your drive choices to exactly one.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6820168040

If it were me...I'd get the biggest drive you can find and put it in the main slot. If you need more than a terabyte...I believe 2TB 2280 drives exist.

[w0qj]

Better to get the largest SSD from ThinkPad and be done with it.
If you extend the Warranty of your X1C8, this would cover your SSD also!

I for one am horrified by the poor implementation of the PCIe SSD interface.
B-key? M-key? B-key and M-key?
Does your PCIe support NVMe? Or does your PCIe support SATA III instead? Or both??

We have simply stopped buying larger after-market PCIe SSD for self/user upgrading because of above reasons.
Don't want to be stuck with a mega-expensive PCIe SSD that you cannot use in your computer!

Previously during the good old 2.5" SATA HDD days, it was very easy to upgrade to 2.5" SSD.
Any make/brand will be 100% compatible.

Not anymore, with this very poorly implemented PCIe interface, which is a fiasco in our eyes...

[Weogo]

Hi,

So glad I asked, thanks for all the extra information!
The Lenovo warranty on the storage drive makes sense;
will definitely go with the 1TB from Lenovo.

Hopefully all this is sorted soon...

Thanks and good health, Weogo

[solemn]

Better to get the largest SSD from ThinkPad and be done with it.

Why? The prices charged by the manufacturers for larger SSDs are ridiculous. If you customize an X1C 6th gen, the jump form 256GB to 1TB costs $680, or at best $455 with a promotion.

You can save hundreds of dollars by buying the laptop with the smallest SSD possible (256GB), then buying the best SSD out there (right now, the Samsung 970 Pro) for under $380, and selling the 256GB SSD, or keeping it as a rescue disk.

X1Cs are very easy to open (far easier than comparable ultraportables like Dell XPS13 or Asus Zenbook), and you only need a regular Philips screwdriver to replace the SSD.