Review Lenovo ThinkPad X240 Ultrabook

[Redaktion]

Pioneer. The 12.5-inch ThinkPad of the X series has been completely revamped - while still staying true to the core strengths of its well-made predecessors. Mobility, flexibility, ergonomics and great build quality are characteristics which are not cherished among business customers alone. Our detailed review will show where the ThinkPad X240 fares better than those before it.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X240-Ultrabook.106883.0.html

[tenebrae]

I have but a one question: I am a zealous TrackPoint user and, for the sake of avoidance of accidental touchpad use, I tend to disable the touchpad altogether.

Is it still possible with the new touchpad to disable the touchpad and only use the trackpoint (of course including its buttons)?

[Puppy]

The keyboard layout is seriously broken. Those who use F keys all the time are out of luck because in Fn-Lock mode you can not use End key (it becomes Insert). It makes the keyboard almost useless for work  :(

[Anko]

@Puppy I'm a ThinkPad user too. On my E325, the Fn-key's behaviour can be configured in the BIOS menu to make the F-keys do what they normally do. (Fn can then be used to activate their special functions.)

There is also a BIOS setting for switching the Fn- and Ctrl-keys' positions.

[Boris_Akunin]

Please stop testing notebooks with the smallest battery option!
With the larger option (24+72Wh) the x240 would probably even beat the Macboo Air 11"

[fflex80]

Potential buyers beware: thinkpad durability is not what its all hyped up to be.  I bought an X220 a couple of years ago and its has started to come apart at it's seams.  The screen case is delaminating and the power receptable is loosening (likely a crack in the motherboard).  I have not abused this machine just heavy use about 1/2 on the road and 1/2 on the docking station. 

Also, there is something seriously amiss with Lenovo's BIOS (this is well documented - google it).  After becoming disillusioned with the build quality and a lack of professional grade 3-4 lb notebooks from Dell (I won't buy Asus/Acer/HP - and now Lenovo because of historical quality issues), I got a MacBook Pro with Windows running on VMWare Fusion.  I hope this works out - I haven't used Mac since the early 1990s.

I wanted to give my X220 to my dad, but needed to reformat the drive to erase sensitive data.  The Lenovo recovery does not work.  And the Bios literally takes hours to recognize and install a Windows install disk on a DVD USB drive.  So this is turning out to be a very expensive machine as it consumed about 12 hours of my time.  Had I known earlier, I should have just bought my dad a new PC, reformatted the Lenovo's HDD using the MacBook, and destroyed the Lenovo.

[Ivan Krumov]

The machine is very good, but there is one think I find really annoying, and if I knew it before, maybe I would have not bought it. The fan noise is in very high frequency, so even when running at load spead, it is clearly audiable. I think you should include that info if you update the review. Before this laptop (x240), I had Thinkpad s531, and the fan there is fantastic! The noise from it is very smooth and unnoticeable. So does anybody know if there is a way to handle this problem?

[antibios]

It's important to note that ONLY Lenovo brand locks will fit this device.  Your existing Kensington lock will be too big.  I recently had to return 50 of these for this reason

[Carlos Olivares]

There is something that got worse compared with the previous X230. The X230 had the capability to use 16GB RAM with two slots enabled. The new X240 has only one RAM slot so the maximum RAM memory will be 8GB

[Roger Ortiz]

Hi Lenovo Team,

I have a problem recently about the new model Lenovo x240 ultrabook. After migrating the units into windows 7 I have encountered a problem "DISPLAY FREEZING" meaning to say all programs and other connected peripherals are all not responding which cause to force restart the unit to use it again.

I was actually experienced this many times after migrating all Lenovo x240 model into windows 7. Appreciate if you could give me some technical information on how resolve this problem. We have a lot of delivery with the same model in a couple of weeks so I need to carry on this issue before deadline of distribution.

Please email me on my personal address: [email protected]

Thanks so much.

[Ben Myers]

I may be an idiot, but I miss the idiot lights that the X240 does not have.  The ones that actually tell you whether your hard drive is in use and your wifi is alive and well.  I know that this saves a milliamp or two of power, but this is a drawback in an otherwise awesome ultrabook.

[mike4343]

tenebrae: Yes its possible

[Asoo]

#2: in windows you can remap keys End->Insert+ Insert->End via program called Sharpkeys. (in linux probably too http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X240 ).
Although it doesn't bring back the insert key ,better than nothing.

[Norman N.]

I am a student and business user of a x230t and I bought it with plenty of extras including a Samsung ssd and 16gb of ram. Would I buy an x240(t)? Unlikely. I sure would trade it in for my old one because of the smaller size and since I am curious how the model advances. But let me tell you about my experience and why I would not buy a x240.
When I bought the x230t i was told that this computer is robust. I always carried it in a sleeve and looked out for it. Twice the case broke because the case design is horrible and breaks at the edges where slots are close. Second I broke the case next to my touchpad by carrying it with one hand. They did not want to fix it for this reason. I broke the laptop with one finger! The tablet pen entries are inaccurate so I use it not very often anymore. The battery life is down to 3.5 hours max in energy saving mode after 3 years and never has been good enough for a business notebook in this price category and this size (max 6h) anyway. The graphics card always has been and in the new model is a joke. I'd say Lenovo give me another x240 to test to make up my mind. I now look at other brands for my next business notebook model. There you get at least a quality case and computer for the same price. This is my experience with Lenovo. I hope others had a better experience and this helps the pioneers upon you.

[john bell]

If you are using the Lenovo X240 ThinkPad notebook and want to disable the touch pad of your device, then you can do it from the BIOS setup. There is an option to disable it. I am also using this model and purchased it online at very low price.

http://goo.gl/n4MkoD