TechVirtuoso

Lenovo: What have you done?

June 16th, 2015 at 11:17 PM  No Comments

I have been a die hard Thinkpad fan since I got my hands on a Lenovo Thinkpad X200t Tablet back 7+ years ago.  Since then I have had a number of different Lenovo “THINK” devices:  ThinkCentre A70z, ThinkPad T420, Thinkpad Tablet 2,  Thinkpad T440s and now the Thinkpad X1 Carbon (3rd Gen).  There was TONS of posts after IBM sold their PC division to Lenovo claiming doom and gloom for the Think line.  After retiring my x200 for the T420, I had no worries.  The T420 was rock solid, a brick but was built like a Thinkpad should be built.  I never had any issues with that Laptop, it never let me down.  When I purchased the Thinkpad Tablet 2, I noticed some items that were not huge faults, but small attention to detail items.  I was ecstatic about the design of the T440s, and ordered it before it was ready to ship, but this is when it really went south.

After using the T440s for 18 months here are my thoughts…

  • They switched to a new style dock with the T440s and newer.  I have the Ultra version and it has issues resuming monitors from sleep.
  • I really tried to like the new buttonless touchpad, but I couldn’t.  I have always been a “nub” guy, and the new touch buttons make it impossible.
  • Serviceability is a pain in the ass.
  • The space bar doesn’t always register when it is pressed (I am a “beater” so I know it is getting pressed.

Lenovo saw there error in their ways and brought back physical buttons for us nub users in the next iteration, and so I went for a 3rd Gen X1 Carbon.  I have only had it for a couple of days but I think it may be going back.

  • Even though I have a OneLink Dock, instead of the Ultra, the sleep problem still occurs with my DisplayPort monitor.
  • It also randomly has a hard time coming out of sleep.  In the last week I had to press and hold the power button to get the machine to come on after sleeping.
  • Until Microsoft fixes their DPI issues with multiple monitors, 2560×1440 on a 14″ screen is wayyy too small.

Bottom Line:

Lenovo needed to make changes in the ThinkCentre line to keep up but these issues are problems I can’t overlook.  I love the design of the new Thinkpads, but they lack what made Thinkpad’s great, being rock solid.  Would the ThinkPad line have the same issues if they were still owned by IBM?  Nobody can answer that but if they don’t get a handle on this soon, I see a dark future for the company when it comes to the enterprise.