Lenovo Launches Ultra-Thin ThinkPad P1: X1 Carbon Meets Workstation

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• ikjadoon - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  "Anecdotal" experience ahead, but I am just hearing bad stuff about Lenovo quality control. This P1 sounds exciting (I'm tired of 13" laptops), but then I remembered this article: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/21014-dr-servicelo...
  
  I mean, *everybody* praised the X1 Carbon and this is the kind of quality control running in the background?
  
  As Brett Howse here realized with the first Surface Book and Avram Piltch, the editor-in-chief at Tom's Hardware, with his Lenovo X1 Carbon 6th gen: the irregularities of quality control among all laptop manufacturers is beyond frustrating. We just "accept" the panel lottery, the keyboard lottery, the CPU fan lottery, the touchpad lottery, the battery degradation lottery, the on-site tech lottery, etc.
  
  At least with a desktop, you can build it yourself and suss it out. With laptops, you're stuck because some robot or algorithm decided you get "parts bin 321", when all the reviews of the laptop were from "parts bin 897"...who just 'happen' to be at the edge of "this is within tolerance" chasm they've created. This multiple sourcing isn't an issue for phones, because we rarely use phones as tools. But laptops gets 6+ hour, intense productivity work each day: every frustration is a weed in a garden.
  
  Seems like $1800+ isn't enough for reliable control. Hell, I've had similar experiences with my $250 Dell Inspiron 13. I hope manufacturers realize, "This is a lose-lose game for all involved: just sell the product we paid for and tighten your tolerances."
  
  /old-man-rant

• bemymonkey - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  This is normal across all brands these days, unfortunately. I've found that the only way to get reliable laptop hardware 95% of the time is to buy used from a trusted source, or from a store with a good return/exchange policy.
  
  Lately I've been buying most of my Thinkpads about two years after release at the earliest, usually from people who I've talked to on forums and know wouldn't tolerate a flaky machine or would at least post about the issue to see if they can get it fixed.
  
  Buying a new machine, on the other hand, is a crapshoot - last time I tried, it took me 2 exchanges to get one that was acceptable.

• close - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  I own 4 Carbon X1s of different generations. They all have one major issue or another. For example LCD burn in where you can read the content of my screen for 30s after I change it (using a proper background for contrast).
  
  I owned basically every generation of Ts and Xs until a few years ago. I know it's anecdotal but the trend is there and it's getting worse. My X200 just turned 10 years old. Wonder how my 1 year old X1 will do in 2027...

• np76 - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  Yep. I tried to buy an X1 Carbon 6th gen but gave up after receiving back to back defective units (bad CPU fan followed by a bad touchpad chassis).
  
  It's a great laptop, in theory.

• lilmoe - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  I really wish it was about the price.I'd gladly pay 25% more for a guaranteed top bin on all my parts. You can also buy your laptops _almost_ bare bones, and get all the extras you need after market.
  
  Or, you can get yourself comfortable with a brand known for quality hardware for a particular "Pro" series (HP Probooks/zBooks, Dell Latitude/Precision, or Thinkpad T/P series) and order the 2nd or 3rd generation hardware *spec refresh* WHEN THEY ARE FIRST ANNOUNCED because that's when most of the top bin parts are sold and PRAY that there isn't any major design flaw in one or two of the parts. This is your best chance to get what you want in my experience, since most flaws in the earliest batch are not bin related, but design related.

• Kaggy - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  Nice to see Bluetooth 5, it is almost non existent for such a long time.

• gobaers - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  What is it gonna take to offer the seven row layout keyboards on these premium devices? It would make them so much more compelling.

• StevenD - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  We're making a portable workstation.
  Nice. Battery life?
  Dunno.
  Type c charging?
  Hell no.
  Only with proprietary charger?
  Yup.
  
  It was at that point that they should have realised, they fucked up!

• olafgarten - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  USB-PD only supports up to 100w, that is most likely the reason for a proprietary charger.

• Samus - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link

  HP’s equivalent zBook uses a 90w charger in restricted mode (it normally wants a 130-150w) and powers via USB-C as low as 60w but will not charge unless in standby. When the power demands call for more than 60w it will use hybrid power (battery+charger)
  
  Even my Dell Latitude 5490 does this...it ships with a 60w barrel charger (identical AND compatible with HP ‘pre-blue’ tip) but has no issue running off a 45w USB-C connection, occasionally/rarely seeing the battery light flicker off letting me know it’s no longer charging and using hybrid power for a moment...that’s right it runs and charges off 45w when the design profile calls for 60w. It just depends on the demands of the user and how fast you want your battery to charge (the Dell BIOS has 7.5w and 15w customizable hybrid charging profiles for under-current adapters)
  
  All of this is absent from Lenovo and it’s 2018, USB-C PD has been around for years. Even NINTENDO is on the USB-C bandwagon.
  
  This is just another reason IT departments are ditching Lenovo...the primary reason being piss poor support.