Lenovo free upgrade offer

Discussion in 'Technology' started by cmdrmonkey, Dec 3, 2014.

  1. I kept having issues with the screen on my Thinkpad T440p. It's to the point where the Lenovo rep I spoke to said I could switch to a different model free of charge as long as there isn't a huge price difference. They're going to be sending me a Thinkpad Helix 2 using Broadwell Core M. I'm really curious to try it. Performance isn't mind blowing. It's about on par with a mobile Sandy Bridge i5 from what I see on the Passmark charts. What is mind blowing is that it achieves that while having a TDP that's not far off from a Bay Trail Atom and while running so cool that it's fanless and the laptop has no moving parts. It will be Windows 8, but I think I can live with it on a 2 in 1. The design of the Helix 2 also seems like it poops all over the Surface Pro 3 since it has a real Thinkpad keyboard and not that stupid dorky floppy thing on the Surface. Screen is an 11.6" 1080p IPS. I wouldn't be surprised to see a fanless Core M based Macbook Air with similar specs at some point here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dXjbRwtnRI
     
  2. That seems like a sweet deal... Dell would ship you refurbs until you just gave up and bought something else.
     
  3. actually the surface pro 3 is a bit higher end than helix 2. you might be thinking of the surface pro 2. the surface pro 3 is a brand new design. it uses a new dock connector and is based on the ultra low voltage haswell. it's also a 12 inch 1440p display unlike the 10 inch 1080p display on the surface pro 2. the surface pro 2 is essentially a first gen surface pro with haswell. they use the same accessories while the surface pro 3 has a new line of accessories. there is no flexible keyboard cover for the surface pro 3.

    like the helix 2, the surface pro 3 is also a super slim design. actually slightly slimmer than the helix 2, but MS somehow fit a fan in it.
     
  4. I've tried the Surface Pro 3 at an MS kiosk and the keyboard cover still felt floppy. The thing has a beautiful screen. It was actually kind of a shame because the sucky keyboard was a deal breaker. I want something that I can actually use on my lap as a laptop. I don't want to have to set it on a table. I think Lenovo has the right idea with the Helix.
     
  5. hmm maybe we have different definitions of floppy because I own it and if you try to bend it, it'll snap in half.
     
  6. It's a moot point. The rep looked into it further and the 2nd Gen Helix is only available for preorder at this point. My choices for replacement are a tricked out Thinkpad X1 Carbon (i7 4600U, 8GB DDR3, 256GB SSD, 1440p IPS Touch) or a tricked out 1st Gen Helix (ULV Ivy Bridge i7, 8GB DDR3, 256GB SSD, 1080p IPS Touch). She put in the order for the X1 Carbon. I guess we could have done an order for the 2nd Gen Helix but she said she wanted to have something I would be happy with in my hands within a week, and the X1c and Helix are ready to ship. I like the idea of the Helix, but Ivy Bridge is very old at this point to be getting in a new PC.

    Even with all of the problems I've had I can't complain about IBM/Lenovo service. Upgrading me to a better machine with a better screen because I was having issues with my screen for no charge is very good service. As Supersonic said, Dell probably would have just swept my case under the rug.

     
  7. good choice. honestly the helix may have been an annoyance to you in the long run. convertibles have more parts likely to break on you if you move them around alot. I don't even use the touch screen all that often on my sp3 and have the keyboard cover attached on it 90% of the time.

    and 1440p changes lives.
     
  8. Does Chrome still suck at 1440p?
     
  9. True. And this will have touch if I end up wanting it. Win 10 is right around the corner after all. Also with it having touch I will just leave Win 8 on it.

    What's wrong with Chrome at 1440p?
     
  10. Chrome updated some months ago with a high resolution fix.

    cmdr, chrome didn't support 1440p or higher that well in win8 mode (metro touch friendly mode) awhile ago. text was pretty blurry and all. it was fine in desktop mode.
     
  11. Yeah the text would be tiny and unreadable. You could blow it up but then it would look like one of those crappy CSI enhance pictures.

    [​IMG]
     
  12. The X1 Carbon is really nice. You don't get a real sense of how premium this thing feels from the pictures. Really lightweight, really sturdy feeling, nice keyboard, absolutely beautiful display, and it's very fast. Also I would consider Windows 8 to be tolerable on it because it has a touch screen.
     
  13. I had messed around with scaling, but then decided to actually try using the laptop at native 1440p. If you can handle the pixel density, it's pretty fucking baller how much you can get on the screen at once. 1440p really does change lives.
     
  14. What's your official stance on Windows 8 now?
     
  15. On this particular laptop I actually like it. But the X1C has a touch screen and a high PPI display that benefits from the improved scaling in 8.1. I wouldn't even think of putting 7 on this.

    I still think Windows 10 is badly needed. 8 is too focused on tablet/laptop hybrids, which are still a minority of PCs. From what I saw of 10 when I played around with it, its UI is going to work better on a broad range of devices, including traditional non-touch desktops and laptops. And it should make people who love the UI from XP and 7 happy.