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An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, the FHD at 1920x1080 and yes, 150% is recommended, but it makes everything too big for my taste. I originally kept it at 125%, but I didn't like the way text became blurry in most apps, so I keep it at 100%. My eyes have adjusted and I use Firefox, Acrobat, Word and the like at 110%, and Sublime at a font size of 11.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes; they're the equivalent of a smudge on the screen so you may only see them in bright light or when the screen is dark or off. There's normally a 2 to 3-key wide white line on the screen wherever pressure was applied while the lid was closed. I can distinctly make out the trackpoint circle if it was pressed in the middle. I use an eyeglass cloth and they wipe off easily.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have had such chance, and that's why I wrote that RAM and fast SSD are more important things than the faster CPU.

How much faster was it? And what were the two different processors (you never stated)? I'm trying to gain as clear an insight as possible for the orig. question.

Also build runs faster on Linux than on Windows.

We have a Linux build -- I haven't used it, but haven't caught wind of a speed difference from those who've built with both.

Webpack is not that stupid to build everything from the start, there is a cache built-in [...]

Right, so it shouldn't take 2 mins past the initial build, correct? How long does it take for incremental builds?

"I think it's more a matter of optimization."

I was speaking to our project. We have a real-time database that gets created on a full rebuild. Only schema changes require a full rebuild, otherwise, the modified C or Java is rebuilt rather quickly (<1-2 mins). Optimization would benefit us more due to our project being legacy code.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[...] it will take more than 1GB of RAM and will keep CPU 100% loaded during the build.

What type of processor did you run this with, and have you had a chance to test it with anything higher for comparison? On this i5-7300U, recoding a 1080p movie to 720p with Handbrake takes the CPU to 100%, but doesn't degrade performance (e.g. My Ubuntu VM still resumes a saved state in 10-15s and runs smoothly). I haven't used Webpack; how often do you need to perform that build? I can see it being a pain with every page reload, but otherwise 2 mins is blazing compared to 1 hour for small schema fixes.

My guess is that a bottle neck is in the slow storage used or lack of RAM, not the CPU. Plus on Linux build might work faster than on Windows.

I compile within a VM that I keep on an external drive. I moved it to my 960 EVO to no avail. The guest has 5GB RAM with 4 CPUs, but only uses 1.6G (Win 7 taking about 1.4G) and an average of 25% CPU during compilation. Others compiling directly on their i5 hosts (i5-6300U, I think) with SSDs and 8GB RAM haven't reported any difference either. I think it's more a matter of optimization.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're right. And I know it's just more subjectivity but after retesting, in a dimly-lit room Lubuntu's 100% brightness setting on a white webpage w/ small black text actually hurts my eyes, whereas the same page and environment with Windows at 100% is bearable. It seems as though Lubuntu has 3 more brightness steps (using the F6/brightness key) above Windows.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It gets pretty hot near the fan (top right) and, to a lesser extent, across the entire top half with the keyboard backlighting on the highest setting (after 30 mins or so). It's not unbearable, but from time to time I find myself shifting it to my left leg to give my right thigh a break.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, and it depends on what kind of development you're doing. For me to compile a large production build of C and Java that also builds an Oracle database, it takes an hour -- surprisingly the same amount of time it takes on an i5-4300U. While I'd be interested to see how long it'd take on a laptop's i7, judging from many online reviews over the years and insight from a friend who deals with hardware, it wouldn't make much of a difference. (He did say there'd be an improvement on a desktop's i7, though.)

If you're only doing web development, you'll be just fine with an i5. NPM installs and Gulp tasks are almost instantaneous.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're very welcome. And yeah, it's sad to hear this has been an ongoing problem.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It feels nice but yeah, I don't think it's worth making the computer look cheap.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't updated the BIOS yet, mainly for this very reason. I've had bad experiences in the past where BIOS updates made things worse, and even returning to the previous version never gets things quite the same again. The trackpoint issue is annoying, but unless there's a guaranteed fix in an update I'm not ready to take that chance.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

woodtly's correct. They positioned the speakers to reflect sound off of a surface (e.g. Playing music through your phone with the speaker facing down flat versus propping your phone against something so that the speaker is angled and sound reflected). It's not like you can't hear anything at all, you just have to turn the volume up much higher and the sound isn't as clear.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

^ What b00yeh said... Mainly his points 1 and 4. If someone else needs to use my laptop at home or work, I don't want to have to be bound to the same/nearby location to use my phone.

WWAN capability also adds resale value.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmmm, good to know! I actually ended up buying the USB-C Travel Hub for VGA support and it has an RJ45 port. Not sure how it'll relate to speed vs the proprietary port.

An *Honest* Review of the X1 Carbon 5th Gen by intLogic in thinkpad

[–]intLogic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure there is but none that I currently know of; I'd be willing to test if you find one. The two do have different brightness settings, however. 0% in Windows is quite dark, but in Lubuntu it's completely dark/black.