Jon,
Thanks for the positive feedback! I think now that've had a hands-on experience with the X1 Carbon, I'm not going to go back to buying "big" laptops like the T series because they feel too bulky by comparison.
I agree that the true cost of a license is never clear cut -- in addition to bulk discounts from Microsoft, an OEM would likely have to factor in the savings from third-party bloatware (although Lenovo doesn't seem to include much of this in their business lineup), the cost of R&D for vendor-specific optimizations, and the cost of customer support. It's probably easier for them to simply not offer refunds and sell Windows as part of the hardware to streamline support.
In my experience with Lenovo, the refund came out to $87. I didn't ask whether this amount was based on the post-discount price or the original listed price, as I was just happy that I could get a refund at all. It actually seems like a significant refund considering I had originally purchased the X1 Carbon for $1,243 (Memorial Day sale and corporate discount took off more than half of the original price!), taking it down to $1,156.
On Sat, 2020-06-06 at 20:35 -0400, Jon "maddog" Hall wrote:
Joshua,
Thanks for the report. I have been a Thinkpad user a very long time and I have an earlier model Carbon also....both are great computers.
One comment about the return of the "Microsoft Tax".....what might seem to be a relatively simple issue is actually fairly complex and is tied into quantity discounts on licenses with Microsoft that really needs to be addressed at the top. Until that is done, nobody really knows how much the "tax" is. Defining the "Microsoft Tax" has probably been getting better over the years as more and more people decide they do not need or want MS products and more and more companies re-write their contracts to give them more freedom.
md
Hey all,
Since Lenovo has been making announcements about shipping Linux on
their machines [1] and expanding on their certifications [2], I decided
to purchase an X1 Carbon Gen8 [3] as my newest daily driver. I thought
I'd share some thoughts after installing Fedora 32 on it.
Chassis:
The X1 Carbon has excellent build quality. Despite being an ultrathin
laptop, it feels quite solid in my hands and is well-balanced when
grasping with one hand. Weighing in at 2.38 lbs, it's much lighter and
smaller than my T480 (4.03 lbs) which makes it more ideal for
traveling. The laptop doesn't flex or wobble when typing either.
Ports:
The number of ports is quite good compared to other ultrathin laptops
like the Dell XPS 13 and Macbook. Two USB-C ports are available which
are its main method of charging (very useful for sharing cables too).
There are two also standard USB-A ports, as well as an HDMI port and
headphone jack. There isn't native ethernet which is a bit of a
disappointment, but fortunately this is mitigated with a dongle that
comes with the laptop. There isn't an SD card slot or even a microSD
slot either, but the SD card reader dongle I already use with my
desktop can be used instead.
Monitor:
The FHD 400 nit screen is very good. Costa Rica 4K [4] -- which is
typically used as a benchmark for demonstrating display quality --
looks quite nice on it. I don't have a colorimeter [5] on hand for
measuring the full capabilities of the screen in a more empirical
fashion, but it should be capable of showing the full sRGB range as
well as covering most of Adobe RGB. The 4K HDR 500 nit configuration
should be more ideal if color reproduction and HDR are of utmost
importance.
Keyboard:
Thinkpads are well renowned for their keyboards, and the keyboard on
the Carbon is no exception. The keys feel just right to me when typing,
not being too mushy or too clicky. They also don't give off much noise,
which is very much appreciated when working in a quiet room.
Speakers:
I'm quite happy with the quality of the Dolby Atmos speakers. Usually
laptop speakers are a disappointment to me, but the speakers on the
Carbon are more than capable of handling different genres of music. The
speaker alignment being upward-facing instead of side-facing as seen in
other thinkpads also makes it better for watching videos and listening
to music with other people.
It does seem a bit lacking in bass-heavy music [6], but the built-in
DAC is more than capable of driving a pair of good-quality headphones
[7]. I might have to make an update on this later because Dolby Atmos
support on Linux appears to be a work in progress and may need a preset
to have it more closely match the speaker output on Windows [8] in the
meantime.
Battery:
I can get a decent amount of battery life from the 51Wh battery,
usually about 14 hours with light usage and medium screen brightness on
stock Fedora. I think I could easily squeeze more battery life out of
it if I installed Powertop or TLP, but hopefully battery optimizations
land in upstream so no extra work needs to be done by the time Fedora
33 comes out.
Noise & thermals:
This laptop is quiet! Even when playing 1080p@60fps video in a quiet
room, the fan don't make any audible noise.
Multi-core workloads like code compiling also don't seem to be an issue
on this laptop. Sensors report roughly 70C during such workloads, and
the fan gives off a low amount of noise that's well within acceptable
range.
Performance & Stability:
The i7-10510U performs quite well. It appears to be about as fast as
the R5 2600X in my desktop at compile tasks, which is especially
impressive considering this is in an ultrathin laptop!
It also remains responsive for multitasking while compiling, still
being able to play fullscreen video in Firefox while dropping a few
frames when attempting to switch tabs (considering it's able to sustain
full 60fps playback otherwise while most cores are saturated, this is
still acceptable).
Suspend support on the Carbon is rock solid too. I've repeatedly closed
the lid and opened it back up to have it immediately wake up from
suspend, making it ideal for keeping around on standby for when I want
to look something up.
Vendor Support:
Almost everything about this laptop works out of the box on Fedora,
with one exception being that firmware for the fingerprint sensor is
currently still in testing and needs to be explicitly enabled [9] if
you want to enable fingerprint login & authentication from Gnome
Settings
Since I bought the Carbon before Lenovo started offering a
configuration with Linux preinstalled, I ended up paying for a Windows
license. Lenovo support however was quite understanding of my situation
in having no desire to run Windows on it, and provided a refund for the
license. I think this is noteworthy since they previously didn't offer
a refund when I previously bought my T480 a few years ago.
Enabling hardware decoding support for improving CPU usage and battery
life [10] is also trivial. Firefox appears to consume 15%-25% CPU
during fullscreen 1080p@60fps video playback, and VLC is usually using
8%-15% for the same video. It's worth noting that Firefox's accelerated
decoding support is still bleeding-edge and probably has room for
optimizations, and I'd imagine VLC could be even more efficient once it
has native Wayland support.
Conclusion:
Overall, I'm very happy with this laptop, both on the software and
hardware side. Despite being brand new, the out-of-the-box Linux
support has been some of the best I've seen in a long time and the
tweaks I've had to do for it were quite minimal. I think once Lenovo
sorts out their official Linux support (I still don't see it offered as
an OS option in the customization page), they'll have a truly stellar
product that they can market to Linux users as a daily driver.
Sources:
1. https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-laptops/
2.
https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-brings-linux-certification-to-thinkpad-and-thinkstation-workstation-portfolio-easing-deployment-for-developers-data-scientists/
3.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x/X1-Carbon-Gen-8-/p/22TP2X1X1C8
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ
5.
https://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-Color-Munki-Smile-ColorMunki/dp/B009APMNB0/
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgRr0CLFhaw
7.
https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50xBT-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B07HKVCVSY/
8. https://github.com/JackHack96/PulseEffects-Presets/tree/master/irs
9.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_7)#Fingerprint_sensor
10.
https://mastransky.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/firefox-on-fedora-finally-gets-va-api-on-wayland/
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