43 of 56(77%)customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Customer Reviews for ThinkPad X230
Review 1 for ThinkPad X230
OverallOverall Rating
2out of5
Mysticbob
Would not buy again
Date:June 23, 2012
"Have had Thinkpads for the last 10 years. Bought this as a replacement for my x201 purchased a year ago. Have not used this new x230 enough yet to see whether the graphics performance from the new Intel IvyBridge architecture is that significant. Speed and performance is not noticeably different than my x201. Screen is wider but doesn't feel bigger as the x201 screen is taller. New island keyboard does away with all of the best features of the x201 keyboard such as the forward and back keys near the arrow keys which I used all of the time when surfing, the 'print scrn' key, etc. However the island keys are the best (firmest and most crisp) that I've had on a t-pad. However, before going on about other features it is simple enough to say that the mouse pad w/ integrated left and right mouse keys (i.e. it is just a floating square mouse pad that you press at the bottom to click) is by far the most worthless mouse pad I have ever seen. Not only does the mouse pad scroll and track worse than any other, left click works 50% of the time and right click maybe 10% of the time. Totally worthless. Do not buy. I will keep this computer as I use it docked most of the time but would not have bought it if I had known about the mouse pad. The screen is bright and crisp. The notebook is not much of an improvement over the x201 and with the less useful keyboard and horrible mouse pad I can't see any reason to choose it over the older model."
-Very fast -Lightweight yet very durable -Battery life is excellent -Screen is very crisp and clear
Cons - -Trackpad is completely useless. Cannot drag and click at the same time. Right clicks are almost never registered and left clicks are registered only half the time. -Short wristpad -I would have rather used the original x201 or x220 keyboard rather than this new x230 keyboard design.
PLEASE fix the useless trackpad and the extremely short wristpad"
Cons: Screen size, Storage, Video card, Warranty, Included Software
"Having spent 4 days with X230 I would like to say that it is the best laptop I have ever purchased. I have owned another 2 laptop, none of which is thinkpad, and I helped others purchase no less than 6 laptop, yet no one could outperform this in terms of integral performance. I admit there may be nothing much significantly outstanding about this computer,the design is really bulky and outdated (though they say it classic), those alleged quad core processors are nothing more than double core by double thread, integrated graphics makes it underachieving on my favorite games like BF3 or MOH 2012, 320G hard drive has only limited capacity after installing a 64-bit operating system........I can keep listing things like that for the rest of this review, but I won't. Because when those parts seemed ordinary or even underperforming are put together and if you use it to do what it is supposed to do, you will find it really superb. The body work is decently made, those aluminium and magnesium roll cage make it tough enough for catastrophic condition for other ultrabooks, it touches so comfortable that it becomes a joy to type with it. Also the weight is controlled reasonably under 1.6 kg with a 6-cell battery mounted. Balance between processing performance and battery duration is pretty good, you can achieve a duration of 3-4 hour with high performance with no much effort. Even more important, it is very open for anyone to upgrade it by DIY, it is easy on this computer to upgrade your RAM or SSD, even your are not a "enginerd" or technician......... It is like a Mig jet fighter, nothing looks very shinny on it, but it is a killer. That's why I give it 4-star on each sub-category but 5-star on overall rating. Highly recommend this laptop. It is really a good choice if you want to buy a portable computer for daily use and 3D game occasionally...........I just love it."
Cons: Display resolution, Included Software, Screen size
"Like: - IPS display, it's really worth it - Keyboard lets me type like a demon - Chassis, super solid and great industrial aesthetic, this is no piece of apple jewelry - Great ventilation - Super easy to repair/upgrade - Works great with Ubuntu - MSATA slot for an SSD (for Ubuntu, perhaps)
Dislike: - 1366x768 resolution... whyyyy??? - Bloatware, including something called "Windows" - Small-ish trackpad, I carry a mouse - HDD"
"I was very excited about this laptop when I first bought it, but as I used, it became very annoying for me. I especially wanted a laptop with a minimum noise emission, since I am mostly working at quiet places like libraries and I don't like listening music while working, but laptop always make some constant noise that I cannot bear. I could not figure where the noise coming from, it could be either fan or hard drive, but the constant noise just drives me crazy.
Another disappointing thing about the laptop is wobbly battery. Since this laptop is small and compact, and generally bought for carrying around purposes, I think a wobbly battery is not acceptable and make me dislike the laptop."
"This machine with an mSATA SSD installed is a truly great value performer. mobility and battery life, IPS Screen, everything is just great. But with all the debate about the new keyboard, I believed the positive reviews on many sites about it. How wrong I was, the keys feels delicate , though the response is quiet good, you almost feel them wobbling a bit as you type. And to my horror a few keys came out and keep coming out. Going through lenovo forums seems I am not the only one having this issue. Not sure if its an issue with one of its keyboard suppliers, But its such a shame really for whats otherwise a best in class business machine. I wish lenovo took more care in not disappointing the legions of fans of its earlier hugely popular keyboards."
"Bought the X230 last August to replace my several-year-old X200, which in turn had replaced some older model! I'm a satisfied Lenovo customer, obviously. I use it primarily for business applications and lots of online activity. Quite speedy with outstanding battery life (9-cell battery). Compact size and solid construction make it ideal for travel. The new keyboard style has won me over - my old machine with its IBM style keyboard now seems klunky and clattery. The little red trackpoint is one of my favorite Thinkpad features - hope they never, ever, do away with this option. Can't comment on Lenovo support because I've never had to contact them--which is a testament to the quality of the product."
"I've been a thinkpad user for a long time. With my latest purchase of x230, I'm satisfied with everything else except for the touch pad. I had to buy 4 units for my company and every single one has a touch pad that takes too much pressure to press. If Lenovo can have x230 with the touchpad of other models, I would have a perfect laptop for work!"
"Really disappointed in this choice. ThinkPad is known to be a great computer, but the x230 did not meet that reputation. The track pad often double-clicks and has a difficult time understanding if you're on the right or left side (right-handed people beware). Also, it needs a memory boost, so plan to upgrade that.
Pros - really long battery lift and pretty portable, lightweight, clear screen"
"I upgraded from the antiquated R series to X230. I am very impressed with the design as well as the performance of the laptop. I was wary of the redesigned keyboard. However, my misgivings were dispelled quickly. Overall, this laptop matched my expectations on every count."
"I've had this machine for about four months, enough time to know if I want to return it. This is a very good machine. Not spectacular at anything, but dependable at pretty much everything I want it to do. Want to do hardcore gaming? Get an Asus, or better yet, build a desktop unit (which I did). Want an ultrabook? Then shell out the extra coin. Don't whine about an econo lap that wasn't designed for that purpose. Yeah, the pad takes a bit of getting used to, but I found it relatively quick to get the hang of. And the RAM and HD are easily swapped (I upgraded to SSD, makes a huge difference booting). For most purposes, however, the unit is as good as you will find for the price."
"Have been using Thinkpads for 15 years... replaced my T430 with X230 because of the lightness and mobility requirement.
The touchpad is pretty much unusable. I dont know if its the ripples on it or what, but one cannot use it reliably. It was fine on the T430 and other 14" laptops. The joystick works fine, but I really wanted to use the touchpad. Maybe a smooth glass surface would work better?"
"I bought it for fast, efficient processing in Linux (I am a science academic) while still being portable. It does all I expected and more, the best laptop I ever owned. Many people don't like the keyboard but I personally found it to be great. The battery life is great, the longest I have experienced on a laptop. It is also extremely portable. The only downside was the harddrive crashed after only six months, although it was fixed under warranty. A reminder to everyone - back up your work!"
"This is the best laptop ever. Forget about Apple, Sony, Dell, HP etc. This little thing's performances can be comparable to a powerful desktop. The stock memory is DDR 1600, but can accept DDR 1866 to boot the performances. I like the full voltage processors."
"The best Lenovo I have ever had. I have been a Lenovo fan since 2006 and have a Lenovo X201 as well. But the X230 is an amazing machine. The keyboard is so smooth, finger friendly that you would love to type for hours. I got a 9-cell battery, which runs for at least 12 hours. This is especially useful since I fly to Europe quite often and do a lot of work en route. The monitor, which is a HD premium, is very sharp and bright and you never get tired. The processor is also very fast and I really enjoy working with machine. I definitely recommend it for those who want a fast, powerful machine with long battery life. The best of 12.5 inch Thinkpads so far.
"Looking for a mobile powerhouse used to run virtual machines and development work? Look no further, this solid laptop will please more advanced users. Relatively light and small without too much compromises. Opt for the extended battery as this will make it more useful and productive. Only negative is the trackpad where it should be like Apple's product. No complaints with the new keyboard design as the concave feel produces firm typing. Can max out memory to 16 GB and has mSata drive slot."
"Got one with i5-3210M processor, updated to IPS screen. Nice model, light and portable enough, trying to live with the new system which was quite confusing at the beginning. Liked the keyboard before I found the up arrow was not functioning well. Then I found the frame of the screen didn't contact with the screen closely - not sure if this is the design, but I think dust will come into the machine from that large cleft. Decided to return it, might reorder if those flaws are just bad luck."
"I've this 'thing' only few days, but it's terrible piece of HW. I am using Liniux, so I am glad to have it without any preinstalled OS (specially stup* Windows). Everything in X is new - not improved in comparison to old t400, just new. Fn keys, kb layout, heavy long-life battery and the worse thing: touchpad! Touchpad is small and it's simple ugly! Pure buttons on touchpad are ~3mm from front of laptop, if you touch button ~4mm from bottom, it acts as SW touchpad - so it move cursor!!!!!! So in case you used to work with touchpad, forget it here! It's really annoying! Only solution would be to disable HW buttons only & use e.g. 3 fingers or so (in case you want dedicate 2 fingers for scroll function only). Well - sad is you can on/off touchpad incl. buttons only - not separatelly!"
Cons: Support, Included Software, Software compatibility
"The laptop was working great until the latest update by Lenovo, now the Dolby Audio Driver dosent work. Lenovo Support said the Dolby driver needs to be removed and the problem will go away. WOW, wonder if Dolby knows that Lenovo is telling customers to remove software I am sure Dolby paid for."