Thinkpad X230 Slots
I upgraded from my Lenovo Thinkpad T440 to a Lenovo Thinkpad X230. That sounds more like a downgrade, you might say, but it isn't. Well, not in most cases for me, that is.
Hopefully. We'll see.
In-depth review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (Intel Core i5 3320M, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 12.5', 1.4 kg) with numerous measurements, benchmarks, and evaluations. Lenovo ThinkPad X230 Tablet 343522U 13-Inch LED HD PC (2.6GHz, Intel Core i5-3320M, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD Windows 7 Professional) 3.8 out of 5 stars 25 2 offers from $275.00.
In this little article I'd like to outline why an X230 in 2020 and if it could be your next daily driver.
First, enjoy the pictures and specifications
X230
So why buy an X230 in 2020?
Let's dive straight into the meat of this article. Why buy an 8 year old laptop and not something new? There are a bunch of reasons that I can think of, not all as important but worth mentioning nevertheless, so let's look at each of them in brief.
Cheap: I don't mind paying for quality, but ironically, some of the best quality laptops out there are in the refurbished market. I really like the new X1 carbon and the Dell XPS 13 but I feel like the price premium is a bit disproportionate given what you get in return.
Upgradable: A user replaceable screen, keyboard, trackpad, RAM, storage, PCIe WWAN (cellular 3G/LTE), battery and god knows what else. RAM tops out at 16GB at 1600Mhz, SSDs upto 2TB at SATAIII supported, X220 classic keyboard and trackpad swap, IPS screen replacements available for EUR 60-70 and the list goes on. Since my Macbook Pro's screen broke recently and was given a EUR 569 quote for the replacement, you can tell I appreciate cheap, user serviceable spare parts.
Practical: This isn't one of those enthusiast laptops that you buy out of sheer impulse and idealization, and then find very inadequate for normal computing. With 16GB RAM and a 35 Watt i5-3320m processor, I have absolutely no problem running tens of tabs on Firefox, a Webstorm instance, dev server, Slack and Spotify simultaneously. It also has a Display Port and projects to my Dell Ultrasharp display at native 2560x1440 QHD resolution. If you're into gaming, you could do that with an external GPU via the Express card slot.
Driver support: With an old machine like this one, drivers support is usually very good. I installed Ubuntu, and every thing worked out of the box from simple things like Wifi and Bluetooth to fingerprint sensor, and mobile broadband.
Build quality: Something we just expect from the Thinkpad lineup, especially the old Thinkpads. If this machine has survived 8 years of use, it'll probably survive a few more. Unfortunately, you can't say the same about many laptops in the same EUR 150-350 price segment.
Hardware & I/O: Thinkpad keyboards are usually good with ample key travel. You could opt for an X220 keyboard swap for the classic 7 row keyboard layout. What's also great is the wide array of I/O option you get on board; Two USB 3.0s and one USB 2.0, mini display port, VGA port, Express card, ethernet port, SD card reader, combo headphone jack, fingerprint reader, hardware wireless kill switch; I think I'd miss a full sized HDMI, but that's asking for a bit too much at this point.
Community & support: The Thinkpad community on Reddit is great for asking queries and upgrade suggestions. Having an old laptop means most issues are well documented and it is unlikely you'll hit a novel roadblock if you don't do anything fancy with your computer. I've been a lurker on this sub ever since getting the T440, and I knew one cannot go wrong with the X230.
Why not to buy a Thinkpad X230?
Of course, as you can imagine, I'd not recommend this laptop to everyone out there. Here are some of the reasons for that.
No warranty: If the thought of buying a device without warranty makes you sweat, this isn't for you. Yes, you could get seller's warranty on Ebay, but it is still not a manufacturer's warranty.
- Form factor: It is a small lightweight laptop, but not the smallest, lightest or thinnest. Most ultrabooks these days will be lighter and thinner, like the Dell XPS or Thinkpad X1 Carbon.
- Battery life: You could get a 9 cell battery with the X230, but it will still not match that of a modern ultrabook thanks to the improvements in energy efficiency.
- Need for tinkering: If you find this laptop for cheap, chances are you'll have to do a few upgrades before it becomes usable (at least if you plan on making it your daily driver). If you aren't comfortable with opening laptops and installing upgrades, it is better to buy either a fully upgraded machine or find a IT nerd friend who would do it for you.
- Limit to upgrades: There's often a limit to what upgrades you can do, and given this isn't a new laptop, that limit isn't that high. And all these upgrades cost money, of course. You shouldn't spend a lot of money upgrading only to find out this still isn't the laptop for you, regretting not getting a new computer in the first place.
- Specialized usecases: Goes without saying, but if you definitely need a modern GPU for working or gaming, or a fast CPU for specialized needs, then this isn't a laptop for you. But in that case you probably already know that.
What's wrong with the T440? Avoid these in your future laptops
Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about the issues I had with my T440. My biggest complaint was the screen. It was a TN panel (a bad one in that), which has dull colors and bad viewing angles (as compared to an IPS). There was also only one RAM slot maxing out at 8GB, and I had the version with no soldered RAM. I missed the ability to expand the memory at times.
Then there was the trackpad, which I later learned was nothing like Thinkpad trackpads, and this had to be upgraded too. I could've done the upgrades, but I preferred going for a new laptop as it wasn't much of an overhead in terms of price (factoring in T440's resale value) and I was eyeing an X230 for some time now.
What I really liked about the T440?
I absolutely loved how sturdy and rugged the laptop was. No flex in the keyboard or the screen whatsoever. My previous laptop, Fujitsu Lifebook A514, had to retire because of this exact problem. The keyboard was a joy to type on, and while I later learned that this keyboard was a step back for many from the classical Thinkpad keyboard, I'd any day prefer the new Thinkpad's keyboard over my Macbook Pro's or Fujitsu Lifebook's.
In closing
Overall I'm very happy with my new X230. It seems like a laptop I could use for some years, hopefully without many issues. I'm also happy that I'm back to running GNU/Linux as my daily driver! Reach out to me if you are planning on going this route and have questions.
Cheers, thank you for reading.
The SD Card slot (Secure Digital) is found on select ThinkPads and Docking stations.
In addition to SD Cards, SD Card slots can also accept the older MMC (MultiMedia Card).
PCI-based SD Card slot
This implementation is called 'SD Card with IO support', and supports in addition to regular SD memory cards also special SDIO cards (e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi, etc).
Implemented by chips:
... and probably others
lspci reports it as a Ricoh device with PCI ID
- 1180:0822 (X Series, T61, Z60m, Z60t)
- 1180:0841 (Z Series)
- 1180:e822
- 1180:e823 (X220)
- 1180:e823 rev 4 (X230)
Linux support
You can read/write large SDHC cards since Linux kernel version 2.6.22, this has been tested on X41 Tablet, X41 and X40 with 16 GB SDHC (FAT32), 4 GB (non-HC, FAT32) and 2 GB (non-HC, FAT16) cards. However there have been some old reports that you can't, delete, create, resize or format partitions, there seems to be no problems with this on 2.6.24. These problem will not exist if you use an USB connected SDHC card reader instead of the internal one, so you can always use the cards.
The driver was coded by the SDHCi project supporting these and other SD controller chips, making them work with SDHC cards as well. The driver (modules sdhci and sdhci_pci) has been reported to work on ThinkPad X40, X41, Z60m, Z60t, X60 and X61 models, and has been available in mainline kernel since 2.6.17-rc1. See also 'How to get the internal SD card working'.
Problems with Standby / Hibernate
Add the follwing line to the # /etc/pm/config.d/00sleep_module to unload the module before standby:
'Got data interrupt' error messages
If you see error messages like
after inserting an SD card, try re-loading the sdhci module with a parameter debug_quirks=0x40. Solved the problem on a T61.
Windows support
The Microsoft hotfix 934428 is available here [1] it adds SDHC (SD High Capacity) support to Windows XP SP2 systems.
02-01-2009 NOTE for SDHC cards using Windows 2003 Server and Vista. IBM/Lenovo nor Microsoft supports this KB934428 with 2003 Server and the update.exe halts with OS version mis-match error when executed on 2003 or Vista despite the fact the sff*.sys driver files are perfectly compatible. Manual extraction and installation of the driver file still fails to properly mount and read 4GB+ SD cards despite indicators and messages of successful installation.Solution requires obtaining sdhcinst.dll from 2003 install media or copying from the %systemroot%system32 directory into the %systemroot%system32drivers directory before manually installing driver files and pointing to the ..SP2QFEicsdbus.inf file. A copy of sdhcinst.dll copied from a KB934428 patched XP workstaiton is identical to all 2003 Server versions and Vista since Microsoft clings to a universal drivers model. The KB934428 doesn't include the sdhcinst.dll file.Follow this link to lenovo forums for longer but just as simple explanation.
[2][OT] This solution has also been successfully tested on systems from different manufacturers and with non Richo card readers.
14-04-2010 NOTEThinkpad Z61p SD-reader can accept SDHC cards up to 32GB in Windows (XP,Vista,7)
with updated Texas Instruments Media Card Reader Driver [3] and by modifying registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001Servicestifm21Parameters
Original Key Value: SDParam = 17 (Decimal)
New Key Value: SDParam = 16
After the hack, reboot the computer. Some users have also reported SDParam = 1 to work.
Models featuring this Technology
- ThinkPad T410, T410i, T430, T510, T510i
- ThinkPad W500, T61, T61p
- ThinkPad X40, X41, X41 Tablet
- ThinkPad X60, X60s, X60 Tablet, X61, X61s, X61 Tablet, X201, X201i, X220
- ThinkPad Z60m, Z60t, Z61p
USB-based SD Card slot
This implementation only supports SD Memory cards.
Linux support
Should be supported by the Linux USB Storage drivers (usb-storage).
Thinkpad X230 Slots App
Models featuring this technology
- ThinkPad X200