Bought a second hand Gen 5 in 2018. Expected it to hold up for a year or 2 max since im a heavy duty developer leaving my machines on all day. Its fall 2023 now.. and its still here running next to me. Amazing build quality.
I would say for every day use it is great: reliable and thin like a leaf. Mine worked like a charm since 2014, was thinking of buying the newest model in 2023 but after some research decide to upgrade the battery and ssd on the old one for another five years' service.@@JonathanDafonsecaOff
It's kind of nice to see that Lenovo still makes their laptops serviceable and didn't go the way some other manufacturers have with propertary screws and adhesive everywhere. The X1 Carbon reminds me of my old X220 on the inside.
I got one with the 1440p screen, 16GB memory and a 500GB SSD for about 150 euros. It was a steal, lighter than and roughly same dimensions than my MacBook m1 air! Insane how much I like this little machine...
Just bought a mint condition ThinkPad T460p i7 6700HQ FHD (without ram, ssd, battery) from ebay at USD 115. Another USD 85 got me rest of the items. A $200 superb quad-core workstation laptop running windows 11 flawlesslly 🚀
Picked one up as a soon-to-be secondary device for working at cafe's and tinkering with code at the weekend + managing my home server. Worried about the soldered RAM and wondering if 8GB will be enough, but got it for £160 so can't complain
@@LaptopRetrospective I think if I could do it again I'd try for 16BG - but price point was decent for what I'm getting and it'll be running linux, so should be 'adequate' lol.
Still using mine that I bought in 2017 as a daily driver today! I believe it was only 1 month after I got it was when I heard about the battery screw recall thing. Sent it back to the re-seller in my country but they were next to useless with regards to post-purchase support. It also came with a broken right channel on the speaker, but again the re-seller wouldn't do anything about it so I was out of luck. Only ever got around to fixing the thing a few months ago when I decided to replace the dying battery + new speaker module. After running battery report, I saw that the old battery only had about 60% of the original capacity lmao. New battery was definitely a life changer. Now feels like new again! Currently dualbooting Windows 10 + linux mint on the thing and honestly I can see myself using this for more years to come. Oh and I actually replaced the trackpoint cap with a custom concave one from etsy, been using it since 2018 and still loving it. Definitely recommend for people who wants to try a different trackpoint feel.
Personally I have stopped buying dual core Windows laptops, not just for the limited support life (linux is not an option for me), but also because quad core does make a difference in my opinion. Still these devices can be a good option for people with very limited budget or who need a cheap secondary device (I have already several quad core laptops so not in that category).
Dual cores just don't have what it takes to get by comfortably these days unless very very low needs but anyway at least the quad cores are holding up for now. I've been buying quad core laptops for under $200 without upgrades of course for a few years now.
I think a market still exists for many average users. It's why knowing your system requirements and demands of your technology is so important to get a good match. 👍
@@LaptopRetrospective yep there is a market and I still use a couple of dual core devices (mainly macs) for specific things, but they are much less responsible when several things happen at the same time compared to quad core ones. It's a bit like using a 4GB RAM laptop, you can make it work, but don't do too much at the same time or it will become less resposive
I was using for a short time a gen 5 a few year ago. I wish I kept it but I didn't like the keyboard/trackpoint. But, I believe now those issues could have been solved.
actually keyboards after the gen 6 meaning gen 7 onwards, got a whole lot worse. the key travel is shorter, the key caps are shorter, the keys are squarish and no longer concaves, the keyboard is no longer full size. it's a 0/10 for me. i'm still using my x1c5 (my 1st thinkpad was a t420.
Picked up one of these with exact same spec, from ebay about 6 months ago, for just £235 ($294), looks less used than the featured one. It works great, I love it Wouldn*t touch windows with a barge pole. Linux is king.
Yep, that checks out if you look at the PSREF: psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_5th_Gen/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_5th_Gen_Spec.PDF
Hello there, nice video, as usual, and I just stopped by to ask if you have ever had a laptop with the issue I´ll be sharing with you. I just bought an X1 carbon 6th gen, with a defect. It cannot run on battery. The battery was 76% with I bought it, with the remark that the battery wasn´t good and needed it to be replaced. Well, I don´t think is the battery since I plugged in, and the battery charged all the way to 100%. I ran all the battery Lenovo test except to run the laptop on battery, because as soon as I unplugged it, it shot down itself. Why did I buy it? well, it's an i7 8650U, 16GB RAM, with the 2560 x 1440 screen, plus the condition is 100% scratch and shiny trackpad free. Runs great. All that for $ 200. I will take it to a PC shop for a diagnostic, but it is not the first time a take a PC to have it checked and it return with a "replace the motherboard" note. So that been said, I would like to know your experience or opinion about it. Thanks.
If someone is telling you to replace the motherboard then the follow up question of "Why?" Needs to be asked. As for the battery, batteries can fail for all sorts of reasons sadly. It sounds like you've got a great example there that would be worth replacing the battery if it was needed. If the utilities are saying the battery is done, that's pretty definitive.
Could you please kindly help to review X1 Carbon 5th (Core i5 th7, RAM 16) & T480s(Core i7 th8, RAM 16)? Which one is better for running virtual machines like VMware and VirtualBox or for coding as well?
I updated my 16gb x1c5 from win 10 to win 11 24H2 the other day. I had to use the reg fix provided by microsoft and do an upgrade that did not keep the apps, but kept all the data. Seems to be working fine after installing all the apps again.
Not sure about that. Might not natively support Windows 11 but between Windows 10 and Linux options I suspect people will continue to use them for a good long while. Especially considering how many people push models older than this into service.
i've been using an older budget Dell Latitude laptop with a i5-6300u, and it has certainly done the job. it's still relevant for people who need to do school work, word processing; and you can do windows 10 and linux.
Modern laptops may have more powerful specs on paper, but they all suffer from the same issues stemming from thinness being priority one (for some reason). Heat inefficiency and therefore throttling leaves you with a hamstrung version of that super new CPU anyway. Imho processing for portable productivity machines peaked a while ago, you're getting incremental gains at some point thanks to poor heat management+bloated software. Graphics, screens, battery life are another story..
@@neildissanayake7942 _“Modern laptops may have more powerful specs on paper, but they all suffer from the same issues stemming from thinness being priority one (for some reason).”_ To what are you comparing “modern laptops”? Older laptops? If so then “modern laptops” are certainly, unequivocally more powerful than any older laptops “on paper” or in any other medium. Laptops only get more powerful with every generation. I don’t get your meaning here. And this very broad category of “modern laptops” “suffer” from issues related to their thinness? It’d be great if you would provide examples, but in the absence of any from you, I submit the MSI GE77HX which will handily outperform my desktop computer (which is far from a budget build). In your estimation, how exactly does that machine “suffer” from the aforementioned “issues”? _“Heat inefficiency and therefore throttling leaves you with a hamstrung version of that super new CPU anyway.”_ The i9 12900HX in the GE77 Raider doesn’t throttle under load; the CPU in the X1 Carbon on which I am typing this reply doesn’t throttle either- certainly because it isn’t ever put to any task that is inappropriate for an ultrabook with a U-class processor. And I don’t know how a CPU performing as it was designed makes it a “hamstrung version” of anything. “Hamstrung” compared to what? Some hypothetical CPU of the same spec that isn’t made to be used in a laptop? _“Imho processing for portable productivity machines peaked a while ago...”_ If performance has "peaked", then you have the explanation as to why there's more focus has being put on portability, right? Right? “...you're getting incremental gains at some point thanks to poor heat management+bloated software.” The GE77 Raider manages the heat generated its CPU quite well albeit very noisily; and the performance gains of Intel 12th Gen mobile processors over 11th Gen are quite dramatic. Ultrabooks with U-Class processors don’t generate all that much heat when used for appropriate tasks - so, there again, heat is typically managed quite effectively. Right now my X1 Carbon is cool to the touch, and the cooling fan is inaudible. What’s the problem with heat-management supposed to be? Further, how would you describe the performance gains from the same CPU operating with greater thermal headroom if not “incremental”? If he choice is between a thinner laptop and one .5" thicker with marginally- higher performance under heavy load, I'll take the the thinner machine. Whatever is the point you're making with your mention of “bloated software,” I’m missing it. Yours is essentially another variant of the oft-heard They-Don’t-Make-Em-Like-They-Used-To lament. If there is a problem with the power-efficiency among the current generation of laptops, that problem is not better-solved by making portable computing devices less portable; that problem should be solved by making mobile CPUs more power-efficient and thus better-suited for use in portable computing devices. Apple proved that, and I thought that the M1 would finally put an end to the thinking that laptops need to be more cumbersome to be good.
Well changed thermal pasta and cleaned fan, (mx4).Got amazing results . Before stress test in aida64 was 100 T cesium , now 87 , after 5 mins dropped to 67-69, and now its stable stress test temperature. throttling from 29% to 1% , and to 0 after first 5 mins ( I guess thermal pasta took shape from heat perfect). So its defiantly should be done!
i'm using the x1c5 now. came from a t420 many years ago. i love the keyboard. but the 1.8mm keyboard ended at x1c6. gen7 onwards, the key travel got worse at 1.5mm. the gen10 i tested....is just a horrible experience. key caps are shorter and squarish now and the typing feel is like shit.
You might find this article interesting, key travel is a factor but not as big as some think. laptopretrospective.com/laptops/it-isnt-all-about-key-travel/
Bought a second hand Gen 5 in 2018. Expected it to hold up for a year or 2 max since im a heavy duty developer leaving my machines on all day. Its fall 2023 now.. and its still here running next to me. Amazing build quality.
Sounds about right!
Picked one up just today on the strength of the reviews. Hoping it holds on for a couple of years
Do you think its great value to buy one at 230€ now? (Sorry for my english)
Regional pricing is hard to judge unless you're there.
I would say for every day use it is great: reliable and thin like a leaf. Mine worked like a charm since 2014, was thinking of buying the newest model in 2023 but after some research decide to upgrade the battery and ssd on the old one for another five years' service.@@JonathanDafonsecaOff
Just picked up a refurbished one for $245, glad this was posted today!
Nice buy! Hope you enjoy it. They are great machines.
Pls share where you bought from. Am interested.
it is going to die very soon these laptops has a design flaw where the soldered ram chips will fail . waste of money
245??????????
WHAT
It's kind of nice to see that Lenovo still makes their laptops serviceable and didn't go the way some other manufacturers have with propertary screws and adhesive everywhere. The X1 Carbon reminds me of my old X220 on the inside.
It's funny you mention that, I just got finished filming two laptops, one with torx and one with pentalobe screws.
Your channel is my key inspiration to explore The ThinkPad universe. Thanks a lot.
I got one with the 1440p screen, 16GB memory and a 500GB SSD for about 150 euros. It was a steal, lighter than and roughly same dimensions than my MacBook m1 air! Insane how much I like this little machine...
Very cool! Nice setup btw.
Where did you find it for such a low cost? I ask because I'm in the EU as well, though I've been looking more for a P series ThinkPad
Just bought a mint condition ThinkPad T460p i7 6700HQ FHD (without ram, ssd, battery) from ebay at USD 115. Another USD 85 got me rest of the items. A $200 superb quad-core workstation laptop running windows 11 flawlesslly 🚀
That's a really good buy/find. Well done.
Picked one up as a soon-to-be secondary device for working at cafe's and tinkering with code at the weekend + managing my home server. Worried about the soldered RAM and wondering if 8GB will be enough, but got it for £160 so can't complain
8GB isn't too bad. 16 for me is the sweet spot.
@@LaptopRetrospective I think if I could do it again I'd try for 16BG - but price point was decent for what I'm getting and it'll be running linux, so should be 'adequate' lol.
Laptop from the FUTURE! With 8192 TB of Real Memory! Was used to power up Gundam Machine 🤯😉
Still using mine that I bought in 2017 as a daily driver today!
I believe it was only 1 month after I got it was when I heard about the battery screw recall thing. Sent it back to the re-seller in my country but they were next to useless with regards to post-purchase support. It also came with a broken right channel on the speaker, but again the re-seller wouldn't do anything about it so I was out of luck.
Only ever got around to fixing the thing a few months ago when I decided to replace the dying battery + new speaker module.
After running battery report, I saw that the old battery only had about 60% of the original capacity lmao. New battery was definitely a life changer.
Now feels like new again! Currently dualbooting Windows 10 + linux mint on the thing and honestly I can see myself using this for more years to come.
Oh and I actually replaced the trackpoint cap with a custom concave one from etsy, been using it since 2018 and still loving it. Definitely recommend for people who wants to try a different trackpoint feel.
Glad to hear you enjoy that Etsy (Saoto?) cap.
Just got myself Gen 7 with 4k display for 500 euros, these are so good value.
Nice buy!
Personally I have stopped buying dual core Windows laptops, not just for the limited support life (linux is not an option for me), but also because quad core does make a difference in my opinion. Still these devices can be a good option for people with very limited budget or who need a cheap secondary device (I have already several quad core laptops so not in that category).
Fair enough. Knowing your needs is an essential part of the buying conversation.
Dual cores just don't have what it takes to get by comfortably these days unless very very low needs but anyway at least the quad cores are holding up for now. I've been buying quad core laptops for under $200 without upgrades of course for a few years now.
I think a market still exists for many average users. It's why knowing your system requirements and demands of your technology is so important to get a good match. 👍
@@LaptopRetrospective yep there is a market and I still use a couple of dual core devices (mainly macs) for specific things, but they are much less responsible when several things happen at the same time compared to quad core ones. It's a bit like using a 4GB RAM laptop, you can make it work, but don't do too much at the same time or it will become less resposive
4GB of RAM... *Shudders*
Dual-core are on fire sale as 4-6-10+ core laptops is taking over.
Depending on where you are in the world, some places aren't experiencing it quite in the same way.
Great model greetings from Poland
Cheers, thanks for watching.
I was using for a short time a gen 5 a few year ago. I wish I kept it but I didn't like the keyboard/trackpoint. But, I believe now those issues could have been solved.
Lots of great options out there now at some decent prices. Best of luck if you choose to look.
actually keyboards after the gen 6 meaning gen 7 onwards, got a whole lot worse. the key travel is shorter, the key caps are shorter, the keys are squarish and no longer concaves, the keyboard is no longer full size. it's a 0/10 for me. i'm still using my x1c5 (my 1st thinkpad was a t420.
I picked up a great condition second hand on ebay for just under $150
Nice job!
it is going to die very soon these laptops has a design flaw where the soldered ram chips will fail . waste of money
Perhaps cite your sources and don't spam the comments section.
Nice machine, great review.
Thanks Ted!
can it still compete this 2024?
I'd go after the 6th gen at this point.
Picked up one of these with exact same spec, from ebay about 6 months ago, for just £235 ($294), looks less used than the featured one. It works great, I love it
Wouldn*t touch windows with a barge pole. Linux is king.
Linux is an excellent choice for the G5. 👍
@@LaptopRetrospective G5?
G5=5th Gen. 👍
Strangely, I have a 5th gen x1 carbon, but it has the 6th gen core i7 processor 🤔
Yep, that checks out if you look at the PSREF:
psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_5th_Gen/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_5th_Gen_Spec.PDF
I bought a thinkpad carbon xq gen 5. I made the recall test and I found my laptop is afected. What should I do?
You can contact Lenovo and see if they will still honour it or not. If not, then you're on your own I suspect.
Hello there, nice video, as usual, and I just stopped by to ask if you have ever had a laptop with the issue I´ll be sharing with you. I just bought an X1 carbon 6th gen, with a defect. It cannot run on battery. The battery was 76% with I bought it, with the remark that the battery wasn´t good and needed it to be replaced. Well, I don´t think is the battery since I plugged in, and the battery charged all the way to 100%. I ran all the battery Lenovo test except to run the laptop on battery, because as soon as I unplugged it, it shot down itself. Why did I buy it? well, it's an i7 8650U, 16GB RAM, with the 2560 x 1440 screen, plus the condition is 100% scratch and shiny trackpad free. Runs great. All that for $ 200. I will take it to a PC shop for a diagnostic, but it is not the first time a take a PC to have it checked and it return with a "replace the motherboard" note. So that been said, I would like to know your experience or opinion about it. Thanks.
If someone is telling you to replace the motherboard then the follow up question of "Why?" Needs to be asked. As for the battery, batteries can fail for all sorts of reasons sadly. It sounds like you've got a great example there that would be worth replacing the battery if it was needed. If the utilities are saying the battery is done, that's pretty definitive.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for the quick answer. Tomorrow I`ll take it to the repair shop. I`ll come back with the diagnostic.
@Sir Chad Thanks, I`ll do that before taking it to the repair shop to see if it works.
Good luck.
Just snagged a 4th gen for £124 on ebay, hoping to clean it up, maybe upgrade the SSD and flip it.
Cool! Hope it arrives safely.
is this a 2017 model??
Sounds about right. Easier to go by Generation.
I just ordered one of these. Spanx
Let us know how it goes.
Please make a comment about memory upgrade, for example my X1 Gen5 have 8G of memory. Can I make an upgrade from 8G to 16G?
RAM is soldered. Your only option is to swap motherboards unless you have all the technical equipment and expertise.
$500 is T480 and x1c 6th gen price area, better get them instead
Will vary depending on region and availability but yes the next gen is really nice.
Could someone please help me find the math symbols (+), (-), (×), (÷), etc.?
This machine doesn't have a dedicated num pad so * multiplies and / divides. - and + are next to the backspace key.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you so much!
No problem.
Is this model can i play euro truck simulator 2 smoothly?
Compare the system requirements against any model you're looking to purchase.
could you tell me what sort of nvme i need to buy please..thanks.
M.2 NVMe 2280 is supported if I remember correctly.
@@LaptopRetrospective cheers.
But you cannot upgrade RAM from 16gb if not wrong. Other than that, good machines.
Yeah, Carbon series has always had soldered RAM.
Could you please kindly help to review X1 Carbon 5th (Core i5 th7, RAM 16) & T480s(Core i7 th8, RAM 16)? Which one is better for running virtual machines like VMware and VirtualBox or for coding as well?
Answered your question on one of your previous comments.
3:33 Fourth-gen has microSD
Bought a few days ago gen 8(2020), works nice , also second hand , only doubt is batterry that lost 20%, but 4k screen is amazing!
very bad memory is soldered... impossible to upgrade memory
Bad for some, not really relevant for others and an acceptable trade-off.
8TB of RAM? Wow! Pretty cool!)
Did I say 8TB somewhere? I rewatched the RAM section and I don't think I did. ;-)
@@LaptopRetrospective I think he's referring to the intro
Oooooohhhh. Yeah that makes sense. 😂 Forgot that was there.
I got one today like new $170 … very nice laptop…unfortunately it can’t upgrade to windows 11
That's a great buy though!
I updated my 16gb x1c5 from win 10 to win 11 24H2 the other day. I had to use the reg fix provided by microsoft and do an upgrade that did not keep the apps, but kept all the data. Seems to be working fine after installing all the apps again.
@tVideoUTube nice work.
thinkpad line is the only chinese brand i can trust
You lost me at : "its soddered"
That's standard for the Carbon. Thankfully there are lots of different solutions out there.
What awful intro music.
To each their own. 😂
too old to be relevant in late 2022 imho
Not sure about that. Might not natively support Windows 11 but between Windows 10 and Linux options I suspect people will continue to use them for a good long while. Especially considering how many people push models older than this into service.
my daily W530 and X230 begs to differ.
i've been using an older budget Dell Latitude laptop with a i5-6300u, and it has certainly done the job. it's still relevant for people who need to do school work, word processing; and you can do windows 10 and linux.
Modern laptops may have more powerful specs on paper, but they all suffer from the same issues stemming from thinness being priority one (for some reason). Heat inefficiency and therefore throttling leaves you with a hamstrung version of that super new CPU anyway. Imho processing for portable productivity machines peaked a while ago, you're getting incremental gains at some point thanks to poor heat management+bloated software. Graphics, screens, battery life are another story..
@@neildissanayake7942
_“Modern laptops may have more powerful specs on paper, but they all suffer from the same issues stemming from thinness being priority one (for some reason).”_
To what are you comparing “modern laptops”? Older laptops? If so then “modern laptops” are certainly, unequivocally more powerful than any older laptops “on paper” or in any other medium. Laptops only get more powerful with every generation. I don’t get your meaning here.
And this very broad category of “modern laptops” “suffer” from issues related to their thinness? It’d be great if you would provide examples, but in the absence of any from you, I submit the MSI GE77HX which will handily outperform my desktop computer (which is far from a budget build). In your estimation, how exactly does that machine “suffer” from the aforementioned “issues”?
_“Heat inefficiency and therefore throttling leaves you with a hamstrung version of that super new CPU anyway.”_
The i9 12900HX in the GE77 Raider doesn’t throttle under load; the CPU in the X1 Carbon on which I am typing this reply doesn’t throttle either- certainly because it isn’t ever put to any task that is inappropriate for an ultrabook with a U-class processor. And I don’t know how a CPU performing as it was designed makes it a “hamstrung version” of anything. “Hamstrung” compared to what? Some hypothetical CPU of the same spec that isn’t made to be used in a laptop?
_“Imho processing for portable productivity machines peaked a while ago...”_
If performance has "peaked", then you have the explanation as to why there's more focus has being put on portability, right? Right?
“...you're getting incremental gains at some point thanks to poor heat management+bloated software.”
The GE77 Raider manages the heat generated its CPU quite well albeit very noisily; and the performance gains of Intel 12th Gen mobile processors over 11th Gen are quite dramatic. Ultrabooks with U-Class processors don’t generate all that much heat when used for appropriate tasks - so, there again, heat is typically managed quite effectively. Right now my X1 Carbon is cool to the touch, and the cooling fan is inaudible. What’s the problem with heat-management supposed to be?
Further, how would you describe the performance gains from the same CPU operating with greater thermal headroom if not “incremental”? If he choice is between a thinner laptop and one .5" thicker with marginally- higher performance under heavy load, I'll take the the thinner machine.
Whatever is the point you're making with your mention of “bloated software,” I’m missing it.
Yours is essentially another variant of the oft-heard They-Don’t-Make-Em-Like-They-Used-To lament. If there is a problem with the power-efficiency among the current generation of laptops, that problem is not better-solved by making portable computing devices less portable; that problem should be solved by making mobile CPUs more power-efficient and thus better-suited for use in portable computing devices. Apple proved that, and I thought that the M1 would finally put an end to the thinking that laptops need to be more cumbersome to be good.
Well changed thermal pasta and cleaned fan, (mx4).Got amazing results .
Before stress test in aida64 was 100 T cesium , now 87 , after 5 mins dropped to 67-69, and now its stable stress test temperature.
throttling from 29% to 1% , and to 0 after first 5 mins ( I guess thermal pasta took shape from heat perfect).
So its defiantly should be done!
New thermal paste can help especially if it's really old.
i'm using the x1c5 now. came from a t420 many years ago. i love the keyboard. but the 1.8mm keyboard ended at x1c6. gen7 onwards, the key travel got worse at 1.5mm. the gen10 i tested....is just a horrible experience. key caps are shorter and squarish now and the typing feel is like shit.
You might find this article interesting, key travel is a factor but not as big as some think. laptopretrospective.com/laptops/it-isnt-all-about-key-travel/
@@LaptopRetrospective well the thing is i actually tested the keyboard on the x1c10 and it sucks.
Keyboards are personal things, more so than any other aspects of a computer. If it doesn't feel right to you, it doesn't feel right.
I have one qwestion about temperatures of laptop, idle and stresstested.
mine is 50+ and till 99 stress , idk its ok or too much