Lenovo ThinkPad X220 user reviews

Pros Fast, light, good screen, long battery life, durable, build quality.

Cons The worst trackpad ever. No bundled restore disks, and not easy to create your own.

Summary The first thing I tried to do when I bought this was create a set of restore DVDs. With the old IBM-made Thinkpads it was intuitive and easy. Not so here.

But thats really peanuts compared to the achilles heel of this machine - the trackpad. Its so bad that I'm literally going to sell this on eBay and just take the loss. First of all, its tiny. Its just absurdly small. Second, like many other PC's, the two-finger use is worthless. If you are used to the smooth two-finger scrolling in a Macbook, don't expect that here. Doesn't work most of the time, and when it does, it just jumps around. It also has no dedicated buttons, so the trackpad 'guesses' if its a right or left click.

And yes, I have all current drivers and firmware, etc. Its just a piece of junk.

I'm very dissapointed as I love the rest of the machine. If you plan on just docking yours most of the time, or if you like pointer instead, this is the best ultraportable. But if you travel a lot like me and need the trackpad, look elsewhere.

Pros It was great for 15min until cursor went crazy. ThinkPad Support sent a postage-paid return box right away and I returned the defective ThinkPad to them for repair. ThinkPad Support speaks English well.

Cons My new factory sealed ThinkPad was defective. ThinkPad Repair does not stock the parts required to make any repairs to defective ThinkPads. Board of Directors does not care about customer down-time. If you buy one you must spend time warning others

Summary I purchased a new factory sealed ThinkPad on Tuesday. After fifteen minutes of use the mouse pad would not control the cursor. On Wednesday I called ThinkPad Support. They remotely controlled my defective ThinkPad but could not effect a repair. ThinkPad Support sent a next-day postage paid return box for my defective ThinkPad. I shipped the defective ThinkPad to them on Friday. They received the defective ThinkPad on Monday. It is now Wednesday and after not hearing from them regarding the defective ThinkPad, I called ThinkPad Support. I was informed that the replacement keyboard/pad needed to effect the repair might not arrive from their vendor for another week. And that I should expect to receive my then previously defective ThinkPad a week after that.
To say that I am extremely dissatisfied is an understatement. I would love to yell at and curse their board of directors for being unconcerned about the down-time customers suffer because ThinkPad Repair does not keep sufficient parts on hand to effect repairs of defective ThinkPads. The support staff does speak English well. That is good news for anyone who buys a defective ThinkPad. They are not, however, in a hurry to satisfy ThinkPad customers. ThinkPad buyer beware.

Pros Great design and feel, Excellent "HD" screeen

Cons Price, Ultra dock does not have DVI output only VGA & HDMI

Pros Great screen, long battery life, very portable. Feels sturdy at first.

Cons Computer will start to fall apart soon after you buy it. Pieces fall out, weird sounds start coming from the computer, etc.

Summary First of all, let me say I am very sad to only be able to give this product 2 stars. I have owned it for 3 months, and enjoyed having an easily portable computer with a great quality screen, very long battery life (about 7-8 hours with normal use), and an excellent keyboard. However, that said, I am now very frustrated with my Lenovo X220 and wish I had not bought it. First, my motherboard had issues and had to be replaced immediately after I bought it. Then, I noticed loose screws for some of the pins on the side ports. Despite trying to keep them tight, they have fallen out and gotten lost. About a month ago, my hard drive started to make loud whirring noises with increasing frequency. And this week, one of the rubber pads on the underside of the computer fell out and got lost. Now the computer does not sit evenly on a desk - very annoying! I am always extremely careful with my computers. I previously owned a Dell laptop that I kept running for 8 years. I specifically chose the Lenovo among competitors because it seemed the most sturdy (screen and keyboard did not flex, strong hinges, etc). However, it is falling apart after 3 months of normal, gentle use. I have never dropped or even bumped or scratched it, and yet pieces are falling off and hardware is breaking.

On another note, my boyfriend bought the same computer (an identical X220), and his keyboard and mouse buttons feel completely different. In comparison, his is very study and clacky while my buttons and keyboard are mushy and quiet. I like the feel of both keyboards, but it honestly feels like completely separate models. This makes me really doubt Lenovo's quality control when two identical models, bought within a month of each other, feel so drastically different.

Bottom line - this computer has many great features, but the build quality is so terrible that you will regret it. I would seriously recommend buying something else.