Linux Tests Are Coming Of The New Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Broadwell)

[Michael]

That may be it, although build quality never bothered me much. If the build is just as good as the Samsung Chromebook 2 (Intel) that I have right now, I'd be a happy person. I prefer its keyboard to my previous MBA.

Was checking out the XPS13 more this morning.... Looks decent quality and didn't realize the new one is carbon fiber too. I'd even be willing to consider it a bit given that there's the 8GB RAM model available now while the ThinkPad X1 Carbon initially has just the 4GB model available, but it doesn't look like it will ship until 26th at least.

[veeableful]

Was checking out the XPS13 more this morning.... Looks decent quality and didn't realize the new one is carbon fiber too. I'd even be willing to consider it a bit given that there's the 8GB RAM model available now while the ThinkPad X1 Carbon initially has just the 4GB model available, but it doesn't look like it will ship until 26th at least.

Another thing I just recalled is that Dell mentioned working with Microsoft for the precision touchpad. I hope that doesn't mean anything bad in terms of Linux support.. although I'm willing to deal with it until the kernel supports it, if it doesn't already

[jrun]

consider gentoo...

while back you argued that the reason you used ubuntu was it's *wild* adoption by linux _desktop_ users. that is no more since chromiumos which is based on gentoo (albeit with a mistake in picking upstart as its init). i've been bafled by the fact that you benckmark/test mesa, kernel and many more from their git repo and yet you do all that by hand. a source based distro would ease all that and that's just one benefit. also compile time these days are much less and i have only had a chance to try haswell on a cheap business-tier dell machine. with minimum 4g ram that comes with every machine nowdays you can easily compile your whole system in ram and then deploy the image wherever you like. and with the pace that you're going through different machine i guess you can use the "old" ones distcc (distributed compiling) if you don't have a build farm already...

[liam]

As Michael has said, this lappy has been getting terrific buzz. My only concerns are battery life (unlike the x250, this doesn't have a removable battery, just a built-in--the new x250 actually seems pretty great but it suffers from the other issue) and relatively weak graphics. By not going with the xx50 chips lenovo is gimping the graphics, especially since you can get hidpi displays with these laptops.
I might be forced to wait for skylake later in the year....

[liam]

I use Gentoo, I'm willing to spend but I would like a quad core Broadwell ultrabook. Any hints?

Those don't exist. Ultrabooks use the ulv chips and those are all dual core.
Iirc, the lowest tdp quads announced are 35W.

[liam]

I have to say, I'm really disappointed to hear about the RAM being soldered to the motherboard. It's like Lenovo don't want me to upgrade from my X220 /w IPS screen and mSATA SSD... Which is a shame, because I'm very keen to move to Broadwell hardware, especially given the prospective performance of their new generation of iGPUs.

Does this new line feature the "return of the physical TrackPoint mouse buttons" that was heralded elsewhere? If so, a step back in the right direction at least, but the chiclet keyboard remains a let-down.

The keyboard has, from what I've read, returned to true scissor keys, like the older thinkpads.
Checkout the x250. That has a much bigger battery option (built-in 3 cell + removable), and you can get a high resolution ips screen. The x220, iirc, only offered 768p, so that alone will make for a nice step up.

[wizard69]

This X11 is very interesting!

I will wait of course to see what Apple does with the Mac Book Air.

[Luke_Wolf]

I use Gentoo, I'm willing to spend but I would like a quad core Broadwell ultrabook. Any hints?

quad core... ultrabook... Why don't you just get a real laptop as opposed to a hipsterthin if that's what you want?

[darkbasic]

Those don't exist. Ultrabooks use the ulv chips and those are all dual core.
Iirc, the lowest tdp quads announced are 35W.

Yes, I meant the 35W Broadwell-H quad-core. I called them "Ultrabook" but I meant Ultrabook-like, which means "high" performance, long battery life, low thickness and low weight. Something like the regretted Sony Vaio Z, which had full-TDP CPUs. With Broadwell we finally have real laptop quad cores, which means we don't need to spend 4000? anymore to get all the caracteristics above. Any hints?

quad core... ultrabook... Why don't you just get a real laptop as opposed to a hipsterthin if that's what you want?

See above.

[liam]

Yes, I meant the 35W Broadwell-H quad-core. I called them "Ultrabook" but I meant Ultrabook-like, which means "high" performance, long battery life, low thickness and low weight. Something like the regretted Sony Vaio Z, which had full-TDP CPUs. With Broadwell we finally have real laptop quad cores, which means we don't need to spend 4000? anymore to get all the caracteristics above. Any hints?

Hi darkbasic,

Hmm, good question. I'm going to assume you don't need discrete graphics, and that you live in a country where all devices are potentially available.
IF you can make do with a ulv, I'd strongly suggest lenovo x250 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/8822/lenovo-thinkpad-x250). They are priced well, have the best battery life of any device, and should make for a terrific dev laptop.
If that won't work, and you want broadwell, you'll probably have to wait until q2 since intel hasn't announced their quadcore mobile chips yet.