Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Review (with battery slice 39+)

As we said earlier in the review Lenovo sell several versions of this machine, with the highest end model featuring a Core i7 processor and 160GB Solid State Drive. The only downside with this, is the price. The machine we are reviewing today costs only £1,163.92 from Amazon. With all the upgrades in place, the X1 can cost around £1,800.00.

Changing the i5-2520M to the i7-2620M will cost £167 extra. Opting for the 160GB SSD drive will add another £180 to the price. Lenovo don't list the model of SSD they use, so we aren't aware of the specifications and whether it is a SATA III model either.

We decided to test today with the Intel 250GB 510 drive, to find out if the ThinkPad X1 is equipped with a full bandwidth 6Gbps SATA port.

Changing to an SSD is not as straightforward as it might sound, because the drive slot on this X1 can only accept 7mm drives (not 9.5mm). To fit the Intel 510 drive I had to remove the upper section of the SSD chassis and use the Thinkpad internal bay fitting cover to protect the top part of the drive. It does work however, with a little tweaking.

Again, we are pleasantly surprised to see that Lenovo have given the end user a full 6Gbps SATA port with this machine. Adding the Intel 510 250 GB SSD increases performance by over 400% in the sequential read test. This is very noticeable in real world terms, including helping the machine to boot in less than half the time.

The ATTO disk Benchmark verifies huge increases to around 500 MB/s second read from 100 MB/s.

PCMark 7 also records a noticeable improvement by swapping out the hard drive. The score increases from 2,265 points to 3,717 points.

Become a Patron!