Comparison of FHD vs UHD Thinkpad X1 Carbon - Subjective
Hi,
Recently I ordered a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 3.0 ghz 1185G7 1 TB SSD 16 gb ram UHD 4K model and a 2.8 ghz 1165G7 1 TB 16 gb ram FHD non-touch afterwards. Got the FHD model as a Black Friday sale special and was unable to cancel the order for the first model before it shipped custom made from asia. So the FHD model arrived first and found myself in a pickle trying to decide which model to go keep so I put them through the paces and wanted to write a mini comparison review for others trying to decide. One of my primary concerns was battery life and I had read that the UHD 4K screen is battery killer but what I didn't realize at the time was the extent that the processor also has in eating minutes from the battery.
The other thing I didn't like with the 4K screen was the glare which is truly aweful in that the screen could double as a mirror at times. However in dimly lit settings it wasn't too bad but turn on a light in the bed room and the reflections could really be distracting. You have to turn up the brightness up to 2/3 of the way to not notice it too much though it was worse with dark backgrounds and the monitor looked best with bright colors displayed on the screen. On the matte FHD screen there was a little bit of a glare but it was so diffuse that you really had to look for it to notice it. Colors especially whites looked best on the 4K screen and text looked especially crisp in comparison to the FHD panel but the UHD screen needed less light levels to look good. Also was able to reduce the scaling on both screens by 25 percent as well.
In regards to battery life this is what I found. As long as I didn't do anything intensive with just basic web browsing I got about 9-10 hours between charges and about 7-8 hours with the UHD panel. This was all subjective however and wanted more concrete data to measure real life use so I downloaded PCMark benchmark and measured the elapsed time for lets say a 5% to 10% discharge of the battery and multiplied by a 20X or 10X time factor to figure out totals in hours and this is what I found. Basically with PCMark running in the background I got 3.33 hours vs 3.5 hours of estimated life for the UHD vs FHD model running in Battery Performance mode! Obviously the processor was playing a big role in battery run time. Next I tried setting the battery to run in 'Better battery' mode for both and totally dimmed down the screen on both and found the UHD model now lasted 5.666 hours vs 6.666 hours for the FHD panel.
Obviously the processor at play here so I installed Throttlestop and was able to turn off Turbo mode on the 4K 3.0 ghz machine and with the same settings extended battery life with PCMark running to 7.0 hours. Unfortunately had no luck getting Throttlestop to run on the 2.8ghz FHD panel without getting an instant BSOD stop error but was able to figure out how to show Max Processor performance percentages in Power Management profiles with registry edits and limit the turbo multiplier that way. Next I turned up the brightness and retested and got 5.1666 hours vs 6.16663 hours UHD vs FHD. Turning up the brightness on the UHD screen even more reduced its run time to just 4.333 hours but most won't need to because the screen is bright enough as it is. So if you want to increase your run time and you have an i7 try dialing down the processor speeds.
As far as the keyboard was concerned I didn't have the benefit of owning an older Thinkpad for comparison but found the keys on the UHD model much better than the FHD model in regards to downward travel and softness. The FHD models keys felt hard and clicky and just ok. Almost like an Apple USB keyboard. I much preferred typing on the UHD model but the trackpad on the FHD model was superior. Felt more precise in comparison as the UHD trackpad felt loose under my fingers but eventually got use to it. Turns out thats because when Lenovo builds these things they have a choice of five different sku's on a compatibility list and some parts are better than others. So if you could take the keyboard from the UHD model and combine it with the trackpad of FHD panel you would have the perfect laptop. Even more so if Lenovo got rid of the glossy screen and went matte 2K or something. Anyhow I really liked the carbon fiber weave on the UHD panel which makes deciding which one to keep so much more difficult. I mean when you pick up the 4K model in your hands it feels heavier and the the FHD model feels lighter and cheaper in comparison and more toy-like.
So trying to decide which one to keep its a tough call. If your a night owl and work in the dark and don't mind charging the laptop more often go with the 4K panel though I imagine most road warriors will prefer the FHD screen and put up with sore fingers typing on a hard surface. Also just wanted to comment for those of you who are aware of the WSL2 (Windows subsystem linux) bug that has been affecting some Dell models I did not experience that issue but had a hell of a time installing Virtualbox. Only certain versions work and there are limitations due to Memory DMA Protections you may have to disable. Also updating the bios resulted in a couple bios bugs on the FHD model with a couple devices failing to start in device manager which was able to fix by updating drivers. Call it the curse of owning cutting edge new technology.
Also wanted to comment the hard drive. Lenovo equipped both models with the Western Digital WD SN730 SSD. Looking up reviews and specs the hard drive has average power consumption efficiency ratings. I only wish Lenovo equipped the laptop with a SK Hynix Gold P31 which is an incredibly energy efficient drive. I put one of those in my old Dell XPS 13 9350 and got another hour at least of battery life. I personally do not care its not a gen 4 nvme drive or anything like that though.
Decisions... Decisions..
Thanks
