If you’re looking to buy a new ultraportable, the two hottest choices on the market right now are the Apple MacBook Air and the Lenovo ThinkPad X220. The MacBook Air offers a slick design, has a high resolution screen, is light and uber thin. The X220 on the other hand comes with ThinkPad durability, a great keyboard, dual drives and an IPS screen. Since you’re not Bill Gates’ kid and won’t be getting both, which do you choose? What follows is an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of both machines that will hopefully help you to make a better decision about which laptop is the best fit for you and let’s just say, the hockey gloves are off for this one!
MacBook Air Vs. ThinkPad X220 Specs Comparison
These are the main specs of the machines under review:
Processor:
- Air – 1.7GHz i5-2557M 17w
- X220 – 2.1GHz i3-2310M 35w
Memory:
- Air – 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
- X220 – 3GB DDR3 1333MHz
Storage:
- Air – 128GB Samsung mSATA SSD
- X220 – 80GB Intel mSATA SSD/500GB Hitach Z5K500
Screen:
- Air – 13.3” Glossy WXGA+ (1440×900) TN LED
- X220 – 12.5” HD (1366×768) IPS LED
Graphics:
- Air – Intel HD3000
- X220 – Intel HD3000
Ports/Slots:
- Air – Two USB, Card Reader, Headphone, Thunderbolt
- X220 – Three USB(One Powered), Ethernet, VGA and DisplayPort, Headphone/Microphone Jack, Dock Connector, Card Reader, ExpressCard Slot
Battery:
- Air – 50w
- X220 – 63w Six-Cell
Dimensions:
- Air – Width 12.8”, Depth 8.94” and Height .11”(Front)/.68”(Rear)
- X220 – Width 12.0” Depth 8.13” and Height .75”(Front)/1.36”(Rear)
Weight:
- Air – 2.9 Pounds
- X220 – 3.3 Pounds
Warranty:
- Air – One Year
- X220 – One Year
Price
The pricing between the MacBook Air and the X220 is difficult to measure. The Air side isn’t that hard as the lowest you’ll see via the Internet for a new machines is around $1,250, but pricing on the X220 is a moving target. Usually, the least expensive way to get one is via Lenovo’s web site. Depending on what coupons are offered that day, the price can vary quite a bit. As an example, my X220 cost $750 shipped (see my review of the X220 here) and I’ve seen it lower, while right at this moment as I’m writing this review, the same configuration is a little over $1k. I think most savvy internet buyers can get close to the price I got if they’re willing to wait for coupons, but how to come up with a number for this article? I’ll split the difference and say $875. To be fair to Apple you have to add in the cost of the SSD. We’ll say $150 for a 128GB SSD. That makes it around $1,025 similarly configured to an Air, both with the one year warranties. A $225 price difference is significant, but not hugely so, especially if you plan to keep the machine for a number of years. In this instance, I’ll award a slight advantage to the X220.
Advantage: Slight X220
Design
There’s no question the Air is the looker of the two, with its slim and sensuous body. I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I’ve always liked ThinkPad design. However, compared to the Air, the X220 is a little frumpy. I think both the Air and X220 come from the simple is elegant design school, they just come at it from different paths. Both are single color machines, silver for the Air and black on the X220, with simple logos adorning the lid.
ThinkPads have evolved from serving primarily business customers. Here utility, not appearance, is essential. ThinkPad design hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years. While that can be comforting, the flip side is it gets boring. The X220′s black look and squared lines say it’s here to perform and will be easy to use.
Apple has more been the more consumer products oriented company, though that is changing for both companies. Consumer tastes are more fickle than business users and catching the eye may be more important than the specs. Where the X220 is outdated, the Air reminds me a of a long distance runner. Its design is lithe, athletic and goes the distance. It’s the new direction notebooks will be taking in the future. Lenovo would do well to take a look at it.
Advantage: Air
Thinness and Weight
I always thought of my X220 as a pretty small notebook, but now that I’ve had the Air for a bit, my expectations of what a thin and light ultraportable can be are re-adjusting. Both are still light and portable, it’s just the Air has squeezed out any excess.
It doesn’t feel like there’s an ounce of fat on the Air anywhere. The Air weighs almost a half pound less than the X220 while having a larger screen. That’s pretty impressive. The X220 can be equipped with a four-cell battery that will make it close in weight to the Air, but you’ll have to give up a couple hours of battery life in doing so.
From a thinness perspective, the Air is even better. I just marvel at the engineering that makes the Air so thin. You’ll need two Airs stacked on top of each other to get to the thickness of the X220. With the aforementioned four-cell battery, the X220 is an inch thick machine, but it still has a long way to go.
Advantage: Air
Durability
I’ve had my X220 for about six months now and the Air for about a month. I don’t know how much one can tell about the long term durability in that short of a time frame. Both feel very solid and well put together. Neither has had any issues while I’ve had them. The MacBook Air case is made from aluminum using Apple’s unibody construction method. It has that carved from one piece feel to it. Being that it’s so thin, there’s little give on the machine anywhere. The X220′s top and bottom case are made from magnesium, which is very light and durable. The inside LCD frame and palm rest use a durable ABS plastic. The lower half is augmented by a stiff roll cage. The top and bottom case are rubberized to give a more sure grip when carrying it around. Both use latch-less lid design, but neither feels like it will open unexpectedly. The X220 uses steel hinges and is tougher to open.
Advantage: Tie
Screen
The Air has a glossy 13.3” 1440×900 TN LCD while the X220 uses a matte 12.5” 1366×768 IPS LCD. I don’t know what the nit specifications are for the Air, but it appears to be a bit brighter than the X220. The gloss is pretty mellow on the Air, but it can get irritating in direct light Both screens are well-above average. Contrast is high for both panels. Colors are luscious and pop-off the screens. Photos and movies look great on each screen. The screen on the Air is very good, about as good a TN panel as you’ll see. If you never saw the X220 IPS screen, you’d probably be quite happy with the Air’s screen. As good as the Air screen is, it’s not as good as the IPS LCD offered on the X220. As you can see in the pictures below with both screens at full brightness, the Air is a bit more washed out than the X220 and it can’t match the viewing angles offered on the IPS X220.
What the Air can offer its users is a higher resolution. While the extra space is nice, the additional 132 vertical pixels, vertical pixels being the more important pixels, on the Air, it only adds only about three extra lines to the typical internet page.
That’s not significant enough to trump the better quality on the X220. I really see this as a quality versus quantity debate. If your goal is to have the most pixels possible, then that’s the Air, and you’ll still be left with a pretty good screen. If, however, you want the best image quality, then the X220 is the real deal.
Advantage: Slight X220
Performance
Both the these machines are ultraportables. The Air uses ULV Sandy Bridge CPUs while the X220 has full voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs, either the i3, i5 or i7. The ULV CPUs do not require as much power as their full voltage counterparts, which should lead to better battery life all things being equal. Being that these are ultraportable machines, performance is probably not a major factor for most their users. The Air and X220 will spend most of their time doing such mundane tasks as surfing the web, watching movies, writing documents and listening to music to name a few. These tasks don’t really push the CPUs enough to where a difference between them is discernible. The i3 in the X220 should offer CPU performance that’s close to the ULV i5 in the Air, but the X220 can also be equipped with the i5 or i7 CPUs, which will offer better CPU performance for those tasks that need it. For this reason I think the X220 offers a slight advantage in CPU performance.
Advantage: Slight X220
Storage
The often overlooked part of the performance equation is the hard drive. As common tasks don’t push the CPU much, it’s the hard drive, boot times and application launch times, that make a system feel faster or slower. The Air comes with SSD drives only. They help keep the Air slim and trim, but there’s no option for platter drives on the Air. The benefit of a SSD is that they are extremely fast, but they’re also more costly and offer limited capacity. SSD boot times are fast and applications open quickly. The X220 boots in just under 20 seconds and the Air came in a little over 20 seconds. Who doesn’t want that?
The X220 uses a different approach when it comes to storage that gives it an advantage. Lenovo will of course sell you an X220 with a SSD. That will equal what the Air offers, but the X220 has a second drive bay. It’s not a drive bay exactly, but a miniPCI slot. Into this slot you can plug in a mSATA SSD.
MSATA SSDs are small SSDs. Once it is installed, Windows sees it as a second drive. A mSATA SSD drive offers the same speed advantage as the SSDs on the Air, but you can also install a platter based drive in the main bay to use for storage where speed is speed is not as important. The X220 use a 7mm bay and the biggest platter 7mm right now is 500GB, but with this setup you still get the SSD speed advantage and at least twice the space compared to the Air, but at a lower cost. It’s really the best of both worlds and I think is preferable to what the Air offers.
Advantage: X220
Keyboard
The Air uses a chiclet style keyboard while the X220 has a more traditional laptop keyboard. Each has an option to light the keyboard for use in dark areas. The Air’s keyboard is backlit, which can be adjusted to suit your needs. The X220 has the ThinkLight. It’s a light housed in the LCD bezel that illuminates the keyboard when turned on.
Both the keyboards are firm. Hitting one key does not cause the next to move. The keyboard on the Air is a bit larger than the X220. Despite this, I found my fingers stretching more when using the Air. It could be that I’ve used ThinkPads for so long that the spacing on their keyboards is grooved into my brain. I think what separates the keyboards for me is the key depth. The Air is more shallow with key travel. Meaning, when you strike a key, you almost immediately hit the bottom. The key depth on the X220 is perfect. When typing on the X220, you hit the bottom just as you naturally start to bring your finger up. It’s much easier to get into a rhythm when cranking out a long document like this review.
Advantage: X220
Touchpad/Pointstick
If this is a comparison of the touchpads, it’s really no contest as the Air’s touchpad is superior to the X220 in almost every way. The touchpad on the Air is very large. It has a lot of gestures like two finger scrolling and pinch to zoom that make it very easy to use. If I have a complaint about the touchpad on the Air it is that the button mechanism is a bit stiff. This is particularly true at the top of the Air’s touchpad. It makes the effective area of the touchpad smaller than the actual size.
The touchpad on the X220 is serviceable. It basically works. The X220 has some of the same gestures as the Air, but I had some trouble with regularity. Because the palm rest real estate is so small on the X220, Lenovo decided to integrate the touchpad buttons in an effort to make the touchpad bigger, but it ends up being a poor compromise. The buttons are not marked on the touchpad. I had a tendency to miss them or hit in between them, which did nothing.
Fortunately, there’s another option for the X220, the little red nub. I find the stick to be superior to any touchpad. Your hands never stray far from the keyboard and you never hit an edge using it. As a long time ThinkPad user, I concede I may be a bit biased. I know there’s a large subset of users who do not like them. If you’re one of those people, it’s definitely something to consider before buying the X220. The touchpad is the X220′s one glaring flaw in my opinion. Because the pointstick is superior on the X220, but the touchpad is inferior to the touchpad on the Air, we’ll call this a tie.
Advantage: Tie
Battery Life
Battery life on the MacBook Air and the X220 with the six-cell battery is very similar. The Air comes in at just under six hours battery life while the X220 is just over six hours. The Air comes with one battery that is not removable. When your time is up, you must plug in or shut down. You can’t extend the battery life even if you are willing to pay for it. The X220 has a lot more battery choices. You can even buy an extra battery and swap them if you need more time. The X220 has four battery options – four, six and nine-cell batteries are options on the X220 along with the slice battery. The four-cell battery makes for a 1” machine and makes the X220 weigh about the same as the Air, but it only gives you about four hours of battery life. The slice battery attaches to the docking port. Coupled with the nine-cell battery, it offers an amazing amount of battery life. It will probably give you three to four times what the Air can. The larger batteries do add some weight to the X220, which is something to consider, but I think larger selection of battery options offered on the X220 and the longer battery life they can provide, make the X220 the better choice with regards to battery life.
Advantage: X220
Upgrades
When you purchase a MacBook Air you can decide between a ULV Core i5 or Core i7 CPU and whether to get a 128GB or 256GB SSD. Those are the only upgrades available on the Air and they must be done when buying the Air, be it via Apple or a pre-configured model. If a better SSD comes along, you want a better WiFi card, or need to add some memory, you’re out of luck unless you want to void the warranty. The X220 is almost the complete opposite. Like the Air, the X220 CPU is not upgradeable after you buy it, but pretty much everything else is on the table. A bigger faster drive/SSD comes along? Have at it! Want to add 16GB of memory? No problemo there. Want to upgrade to WWAN? Whatever floats your boat. Lenovo even has a website with videos showing you how to complete the process from start to finish. I’d say from an upgrades point of view, the X220 offers the clear advantage.
Advantage: X220
Ports
The Air keeps the ports to a minimum. You get two USB 2.0 ports, a card reader, a headphone/microphone jack and a Thunderbolt port. Thunderbolt in theory is a good addition. It’s a combination of displayport and PCI Express technologies. It offers twice the throughput of USB 3.0, and can be used to connect LCD or hard drives to the Air, but as of now, there’s not may devices with Thunderbolt connectors. The few that are there tend to be expensive. Hopefully, that will change down the road, but we’re not there yet.
ThinkPad X220 and MacBook Air ports left side
ThinkPad X220 and MacBook Air ports right side
The X220 has a wider selection of ports. It has everything the Air does, except the Thunderbolt port. You get three USB 2.0 ports. One of them is a powered USB port and it can ironically, charge your iPhone while the X220 is off. That’s not an option on the Air. You can also get a USB 3.0 port, but it’s unfortunate that you must upgrade to the i7 CPU to get it. That’s a costly upgrade for most users who don’t want the extra power, but there’s a lot more and less expensive USB 3.0 devices right now than Thunderbolt. In addition to the extra USB port, the X220 has a VGA port, a DisplayPort, an ExpressCard slot and Ethernet port. You can get most of those on the Air, but again, they’ll be external via USB, which is never as convenient. Not to be forgotten, the X220 can also offers docking options. That can get you an optical drive, more drives and connectors.
Advantage: X220
Heat and Noise
The Air and the X220 run very cool, even when running more CPU intensive applications they never go much above warm. One note about the noise levels is that when the fan kicks on for each machine to cool the CPU, the fan on the MacBook Air is noticeably louder. I found this out by downloading a simple flash game from the App Store. The fan can get a bit noisy on the X220 too, but the decibel level is much lower. It can be drowned out with music or other noise. This should not be an issue for most users as the fan did not come on often while I was using the Air, but if you’re sitting on an airplane or in a meeting with the Air and the fan kicks on, you might get a few dirty looks.
Advantage: Slight X220
Wireless and Networking
The Air and X220 both come with A/B/G/N WiFi cards. The Air has a Broadcomm card while the ThinkPad uses a Realtek card. Lenovo also offers Intel WiFi cards, including WiMax, for those who want it. Apple does not offer any option to upgrade the WiFi. Both cards worked great at home and work. I think from a business users perspective, I think you can knock the Air because it has no Ethernet and more importantly, you can’t get WWAN internally. Every X220 has Ethernet and is WWAN upgradeable. You can get those on the Air, but they must be external. That’s never as useful and they tend to get lost or forgotten.
Advantage: X220
Software
I am primarily a Windows user. I have a Linux box too. While I don’t find OS X to be any better or worse than Windows or Linux, it’s been nice having the Mac around as something different. I don’t foresee us resolving the Mac vs PC debate in this article. Most people have probably already have made their mind up on that one, but there’s one area that might be of importance to business users and that’s security. The Air doesn’t offer much while the X220 has a whole software suite dedicated to managing and securing your data, the ThinkVantage Suite. With the X220 you get a TPM chip and can have an internal smart card reader. That may be important for someone who needs to really lock their data down.
Advantage: X220
Warranty
Both the Air and X220 come with a base one year warranty. For the X220, this includes software support while the machine is under warranty, while the Air only receives software support for the first 90 days. Apple and Lenovo both offer warranty upgrade options. With Apple you can get AppleCare. It costs $250 and extends the warranty to three years. This would include software support for the life of the warranty. Another benefit for the MacBook Air is you can take the it to any Apple store and have it fixed right away if you’re close by, while the base warranty on the X220 only comes with mail-in service. I think where Apple needs to work harder for business users is they don’t offer on-site or accidental coverage. This is especially true for ultraportable laptops, which travel much more frequently. They are more likely to take a beating than notebooks that mostly sit on a desk.
The X220 has more warranty options. You can get up to five years of warranty coverage on the X220. This would include on-site, where a technician comes to your home or place of business the next day to make any needed repairs. Accidental coverage is an option on the X220 as well, though accidental coverage is limited to four years. Ever dropped or spilled a tasty beverage on your notebook? If you have accidental coverage, Lenovo will repair it for any reason.. You won’t have to know the pain of making a paper weight out of your expensive notebook. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option with the Air. If you damage your Air in a manner not covered by the warranty, you have made a doorstop from it. Because the X220 is less expensive than the Air, you can probably add on-site and accidental coverage to the X220 and be fairly close to the Air price wise, depending on what coupons are offered that day. I think the addition of on-site and accidental coverage on the X220, and the longer warranty options, give the X220 a leg up in terms of the warranty.
Advantage: X220
And the Winner is?
Let me start off by saying these are both first-rate notebooks. I think I could choose either and live happily ever after, but this can’t be a contest if no one wins. If your biggest priorities are thinness and weight, a high resolution screen and you want a bit of style on your ultraportable, then perhaps the Air is in your future, but in the end, the X220 is the more well rounded machine in this reviewers opinion. With the X220 you get a machine that is durable, has a great keyboard, more secure, dual hard drives, more options to upgrade, a gorgeous IPS screen, better warranty choices, longer battery life and better performance. You get all of those and you’re still paying a few hundred dollars less for the X220, maybe less if you know how to work the system. Where I come from, that’s what they call value and is why the X220 is the better alternative.
Comparison Summary Table (green tick indicates advantage, both with ticks indicates a tie)
| ThinkPad X220 | MacBook Air Late 2011 | |
| Price and Value | |
|
| Design | |
|
| Thinness and Weight | |
|
| Durability | |
|
| Screen | |
|
| Performance Potential | |
|
| Storage | |
|
| Keyboard | |
|
| TouchPad & Pointing Stick | |
|
| Battery Life Potential | |
|
| Upgrade Capability | |
|
| Ports Selection | |
|
| Wireless & Networking | |
|
| Installed Software (for Business usage) | |
|
| Warranty Options | |
Related Reviews
Great review. Regarding the wikipedia screenshot: I noticed some html differences at the top. On Air’s Wikipedia page there is also a text header, which can explain the only 3 rows differences at the bottom. The screenshot for viewing angles shows the real power of IPS technology. But those Lenovo resolutions 1366X…
I think your point about the resolution is fair, but I was using Firefox in native form on both. Even if you fixed the header and got an extra line or two, it’s still not that different. If this was 2005 and it was going from XGA to SXGA+, you got a lot more extra resolution, particularly vertical resolution, which is more important. With only an extra 132 vertical pixels, it’s hardly noticeable. That’s why the better quality to me is more valuable. If want to most pixels, the Air has it and you’re still left with a pretty good screen on the Air.
I don’t think this is so much a reflection of the X220 having superior engineering, it’s more along the lines of the limitations of an ultrabook/extremely thin laptop. Keyboard, battery life, ports selection, performance potential are all going to suffer if you choose to go with a case that’s 0.75″ thin. Put the X220 up against the Toshiba Z830 or Asus Zenbook UX31 and you’ll get the same conclusion here I believe.
For me the battery life issue is a big one, I think the Air is adequate for most but if you’re flying a long way and haven’t paid $5K for a business class seat you’ll simply be out of luck.
I would argue that the X220 is significantly more durable than the Air. The Unibody MacBooks feel durable, but none of them have any durability tests performed. The X220 passes millspec 810G I believe.
Also, I think that the screen should be a tie or a win for the Air. I love my IPS screen’s viewing angles, but I’d kill for some more vertical pixels and its not like the Air’s screen is horrible, just not as good quality. I would take a crap high resolution screen over a great low resolution one. I don’t use my laptop at weird angles and I don’t need perfect color accuracy, I need more screen real estate and I think that represents the majority of business and student usage.
Like I said, I don’t think you can really evaluate the durability of any machine in the course of a few months. Both felt very solid, but your guess is as good as mine as to how that plays out. As always each machine tells its own story. I’ve seen premium notebooks that mostly sat on a desk that one day didn’t work any more. I’ve also seen el cheapo notebooks that were used and abused, but just kept on ticking.
I think you’re right in that if your goal is to have the most pixels possible, then that’s the Air and it’s still a pretty good screen, but I would also argue the bump in vertical isn’t that great and most of the extra space comes on the sides, which doesn’t have as much value. If the Air was SXGA+ with a lot more vertical real estate, then I think it would make a more compelling argument. This is unfortunately the world we live in. It’s a judgement call and my judgement is the X220 is better, but I think you could make a good argument the other way.
the question is not who YOU think is better but rather WHO is preferred by popular choice. AND THE WINNER IS ? — well I guess you already know so why rub it in. APPLE you idiot!
Popularity is also a measure of herd mentality, which is the only explanation I can come up with for Justin Bieber being possibly more adored and defended by tween girls than Apple is its devotees. Anyway, let’s stick to the intelligent discussion, the author said both are great so no reason to be offended and get offensive.
I agree with Andrew.
If you think Air is better, at least say why. Hurtling insults does not further the discussion or help anyone.
apple sycophants dont care about facts or reality………….and in the world of business, apple products dont make the grade, as evidenced by another apple…………the air
will admit that I like the iphone better …………….. except when I need the small size of my hp veer
thank goodness that lenovo has not screwed up the thinkpad since acquiring the business from IBM
Thinkpad fanboy here.
Reading up your “Durability” part I choked: “how can’t he mention the legendary Thinkpad upgradability that make them last for decades?!”.
Fortunately you mentionned that later on.
Overall I think it’s a nice, balanced review.
And the MBA’s thinness, screen ratio and aluminium case are definitely assets playing in its favour.
Still longing for an upcoming X230, though
You got it all wrong, we want the X320 with a 13″ HD+ IPS LCD and 9.5mm bay. That would be drool worthy. Better yet if Lenovo just would redo the 770z with a 13″ SXGA(1280×1024) IPS LCD, mSATA drive and ultrabay, that might be the ultimate notebook.
I think if you’ve spent any time in Lenovo forums, you’ll find ThinkPads to be very impressive, but not infallible. My X220i is as good as any ThinkPad I’ve used, but like I said, it’s hard to say anything beyond how if feels just cause it’s so new. I think I did spend a whole section on upgrades.
I’d make the following small corrections:
Design – personally I find Apple’s designs to be rather bland, and much prefer the understated elegance of business-class laptops like ThinkPads. But in all honesty this should be a tie, as both designs are instantly recognisable classics and have their loyal fans.
Thinness and weight – advantage Air, but slight. Both laptops are extremely portable (thanks to similar screen size; thinness is much less important here) and the difference in weight is minuscule.
Durability – advantage X220. The unibody construction might look impressive, and the build quality (ie. how well the pieces are put together) certainly is meticulous, but the Air cannot match a ThinkPad in terms of durability, reliability, etc. No Apple laptop can, at least as long as they keep making them from soft, malleable aluminium.
Overall a good comparison, though!
This is one of the best reviews i have read for these two laptops. I am between them too and i prefer ergonomics and performance more than looks and this review made it more clear to me that the Thinkpad is way better than the Air with the biggest advantage of Air over X220 being the thinness. At every other aspect Thinkpad wins hands down.
Nice review, waiting for more!
Excellent review. ZaZ… Really unbiased and wonderful. Must congratulate you for such a wonderful piece of writing. Made it all so clear and your frank comments made the review look more genuine and without partiality. Hope more people like you are on the web writing frank, honest and responsible reviews. I think you made me decide tonight in favor of the X220… I just hope lenovo is not coming up with a X320 anytime sooner ! God Bless….
Well, this is not quite a fair comparision the thinkpak is like twice as think as the macbook air u should compare the thinkpad with a macbook pro 13,3 inch and put a SSD in that and u’ll surely be better off with a nice piece of design in stead of en brick of engineering
I know, you are absolutely right, it’s not fair. Besides, Macs are so pretty, who cares about engineering and performance?
I think it is a fair comparison. For the those looking for an ultraportable, the Air and the X220 are the top two choices right now by a pretty good margin. While I’ll grant you the Air is much slimmer, they’re pretty close in weight with the Air being three pounds and the X220 being 3.3 pounds. To me there’s a much stronger correlation between weight and portability than thinness. The problem with bumping up to the Pro is at 4.5 pounds, it’s much more heavy than the X220. More than the X220 is compared to the Air.
You can argue the aesthetics. The Air is a fantastic looking machine, but I’ve always liked ThinkPad design too. It’s simple, elegant and timeless. A ThinkPad from 15 years ago looks near the same, though a new one will be slimmer and lighter. There’s a certain comfort in that.
What’s up with the IPS screens reproducing orange reds? Also known as “orangegate”.
Looks like the X220 that you have reviewed, has this issue as well?, from the look of the pics, despite having the “better” looking display.
I first encountered this with the SONY Vaio SE 15″, then people confirmed it with the new HP ENVY 15″ 1900×1080 IPS screens, now your review shows it happening to the Lenovo.
Is there no IPS display laptops with better color gamut?
I’m currently shopping for a laptop, however the orange looking reds on these new IPS screens are kind of a dealbreaker.
JB
I have the X220 with an IPS panel, typing on it right now, I have no issues with reds appearing orange. Everything looks as it should. That picture you’re referring to at the top was taken with a flash on, therefore I wouldn’t rely on it as a representation of the true colors.
Indeed, IPS has red-orange issue
I am having the same problem on x220.
Great review Zaz. I own 17 macbook pro (2010) for home and use lenovo T61 for work. Both are great machines. I just pulled the trigger on lenovo x220 from website. I can’t wait to start using this awesome ultra portable workhorse.
Thanks. I think you’re right JB, the reds skew a bit orangy, but I would say this is a $750 laptop. No laptop LCD is ever going to compare to a good desktop LCD. While I would agree the color gamut could be better, this is one of the top laptop LCDs being offered right now. I for one am happy to have the option after years of crappy screens. I am hopeful that as Lenovo figures out how to do this on the X220 for low cost, they’ll figure out how to do it on the T series. I’d be very interested in a T420 with a mSATA drive and a good screen.
OK, a little remedial pre-processing that leads to a comparison.
1) As far as I am concerned, Apple makes toys and the rest of the world makes computers. Why do I say this?:
a) They arrogantly make all their products without the ability to change the battery; you are being treated as a spoiled rich kid where daddy will just buy you another pretty toy soon when you get tired of this one. I want a computer where I control when and where and how I use it. A battery change should not be a service event with the attendant down-time.
To add insult to injury, among my many skills is totally competent computer technician on any level including servicing down to the empty case various ultralight ThinkPads down to the empty case. Dells are crap and Apple’s quality of implementation [not design] is easily a whole lot better, but that’s irrelevant; but even a Dell can quick-change a battery..
Thus, update the comparison for down the road: ThinkPad at worst needs to buy another battery. Or borrow another battery. Or maybe your company maintains a hardware IT facility where you can get a battery. Or maybe you go to a sensible engineering school where you can just get one with the “inconvenience” of going out of your way to the student-run repair facility, etc. But buy any apple product and you at the minimum need a loaner until it gets changed; beyond absurd. [And as was touched on, batteries of various capacities your choice or choices; use the right one for the right situation. No one is always going on airplanes; business-class customers who get access to power on the plane don't care.]
b) No Ethernet? Are you just plain nuts? you cannot get the performance of a 10/100/1000 even with the extra expense of a USB-interfaced add-on [yes, that can get misplaced as was mentioned in the review]. Basically the attitude in the rest of the industry [all others but Apple] would never omit this; it’s penny-wise. There are companies where you would be laughed out of the building; we don’t do wi-fi here; plug into the corporate network on that panel with the proper color RJ45 jack. We don’t cater to have to worry about providing security codes or maintain MAC addresses [that's an interesting self-parody, isn't it, but it is the proper term, or I could have said EA, same thing.]
So, as far as I am concerned, you can stop the comparison right there. In the world of Apple, there is no such thing as the given. Everything is on the table to be thrown off the table.
Then there is the notion of user forums. Apple has luser forums. What I mean is the smug superior attitude problem, i.e., nothing ever happens to my perfect Apple product. Nothing ever gets serviced and all service is magic and costs nothing [except when daddy pays and doesn't tell me]. ThinkPad forums discuss EVERYTHING that is right [OR WRONG] with the product, its support, website organization, driver problems [that get fixed because of the forum] and product upgrades. It’s a joke that people have to worry about which disk Apple doles out; ThinkPads hands down are in fact modified in every conceivable way: Better wireless cards come out and savvy end-users [aided by the forums] upgrade by themselves buying from the manufacturer [NOT Lenovo unless a proprietary case part], even to the point of upgrading the LCD panel. [which is no longer as hard as it once was]. Even CPU upgrades; effectively for a few bucks you are synthesizing the next model, etc.
Thus, I am not speaking as a good hardware hacker [which I am] but pointing out that end users who know a whole lot less than I do successfully upgrade their ThinkPads on many levels. A good tactic is buy the smallest hard disk you can get today, then down the road upgrade the machine yourself to something that never was/never will be sold with it; it simply isn’t a consideration.
And let me add in a little appropriate jab about that attitude [off topic humor]:
All should be familiar with 404 errors on the Internet. Many parent websites have nice/slick screens to “apologize” for specific web-pages that no longer exist with some nice [usually irrelevant] pretty words to explain it.
There is a website where they collect these screens [and related matters]. There is one there that is the most simply stated 404 error screen for Macheads:
404 – That wouldn’t happen on a Mac.
cjl
Just a comment on the Ethernet port -
At a certain point in thinness, it is not possible to have an Ethernet port. Physically not possible.
If you want an Apple and you require an Ethernet port you can opt for the MBP 13.3″.
As for wireless access – we have a special SSID for guests that splits them onto their own VLAN which is segregated from company devices. If you’re doing Ethernet only, it should be split the same anyways.
And if you’re security conscious, both Ethernet and Wireless will be locked down with 802.1x with a guest account available for guest users which split them onto the guest VLAN. Not sure why this would be an issue for any I.T. department.
And to be clear – my company runs 99% Lenovo ThinkPads for laptops. I’m testing the only Apple laptop in the company and it is unlikely I’ll ever be switching us out of Lenovo.
I don’t think your rant about Macs being toys is entirely fair. It might even be caused by some clouded judgment, but that doesn’t really matter.
It’s quite obvious the MacBook Air does not, and will never suit your needs. If gigabit ethernet is high on your wishlist, and you want it built-in, you’re not getting a MacBook Air, or any other Ultrabook for that matter. Which brings me to the unfair part about your rant. You state the MacBook Air is a toy because it’s not upgradeable, because it lacks a plethora of ports, and because you can’t swap out the battery for another one.
However, Apple didn’t build the MacBook Air for the power user. Apple built the MacBook Air for the consumer that already has a hard time distinguishing USB ports from power sockets, and therefore doesn’t need a plethora of ports he isn’t going to use anyway. For the consumer that uses wifi all the time because they don’t want a UTP cable next to the couch. For the consumer that wants a thin and light laptop that just works.
If the MacBook Air doesn’t suit your needs, that’s fine. Don’t buy one. But obviously there’s more to it, as your post clearly shows. I dislike Mac fanboys as much as you do, however I also dislike Mac-haters who make it look like every Mac user is a ‘luser’ with a shitty attitude.
As for the ‘no PC manufacturer would ever omit the ethernet port’ argument: you might want to check your facts. The MacBook Air was in fact so successful, Intel decided to market an entire new breed of computers called Ultrabooks. And guess what? It’s hard to find an Ultrabook, regardless of brand, that _does_ offer ethernet. And besides, why should I care (much) about not having gigabit ethernet on my MacBook Air is I can transfer data from my fileserver over wifi at 20Mbyte/sec?
Maybe the fair comparison would be between the MacBook Air and the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, Lenovo’s Ultrabook. Apple would easily win that one btw. Lenovo didn’t even include an SD card slot, Apple did. Lenovo included a shitty screen, Apple’s is much better. And finally, the MacBook Air will run a fair bit longer on battery. Both have their batteries sealed inside.
The MacBook Air and the Thinkpad X220 are 2 totally different computers, mostly targeted at a different audience. The Air is mostly geared towards the consumer, the X220 is a business workhorse. Both are quality machines, neither are toys. Which one works for you will depend on what you value in a laptop, or what operating system you prefer.
It’s now the end of Feb 2012 and the Ultrabooks are coming out.
Does Lenovo have anything comparable to the x220 that is a newer model?
Anything a bit larger for my “old” eyes??
Like in the 13″ or even 14″ screen size… but not to heavy.
I have an old t40p ThinkPad that I love to play around with on occasion.
But I’d like something newer and w a bit larger screen.
Thx.
Frank
If you can wait until later this year, say October time, the ThinkPad T430u will be coming out: http://www.laptopreviews.com/lenovo-thinkpad-t430u-ultrabook-announced-2012-01
Thx Andrew. I’m looking for something sooner. My current notebook/desktop is almost 5 1/2 yrs old. Works ok, but I really would like something newer and sooner rather than later.
I guess I could get something NOW and give that unit to my daughter when the t430 U comes out. It looks really nice.
Frank
Good and balanced review, hard to find those. I personally would have scored higher on some areas of the X220 (as opposed to your slightly).
I am a huge fan of the X-series. While I nostalgia over the great 4:3 screens of the X60 and X61, the X220 IPS is something to look forward to.
I don’t think I’ll wait till Q3 12 for Ivy Bridge. I’ll just look out for one of them ~$700 X220′s.
Great review
I would like to add a few small things though.
1. Durability:
While both machines feel solid, The X220 will take a ton more abuse than the Air. The unibody aluminum enclosure is rigid, but it doesn’t like bumping into things, falling, or being tucked between a crapload of other heavy things. The Air will deform. The X220 however, passes MilSpec 810G tests, and will basically not give a damn if it bumps into something. You can spill your drink over the X220 and it will most likely survive, whereas the Air will die instantly.
Winner: X220
2. Security
Mac OSX offers FileVault 2, which gives you full disk encryption. FileVault 2 works absolutely great, and transparent to the user, and is extremely secure. There is a known issue with Firevault keys being accessible via direct-memory access through Firewire when the Mac is not sleeping, but since the MacBook Air does not have firewire -> no problem! 
While Lenovo ships a truckload of nice utilities with the Thinkpad, Apple provides its fair share of goodies as well, albeit with a little less fanfare maybe
Furthermore, you can set a firmware password on the Mac that prohibits booting from external media, or the network. The only way to reset a firmware password on a Mac is by changing the hardware (memory) configuration, but since the RAM is soldered on the logic board, people will have a really hard time resetting your firmware password.
Finally, there’s iCloud. Part of iCloud if Find My iPhone, which includes Find My Mac. You can log in to http://www.icloud.com and see the (last known) location of your device. You can remote lock er even remote wipe the device from that web interface. As soon as the Mac connects to the internet, it will get locked (and wiped if you chose to do so), keeping your data safe.
So in fact, Apple does provide some pretty nice security features. However, does the Air take the cake? I’m not sure. The Thinkpad has a TPM chip, a fingerprint reader, and an optional smartcard reader if I’m not mistaken. Lenovo provides both consumers and business IT professionals with excellent options of securing systems and data. Apple provides some nice options, but those options are primarily tailored towards consumers, and integrate tightly into Apple’s ecosystem. If you don’t want to use Apple’s services, you’re out of luck.
Winner: X220
I’m typing this from my Thinkpad T410 running Linux, but my main system is a mid-2011 MacBook Air 13-inch. My business notebook is a late-2011 MacBook Pro 15-inch. Both run Mac OS X Lion. In fact, the reason I use Macs instead of Thinkpads is the OS. I dislike Windows (it’s a fine OS, just not for me), Linux keeps improving but isn’t there yet. To me, OSX takes the cake, but that’s just me. I can really appreciate the industrial design of my Macs, but the main reason I use them instead of Thinkpads (which are more durable) is the OS. Nothing more, nothing less. Lenovo offers better durability, more choice, better warranty. Apple offers stunning looks, a great integrated ecosystem, fantastic end-user experience and a great OS.
MacBook Air versus Thinkpad X220… it’s too hard to choose. Can I have both please?
I feel exactly the same way, they’re very close. It just depends on the buyers wants and/or needs. I had this very same debate last April. After much deliberation I went with the X220 because I wanted a small durable notebook with a good screen. I bought in April and didn’t want to wait until July for the Air refresh. I also was coming from a tablet with a 80GB SSD. Having the mSATA + HDD was a big plus for me. One could chose the Air and still get a great machine.
reliability tested only within 6months? this is funny. New computer within 1years warranty period tend to be sturdy, but on long term test the story will be so different.
See yourself Apple’s logic boards & components failure more often occur than thinkpads.
Realibility: Thinkpad by thousand miles.