Lenovo X220; the best small photographer's laptop

inkiboo

inkiboo

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,115
Name
Gerard
Edit My Images
No
Two words; IPS screen.

The screen on the Lenovo X220 I am testing is simply the best screen I have seen on a laptop less than 15 inches. It is simply amazing.

Easily better than the Macbook Air and MBP.

If you get a chance, have a look at one. Yes they are quite pricey but there is no other small laptop that even comes close.

Hopefully the rest of the laptop is as good!
 
Surely that makes the HP expensive? Personally I don't want a big laptop so the size is perfect.
 
Is it only small photographers who can use them or am I missing something........................................??:lol:
 
neil_g said:
eurgh sony..

:D
Click to expand...

Well I've been a satisfied Dell customer for the last 14 years but it doesn't mean that my mind is closed to alternatives in the future. Certainly I place value on having a decent, high resolution screen in my laptops so anything which highlights the machines with superior displays is a good thing in my book.
 
tdodd said:
Well I've been a satisfied Dell customer for the last 14 years but it doesn't mean that my mind is closed to alternatives in the future. Certainly I place value on having a decent, high resolution screen in my laptops so anything which highlights the machines with superior displays is a good thing in my book.
Click to expand...

thats fine but dont touch sony with a bargepole, every sony ive known has had issues generally resulting from cheap parts.
 
A friend purchased one recently, hard disk died and he didn't want to be without it for a month, so he bought a new hard disk and tried to install Windows 7. No chance, they use a non standard SATA/RAID controller in the laptop and they won't provide you with the driver or details, you have to use the recovery partition (and make copies) or send off for repair.

Never touch sony.

As for nice displays, my dell XPS 15z has a rather tasty 15" 1920 x 1080 display :)
 
inkiboo said:
Two words; IPS screen.

The screen on the Lenovo X220 I am testing is simply the best screen I have seen on a laptop less than 15 inches. It is simply amazing.

Easily better than the Macbook Air and MBP.

If you get a chance, have a look at one. Yes they are quite pricey but there is no other small laptop that even comes close.

Hopefully the rest of the laptop is as good!
Click to expand...
Widely regarded that the new Samsung series 9 1600x900 is the very best laptop screen made, its not even an IPS either.

My Latitude E6500 is a belter of a panel as well.
 
I've seen the new Samsung line and whilst very good, the Lenovo egdes it. Certainly the Samsung is a very close second.

And the screen in the E6500 (if it's the Premium panel) is bloody good. Shame it is such a big laptop.
 
inkiboo said:
I've seen the new Samsung line and whilst very good, the Lenovo egdes it. Certainly the Samsung is a very close second.

And the screen in the E6500 (if it's the Premium panel) is bloody good. Shame it is such a big laptop.
Click to expand...

Aye, mines the 1440x900 res panel, its an LG panel, same as used in the 15in Macbook Pro, the 1280x800 uses a poorer panel.

15in is great for pitchside, i would struggle with anything smaller and higher res than 1440x900 doing quick pitchside edits, i am considering a series 9 1600x900 for home and holiday use and their now offering claim your VAT back which takes it to under £950
 
Last edited:
neil_g said:
same in my E6500 and its a real nice screen :thumbs:
Click to expand...

The 1920x1200 is decent also but there are a few different panels kicking about, most are CCFL backlit but uses 2 of them so quite decent, there was a W-LED made to order version but it cost about £200 more than the standard CCFL one and ive only ever seen one anywhere, stunning.
 
Ah, I was talking about the hi-res panel. The Macbook Pro panel is far from great.
 
inkiboo said:
Ah, I was talking about the hi-res panel. The Macbook Pro panel is far from great.
Click to expand...
Why, because it's glossy???? there is a Matte option at a slightly higher res than standard.

I personally think it's a brilliant screen for indoor use and calibrates spot on, not much cop outdoors though.
 
No, even the matte option is not great. You really need to see the IPS screen and the Macbook next to each other; the difference is night and day.
 
inkiboo said:
No, even the matte option is not great. You really need to see the IPS screen and the Macbook next to each other; the difference is night and day.
Click to expand...

Careful now. We don't want this to deteriorate into a Mac vs PC thread. :D

But similarly, I have the Lenovo Thinkpad W520 with the IPS panel and built in calibrator and it is jolly good. :) Not quite as good as the Eizo I have on my desktop but still very good indeed and much better than many panels you get fitted to laptops.

Again, it was pricey, but even after I fitted a 256gb SSD and upgraded the memory to 16gb it still turned out cheaper than a lesser specified Macbook Pro. Now I like the MBPs, they're built really well and nice to use, but I come from a corporate background where we used bomb proof IBM Thinkpads so I'm biased, even if they're not IBM any more. My 7 year old work Thinkpad was outliving 2 year old Dells in the field. :) That, along with the aforementioned costing, as well as currently using all PC software and being able to fix PCs but not Macs meant the sane choice for me was the Lenovo. :bonk:
 
Irritable_Rabbit said:
Careful now. We don't want this to deteriorate into a Mac vs PC thread. :D
Click to expand...

7060260223_5df6cec69a_c.jpg


Ratio of 2 to 1!
 
inkiboo said:
No, even the matte option is not great. You really need to see the IPS screen and the Macbook next to each other; the difference is night and day.
Click to expand...

Difficult to beleive, i'll have to track one down and have a peek, 12.5 inch is no good for anything i do though so would never buy it, whats the res of it.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Difficult to beleive, i'll have to track one down and have a peek, 12.5 inch is no good for anything i do though so would never buy it, whats the res of it.
Click to expand...

Resolution is 1366 x 768 and the screen really is much better.
 
Res is too low for anything i do, why would they put a top knotch screen in a low res 12 inch laptop is beyond me.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Res is too low for anything i do, why would they put a top knotch screen in a low res 12 inch laptop is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Your screen is a massive 5% bigger across and 17% vertically; not really much in it.

And the reason they do it is because there is a very high demand for small, high performance laptops. All of our editorial photographers would quickly have back problems if they had to carry a laptop as large as yours around!
 
inkiboo said:
Your screen is a massive 5% bigger across and 17% vertically; not really much in it.

And the reason they do it is because there is a very high demand for small, high performance laptops. All of our editorial photographers would quickly have back problems if they had to carry a laptop as large as yours around!
Click to expand...
Theyre wimps then, yesterday i had to carry a D3S, D700, D700 Battery Grip, Nikon 400MM f/2.8, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikon 16-35mm, Tamron 28-75mm, Nikon 1.4x extender, Kenko pro 1.4x extender, sb-600 and SB-800 flash units, Latitude E6500, Tripod stool, Monopod, spare 9 cell laptop battery, flash cards, 2 card readers, dongle, waterproofs, etc, etc and all in a bag which itself weighs 4-5kg :lol:
 
The back problem comment was a joke but a small laptop is a choice of nearly all editorial photographers that I know.
 
inkiboo said:
The back problem comment was a joke but a small laptop is a choice of nearly all editorial photographers that I know.
Click to expand...
I know Gerard, hence the smiley.

Vast majority of pros i work with shooting pitchside use Macbook pro 13 models, theres the odd Samsung and quite a few Dell Latitudes.

3 of us shooting the same end yesterday, 2 Macbook pros and my Dell
 
Gary Coyle said:
Theyre wimps then, yesterday i had to carry a D3S, D700, D700 Battery Grip, Nikon 400MM f/2.8, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikon 16-35mm, Tamron 28-75mm, Nikon 1.4x extender, Kenko pro 1.4x extender, sb-600 and SB-800 flash units, Latitude E6500, Tripod stool, Monopod, spare 9 cell laptop battery, flash cards, 2 card readers, dongle, waterproofs, etc, etc and all in a bag which itself weighs 4-5kg :lol:
Click to expand...

Yup, but you get to sit down for an hour and a half Grandad!!! :D


FWIW, I've just moved from using a sub 2kg 14" 1366x Acer to a circa 3kg 15" XPS with the 1920x LCD. Much heavier, but well worth it.
 
The X220 laptops are great. I bought 3 last year for execs at work.

Personally I wont buy a laptop unless it's a Thinkpad.
 
Odd I found this just now. Been tossing up between an X220 and a Samsung Series 9 with the PLS screen. Only caveat is it's gotta keep the Mrs happy too, which I think edges it toward the samsung.

Inkiboo, have you done a gamut coverage test on the X220 IPS panel by any chance?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top