This is probably the best Linux notebook on the market. Let's check it out, Dave
Taylor here and I'm checking out this. This is gorgeous. This is the Lenovo thinkpad X one carbon generation eight Intel uh
notebook running Linux. So you can see it's super small. It is thin
has a nice 14 inch screen. It weighs almost nothing. It has a built in SIM card so you can use it on cellular networks
There's so much to like about this. So let's run down the specs
Then I'll give you some demos and performance benchmarks and then I'll talk about it's pretty staggering price
OK? Intel I 5, 1021 0 U processor which is 1.6 gigahertz goes up to 4.2
gigahertz with turbo boost and it is four cores, eight threads and six megabyte cache and it's running
you can get two different options here. Of course, you can get lots of Windows versions, but you can get Linux
This is ubuntu desktop 20.04 or if you're a Fedora fan, you can get Fedora 32 workstation
The screen is a 14 inch fhd screen and I guess I should log in
There's not much to see here. Um Let me log in and there's a little bit you can see there
And so this is a 14 inch fhd screen running at 1920 by 1080
So it's not super high res but it's crystal clear anti glare 400 knits brightness
So again, not super monster bright but still very, very usable and eight gig of memory
If you wanna update that to 16 gig, you don't really need to for Linux
But if you're gonna run windows, 16 gig is gonna give you better results. 16 gig will cost you an additional 149 bucks
I know we're gonna talk about price in a little bit battery. It's a 51 watt hour
That's a big battery for something, especially something this light. It's just like really
really light, but the battery gives you 14 to 18 hours of battery life depending of course on what you're doing
And whether you're really pushing on that CPU uh 256 gig SSD drive is the default
You can get a bigger one. It costs more. And the built in 720 P webcam
there's a fingerprint reader, their backlit keyboard. Um It's Wi Fi six which means you have 802.11 A X and Bluetooth
5.1. So it's really like just state of the art. It's the latest
everything from Lenovo. There's really not much, this doesn't have heck, it even has Dolby Atmos
So if you want to listen to music, it's gonna sound really pretty decent
And that also applies when you plug in headphones. So it's gonna really give you some nice results
So let me give you the size, then we'll do a port tour down the sides
then we'll switch to the screen and we'll go through some demos. Ok
So first off the size of this, it is 12.7 by 8.5 inches by 6/10 of an inch and
it's 2.4 pounds. This is approximately, I would estimate the same as like a Macbook air
but it's pretty screaming piece of hardware and port to. Well, let's start on the left side
going down the left side, you have USB C. There's actually multiple thunderbolt three connectors is what those are then
Ethernet and extension connector. GEN two USB 3.2 gen one and then HDM I and
an audio connector on that side, then let's switch to the right hand side
It's a little bit less involved on this side. This is a mini security locks also known often as the Kensington Lock and there is
the USB 3.2 that's an always on connector if you want to have something like a light plugged in and then the power button
the power button is in kind of a funny location because most laptops seem to have it on the surface as part of the keyboard
design. So having it not only on the side but down two thirds of the way along the right hand side means you're gonna have
to recalibrate and there's a number of things you're gonna want to recalibrate
I found the track pad very confusing because the buttons on the track pad
as you can see in this close up are on the top, not the bottom. Now
there is the little joystick thing in the middle of the keyboard. You can use that if you want for positioning
But I feel like that's just sort of a little retro nod to the first generation think pads
people are gonna use the track pad, but the buttons are at the top, not at the bottom
but there do seem to be special spots on the bottom, possibly in the windows environment
You can fine tune how the trackpad works. I just found that I was confused more than I often
Um And so, you know, it's something where you might have to get the hang of it to understand how it works
Or if you're running in Linux, it might be that you never take your hands off the keyboard itself and you just fly along in
a terminal window or something. Speaking of which let's jump on to the screen and I gotta warn you
it was not easy to record the screen because the built in ubuntu screen recording software is pretty darn flaky
So I tried to sort of cobble this all together. So here's what we did
First off, let me just launch Libre Office CALC and you can see it's pretty screaming fast
All right, we'll close that. Now, let's launch Chromium and just go to the ubuntu site real quick again
super quick. Now, I downloaded a benchmark and system
ysis program called Hard Info and that's what we're going to use for the rest of this
So first off, here's some information on the computer itself and then we're gonna run a variety of different benchmarks starting with Blowfish
This is actually an encryption algorithm and you can see it just goes super fast and then you're wondering well
where are the results for this computer? It's at the bottom. It's the fastest of any computer that's ever been tested with this piece of
software. Then we can run the end queens benchmark. It's more complicated
It takes a couple of seconds again, super fast, fastest of anything recorded in hard info
Then we can try ray tracing and then we can try Fibonacci another encryption algorithm
And across the board, this is the fastest of any of the systems that have been tested with that piece of software
It's screamingly fast. It's really glorious. I mean, if you're running any sort of Linux
then this is gonna just fly through it. Now, if you're using it for windows
it's obviously gonna run really fast for windows. This is a specific Linux configuration that comes preloaded and that's pretty handy actually
So what else to talk about? Well, let me show you the power plug because I know some people really care about this
If you have 18 hours of battery life, then you really don't need to charge it too often
But it is a sort of big clumsy old school sort of charger where you have the wire on the out one edge that goes
to the AC plug and then the other edge goes into the USB C
So it's all entirely functional. It's just not very pretty. Maybe you don't really care
that's fine. Um So what else to talk about? Well, the track pad is a bit problematic for me
I would probably tend to actually plug in an external um pointing device of some sort just to sort of not get constantly confused about
what's a left click and what's a right click over time. I think you would get more used to it and get to
you know, to the point where you didn't even notice and it just was part of your interaction
So maybe that's not a really big gripe. But the biggest complaint I have is that it's a pretty staggering price and I think Lenovo
knows that and we'll get there in just a second. But before I talk about the price
I'm gonna ask if you can subscribe to my channel, really appreciate when you do that
And it's really helpful because the more subscribers I have the more cool gear I get so that I can actually review it
And I'm really candid and honest. So. All right. Well, this is the Lenovo thinkpad X one Carbon Gen eight and
it is $2145. But right now at lenovo.com, they're running a promo that drops
it down to $1179.75. So even at $1100 this is maybe a little bit expensive
It is a beautiful piece of hardware. It is so super light
but it also has that really funky track pad and it's also just running at
you know, um what is it? 1920 by 1080. So that's only 1080 P
It's not a really high res screen. If you wanna get more memory
if you wanna get a higher resolution screen, if you wanna get a bigger, you know, storage unit
then all of those increment that cost you could spend $3000 on this laptop without the current promo pricing
So at $2100 I would definitely say no, there are cheaper devices you can just boot native into Linux and have a great experience
at the $1100. Maybe that's actually a decent price. This is really a solid option and I think this is a computer that has the
performance that's gonna keep you real happy if you're doing things like compiling software
but it's also gonna be something that's gonna give you really good results over years of use
So there's lots to like if you're a Lenovo fan, if you're looking for a native Linux laptop
this is a really great option and it's just, it's beautiful. It's light
the carbon on the outside, it's a carbon surface that they have is just really pretty and lots to like it is expensive and
there are some drawbacks, but now, you know, the pros and the cons so you can make up your own mind and that's really what
you're gonna do anyway. Right. All right. Well, cool. That's all I got
So I will hope to see you in my next video