ThinkPad X1 series

Been rocking Thinkpads since my T600 in the late 90s. At some point I switched to Carbon X1 models, getting the very first model, then a Gen 3, a Gen 6, and now typing on a Gen 10.

Perhaps this is old news, but I just wanted to provide my personal opinion on this disappointing machine:

I actually wasn't dissatisfied with my Carbon X1 Gen 6. For the work I do which is mostly web browsing and having a couple Office apps open, it kept up pretty well. That said, I would have to keep a very close eye on how many tabs my browser had open.

Going for the new gadget high and hoping I could pay more attention to my computing work and leisure and less attention to RAM usage, I got a top of the line Carbon X1 Gen 10 about 6 months ago.

First off, contrary to what I assumed would be true, the Carbon X1 is thicker and heavier than my Gen 6 - noticeably so. I mistakenly thought newer = lighter and thinner. Not so.

The performance is not that much better then my Gen 6 - especially considering it has 32GB of RAM instead of 16GB. I maybe pay a little less attention to the number of tabs I have open but I still have to restart Chome every so often.

The trackpoint drift is HORRIBLE. I wonder how many hours I've wasted waiting for the trackpoint to settle down so I could start using it again. It's particularly aggravating when you are doing detailed pointer work - say, entering things in a spreadsheet or checking off items in a QuickBooks reconciliation screen. The trackpoint will not stay still for any length of time. And, yes, I've tried all the "solves" listed on the internet.

The laptop has a serious cooling challenge. It's 74F in my house right now and it just shut down due to thermal overload an hour ago. I assure you, the laptop is either on a table or on a book when I'm using it so the fan intake is able to operate without obstruction.

I will say, the laptop takes a lot of abuse. If I am angry, I can type with as much force as I can muster and the keyboard doesn't give an millimeter. The thing has been knocked off my side table a couple times and has come up unscathed. The touchscreen comes in handy when I want to magnify something (getting old and my vision is getting worse).

All that said, I sorta want my $2K back. I expected more.