elCheapoDeluxe

Are you sure about that? I thought they stopped using the spill proof system and went to a "spill resistant" membrane with the latest T series. Many of the other Thinkpad lines had already dropped it. Makes me almost as sad as them moving to the crappy thin keyboards like everyone else a handful of years ago.

StuckInYYZ

I thought they went spill resistant (vs. spill proof) a long long time ago (at least much closer to 2008). The drain holes were there back then but not spill proof (you'd have to shut down if still powered and let it sit for an hour or so for it to dry off)

DenverBrian

People, including Lenovo, often conflate spillproof with spill resistant. Essentially, if you spill liquid on the keyboard, it's designed not to get into any other component of the laptop.

KRSW

If you want truly water resistant, go with a Panasonic Toughbook. You're going to pay a premium and get a poorly-spec'd laptop, but they'll be obsolete LONG before they stop working.

Other odd thing with this Asus Zenbook: It won't read Samsung T7 external SSDs via USB-C but has no problem reading them over USB-A. Now, if I put a USB-C hub in the middle, it'll read them. Again, this is after doing a fresh reinstall of Windows.

richarddd

I have a X1 carbon gen 7 running win10 and it's not clear to me what newer versions would get me. I use it mainly for browsing the web, watching video and the like, plus some python programming. I can't remember the last time I ran it on battery for any meaningful amount of time.

Is there any reason to upgrade?

KRSW

richarddd Considering half of my office is still running Lenovo T540p laptops running a mix of Win7 and Win10 on them (max RAM, SSDs retrofitted), your X1 should be fine for quite some time. If you feel so inclined (not sure why you would), you can even run Windows 11 on your computer. Despite my office's laptops being 10+ years old, they still can run circles around much of what's for sale at Best Buy today. It all depends on your specs.

If it's doing what you need it to do, keep running it.

crackjack

I agree with KRSW: if it works for you, no need to upgrade. Plus, a X1 7th gen would have a 12th gen Intel CPU, so good for at least 3 more years, if not longer (unless something unforeseen happens). [EDIT]Oops, 8th gen, as pointed out in the next post…

My Vaio laptop I got in 2013 was good for 7 years as my main machine - I only stopped using it as W7 support ended and I wanted a Surface Pro for W10. (Also, two keys on the Vaio KB stopped working, though that was only a $50 replacement.)

However, I would say you might want to consider upgrading to W11 next year when W10 stops getting free security updates.

There may be a paid option for security updates for individuals, but pricing there hasn’t been confirmed yet; standard pricing to businesses is $61, $122, and $244 for 1 year support from Oct 2025, 2026 and 2027 respectively.

(W7 security updates for retail customers ended in 2020, enterprise clients got updates until 2023. I would love to have kept my W7 Sony, but it is now only good for an air-gapped machine, nothing I would connect to the internet.)


Didn’t the Spectre and Meltdown microcode introduction in 2018 cause a slowdown? My Ivy Bridge Vaio, while usable, definitely saw a ~20% hit in speed…

richarddd

It has an 8th gen Intel i7-8565U CPU.

Probably the only issue is wifi periodically slows dramatically until I reboot, but that could well be a driver (although it's on the latest) or software issue.

crackjack

Oops, seems I completely misread the x1 gen I was looking at…

If it’s an i7-8865u, then it officially supports Windows 11. The new chips are definitely faster / less power hungry, but no need to replace when it’s still fine…

(I’m getting my mom to retire her HP x360, even though it’s still perfectly fine outside of the W10 retirement… already asked her to look at whether she can get by with just her phone & iPad or she still needs a laptop.)

StuckInYYZ

For some reason I seem to remember that you had to apply a patch for the speed hit. It also depends on what you do. Pretty sure many people wouldn't notice it (versus someone doing devops or multi-media)

Haven't had that happen and I currently have two Lenovos (one 8th gen, one 10th gen CPUs) currently running. Granted I'm not streaming data to a large amount to those machines so it's likely not noticable). That said, I hate these types of issues. They're harder to diagnose than other types.

richarddd

I've given up on diagnosing. It's not the network, since other devices don't have a problem when the X1 struggles, I have the latest driver, the wifi card is soldered (so if that's a problem there's no good way to fix it), virus scans are clean and I have no idea how to figure out if there's a software conflict - I'm not running anything exotic.

StuckInYYZ

My first guess would be a heating issue. See if it happens when the X1 is exhausting high heat. There's no dump to analyze, but you'd have to comb through the event logs to see if there's anything. But that's hours of work.

KRSW

Easier: Just shove the laptop under a blanket or put it in an oven and see if it acts up. Every computer in this office has spent time in my oven before users were given them. I only run them with the oven at 125F. I do let the oven get up to 140F, which is equivalent to the inside of a car here. This type of test does tend to weed out weak components.

HDQDD

Maybe because W10 has already had its obsolescence announced and the last major version update (22H2) has already been released?

Windows 7!? Yikes. I'm surprised your IT outfit would allow that.

StuckInYYZ

Depends on the purpose. I know of companies that are stuck on OS/2 (from the 90s) and NT. They can't upgrade because the Devs never wrote newer code and the equipment being used is obsolete but still mission critical. Best they can do is to isolate the devices and associated computers.