My X220 ThinkPad has finally started getting long in the tooth. Therefore, a replacement is in order. 🙂 After perusing all the latest and greatest laptops of 2016 (XPS 13, XPS 15, ASUS, HP, etc.) I settled on the Lenovo X230 ThinkPad. An incremental upgrade for sure, but one that has left me satisfied and feeling like I am good for another year or two at the least. The price was right and the upgrade-ability of these models is superb.
Please find below photos showing Lenovo ThinkPad X220 disassembly and mSATA SSD upgrade. WiFi is also easily upgradeable (make sure to get whitelisted card or modified BIOS) Lastly, 2.5″ SSD is upgradeable without even opening up the case 😉 NOTE: I recommend the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD for the mSATA SSD. This drive costs < $90 at Amazon with free shipping. For the 2.5″ drive I recommend a larger SSD like the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB which is roughly $160 on Amazon.
If you are upgrading the wifi card on your Lenovo X220 or X230 ThinkPad, you may only have two antennas (black and white) pre-wired for wifi. If you have a wifi card with three antenna connectors, you may think you are out of luck 🙁 Actually, if your X220 or X220 has an unused red & blue antenna connector (originally for WWAN cellular card) you can use one of those for your upgraded wifi card! 🙂 Please note that the
Q.Which X220 USB port is the USB 3.0 compatible? A. It is the ‘blue’* one, the rearmost USB port located on the left side of the laptop near the fan exhaust vent. You can see a photo of the port here: The other two ‘black’ ports are regular USB 2.0 ports. *Please note only the i7 X220’s have a USB 3.0 port, the i3 and i5 models do not 🙁 If you have an X220 i3 or i5 model and
If you have a Lenovo X240, X230, or X220 laptop and would like to connect it to a display using HDMI, you will need an adapter. Thankfully the adapters are very easy to use and are quite inexpensive (<$15). Here are the appropriate adapters for each laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X240 and X230 Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter: Gold Plated Premium Mini DisplayPort (or Thunderbolt) to HDMI Male to Male Cable, Black 6 fthttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APLJ58M?ie=UTF8&tag=pixensity-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00APLJ58MCable Matters Mini DisplayPort | ThunderboltTM to HDMI® cable
Today was the first day I used bluetooth with my Lenovo X220 ThinkPad. The process is simple, but make sure you enable bluetooth by pressing Fn+F5 and change the Bluetooth status to “Radio On”: Once you turn the radio on, Windows 7 will display various prompts. When you pair a device (in my case bluetooth speakers) Windows 7 may install some necessary drivers and then you should be good to go. More X220 Bluetooth info: X220 activating Bluetooth – Off by default
I love my Lenovo X220, it truly is a superb computing machine 🙂 If you are going to add an mSATA drive or other somewhat in-depth upgrades, you may want to checkout the service manual for the X220. It is comprehensive and nicely formatted. Color photos would be nice but the black and white diagrams are sufficient. Official Lenovo X220 service manual: dl link as of 2012.01.17 Service manual rating: 4.5/5 stars (one of the better service manuals I have used!) [starreview
This is a placeholder for additional content as the review is added to… X220 purchase date: 2011.12.17 Specs: Processor Intel Core i7-2640M Processor (2.8GHz, turbo 3.5GHz, 4MB L3, 1333MHz FSB) Operating System Pre-installed Windows 7 Professional 64 – English Keyboard/Pointing Device UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) Total Memory 8GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM). Hard Drive 320GB, 7200RPM Serial ATA 2.5″ Hard Drive Display USB 3.0 12.5” Premium HD WXGA (1366 X 768) LED (IPS Panel) Yes Graphics Intel? HD Graphics