Beloved X230T dying, what next?

Thanks for the detailed response!

I tried out a few laptops in store. Pens felt OK.. but it was hard to tell since I didn't have Photoshop. I got the impression I could manage, though. Of course if I'm wrong it's going to be terribly obnoxious.

Main reason for budget is that this laptop is kind of a luxury. I have a solid workstation with dual monitor/cintiq-alternative setup. Laptop is just for working on the couch and occasionally out in the world. So it's mostly for block-ins, thumbnail sketches, and a bit of polish. Would also be great if I can sculpt on it and do a bit of 3D basics. All of this works with my x230t, and I'm reluctant to give up the flexibility. Lately, I'm even debating just getting another x230t. They're like $150 on eBay and I can drop all my upgrades from my current system right in there haha.

As you can see by my responses, I'm pretty conflicted by the options lol. Mostly just trying to get first hand experience recommendations so I can sort it all out. Did you ever figure out a replacement for your Fujitsu?

 

That makes sense. I used to travel a lot while working so I could justify it. Now I'm in the same boat as you, probably don't need a mobile solution right now, but it would be great to replace my T902 with something more modern, unfortunately the only true "upgrades" would be in the $4000-$5000 range in CAD, which is just ludicrous... (The HP ZBook X2 is the onlyone I would actually consider for work right now, and they are steeply overpriced across the border for some reason)

Forgot to mention that Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 is probably not to be found in your budget either, but worth searching around for used as it would fit the bill in terms of modestly decent power and EMR.

 

I'm not an artist, but have been using convertibles for over 10 years for note-taking and doodles and owned (and loved) a 230T for 4+ years. Your arguments in favor of the 720 at that rather astonishing price for what it contains (Btw, is the RAM soldered? Everything else user-servicable - battery, wifi, SSD, add LTE if desired at future date?) See what Lenovo's policies are on returns. You might to get to use it for at least 14 days and return for refund. You can definitely return it if you haven't opened it, so you might want to buy a similar model (eg, a Yoga 720 with AES, the rest could be different) on, say, microsoftstore.com (or at the store, if you live near one) where you definitely have 30 days to return it. The main adjustment would have to be the AES stylus, and, again, that you could test on any Yoga 720. You would only have to lay out the cost of two machines for as quickly as you could ascertain if you like the overall feel of the 720 w/AES, after which you could return the used MS Store version (Costco, I believe, sells them too, and they definitely give you 30 days, full refund.) if you like it or both if you don't. I am truly blown away by that deal on the 720 from Lenovo.

 

@stoneseeker Yup. Upgrading to a proper EMR convertible is beginning to look like a pipe dream for me. The wife gets 25% + off at all the main companies though.. so as soon as one drops, I'm going to gobble it up. For now, depending on a bit more research and testing, I may just buy a X230T for $150 off eBay (they really are that cheap now!) I know it'll get the job done well enough. Oh, and I followed you over on artstation. I really like your workstation portrait!

@lovelaptops That's actually not a bad idea. Just buy, test and return. I'm pretty good about getting used to quirks between pen types. I used a Cintiq 24HD at work for over 4 years.. and bought a Yiynova for home when I left. Totally different feel.. but it gets the job done so it's just a matter of muscle memory updates. Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit: Yes, to answer your question, the ram is soldered. Really hate that trend! Forced to either run a weak machine or adhere to corporate RAM price gouging.

 

Followed you right back! You got a lot of yummy shapes happening in your work!
Let us know if you ever settle on a new machine some day.

 

I did some digging, but couldn't find anything definitive... You'd have to nail down the chipset and research that to see if it would allow a 16Gb memory card.

But the Fujitsu T904 and T935 had single upgradable memory slots. Fujitsu only sold them in 4 and 8 Gb memory configs at the time, but it may be possible that they can accept more. The tech sites say it all depends on the chipset and that if Intel designed them to accept more, they ought to. Fujitsu may just have offered what they felt the customer could reasonably afford or would want at the time.

I know you're on a time budget, but if you can get a definitive answer on the memory you want.., well, it's an EMR machine with a higher resolution and more modern screen than you're coming from, and they're quite affordable now on eBay, (if you can find them!).

Just a thought.

 

T904 - 1x8GB DDR3L SO-DIMM
T935 - 1x16GB DDR3L SO-DIMM
T936 - 1x16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM

All these are old-school EMR like T902/X230T however, with parallax and all. Not being an artist, I personally would take AES over old EMR any day of the week.

@chucklepunch FWIW you can even upgrade X230T with i7 quad CPU if you have friends with bga reflowing equipment and expertise, not that I advice it.

 

True, but that old school was a great school; in some ways better than the current accademy crop. -It's true that my new Samsung has 4x the pressure sensitivity, a much lower IAF and spot-on precision right to the edges.., but in terms of line quality, driver options and plain old subjective 'feel', my ancient Tecra M4 was peerless. It was very satisfying to draw on that old system; far, far better than AES, imho. -Not to mention, it had none of the weird little static electricity glitches which popped up on my Dell Inspiron (Wacom AES). AND the fact that EMR doesn't require a battery replacement every few weeks through regular pen use.

But I'd still go for a newer system today, because I too really appreciate 16Gb of memory and Core i power, not to mention a touch interface. I don't know how good the touch function is on those older Fujitsu Lifebooks. (Though, the T935 isn't that old.)

 

Raw computer power hasn't really been a problem. I keep Windows7 on the system and Photoshop CS6. Blender isn't particularly resource heavy, and 3DCoat is a low to the ground sculpting tool (voxels!). Even ZBrush is perfectly manageable. Rendering is done on my workstation. So it's kind of my "from my cold dead hands" laptop ha. This particular era of Lenovo + EMR was absolutely perfect, imho. It just *feels* right. So I set a restore point and I don't update a thing. I occasionally roll back just to keep it feeling nice and fresh, like a laptop shower. Flawless performance for years.

To that end, I think I'll just order another x230t off eBay and enjoy the same system I've been loving for years, abysmal screen resolution be damned.

Thanks for all the input and helpful discussion, guys! Maybe I'll go after something like the LG Gram (has an emr version) or some form of HP Z down the line.

 

I've bought three Toshiba Tecra M4's over the years. I used one of them as a backpack machine, one as a desktop replacement and the last for parts. You literally cannot find working ones anymore on eBay. And even though I've moved on.., I still occasionally check. I'd probably pick one up if it looked mint and was under $50!

I had a great deal of fun and got a lot of work done on that model!