X220 vs. T520 for daily business/personal use

[hulahoop]

Hi friends,

I hope this finds you well. As you may know, I am in the market for a new laptop for daily mixed use - i.e. I will take it to my workplace to use office productivity tools - Excel, Powerpoint, Word and use the internet for research.

I will also take it home every evening and use it at home for internet surfing and some video watching.

This will be my primary computer in many ways, as I only have a desktop at one of my work sites. I do not own any other laptop at this point apart from the one I am using which has hardware issues.

I do NOT play games or will not be using processor intensive programs e.g. design programs.

I am deciding between the X220 and the T520 (with the upgraded 900 or 1080 screen).

My primary concern is the screen size of the X220 - whether it is 'large' enough to have a good computing experience without using an external monitor?

Also, if any of the models have superior technology or build compared to the other, please let me know.

If you need any info from me, please tell me.

Thanks,
hulahoop

[csclifford]

While the X220 is great and portable, but I would not want to use that as my primary desk machine day in and day out.

For your needs it sounds like a T520 with 1080p screen would fit you well. While it isn't the most portable it doesn't have to be if you are just taking it between work and home. You'll appreciate the extra screen real estate for excel/word documents as well as watching videos.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

The T520 isn't really not-portable. It's pretty light for a 15", at roughly 5.8lbs. Here's a review of the W520 (exactly the same thing as the T520, but different GPU), and screenshots are included to show what 1080p displays are capable of.

[Kaso]

For your needs it sounds like a T520 with 1080p screen would fit you well.

The T520 isn't really not-portable.

I'd vote for the T520 FHD also. (Invest in a quality bag or backpack.)

[Colonel O'Neill]

The T520/W520 is only visually bulky. It's not very noticeable in a backpack, and can be easily grabbed one-handed or as part of a stack of binders/books.

[John Ratsey]

You may also want to consider the T420s which offers a 900p display in a relatively lightweight chassis.I find that it offers the right balance between portability and display real estate.

John

[sniper_sung]

T420s is best balance between resolution and portability. X220 is not good enough for long term productivity. W520 would be a pain to move around every day.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

W520 would be a pain to move around every day.

Depends on who you ask. I have no problem doing exactly that, but I'm also a relatively big guy (180lbs, 6ft), so a ~6lb 15" laptop feels like nothing to me when it's in my bookbag. For a smaller person, a smaller laptop makes more sense for travel.

[jonmlee]

i've got both the w500 and x220. in the end, it depends on what you need it for. i really like the x220 but the screen resolution leaves something to be desired for coding and excel. for web, email, word, lightroom, and photoshop, it's ok. the battery life is definitely something to consider and your proximity to an outlet.

[tommytwin]

I'm beginning to think that the T420(s) would be the best bet. I've got both the T520 and the X220, and they're giving me a serious Goldilocks crisis.

The X220 is a joy to use; the HD IPS panel has a good DPI for web browsing and watching (720p) video. Every window has to be maximized, and I usually autohide the taskbar to get some more vertical space.

The T520 FHD screen is equally impressive, IMO. In fact, colors are brighter and crisper on the T520, compared to the X220, which has a "warm" feel. Using Windows at 100% DPI fits an impressive amount of content on the screen. It's much easier for comparing documents, reading A4 size PDFs, etc.

Because my work is mainly word processing, only seldom needing two windows side by side, either machine works for me. The decision comes down to this, for me:

The X220 is easier to type on, because the palmrest, although shallower, is also shorter. On the T520, the large palmrest can dig into my wrists, and my right hand will go numb from using the trackpoint for too long.

The T520 is quieter, since the chassis allows for a much bigger (hence lower pitched) fan. During normal use, the T520 fan either rarely comes on, or is unnoticeable over the ambient noise. It does come on during Flash video, but when the video is over, the fan quickly subsides. The X220, on the other hand, has a small fan that is high pitched. It turns on more frequently, turns faster, and generally annoys me (I'm probably over-picky about laptop fans, to be fair). TPfancontrol can help, but eventually I found that the BIOS fan control more effectively kept the laptop from overheating. Keeping the X220 fan at the lowest, non-whiny, setting was not enough to keep the machine from getting hot.

At the moment, I'm using the T520 as my primary machine, and the X220 as my travel machine. I keep them synced up automatically, and it feels like a good solution. The T420 might have been the better way to go, but there were too many reports of grainy/screendoor/dim screens on the T420 owners page for my taste.

Both machines are great. For most people, the 12.5" HD screen on the X220 is probably too small for extended, daily use. If you don't mind carrying around the T520, and you will use all the pixels of the FHD, then the T520 is perfect. If you just want a little more screen space than the X220, and a little more portability than the T520, then the T420 with 1600x900 is probably the best option. Sorry for the long post. Good luck making your decision!