Hello, my name is Mike Ethan and I will tell you how I found a real diamond in ashes. Not all of us have a good budget for fancy graphic designer laptops, so I did some research to find a laptop with a real Wacom Digitizer. I found out that Lenovo x230T is a perfect fit for my daily laptop usage.
My main search criteria was: WACOM EMR technology and the price I can afford.
Lenovo x230T – Old but Gold
Don’t be fooled by its look, maybe it looks like an old Laptop with sharp corners which was made to survive nuclear war. But it can still be a real working machine for any digital artist, so you just need a little bit of an upgrade.
Basic Lenovo x230T specs
Key specifications:
- Display: 12.5 (1366×768), Gorilla Glass Pen Control
- Memory: 4 GB RAM DDR3 (up to 16 GB)
- Processor: i3-2370, i5-3320M, i7-3520M
- Graphics card: Intel 4000 HD Graphics
- Storage: 180GB SSD or 500GB HDD
- Battery: up to 18 hours
Why I buy this laptop? Wacom Digitizer
These days, everyone counting money, so am I. I also don’t feel that the graphic art I create is very profitable, so at least now I don’t want to invest a lot of money in it. After a deep search, I found that Lenovo had created a really decent device that, due to a lack of marketing, did not reach numerous digital artists.
T stands for Tablet (x230T)
Don’t be fooled, the x230 without the letters T doesn’t have a touch screen or adjustable screen. The x230 version have more success on market and still is a highly regarded by computer experts.
Design
At first, it looked like a classic notebook from the ThinkPad series. It has a black plastic case, which is reinforced by magnesium.
The display mechanics have a center joint, which can rotate and swivel by 180 degrees each, connects the base unit with the display and quickly transforms the notebook into a tablet.
Ports
On the left side we have 2x USB 3.0, VGA port and full size display port thus is not a mini display port size which is on the x230. We also have an express card reader and WiFI kill switch. On the right-hand side we have SD card reader, USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet connection, headphones/microphone jack. Finally, we have a pen storage slot, if it does not have this slot, then it means that it is not a Tablet version. On the button we have a dock connector (mini dock series 3 Lenovo).
Performance
My version of x230T came with i7 processors, which still can complete the job. At first, it had 500 HD, I just put a new SAMSUNG 870 EVO 1 TB SSD disk and upgraded RAM memory (I put Crucial 16 GB DDR3 RAM), so now I can work on Illustrator or Photoshop without any problem.
Lenovo Pen
It is Wacom EMR pen, so it does not need a battery inside. Some artists change this pen, to more comfortable one, because almost all Wacom EMR pens work on this laptop. If you just lost one and are searching for the original replacement, here is a link to buy a new one.
Lenovo x230T Battery Replacement
When I bought it, it lasted for 2-3 hours of light work, now I change a battery to the new one, and it last for more than 10 hours. I am very happy with it, because I can use it as a daily driver laptop.
It is easy to change, just plug and play.
If you want to buy a new battery for Lenovo x230T, here is a link.
Lenovo x230 Tablet Touch Screen Driver
At first i had some problems with screen rotation drivers and touch screen, but I installed them just from here DRIVERS. Don’t worry that Drivers is for Windows 7 it works perfectly on Windows 10 also.
Author Recommended Reads:
- Wacom EMR Tablet List – Best Tablets Right Now
- Wacom EMR Laptops – Best Drawing Tool for Digital Artists?
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment’s section below.