Lenovo X1 Carbon 6th Generation Ultrabook: Core i7-8550U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 14inch Full HD Display, Backlit Keyboard (Renewed)

After watching dozens of YouTube videos about the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th gen, I can say that the reviewers are spot on. This laptop is a workhorse for being an ultrabook. The i7-8550U is fantastic chip that will last for many years. The memory is on-board, so be sure to pick up 16GB if you'll need it. The SSD is accessible for upgrades down the line. However the stock 512GB unit performs very well and I don't see a reason to change it right away. Next section - and the main reason from ditching the MacBook Pro - the KEYBOARD. Oh my word, the keys are wonderful to type on, give excellent tactile feedback, and you can actually look at the screen while you type. The function keys are exactly where you'd expect them to be, no touch bar nonsense here! Honestly the typing experience is superb. It will really make you reconsider the tissue-paper thin keys that Apple uses. The screen - matte! This 1080p screen is a fantastic choice for battery life and the matte finish makes working anywhere really easy. My mates with the glossy screens always have to increase the screen brightness or move seats. Direct sunlight? No problem! The trackpad - it's a step down from the Mac, but that was exactly to be expected. After a few days, the trackpad is fine; more of a mental retraining exercise. And also something that's easily fixed with an affordable wireless Logitech mouse w/USB receiver. The 1 feature I miss is the 3-finger drag from MacOS, but easily resolved by holding left-click button and drag with 1-finger. Ports - Also Dongletown, CA gets the eviction notice. This machine has 2 USB-A, HDMI, Thunderbolt 3 USB-C, USB-C Charging, and 3.5mm headphone ports. Plenty of options that blend old and new. No need to worry about carrying adapters. The charger that's included is 65W and is great to recharge other USB-C stuff like the iPad Pro (yes, the iPad Pro and the ThinkPad have replaced my Mac). I also have the 87W USB-C charger from Apple which recharges this ThinkPad even faster. The Lenovo charger is okay, but the ability to swap to shorter USB-C cables on Apple's USB-C chargers is better. Thunderbolt 3 Docking - I use the CalDigit TB3+ docking unit and out of the box, worked extremely well. 1 cable into the ThinkPad is all that is needed. You may need to 'trust' the TB3 dock and tweak a BIOS setting to enable TB3 to wake up the computer. This is a safety feature. Since I trust the TB3 dock, I set my TB3 BIOS setting to 'no security' and the system properly wakes/sleeps via TB3. Overall - this machine is very well built and it is so light! It's very easy to slip into and out of a bag. The exterior finish can handle more roughness than the Mac, the outer shell here will not scratch as easily as the metal Mac finish. Getting this ThinkPad has opened my eyes to non-Apple laptops and I am glad the switch was made. Breaking up with MacOS is not so bad after all. Elected to use PopOS! 18.04 LTS over Windows 10 - as a developer, having Linux on the desktop feels right at home. It was a simple wipe and install to give Windows the boot. If you're looking for a solid laptop, this is it.

Laptop didn’t match the exact advertised in description. The keyboard malfunctioned, as it didn’t work most times until after a restart, with this malfunction continuing. Battery capacity fluctuates abnormally which smacks of a defective battery system. Overall, highly disappointed with Amazon & Seller for shipping this bad product & I have since returned this abnormal thinkpad in less than 24hrs of receiving it.

What you get from this Thinkpad for only $300 is amazing! I installed Fedora Linux on it instantly, and that OS has full support for this machine. Everything is snappy, opens instantly, haven't had any slowdown. Boot time is amazing - just a handful of seconds. No problems with WiFi or multiple Bluetooth connections. The speakers are super quiet at max volume, but I don't really care about that (and that's a problem with this model of laptop itself, not the fact that it's used). The battery I got didn't have a crazy number of power cycles, and it holds its charge throughout the whole day before I need to charge again. Even if you get one with a bad battery, it's cheap enough to order a replacement one on Amazon (just look up 01AV430 or anything compatible with this specific carbon x1 Thinkpad gen 6). This is the lightest laptop I ever had, but it still feels premium. Unlike other lightweight laptops, the lid opens really easily with one hand. The laptop was in really good condition and came with the original Lenovo branded charging cable. The only problem is a single dead pixel on the screen, but I mostly forget it's there. Worth it for the price. I'll probably never buy a new laptop again. You can do everything you want to on this thing - unless it requires a graphics card. I use it for programming and I've had no issues at all. This thing was $1300 when it came out a few years ago! If you want a spare laptop, getting this is a no brainer.

This is a lightweight machine that was physically in excellent condition. Everything worked except the fingerprint reader. It came with Windows 10 and qualified for an upgrade to Windows 11 based on the machine specifications. However, every attempt to upgrade to Windows 11 would not work. I bought a new hard drive and installed Windows 11 from scratch without a problem. In addition, I installed Linux Mint, latest edition and established a dual boot setup. Linux worked very well with no problems and everything worked from the very first install. Windows 11 has to be installed first then Mint. Since I bought this laptop to run Linux Mint 21.1, it's performance is what I am going to comment on. From the first install it worked without any problems, no additional drivers were required. Bluetooth headphones, sound, graphics, and all the hardware ports worked. It has a very beautiful 2560x1440 display that is bright, with vibrant colors. The performance of Linux on this machine is very fast and reliable. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to try Linux, then this is for you.

TLDR: Came dirty, works great. Adjust battery settings on first startup, laptop wont die fast. I opened the box, it came with a generic usb c laptop charger in a separate box and the laptop in bubble wrap. Just like I saw in another review it was filthy. There were crumbs all over and inside the keyboard, and I ordered the "excellent condition" but it came with a decent chip missing from the edge by the trackpad. It was dead on arrival but when I plugged it in, it turned on and charged just fine. For the battery life which some people say is bad, if you interrupt the first startup and change the settings to optimize battery performance it will last pretty long. I went down a rabbithole of research trying to find an affordable gaming laptop and ended up choosing this instead, which is honestly going to outperform any actual gaming laptop at a similar pricepoint open box. So far it only got hot in the first startup because it was downloading and updating everything for my first use and I downloaded a bunch of stuff at the same time too. Other than the excessive crumbs, chip and arriving dead this laptop is more than I hoped for and would definitely recommend for someone else. If I find any functions that don't work I'll come back with an update but so far I'm satisfied and after playing games for 3 hours unplugged and checking the battery life it still had more than half full. Also, mine didn't arrive with a touchscreen but that's fine because I didn't expect one. Some reviews say theirs surprised them with that feature.

Had to wait a little while for delivery but it was well worth it. You can tell that this is a refurb, meaning it’s not brand new but they do a very good job of making this presentable and like new. I bought this to get away from Windows and had read that the x1’s work really well with Linux. I have a Legion 540 for gaming and I’m now using it for a windows system for gaming exclusively. I got so sick of Microsoft trying to force me to sign in and stripping functionality with the forced updates. If you are a long time windows power user you know exactly what I am talking about. It in noway is recognizable from the OS it used to be. Linux on the other hand is the same basic OS it has been from the beginning. I don’t have to relearn how to navigate menus, files and directories to administrate every time an update comes down the pike. And this system screams with Linux right out of the box. They actually sent me an x1 Yoga 3 with a nice HDR touchscreen. I guess they were out of the x1 carbons at the time. Same system just with a 2 in 1 form factor. It’s actually nicer than the X1 carbon in my opinion and I believe they were higher priced when they came out. Hardware is still very relevant in this system. Of course your not going to do any heavy gaming with it but that’s not what it was made for. For productivity this system crushes. I did have a problem with the battery that mine shipped with but one call to customer service and it was resolved in about 2 minutes and my replacement was delivered in 48 hours. Great Job TekRefurbs!

Buyer beware, this item is not as advertised. I intentionally purchased a renewed/refurbished computer for the price for my purposes, compared to purchasing the current model. I also appreciate that companies purchase computers from companies who are upgrading their assets and refurbish and repurpose them for resale and other purposes. However, in the case of the laptop I received, it had been preconfigured by a Corporate (B & G) IT support and an Administrator account was hard encoded into the system and the Windows and/or Lenovo serial number(s) are registered to the company for configuration and update management. These corporate settings cannot be removed to allow a “Clean” configuration of the laptop and operating system. I had direct access to experience professional IT support, who attempt to reset the windows configuration multiple times and by multiple methods (restore and remove all files to a new windows configuration (local restore, cloud restore and USB book key), as well as the “System Clean up Action, Enter System Out-of-Box Experience). The experienced IT professional was also not able to remove the corporate Administrator or default corporate user accounts. I was able to find a way to get basic utility from the computer, but as the Administrator is locked as is another user, and the computer serial number is registered by a company's IT department with Microsoft, no owner of this device will ever have full access to configure this computer unless the original company deregisters the serial number with Microsoft/Lenovo. The seller was not able to provide any assistance other than simple reset procedures, and to recommend returning the computer. They did offer a 5% discount on a future purchase, but I will avoid this seller in the future. Ultimately, the purchase was a waste of time. Hopefully other laptops will not have hard coded admin users and the companies they buy used assets from will deregister the computer serial numbers so other buyers have a better experience.

I bought two of these over the last year and they both came in excellent condition. They both had Windows 10 and I did a clean install of Windows 11 from USB and then installed Lenovo's update utility and that worked perfectly. The only minor issue I had was one came with an older Lenovo power supply with a USB-C converter. The converter connector was a bit gritty plunging it in and I didn't trust that It would not damage the laptop connector over time. I complained this was not the OEM type of power supply for this unit and they offered me an exchange or $20 refund. I took the refund as I already had a spare USB-C charger.