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X230

Thinkpad X230 (aka x230) is a 12" laptop made by lenovo, praised for it's upgradablity and easy repairablity, it also is famous for it's large amount of mods, here we try to describe this laptop, it's features and quirks.

note that this documentation is largely unverified and based on random notes on the web.

Stock Models

There are 4 varients of x230

vanilla x230

includes an i5 or i7, most likely you find a i5 version.

x230i

packed with either i3, celeron or pentium, otherwise exactly same. it seems (i've not verified) BIOS images are the same.

x230 Tablet

also known as x230t, this model is largely same with x230, but replaces original screen with a touch one, which makes it it also removes thinklight, has a bulkier (and weaker?) battery. BIOS images do differ.

x230s

totally a different beast, nothing in common with other three variants, mostly a 3rd gen proto-x240. avoid these if you want a x230. keyboard appears to be same with x240, charger cable is newer square type, and CPU is a U series intel CPU, which is way too slower, however has better power consumption.

Custom Models

there are bunch of modded variants of x230 that people call by various names, some are named in following, however note that they are usually more expensive, rare and harder to fix rather than stock x230 models

x330

a custom varient of x230 with 13" displays, often use nitrocaster board to achieve higher resolutions than what LVDS is capable of (see LVDS)

some varients modded by 51nb also includes better processors than regular processors, including some 4C/8T ones.

x225

rarely used by people to name x230 motherboards retrofitted inside a x220 chassis, there are some minor differences between these two, but largely compatible. so it should work (see x230 compared to x220).

x235

rarely used by people to name x230 motherboards with powerful non-stock CPU.

x230 compared to x220

both x230 and x220 are largely the same, with minor differences

sandy bridge CPUs which are used in x220 are replaced with ivy bridge series CPUs in x230,
- while not very faster it offers better power consumption and better temps
intel HD3000 upgraded to intel HD4000. which boots graphical performance up to 50%+
- HD4000 is earliest intel graphics to support vulkan 1.0, however support is too basic to make any meaningful difference in games
- HD4000 supports OpenGL 4.2 compared to HD3000's OpenGL 3.3
x230 uses newer 6-row keyboard, which largely differs with older generations keyboards
- however it's possible to retrofit x220's keyboard inside x230 (see classic keyboard)
  - note that caps lock doesn't LED indicator on x220 keyboard doesn't work on x230
only i7 version of x230 includes (only one) USB 3.0 connectors (it uses NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 controller, which is NOT native and might(?) offer worse speed, some people have mentioned it doesn't work on battery) , while ALL x230s support two USB 3.0 out of the box
Display Port on x230 is replaced with mini-DP
in x220 there is only single chip to store BIOS rom, while in x230 there are two, which makes it much easier to flash custom firmware
there is no bluetooth indicator LED unlike x220, in x230
x230 appears to have a vendor lock-in on batteries, which x220 doesn't have.
- it's can be easily removed however
palm rest slightly differs
x230 doesn't suffer from x220 BIOS issues. (16Gb egpu bug etc)

Keyboard

there are two keyboards for x230 available:

stock 30-series keyboard

Originally shipped as only keyboard available for x230 (and other 30-series Thinkpads), works out of box. (symbols on this keyboard are in a dark-gray color, however it appears there were some version with light-blue color, which seems to be rare if it ever made into market) note that some keyboards lack backlight.

stock 10/20-series keyboard

first introduced in 10-series Thinkpads, this keyboard is also known as 7-row keyboard, compared to older revisions from 00-series(?), new keyboards include a power, sound and mic indicator in the keyboard.

These series (10, 20, 30) all share a same set of keyboard internal connectors, with tiny differences, which makes keyboard swap possible. older series(00/01?) keyboards seems to have same connectors, however they can't be fitted into 20/30-series chassis.