Don't have my X220 yet, it's supposed to be delivered on Tuesday (it's cleared Customs and got from Mississauga ON to Concord ON in only 12 hours yesterday).
After spending three days using the X300 and an external monitor, I thought I might prefer two externals and forego the internal, with the even smaller X220 display. I ordered the Ultrabase Series 3 with the notebook. Lenovo has rearranged docking info into a circular set of references (details below), but I did find one thing useful. It says I can use two external displays, my question is how practical and how useful it actually is. If I can use two displays, I'm thinking that rather than pairing my old Dell 24" 16:10 with another display, get two identical. I'd probably start with them both on my desk, and if it worked well, get a tree from Planar Systems or someone else. Would two 24" displays (presumably each at 1920x1080) be overkill or physically too big for a 5' or 6' desk? Perhaps moving to 22" displays would be better (I'm having trouble visualizing either size on my desk). Dell has the P2211H "professional-grade" (I think that means it tilts swivels and has VESA mount points :) on sale, might have expired already (21.5", 16:9, 1920x1080). My current display (and I think the X300) are 16:10 and I'm worried about going to 16:9. Could I survive 32:9!? The Dell displays rotate (and presumably on a Planar tree a non-rotating display would also "rotate") so with two of those I could get effectively 18:16. If my math is right that's like 16:14, squarer than 16:9, 16:10, or even the original 16:12 (4:3). So if I can hook up 2 external displays (see below), could I drive two 1920x1080 in a 3840x1080 (virtual desktop) arrangement, or rotated into a 2160x1920 virtural desktop with an X220 with or without the Ultrabase? http://www1.partnerinfo.lenovo.com/us/en/pdf/Top_Options_ThinkPad_X220.pdf appears to be a Powerpoint presentation on the X220. I know I can have the internal and an external display in one desktop (same as always). Last page of the referenced PDF only mentions analog port but can I also do it with the DisplayPort? The PDF also says with the UltraBase Series 3 or Series 3 dock, I can have two external displays (VGA and DP) and the internal blank. I'm fine with that. Can I do this (VGA+DP) with the two onboard ports, if I'm somewhere where I have two displays and no base? Could I alternatively have on-board DP and UltraBase DP running two external displays, or do both have to be on the Base? The PDF also offers an option I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere, 4 displays with an X220: internal, external VGA, and two USB-DVI adapters. Is this real!? Could I do it with DP instead of VGA (it's like the presenter didn't know about X220's DP)? Presumably disabling the internal display and having 3 externals wouldn't be a problem except fitting them on my desk. Any advice on these options is appreciated! BTW, the circular references are these. 1. http://tinyurl.com/3snhp6b is the sales page for the UltraBase 3. It suggests going to www.lenovo.com/support/docks for more info on supported display configurations. Go to Step 2. 2. www.lenovo.com/support/docks redirects to http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4TPJF4 which is the page I remember with the info on all docking solutions but a popup immediately says it's moved to http://support.lenovo.com. Go to Step 3. 3. http://support.lenovo.com/en_US (note I was coming from Lenovo Canada) lets you specify a machine but doesn't seem to have anything on things like docks. Most likely is the link to Accessories Compatibility Guide at http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?LegacyDocID=ACCS-GUIDE. Go to Step 4. 4. http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?LegacyDocID=ACCS-GUIDE has links to PDFs on a bunch of topics but not the docks. It also has a list of other pages to visit, including www.lenovo.com/support/docks. Go to Step 2. That is all. Thanks for reading! -- Andrew mailto:[email protected] _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
