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Lenovo X1 Carbon
This article outlines the various anti-consumer measures used in the Lenovo X1 Carbon series of laptops. Some concepts may overlap with Lenovo's general practices, a Chinese-American multinational technology company.
Hardware Vendor Lockout (BIOS Whitelist)
Most models of the Lenovo X1 Carbon will fail to post if the user changes their WWAN broadband card to a WWAN card that is not on the Lenovo Vendor Whitelist[1]. If a user intends to use a WWAN card manufactured by another company, which are typically cheaper than the Lenovo factory-installed WWAN cards, the computer will not boot until the user removes the card. Evasion of these whitelists has been outlined in the ArchLinux wiki[1], but success is very limited.
The intent behind this vendor-lockout is ambiguous, and not well-documented officially by Lenovo.
Resulting cost for the consumer
Lenovo currently charges $298 USD to install a Quectel RM520N-GL 5G Sub6 from the factory[2].
Some used options of similar modems can, at the time of writing, be purchased for $150 USD[3]. 4G modems can be purchased for even less[4].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "ThinkPad mobile Internet" - wiki.archlinux.org
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Screenshot or pricing options for WWAN card of Lenovo Laptop
- ↑ "Quectel RM520N-GL" - ebay.com - 17 Jan 2025 - Archived Page: https://archive.is/IkmZV
- ↑ "NEW Dell V8KN6 Sierra Wireless AirPrime EM7455 DW5811e LTE 4G WWAN Card" - ebay.com - 17 Jan 2025 - Archived Page: https://archive.is/uSubr
