2510P and 2530P

Lookinf for a business budget notebook, in a choice that comprises Lenovo T400 and T61 I'm considering 2510P and 2530P, too.

Obviusly T61 and 2510P are less expensive than 2510P and 2530P (About 100 euro less) but I'm interested to know if them could be valuable products again.

I'll use the notebook only for browsing and programming with IDE like netbeans, visual studio, etc.

I need average performance but mainly I need a cool system, excellent keyboard and touchpad and a good portability.

The 2530P comes with L9400 while 2510P comes with U7600.
The T61 comes with T8300 while T400 with P8600.

All considered... which could be the "best" choice ?

 

The T400 has an awesome cooling system and keyboard but lacks in portability and touchpad. In fact I think all the models you are interested in have average touchpad (macbook ones are the best I've tried). If portability its your main concern the 2530p is a very good choice and when undervolted the lacking cooling system is decent. Also think that the 2530p/2510p hard drives are very slow.

Personally (Ive had T400, T61 and 2530p) I'd go with the T400 if its cheaper than the 2530p and use that money for an ssd or save it. Another good thing is the T400 uses ddr3 (cheap ram FTW) and a 2.5" hard drive (cheaper ssd upgrade). Also check if the T400 has a WXGA+ (1440x900) screen to get a little benefit from going bigger.

 

Yes, the T400 has a 1440x900, the same for the 2530P.
So is the touchpad not very good for both models ?

The portability is an important factor but not the sole factor.

In my area it costs at least 50 euro more than the T400.

Does 2530P not use a 2.5" just like the T400 ?!?

From some readings and forum opinions the 2510P seems to be really too weak so the choice is restricted only to T400, 2530P and eventually 6930P.

Can You make some considerations about this evaluating also the different available configurations for these models (P8XXX, T9XXX, L9XXX).

Many thanks, Stefano.

 

The 2530p come in 2 favors. The ones with a 2.5 inch HHD dont have a optical drive. The one with the slow 1.8 inch HDD do have a optical drive. And no 2530p has a 1440x900 screen, they all have the 1280x800 screen.

I still have a 2510p with a u7700 and those things run hot, even when idle. It is a nightmare to clean. You would need to have a special cortex screw driver set to take the screws out.

I would go with the t400, you get a much faster processor. You can also undervolt the processor using RMclock.

 

I'd grab an elitebook 2530p with a 2.5" hd. That would be your perfect option imo. Good luck, if you cant find the 2.5" hd one or the 1.8" ssd version get the T400 (excellent cooling system and performance), also higher resolution LCD (better productivity in some apps).