Lenovo T400 First Impression

Greetings,

I just got my T400 an hour ago, here are my first impressions:

The keyboard was slightly mushy, but not if you don't concentrate on it. Mine came with a dead pixel in the screen as well. There is a moderate amount of bloatware that I have already removed. Weight wise, its alright, I wouldn't say it is the ultimate 14'' portable but it will work, I will be carrying around to classes.

There will be more to come, + pictures.


PS. I have Vista Home Premium on this laptop. This is my first time with Vista, how do you see the task manager?

 

Are you happy with it so far? I'm trying decide between the T400 and the E6400 for college as well.

 

Very satisfied, although a bit under my expectations, it easily beats a Dell or HP any day despite what I mentioned and its looks. But personally, I like the design simple like Lenovo's.

 

Ctrl + shift + esc to bring up Windows Task Manager or alternatively, ctrl + alt + del and click "Show Task Manager"

 

Well over an hour of use, I find this laptop quite amazing. The screen is got was WXGA+ TFT LED. The reports of it being very dim are false. The screen is great, nice brightness too. It is matte not glossy making the colors a bit less vibrant. But the screen is great IMO.

 

Yes, having a matte screen was the main reason I bought a T400 in the first place. I also have the WXGA+ resolution, but with CCFL backlighting. If LED was an option I would've gone with it, but apparently its rarely available at Lenovo's US site. My screen has no dead or stuck pixels, though, so that's some consolation.

 

Congratulations! Do you notice a bluish tinge to the colors on the screen?

 

T400: the screen is not in central..badbad bad.

e6400: I like the e6400's design, it looks better than t400

but keyboard is like a crapy $400 ACER quality, I don't know how to descrbie. The keys are worset I have ever had. ( I owned E4200, it's 100 times better.). The typing experience is also not good for me

Beside this, e6400 may suddently slow down, at that moment, you have nothing to do and have to push power button to reboot it.


Other than these, I have no other compliants since I only owned e6400 for 20 mins.

 

Now, I've noticed that there is a space in between the screen and chassis, when its closed. Anyone else have this?

 

where is the dead pixel

 

Near the center, offset to the bottom left.

 

Bamp, I think it was a stuck pixel, the screen is very bright.

 

I bought my T400 through CPP with the same screen type as yours. Although outdoors screen visibility is butchered even at max brightness, regular room settings is perfect, even with it dimmed to half way. I also agree that matte screens > glossy screens. No glare is awesome!

Yeah, the glossy design on most modern laptops aren't that appealing to me. Fingerprints everywhere!

 

So what I have found on the first day of usage is:

• The battery wobbles a slight bit, less than a millimeter of wobble.
• The lid doesn't close completely, I can press down on it and it would go down a bit.

Is this normal?

**EDIT**





The space is very subtle, but it's annoying me.
I may send it back for a new one.

 

Bamp, I will be calling tech support on Monday.

 

How did you get the WXGA+ in LED? Are you the US?

 

I live in Canada.

 

Many people seem to have the battery wobble but I have never experienced it on my T61p or X200. My batteries are very tight on each unit. i personally wouldn't worry about it.

I haven't paid that close attention to the lid closing issue you mention. The Thinkpads screen is slightly bowed purposely, it is a design feature to help structural integrity. This might be what is causing the slight gap when closing. Check out this thread on the lenovo blogs that explains this feature.

 

I'm pretty sure it is faulty because the contacts on the top of the screen are not touching the holes.

 

Is the lid also supposed to be hanging over the body?

 

Did you read the blog The Fire Snake posted?
Mine is like that and it doesn't bother me at all...

 

When did you buy yours? I personally think its faulty, my friend owns a T500 and his is completely closed and the lid is not hanging over the laptop.

 

I ordered it on 7/31

 

I got my T400 (as sig) a week ago and the lid is flat when closed.

 

I wish they used a magnesium alloy lid instead of plastic.

 

The plastic contacts on my T500 don't go all the way into the holes when it's closed either (they're slightly above) - there is a small gap there, which is slightly larger in the center than on either side. That's normal, I believe, to allow for compression space if you, for example, stack textbooks on top of your Thinkpad.

No, that's not normal. My T500's screen aligns perfectly with the body when closed.

 

If I get it repaired of replaced, will it get back to me before September?

 

Here are some T500, lid photo's. The T400 has roughly a 1mm gap at least.





Sorry, the photos are a bit out of focus.

 

Mine has the exact same problem. Over time I noticed more flaws with the machine than I had anticipated from a Thinkpad I must say. Wobbly battery, loose palmrest on bottom right corner, lid doesnt close, can't wake from sleep, loose plastic strip border above keyboard, etc.

 

My T400 also has exactly same kind of "feature", lid locks but I can still press it approximately 1 mm more. My machine is only 3 weeks old and this has been occuring since day 1 so I never questionized it.

 

Mine is exactly like this and does not bother me at all. My impression is that this is normal in this model. Go to a shop a check it out before sending anything back.

 

Hy, i have question about a keyboard! I know that some keyboards are not so good, but i checked out my keyboard part name alps: 42t3230, something is here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=130568 ,so is this a strong or that weak one? I didnt took pieces of my laptop, just i look in the lenovo part center that name, thats why i ask.

 

I called Lenovo, and they said that I should be able to fit a dime (CAN) into the hole snuggly and I can. Problem solved!

 

So what you are saying is that it is within tolerances?

 

Yes. I am saying it is within tolerances.

 

Mine has the slight gap too. As someone else said, it is entirely normal. It allows for a bit of give to prevent the keyboard from marking up the LCD, as well as if you were to set something on top of the unit (or more commonly for me, should one of my cats decide my ThinkPad is the perfect bed up until I catch them). It's part of the arch design that debuted with the T61 to strengthen the unit.