Lenovo T400 Wireless Options

Spoke to Lenovo today about upgradability of Intel 5300 to Wimax and they said it was not upgradable.

Therefore I have to wait for the 5350 to be released by Lenovo for the T400 which will likely come out the same time that Wimax is marketted for sale in September or later this year as press reports seem to indicate in all probability. I put in a Quote for a 5300 based wifi model and will see how prices are as we get closer to 5350 release.

Reports on these forums about 5300 being user upgradable to Wimax are false according to Lenovo.

 

why do you need wimax support? thats not gonna be too important for a few years.

 

If you call Lenovo and ask them if the CPU is upgradable later, they will tell you no too, but yet so many people upgraded their CPU. If I were you, I'd contact Intel directly to get the correct information.

 

Not really. Remember Lenovo handles the antenna part and the way it fits into the case. Intel just handles the card part.

Wimax likely has different antenna and frequency requirements and as such likely has to be TESTED by Lenovo directly for compliance which means things such as antenna placement or tuning or other aspects of the system itself can be different.

Yes Lenovo will tell me the CPU can be upgradeable. The CPU is upgradable to whatever the motherboard chipset and bios can handle.

Intel is not responsible for the internal system antennas, design and placement, only the MiniPCI card.

 

Yeah the antenna is the only part I'm not too sure about, I guess maybe you're right.

I think when the 5150/5350 rolls out on the market, we will know for sure if it does require a different antenna. I know the WiMAX technology is different than WiFi, so the possibility of requiring a different antenna is not low.

EDIT: I'm sure Intel knows if it does require a different antenna or not though.

 

Hmm i guess you bring up a good point with the antennas however as for the actual cards, intel designed them to use the same interface for attaching to the antennas, ie the 5100 matches up with the 5150 and the 5300 matches with the 5350. i would question why they would do this if they didnt plan on manufactureres making them upgradable...but i guess we will see.

 

I am having a problem with the Lenovo account feature. I had the right password entered as well as username and it is not letting me log back in.

I reset the password like 4 times and each time it is not letting me in with the password.

Should I call up Lenovo? I did a price quote so that if the price changes I would be able to get the lower price.

I wrote them an email telling them of the problem.

Will also create a new account.

Created new account, also blocks account access. Seems like you cant save quotes from CPP pricing to the cart since it blocked out the account for some reason.

emailed lenovo in regards to the first account I had

 

I would think they are bright enough to built the lcd's standard with 3 antennas, then allow up to 3 to be used in the miniPCI express slot.

I ordered with a card that only uses 2, so it will be interresting to see how many antennas are there, if I need 1 more down the road, i'm sure I can do the install myself, but it's a crappy deal for people who don't normally take their laptops apart.

that being said, i'm not on the "wimax" bandwagon yet (not even wireless n), I liked my Intel 3945 card from one of my dell's and i'm going to be swapping for that. I'll use that for a couple years to see where wimax goes, you never know whats going to stay and whats not, even if the technology seems good (hd-dvd vs bluray?)

 

Any update on this?

 

I believe Intel has kept the antenna configuration the same for the newer 5350 card as the 5300 3X3. It is still going to have 3X3 configuration as far as I know..

 

Wimax is a ways off from being ubiquitous.
I'll likely be on my next laptop by the time it is fully available.