Lenovo T420

Hello everyone!

After much research I've finally settled on buying a t420 for college next year, even with the poor screen quality. Does anyone know if they are still shipping out with LG or Samsung panels instead of the dreaded AUO ones?

Also, money being a bit tight I'd like to wait a bit in order to be able to benefit of lenovo's "back to school" august discounts, does anyone know if the t420 will still be in production by that time?

Thanks a lot and best regards,

Arthur

 

I think the current trend of late is that the undesirable AUO panels holds the majority share in T420's compared to the LG panels. It's unlikely you'll find a Samsung panel in a T420 as they're only available in the slimmer T420s models unless some happen to filter through.

By August time I think the T420 would be out of production since Lenovo would like to promote their T430 instead. Though if sales are a bit slow there may be a few left for them to clear their inventories.

 

Hearst... Do we know if this still holds true for the T430s? Will the T430s models have the better screens? (aka. Samsung, etc; NOT AUO brand) With Thunderbolt available on the i7 model and a better panel the T430s is looking like the best route.

 

Thanks for the reply!

pfff.. that's a real shame...

Ok, thanks for the info. Do you know exactly how good the lenovo deals are in august? For the moment the 430 appears to be about $200 more with an equal ish configuration...

 

I am trying to get rid of my T420 it turns out. I still have 2 years left on the warranty, and it includes accidental damage.

PM me if you are interested!

 

Thanks for the offer! Sadly I'm trying to go with discrete graphics and an i7....
Plus I quite like the idea of buying something new for once
Are you trying to get rid of it due to the screen?

The more I look at the new X1 Carbon the more it's starting to look like the perfect laptop! If the screen isn't crap....

 

trying to get rid of it because i need discrete graphics myself, and I already ordered the T430 as a replacement. Thanks for getting back to me though. I had zero problems with the screen however. I am kind of a video/film freak, but i have not experienced an IPS display on a notebook, which never soured my experience with any of the notebooks i've used for gaming and/or watching movies on.

Best of luck in finding your dream T420!

 

I swear I saw a Sammy on mine when I first got it. I'll run the hardware profiler app and report back here.

 

What poor screen quality?

You mean the visible grain from the matte screen? IMHO, that's not really "poor screen quality". The AUO panels have a more visible matte texture, but they're plenty bright and have average viewing angles, etc. They're not great, but I wouldn't call them poor.

You want a poor screen, take a look at an X301 some time...

 

The thing is I don't recall Lenovo matte screens to be so grainy as it is now. The anti-glare panels on my T61 and R61 models were absolutely fine in that respect, i'm typing on my T61 as I speak. But when I switch to my T420 the graininess of the AUO panel hits you immediately and it makes you wonder how it became to such a state.

 

The world has gotten progressively more greedy the past decade. In order to maximize profits, lower cost and lower quality components are used. The supporting argument you'll hear is that lowering the cost is a requirement for the competitive environment.

I say bull caa caa.

Screen quality is making a resurgence. Lenovo sources a single IPS model? The X220 and now X230? I really hope they are planning on having a 1600x900 14" Flexview on the X1 Carbon.

 

The T420 screens vary quite a bit. The first T420 and T420s I touched last April 2011 were dismal. Screen door city. Ugly.

The T420 screen I am using right now is decent. Good enough. And all three were AUO panels.

You are right about the X301 screen. It is a step down. But my X301 is still freaking nice. Mint condition, 8GB RAM, 160GB Intel Series 320 SSD. It is a wonderful machine in many regards.

 

I really enjoy hearing @ThinkRob talk about ThinkPads. Every time.

Okay, then, the ThinkPad screens have been "not great" for a few years now.

People at Lenovo suppose those screens are "not too bad" and spend their precious time on the so-called "precision" keyboard. Why? Does it make the laptop any slimmer, any lighter?

 

That was a particularly perplexing question for me as well. When Lenovo touted the keyboard on the X1, they said the design was required to make it oh so thin. Therefore, when I heard a similar keyboard was coming to the W530 I said to myself that is GREAT!!! We'll have a W530 that is .75".

But no such luck.

Seems to me the new ThinkPads should have been engineered to support either the traditional keyboard OR the backlit keyboard. I guess that would have driven up the number of SKUs to an unacceptable level.

 

Look, with the proliferating number of products (illogical, at least to me) and the overwhelming number of per-product options (reflecting a lack of clarity and discipline, at least to me), a couple of keyboard options wouldn't hurt, would they?

If they want to "cover all the bases" and push for "highest number of units shipped," I guess anything goes.

 

I have to agree. I have no idea why Lenovo thinks they need soo many families and models.

 

They've been "not great" forever, really. With the exception of FlexView and the X2x0 IPS option, they've been in solidly the range of "poor to the point of impairing functionality" (X301, some 600-series) up to "average" (T4x/T6x SXGA+).

Hey, at least they're not passive matrix anymore!

You'd have to ask David et al. that. I assume it's because their focus groups don't make a stink about the screens, but I honestly don't know.

You know, that's something that's puzzled me about most vendors, actually. Apple's pretty clearly demonstrated the benefit of a small, rigidly-defined product family. Why on earth don't more manufacturers follow their lead? I can see not wanting to be *quite* as strict as Apple -- a mid-range desktop wouldn't hurt them any, for example -- but the fact that Lenovo's Think range is no less perplexing than IBM's is puzzling to buyers to say the least.

On the plus side, at least Lenovo doesn't have a "product" line the "RS/6000" where the same "model" referred to a range of workstations, servers, and even supercomputers over the course of a decade.

Aren't the X1 and W530 keyboards different FRUs? I thought the X1 had a shorter stroke depth due to the thickness (2 mm vs 2.5 mm)...

 

As I said, I truly enjoy hearing @ThinkRob talk about ThinkPad.

Okay, people, stop blaming Lenovo. Things have been crazy since the IBM days.

 

They probably are. I didn't analyze it. I just assumed when I heard the backlit chiclet boards were coming, that reducing the chassis thickness would also come along for the ride.

Clearly that assumption was wrong.

 

No, do keep blaming them when it's something that they've done (or continued) that you don't like. I just think people should remember that voting with your wallet is the only significant form of voting... and on that note, that organizations that have large accounts with Lenovo have a hell of a lot more ballots than you or I.

(That said, it doesn't seem like they flat-out ignore the preferences that their Human Factor group determines, so if you live near Morrisville...)

Well I certainly didn't check the FRUs, so for all I know they might have overlap. I was just going off what I remembered about the stroke depth.

Yeah, if they're the same then I would expect at least a small reduction in thickness. Then again, maybe they figured "Oh, well it's a desktop replacement, so who cares about the thickness?"

 

Used to live in a wooded area north of Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.