My T410 initial impressions

My T410 was delivered this morning, which was surprising since it didn't go through customs until just before midnight.
The build quality is solid! Very sturdy, but I know what Kevin meant in his review when he talked about screen flex. There is a good amount of it when opening the screen.
Quality control is a little iffy. There's a bunch of fingerprints on the LCD screen, a few dust particles, and what appears (I sincerely hope not!) a scratch, or a streak of dust. There's also some kind of hard material in between the speaker grills. Not too happy about that though.
The system is very fast and responsive, though the first bootup took about 15 minutes. I don't know if that's typical or not (first bootup on my U150 was quick).
I just made my recovery discs, and will be downloading some software before I'll be installing my Intel SSD, and removing the ODD with the travel cover. After I install those I'll apply some iKlear and hope that it cleans up the screen and speaker grills.
Other than that bit of lapse in quality control, so far I'm very happy. The screen is a bit dim when lowered from 100% brightness, but I think my eyes will adjust. Oh, and the screen quality is way better than it was on my U150, and I was very happy with the U150 screen, so definitely no complaints with my T410!
That's it for now. Off to finish setting up my system, and then I'll be testing some games.

 

Regarding the screen flex, how well protected would say the screen is?

Is the flexing when opening/closing something that you could capture on video?

 

The flex is moderate. I would say just open and close the lid carefully and you should be fine. The hinges might be a little tight though since it's brand new. Sorry though, I don't have a camcorder. How well protected though, I don't know, because I'm not bold enough to bend it and twist it to find out. Kevin would be a better authority on that, or others in the forum.

 

Hooray for you talin!!! Another member to the T410 family!!!
I thought you were getting the T410s??? Also, let me know how the travel cover works out. Ever since I read your other post I have been contemplating getting one myself but have been wondering if it would really lead to a reduction in weight.
I am little confused about what you mean when you talk about screen flex when opening the lid. Do you mind elaborating?

 

I can't believe their QC is so poor. When I received mine it too had what looked like a scratch on the screen.

I phoned up customer service to RMA it and would you believe they refused to RMA?

To me a NEW computer should not have a mark on the screen. ANY mark.

I then had to clean it off with a screen wipe. Fortunately it did eventually clean off.

If it hadn't, I would have phoned AMEX and had them cancel the transaction due to broken goods.

I really couldn't believe how poor customer service was in dealing with the matter though. It was like they didn't care.

Am still mad just thinking about it!

Hope yours is just a temporary mark and you get to enjoy it... nice products... pity about the rest. Outsourcing at it's best!

 

Congrats on the new machine !
And, please let us know the results of the QC issues !

 

Well I'm back, taking a break from my testing. I have some interesting results. First of all, I took some iKlear to the screen, thank god whatever that "scratch" was, it's gone. Might have just been some dust or dirt. Got rid of all the fingerprints on the LCD and grime that was in the speaker grill.
I installed the SSD, and ran a system restore, and promptly after a reboot my system froze for like a minute, then the screen greyed out with a report that windows explorer has crashed. After I restarted my system the theme was changed to windows standard, weird.
The SSD is also making some weird noises, I don't know if it's normal or not since I've never had one before. I ended up installing XP for awhile, and to test some games.
Gaming performance really surprised me. It was a disappointment. Battlefield 1942 should be flying, and yet it's struggling (again). I really don't get it. I'm kind of starting to think if this is a Lenovo thing somehow, maybe they're downclocking something. I really have no idea.
The T410 is super cool, the fans hardly ever come on. It's also super fast. Oh, it came with a Western Digital Cavier, which was pretty fast, and it was silent, I had to put my ear up to the case to be able to hear anything. Fan seems to be on more now that my SSD is installed.
That's it for now. Just trying to figure out a way to restore 7 back to my SSD without having to do a fresh install.

Oh, about the screen flex, the right side where you slide that switch to unlock the lid, if you pull up from there, the screen flexes quite a bit, not so much if you open it from the center it seems.

Overall, I'm loving my T410. I love the black, blocky case design, and the rubberized lid. Very solid and sturdy notebook. I honestly don't see what some (few) were complaining about the screen quality. It's just fine to me, in fact it's pretty good IMHO.

The travel cover works great, it just slides in and locks into place like the ODD. It's a pretty nice fit too.

 

I believe that your T410 was shipped from 'ShangHai, CN'. If so, maybe a product of OEM factory. Lenovo's own factory in 'ShenZhen, CN' has much better QC.
I had T410's from both places. One was like yours and lose battery, The other was very clean and tight battery.

 

All tracking showed was that it came from Hong Kong. From before that, I don't know where it came from.

 

Is the battery tight in it's slot?

 

When and where did you place the order? How many days been taken to ship? Thanks.

 

Lenovo don't use oem for their thinkpad line, they only use oem for their ideapad product line.

Which SSD did you put in the T410.

 

I heard that Thindpad OEMed already.

 

So many questions, I'll try to get to them all.

@leshan; I got just the 4 cell battery, it sits flush in the notebook, with just a little bit of wiggle.
I ordered from Lenovo.com, on 4/2, with 2 day shipping and I'm happy to say it actually got to me in 2 days from Hong Kong.

@k2001; I put in an Intel 80GB G2 SSD.

It appears I jumped the gun a bit. It is a scratch on the screen, but I can only see it when the computer is off, looking at it at an extreme angle. I can't see it at all when the computer is on. So that's fine with me, not worth the hassle to send it back for that.

All in all I'm very pleased with it, and I would definitely order from Lenovo again.

 

I agree with LeMarcus^^^ above. You paid top dollar expecting a top dollar product not one with scratches, fingerprints, dust etc..

 

I also agree and in my recent communications with the Managing Director of Lenovo (India), I got the impression that he too (assuming that he is representing the Lenovo ethic) subscribes to this view.

You have a brand new machine and it should not be tarred in anyway. Of course, you may feel differently about it.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but it really is invisible unless the screen is off and you look at it from an extreme angle. I've decided to keep it.

 

congrats on getting the T410, I'm ordering one myself. How long did the shipping take?

 

2 days from Hong Kong to the US.

 

Well this is interesting... I reinstalled windows 7, and decided to give some games a try again. First was battlefield 1942. I got roughly twice the performance I did in XP. Then I tried a couple other games, performance is also excellent. The only thing I can think of is, it must be a driver thing.