Need help. T400, T400s, or T500 for writer.

Hi. Hope you can help.
I already have a souped-up desktop for design work. I'm now looking for a new laptop, primarily for writing. I desire an excellent keyboard, a long battery life, decent screen real estate, and a very fast start up/awake from sleep. I would also stream movies to it from my desktop, so decent wifi, screen, and speakers. I don't want speakers that I have to strain to hear.

I'm leaning towards the T400. The price is right, and it allows for a 9-cell battery. Should I consider instead the T400s or T500?

If I do go for the T400, I would like to know which processor would fit my requirements. I presently have a laptop (too small, awful battery life) with an intel core 2 duo [email protected]. The speed is great. So, I wouldn't want it much slower. I don't do too much multitasking. I'll usually run windows media player, firefox, ms word, adobe reader, and a virus prog in the background.

Turbo memory?

Also, I want an SSD drive for a faster start up. Should I get it from Newegg or elsewhere rather than from Toshiba?

Lastly, which screen will be easier on the eyes for lots of reading?

 

The cheapest processor for all the T series you mentioned is fine for your requirements.

If you want battery life then the T400 seems good, but do not expect anything amazing from the screen or speakers. I believe people say the high-nit t400 screen is best right now?

As far as readability it depends on what DPI you are comfortable with but then again you will also have to make sure whatever screen you want actually comes in the resolution you want.

Turbo memory is usually considered pointless for many.

After market SSD upgrades are usually better since you can control what drives you want specifically.

 

Thanks jaredy. I will say that I'm comfortable reading at 1280 x 800 on a 12" screen.

Also, can I stick with integrated graphics? Or should I go for discrete?

 

Integrated would be fine for your needs, the X4500 is designed for HD content.

You might want to invest in some decent headphones as the speakers on the T400 are weak and have virtually no bass. I'm not sure if those on the T400s or T500 are any different, I think its one of the weaker points on Thinkpads. I use mine if I just want something quiet while I'm working, but for shows or movies I use headphones.

I primarily use my T400 for writing, its a great machine for that purpose. Tweak the power settings and you can get over 10 hours on the max battery life setting. A year later I've lost about 12% of my battery capacity and I still get over 8 hours.

 

Have you looked into the X200 tablet? I think for a writer that might be pretty cool. You can write things using the stylus pen on the screen.

If you are not doing any 3d work integrated graphics is fine. I like integrated since it pulls less power and keeps the machine cooler but some of the newer machines have switchable graphics which makes that argument moot.

 

I'd put in a vote for the Tablet as well. The screen (especially the 285nit SuperBright LED) is the best currently available on any ThinkPad. Weight is great, wi-fi/keyboard/battery life is very good, speakers are above average (much better than the x200 ).

Performance, especially with an SSD, is more than adequate for your workload. The vertical resolution (800 pixels) isn't ideal but it's also adequate, besides only the T500 would offer substantially more vertical resolution. Additionally, the Tablet is exceptional for reading and proofing documents as you can switch to slate mode with 1280 vertical pixels.

Price does work against the Tablet, but it's worth it in my opinion.

Don't bother with Turbo memory if you are going to get an SSD as it would be counter-productive (the SSD would be faster than the Turbo memory). If you get a T400s you would be best served to order the SSD from Lenovo (due to the 1.8" size), but otherwise an aftermarket SSD (Intel x-25M, Samsung, or Indillix [OCZ Vertex]) would probably be a less expensive solution.


One important question that you didn't address is where exactly do you do your writing? If it's primarily at desks and/or a table in your home then the T400/T500 might be nice due to the larger screen. However, if you are more mobile and write in coffee shops, hotels, airports, vehicles, etc. then I think you would appreciate the reduced size/weight of the T400s or x200.

 

Actually, I had a tablet in the past with a touchscreen no less, but I never found myself using those features. I thought they were very cool and nice to show off, but that's about it for me. I still prefer paper and pen for notes.

I'm actually worried that the superbright may be too bright and cause eye strain indoors. Anyone mention this phenomenon?


I will use this laptop mostly at my house or nearby in cafes. So, I don't need it to be an ultra portable. I have a 12" screen now, and it's a bit small.
I haven't seen the 15" T500 in person, so I'm not sure if its size is excessive. Plus, I hear more about keyboard flex... though I think this issue may have been rectified.

Does lenovo's site give the dpi count for each screen type? I can't find this info.

 

agree with jonlumpkin that if a 12" screen is to your liking, you might try an x200 series. I don't own one but am told that the x200s and x200t screens are preferable to the x200.

I own a t400s and tend to think that it would be a good fit. it's less than 4 pounds and has a very bright screen. the keyboard is fabulous and the speakers, though they lack bass, are better than the x200 or x200s (x200t might have better speakers, I dunno). I replaced the DVD drive with a battery and typically get 7h of battery life.

good luck with your decision!

 

Oh, I just found the dpi info on the site. My 12" Toshiba laptop screen now has a 1280 X 800. The resolution is great for me. However, if I switch to a Lenovo 14" with the same resolution, which is one of two resolution they offer, won't it look worse to me?

 

Everything will look larger.

 

At full brightness the superbright screen can be overkill indoors. However, it has a very broad range and is adjustable to comfort from a pitch black room to a sunny day. I tend to operate at 10/15 brightness under normal lighting, 3/15 brightness in dimly lit rooms, and 15/15 brightness when outdoors or when using it as a slate in rooms with overhead fluorescent lights.

However, if you find 12.1" too small for you I understand.

DPI Chart (grid based upon resolution/size) for your reference. WXGA+ on a 14.1", WXGA on a 12.1", and WSXGA+ on a 15.4" all range between 120 and 130 DPI.

 

If you desire an excellent keyboard, the T4x units are probably the best of the more recent ThinkPads and it doesn't look like you need more performance than a Pentium M.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the help, everyone. Does anybody know if the present sale prices on Lenovo's US site are always there? Or, should I act quickly? I'd prefer to wait a bit longer.

 

Lenovo is always having sales, with some being better than others. You can wait and keep pricing machines out and try to get the best deal. If you like a certain config right now you can save it as a quote, which is good for 30 days.

 

Are there older lenovos with long battery lives (9 cell) and excellent keyboards? Maybe I don't need the newest model.

 

An IBM 14.1" T42 w/ integrated graphics and SXGA+ display should fit that bill fairly nicely.

EDIT - SXGA+ not available on integrated T42 (see below)

 

There's no SXGA+ on Intel GPUs for the T4x machines. It wasn't until the T60 you could get SXGA+ on the Intel cards. I think there was for the R series, but only the 15". If you want a SXGA+ T4x ThinkPad I'd probably go with the T43 as it's much likely to have the GPU flex issue.

The T60 might be a better choice unless you're on a very tight budget. They're in most regards better machines than the T4x ThinkPads, tough not as slim. Plus you get a dual core CPU and access to bigger faster SATA drives. You might be able to find one under warranty, which means you can extend the warranty.

The R60 and the underrated Z series might be worth a look as well. Both are solid machines.

 

@Daed, you can option the T400 with a WXGA+ screen, which has around the same ppi as your 12 inch WXGA screen Toshiba.

While, if you don't play games or do too much multimedia creation work, then the ATI 3470 GPU is not much of a use to you, if you are into these stuffs, then it is underpowered. So if i am you i would stick with the X4500 integrated GPU, since it was designed for native decoding of bluray movies.

If you don't use multi applications then a T8xxx Penryn cpu should be more than enough, as the T9xxx CPU use more battery power (25W TDP T8xxx versus 35w for T9xxx), the benefit of T9xxx is that it has 6 mb of L2 cache rather than the 3 mb of L2 cache.

Economics of Marginal Use.

 

The T500 is a decent machine for what you need; right now they are $750 for an adequate config.