Quick student review of T420

Whenever I was at the library at school, my wireless would perform like an angel. At home, it will lose the connection, and fail to reconnect like 5-6 times a week-- Interference from wireless phones, or microwaves, and even neighboring apartments.

I knew I read something on this forum about the 6300 being more capable of holding connections. That's why I'd want it.

 

Well windows has it's power options just like it did in vista , but there is a lenovo program through thinkvantage called Power Manager. In that program there are a number of more options and ways to customize the power settings.

There are two views: basic and advanced. Surprisingly, I've yet to find the setting in advanced, but on the basic screen there is the option to turn on or off the "Lenovo turbo boost +" with a fan icon next to it. This option is right below two 'speedometers' that show the cpu and graphics usage percents.

Let me know if you have any other questions

 

^ This. It's not about Tx/Rx speeds. The Intel 6300 holds connections better.

 

I'm in the same boat myself. Get the i5 now or wait a few weeks and get the i7. Yes, the performance delta should be minimal but then again it has an extra 1MB of L3 cache so who knows how that performs.

I don't think the extra $140 is that much when you factor the machine should be good for at least 2-3 years or longer. My only issue is the waiting factor. I am quite impatient and want the i7 now

 

Did you compare it with T400 and T410?

 

Just for grins I loaded League of Legends and played through the first tutorial to see what kind of frame rate I would get on the x120e.
At medium settings native resolution 1366x768 I got a steady 20fps. Which I thought is not too bad.
I am going to try Civ 5 just to watch it choke to death.
I am still wondering how well WoW would play on the Intel 3000, if anyone wants to test this.

 

In theory, yes. In practice, all the benchmarks I've seen have the increased tolerance being so minimal as to call into question whether it was worth the additional $18.00.

Also, the Centrino 1000 isn't a 1x1 card -- AFAIK it's basically a 6200 with slightly gimped Tx performance.

For me, the difference between the Centrino 1000 and the 6300 was $38.00. That's half the cost of a RAM upgrade right there. Not worth it to me. If I want fast, I've got GigE.

 

I have a T400, is the T420 more durable than it?

 

Stickboy, what fps do you get in a 5v5 game? and on what settings? Thanks!

 

Sorry, I haven't checked back here for a bit.

I don't know anything about the game, I will try it and post back.
I also realize that this is the x120e and I am simply trying to draw comparisons between Intels 3000 grafx and the fusion APU grafx for my own personal curiosity.

In other words, I am posting irrelevant nonsense into this thread. Thus hijacking it and ruining everyones life... yeah. MOD!!!

 

Any chance of vidock results? still no confirmation if it will run on Pcie 2.0

 

Nope, this computer is solely for work, not play. (except for the rare game of LoL with a classmate, but that doesn't need a graphics card)

 

sprtnbsblplya,

What is the approximative weight of your T420 with 9-cell? I thought about getting the T420s. Default + bay batteries would give around 7-8 hours on the T420s wouldn't they?

 

My guess is around 5 lbs, no scale to test it though.

 

The T420 with the 6 cell battery weighs 2,29 kilo, using a pretty precise fishweight.

 

Just had an awesome mental image of you hanging your Thinkpad up with a fishhook.

 

Serious, that's a bummer.. the tabook states 6-cell: from 1.96kg. Weight being my main concern and pretty much the only reason to opt for a T420s.

Looking forward to your thoughts on battery life with a 6 cell, 9 cell (94Wh) getting 8-10 hours, 6 cell (57Wh) might get around 6 hours of normal use?

 

On a 13" MBP (i5-2420m + HD3000) I got 18-30 fps (avg ~22) in wow on 1280x800 at medium settings. This was in OS X though, didnt try in W7. Also returned laptop because of glossy screen and am now looking into Dell E6420, Dell Vostro 3450, and the Lenovo T420.

 

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - Notebookcheck.net Tech



Seems to play WOW at native resolution med settings smoothly and averaging between 4k in 3dmark06, seems to be faster than the entry level dedicated nvidia gpu 310m and might be on par with the 320m.

 

The 1.96kg figure is probably without an optical drive and with a lighter SSD.

 

You're probably right. I don't need the optical and will replace the HDD for a SSD but still, getting a 6 or 9 cell X220 is tempting once more..

 

OP, I've seen someone mentioning that the pixels are visible even on the 1600x900 screen. So how bad is the screen on yours? Thanks.

 

To the Original Poster, sprtnbsblplya,

Thanks for the T420 mini review. Can you talk a little bit more about the scren. specifically:

Horizontal viewing angles. When you move head from side to side do the colors and brightness change in anyway? Is it annoying in everyday use or merely noticable if you are looking for it?
- The horizontal viewing angle on my 15" T60 are noticeably bad.

Brightness. Is the screen bright enough to use outside on a sunny day.
- Just curious.

 

sprtnbsblplya, would be so great if you could comment more on the screen (the visible pixels issue I mentioned above).

Also, I've read a review on a German website and the reviewer complains about the flex of the screen/lid. I used to own a T43 and there was no flex whatsoever. Now, reading all this about the T420 screen issues is holding me back from placing an order. Also, would be great to read your comments on the overall build quality. Thanks in advance.

 

Similar to my question. The X220 with the IPS screen looks very tempting except for the lower resolution. But then, the smaller size and lighter weight?? If the T420 screen isn't horrible, it may be the better choice???

 

Hehe, don't worry it was in a plastic bag.

 

Yaah, well it not so bad, it's 100 grams lighter than my T410 and actually a little smaller all in all. It's not as high and the depth is a little shorter
than the T410 but it's a little wider, because of the new screen ratio.

I will test the battery life this afternoon.

 

T420s has USB 3.0, T420 doesn't...

Why can't both have Thunderbolt???? Damn it!!!!

 

What's your opinion of the 14.1" screen... too small for 1600 X 900? I hate how LCD manufacturers changed to the whole 16:9 ratio now so that they save on cost and produce one more screen... 16:10 or back to 4:3 makes the most sense for work related stuff. On my T61, which had 1440x900... text was almost a bit too small for that size... The decision now is whether to go with T520 and have 1600x900 of a 15" screen or not... decisions decisions...

 

Too small? Not at all!
Seriously, I like the screen. The viewing angles aren't going to win an award, but I knew that going into the purchase so it doesn't bother me. Its just one of those realities buying a Thinkpad.

I use no-squint add-on for FFox and have it at 120%, everything looks good.
I use MS Office and FoxIt PDF viewer all day at school and I can't complain, plenty of real estate.

 

To give people some reference, here's the WEI of my T400 as listed in my sig, using ATI graphics.

 

Does anyone have the battery life w/ a 6 cell? Seriously considering this against the HP 8460p and the X220. Gonna be using it for school, lots of spreadsheets

 

The reviews I've seen have been 7:45-7:50 real world.

 

Yes, I get around 5,5-6 hours from my 6 cell battery with browsing in Chrome and and 10 open windows, and 10 hours from my 9 cell.

 

Wow didn't realize 3450 was only slightly better than the 6310 lol.

 

Thanks!

Does anyone know how we can get the student discount (I am a student)? Couldn't find the student portal or anything.

 

^ I think getting a 10% discount is better than the student pricing. I don't know any 10% coupons right now but does anyone know of any?

 

Usually student and epp discount stacks w/ ecoupons, so any additional discount is money saved

Oh quick question. If you remove the DVD drive, can you put a second hard drive in the bay or something? I know the T410 can have a battery there, but no more w/ the T420...

 

See Lenovo's student portal: Lenovo Higher Education Students for education pricing.

Yes, you can put a second HDD/SDD in the ultrabay with the ultrabay adapter.

 

I have a 64gb SSD in the main bay and a 500gb HDD in the ultrabay slot, it was seriously easy, less than 5 minutes.

 

Thanks!

Does any 2.5" HDD fit, or do you need to buy a special one from Lenovo?

And can anyone tell me if the 9 cell battery sticks out in the back?

 

The T420 takes standard-height 9.5mm HDDs, whereas the T420s uses non-standard 7mm drives. In neither case are you restricted to Lenovo-approved drives, but the 7mm limit for the s does reduce the search space significantly.

It does, a couple of cm.

 

You can see it right on the first page of this thread:

 

I'm trying to stack the student discount and a ecoupon but it doesn't work for me.

 

The coupons for EPP/SPP/CPP/education stores are different than those for the main retail store.

 

So regarding Lenovo's TurboBoost+, can it be concluded that it's only a more aggressive fan speed, keeping the temperatures down longer, so that the CPU can stay boosted longer before heat/TDP says stop? Though I assume this doesn't affect the long term duration limit for the boost, which has a hard set maximum.