Received New T400

I received my T400 yesterday (2-day ship directly from Lenovo) and have written some comments about it below.

As expected, the top of the lid had the traditional rubbery plastic for a nice finish. As I looked at the Lenovo logo, however, it looked worn/used. In fact, the "e" in Lenovo is worn and it looks like a "c". The lid itself is also not properly aligned to the front of the notebook. On the front, right side of notebook, the lid fits flush with the base. On the front, left side of the notebook, the lid hangs over pretty badly. There is also significant "play" between the lid and base on the left side.


The keyboard feels extremely mushy compared to my previous T42. After looking up the FRU #, I found out that I did NOT receive the alternate T61 keyboard.

As for the screen that everyone here has been waiting for, I am sad to say that it was definitely not worth the wait. The screen has a "pinkish" tint to it. I compared it side-by-side to a Dell Latitude E6400 and my wife's T500, and it is incredible how bad the colors are on the T400. The T500 has a CCFL backlight w/ a resolution of 1680 x 1050. The T500 has a much clearer picture with a true white. The T400 has a pinkish tint to it and is marginally brighter. The Latitude E6400 has a MUCH brighter display with true colors. In fact, I had to turn the E6400's brightness down because it was hurting my eyes. I had to keep the T400 brightness at 100% even though the room wasn't very bright. I looked up the FRU # of the LED screen I received (using thinkpad parts lookup), and it says I received 42T0504 (Samsung).

On the bright side, the touchpad of the Thinkpad is far superior to the Latitude E6400. In fact, the trackpoint on the T400 is pretty good, but the E6400 trackpoint isn't too bad either. I would say the middle scroll button is actually easier to control than the T400. The touchpad on the T400 is fantastic though.

Are the problems listed above common, or did I receive a defective computer?

 

Slugur:

Told you, man, it was on the way. Mine arrived Friday morning.

On reading your mini-review it seems like we have two different machines. The issues you speak of are not present in my machine. Keyboard is fine, similar flexion as the T41 I am replacing. Fit and finish was perfect. Trust me, I thoroughly inspected mine on arrival. The panel is bright, like turn that thing down bright. Installed Vista over the pre-installed XPPro, and had to track down all the drivers, that's about it. About six hours later, I had this thing broken in to my liking.

 

I haven't experienced the issues you have on my T500 except for the keyboard. If you are unsatisfied with the keyboard you can get a replacement if you private message Mark_Lenovo on forums.lenovo.com , but the keyboard replacement plan ends this month. I received my replacement this week and it has made a world of difference.

 

did you get an LED panel? How are viewing angles on that thing?

 

Slugur, I also noticed the problem with the screen lid not closing perfectly on the front on the notebook. The left side on mine also has "play" (around 1 - 2 mm). However the rest of the fit and finish was perfect (no worn parts).

Edit: I just noticed that the "e" in the Lenovo logo also looked worn out. But then I peeled out the plastic protection and now the logo looks perfect

 

Could you add some pictures of your new laptop?? I am interested in buying a new T400 as well. There aren't that many video reviews on this machine although it's mighty popular.

 

What are FRU numbers on your keyboard and screen?

To find out, follow this link:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?template=/partslookup/partsLookup.vm

 

Hi ya Slugur:

FRU 42T3937 on kbd and FRU 42T0504 on screen.

To address the lid closure issue, the T41 sitting on the desk has the same amount of travel when a sufficient (and similar) amount of force is applied. So, this is an issue that exists for some folks, which I can appreciate.

For viewing angles, and in the absence of any photos provided, I am pleased with the improvement over the T41 I am replacing. I do not think I can replicate true representations of what I experience versus conveying the same information in a photo. Sorry, not much help.

On a side note, I upgraded to Vista Ultimate with the included discs. I had the forethought to download all the drivers from the matrices page and have at the ready.

Apparently, when monkeying around with the fingerprinter (in XP Pro environment), there was some legacy info after up'ing to Vista. This required from the run line Trusted Platform Manager (tpm.msc) to delete previous passprotection in the Trusted Platform Module. After which I was able to re-enroll passes and fingers (DO enroll prints from both hands...you know, just in case). What does not work in this situation is rendering inactive the Security Chip in BIOS then rebooting, and hoping this info is deleted.

Once in Vista, I was then able to re-install the Turbo Memory drivers with the -UP switch, enable ReadyDrive/ReadyBosst at the console and start pinning apps and files for two particular types of work environments: GIS and Audio/Video. It really does work, although I have no empirical data to support. With all variables the same, Apps and files do load noticeably faster from the half-Robson card I ordered, versus loading from HDD0.

Perhaps more information than needed, but someone may find useful, as everyone's T machines are arriving and may encounter similar situations.

Oh, yeah, switchable graphics works without a hitch.

Aloha,
Mark

 

Noticed my lid on T400 I just received has a little play on right side when closed but is still fairly secure. Just wondering how serious of an issue this could be though. Ohterwise, I have not noticed any real issues at present.

Gary

 

Did you calibrate the screen? A pinkish tint sounds like you need to calibrate it. Most factory presets suck.