Received T400, initial impressions

UPS came through with my T400 today. This is my 1st Thinkpad.

Very initial impressions:

- Palm rest area, no noticeable flex. The plastic doesn't feel "cheap".

- The DVD drive area, squeezing the laptop in this area shows noticeable flex.

- keyboard is so-so. For normal typing there's no flex. But if you must, pushing hard on it with one finger shows flex in the upper-left corner, near the P and Backspace key area. The right-side, near the 1 and Q keys, also some flex.

The problem is really that the keyboard itself is not entirely sitting flush against what's behind it. And looks/feels like the surface of the keyboard isn't entirely flat.

- 1440x900 LED screen is pretty good so far.

I will post more later.

 

Upon further inspection(via Lenovo's parts lookup site), my T400 came with a keyboard with part FRU number 42T4066, which according to Lenovo's parts website:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70428

is a part for the R400 !!

Would this be enough grounds for me to request a replacement keyboard? I think it's reasonable to expect a T400 part in a T400 laptop.

Also, if I do call Lenovo to request a new keyboard, anyone know which of these I should request??

ALPS 42T3209
CHICONY 42T3273
NMB 42T3143

Thanks guys!

 

Sounds like everything is good then. If that little bit of flex bothers you then I don't know what to tell you. The plastic around my DVD drive flexes too, but it isn't like I grab from that area. If however you aren't satisfied with the keyboard, give Lenovo a ring. I've hear murmurs that they are giving out more T61 keyboards if you ask for one, if not hang up and call back to get a different rep.

 

Yeah, the DVD drive flex isn't really an issue. I don't spend all day squeezing it.

I may ring them up for a keyboard. Other than that, I'm liking what I see so far. Good screen, good 14-inch size, very quiet, and even with the 6-cell attached, the laptop is very compact and relatively light. I also love the rubber outer finish. Very low-key, but elegant.

 

I have the same FRU keyboard in my T400 as well. I didnt ask for a replacement when I got mine because the keyboard/felx did'nt bother me much and when I compared it with another T400 with a T400 FRU keyboard(forgotten the exact FRU/make) and it didnt feel all that different.

 

The T400, T500, R400, and R500 all use the exact same keyboard, so don't worry, you do have the correct keyboard. You could call and ask for a replacement keyboard, though, some people have had good luck.

 

UPDATE WITH PICTURE

I was able to obtain a new keyboard(ebay), specifically a 42t3143 NMB, with the solid backplate.

In the attached image you can see the difference between the solid backplate and my old 42t4066 with the swiss-chess soft backplate.

The difference? Well, yeah, my keyboard is now pretty much a brickwall.

To be honest, now that I've tried both keyboards, I think the whole "flex keyboard" issue is way overblown. Was my 42t4066 more flex-prone? Yes it was. However, under normal usage, you really don't notice. After a week of real usage, I found myself never really paying attention to the feel of the keyboard.

The nitty-gritty. The design of the chasis+keyboard contributes to the issue. Specifically, the keyboard is held to the laptop body by 1 screw, which is located centrally under the J key area. The rest of the keyboard tucks under the grooves of the sorrounding body frame. Now, with a soft-backplate, this arrangement has the effect of pulling the keyboard down in the center, while the outside "bows" up around this "central valley", which explains the complaints about floaty corner areas(around the P, and 1 keys)

Anyway, that's the take away from my T400 keyboard saga. I'm loving my T400 more and more. While having the system opened, I also popped in an extra spare 1Gig Ram I had lay around, pretty sweet. Count me in as a Thinkpad convert.

 

Well Im glad you like your t400. I love mine so far. Its great for light gaming, everyday tasks and a dream to type on (though I preferred my dell when I had it). I love that I can literally work all day on battery and still have time at home to take car of a few things before having to plug in. Not to mention soon Ill be getting my dock so all i have to do is snap the laptop in and BAM I have a multi screened workstation. Now all I need is WUXGA back and a quad core CPU.

 

Yeah, the battery is pretty good. The single change that made the biggest difference to my battery time is lowing the display brightness to 6. I'm still tweaking around in Power Manager, I dislike putting the wireless card on "max power saving" mode.

WRT to the screen resolution. I'm happy with the 1440x900 LED, any higher resolution, I feel, would be hard for me to see, these eyes aren't getting any younger

lastly, I've disabled the trackpad to force-train myself on the Trackpoint. Lowered the sensitivity a tad, but pretty good with it now.

 

Yeah I'm a resolution junky so the higher the better, but I can see your point on eyes not getting any younger. I usually have my monitor set to 1 or lower as I work in a darker environment(cant stand the buzz and brightness of a drop ceiling environment).

Keep up on the trackpoint it will pay off. I have always hated touchpads, and Im glad that I finally have a pc that doesn't rely on it. I only use an external for gaming these days it seems.