Request for input on ThinkPad T420i purchase.

I'm looking into purchasing the the T420i for school and would like some input from other Lenovo users. My father has a Lenovo (can't recall exactly which one) that he has been very happy with. Battery life is great as is general performance.

I'm looking for something purely to do schoolwork with and take to class for notes. I need at least 4 consistent hours of use preferably more as I've scheduled my semester in such a way that I have classes in chunks each day. I would like it to last the next several years preferably 4 or 5 considering I will only be using this for schoolwork and professional applications. I'm also looking for ~$800 price point give or take a little.

I already have a gaming PC that will be just fine for more hardware intensive work, this will just be for taking notes and working away from the gaming machine.

The following is what I'm looking at now, any input would be greatly appreciated.

Processor - Intel Core i5-2410M Processor (2.30GHz, 3MB L3)

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64

Display - 14.0 HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display

Graphics - Intel HD Graphics 3000

Memory - 4GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM) willing to upgrade at a later point, to move to 6 gigs is $80, I can do it cheaper

HD - 320 GB 7200rpm

Battery - 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++ some idea what this means in terms of life would be appreciated

DVD Writer
720p HD Camera

With sales this comes down to $836

Thanks again,

chaseboy

 

For your needs the specs are sufficient, it's almost similar to what I ordered initially (though I opted for the lowest 2GB so I can put 2x 4GB RAM myself).

For peace of mind you could opt for a warranty extension since you'll be using it for a while. ThinkPads are usually robust things but sometimes they can go wrong... well nothing is perfect! Having 3 years coverage is generally what most people go for which is the typical lifespan for most computers.

The 9 cell battery will offer at least 7 hours of computing, I was pretty intensive in my test where I played loads of videos, doing Photoshop work and others which is pretty good. Lighter workloads such as Internet browsing can push it up even further, some say they can stretch the battery to even 12 hours.

 

Good choice, good configuration, good price. 4GB plenty for the kind of work you plan to put this notebook through. 9-cell battery should keep you mobile for 6 hours at school. You may want to consider either the Intel Centrino 6250 or the 6300.

 

That's not the lowest it can go, but it is a decent price. Currently in Canada there is a 22% off sale, and you can get that entire configuration for $802.62.

 

Canada? 25% if you check RedFlagDeals.com: CAPREDFLAGDEALS25 coupon.

Hard to tell when prices drop to "lowest" level... If you need one and price is reasonable, grab it.

 

I bought my father a T420i (all same spec as yours except for the processor and WiFi adapter). He's regretting about HD+ display. High resolution is great for movies, but terrible for texts. He ended up changing the resolution and the monitor looks not as sharp, but he still prefers lower resolution. If you're going to use this laptop mainly for school, I'd get lower resolution monitor for $50 less.

I think i3 processor is sufficient for your needs.

As for the 9-cell battery, go for it. About 5~6 hours on a single charge. My father loves it! You also get a grip at the end. We have 3 Thinkpads in the house and all of them has 9-cell. It's worth the money and extra weight.

If you have a dual-band router, go for the better Intel Centrino 6250 or the 6300. Otherwise, at least consider the 1000 model.

 

I ordered one with the same spec except a 6cell battery for $687 through the mastercard marketplace's additional 10% discount on T series promotion. You shall try that if you're in the states. The saving may be used on an SSD upgrade to further boost the performance/battery life.

9cell shall be an excellent choice also. I choose 6 cell because a single 9 cell may not be sufficient when I go business trip 10+ hours flight so I plan to purchase an OEM 9 cell later locally for much cheaper price than from lenovo.

 

should suggest your father to just scale up the font size in system/browser/text editor instead of changing the resolution. this way the font will look bigger and still sharp. hint: you can manually change the scale up DPI to something like 110%, 115% instead of using the system default 125% so you can have maximum lines per page at the font size you are comfortable with. non-native resolution on LCDs makes image blurred so is not recommended. HD+ on 14" maybe an overkill but it's still better than the default 1366x768.