Second look at T400s

I decided to write a follow up to my first impression of T400s I received 2 weeks ago. As a background, I have been ThinkPad user for a long time, and still have 600x, T42 (15” IPS, discrete gfx), T60 (15” IPS, discrete gfx), while at work (engineering) used T23 that got replaced later by T60 (14”, integrated gfx). It was time for me to upgrade to a new laptop and choose T400s because I needed something light, thin, and powerful enough to run some heavy-cpu-load virtual instruments for my music productions (a hobby that turned into a second job )

My initial WOW factor is still fresh after 2 weeks of using it. This laptop is very light, ultra-thin, and super fast. Keep in mind that I’m comparing it to all of my previous T-series ThinkPads and never actually seen T400, although I did read reviews of people referring to T400 as being like a brick in comparison to T400s. When closed, it feels very solid and bullet-proof; nothing is loose or rattling if you shake it. Once open, it still feels solid, although you can twist the display a little bit if you hold it by upper corners. That’s expected since it’s so thin. Keyboard has no flex, keys are very responsive, and very quiet (no annoying clicking from T60). All the new changes to keyboard keys are great, but don’t kid yourself that you will get used to it right away. After 6 years of standard ThinkPad keyboard use I still hit Delete instead of Insert (Insert key used to be above Delete) and I still hit F1 when I need to use F2 (ESC is bigger which shifted function keys to the right). I’m also getting used to Volume up/down and actually had microphone mute button on (it has translucent red light once pushed) so it can guide to volume buttons to the left of it. Touchpad is much bigger and more useful now. I never used touchpad before, and had to disable it because I accidentally move pointer with a palm of my hand while typing. I wonder if that is a reason why new touchpad has a textured surface and requires a little more pressure to glide/move your finger. Either way, I still have it disabled now since I’m die-hard fan of thumb-stick

I chose media card reader instead of Express Card since I often need to copy pictures off SD card. It works great, no complains here, and very convenient not to have any external or internal adapters. Speakers are very loud, on top, and on each side of the keyboard. Don’t expect multimedia performance since they lack wide high/low frequency response, but reproduction of mid frequencies is clear. Hard drive is fantastic. I went with Samsung 128GB SSD. As an upgrade option for $180 (after applicable discount from a total price) it was a no brainer. True, it’s not the fastest and trails a little behind Intel, but price/performance ration can’t be matched, and comparison to 7200rpm drive is mind blowing. I got ultra-bay III adapter and use WD Scorpio Black 320GB 7200rpm as my storage drive (adapter + hdd = $140). That storage drive option turned out to be great. Ultra-bay adapter fits hdd like a glove and seamlessly integrates with a laptop (ultra-bay II adapter is for T400, and will stick out). I’m actually waiting now for USB-adapter (ordered from eBay, $20) to enclose my DVDR drive for external use.

Now, with all these positive comments I have to say how much I’m disappointed with a display. Being user of all the previous T-series with IPS screens I really got spoiled. True they were dark and useless outside in the sunlight, but the vertical viewing angle without color distortion, rich colors, and excellent contrast is something I took for granted. This is not a negative comment specific to T400s, its negative comment to all new laptops that use TN display. It’s not even an option to choose, although I would gladly pay a premium to replace my display with some custom IPS screen. Oh, well…

With display being the only negative comment (general to all ThinkPads, expect for tablets), I can happily say – this is a perfect laptop, for me Others can argue lack of discrete graphics or higher price, but that’s a reason why T400/T500 is still around as an alternative option.

 

Hi, I totally agree with you and am in basically the same situation, coming from a T60 w/ FlexView SXGA+. Everything about the laptop is a pleasure as long as you ignore the screen. It's not that the screen is unusable or unpleasant per se, and it's possible to use it outside which is great.

But if I boot up the FlexView for some reason, I'm immediately floored by the richness of the color and beautiful contrast. The viewing angles I honestly care less about... nice as a bonus but not the main benefit of FlexView for me personally.

That said, agreed about the other aspects of the computer. Form factor is great, well built, the placement of nearly everything feels right, from the touchpad to the repositioned indicator lights (power indicator on the power button, caps lock indicator on the caps lock button, etc) to the ports to the few moved keys on the keyboard.

Also, even though at first glance they look the same, this thing is much more refined and sophisticated in terms of its design than my T60. I don't mean the cosmetic appearance exactly, it's more the user experience. Cleaner, more functional and ergonomic. It just feels like a tremendous amount of thought and experience went into the design and implementation of the machine, and you I focused while using it.

I put in a Intel 80GB SSD drive after i got it and that works really well and was totally easy for anyone who is interested. And when you do it you totally see why it's 1.8 vs 2.5... considerably smaller and lighter and it makes sense in the frame.

And agreed also that it's a perfect machine as far as I'm concerned. Sure the screen drags it down a bit but everything else is so great that it's still a home run if you favor a mix of "normal laptop" (performance and screen size) with "ultraportable" (thin and lightness). So, great for a programmer, business-application user, etc. Perhaps not great for a design/photo professional.

 

Yeah, it's too bad no one steps up to serve the "Good Screen" market other than on anything but tablets or huge behemoths like the W700. The good news is I don't need much CPU power. The Core 2 Duo in my R60 should meet my needs for quite some time. The only small part that sucks is that I can't use a drive like the X25-M in my machine, but I'll take a good screen over a really fast drive. Once I made to 7200RPM drives, space is more important to me than speed.

 

That's great feedback twister, impressions are more honest a few days after purchase when you've had a chance to use a laptop for real tasks. Having been able to use the T400 and T400s the T400 does seem like a "brick" in size compared to the t400s. Don't get me wrong, I liked the T400, but once I got to see and use a T400s I could never be satisfied with the T400 knowing I could have something so much thinner, lighter and more sleek looking. Of course, you have to be willing to justify the extra cost of the T400s over the t400.

 

One thing that I implied but didn’t explicitly mention in my post – build quality of T400s is by far superior over all my previous T-series laptops.

Vertical viewing angle is not an issue in terms of “viewing”, but rather in terms of colors being washed out, as Kevin pointed out in his NBR review of T400s. I’m probably going to get used to it, eventually. It’s not an issue if you work/sit on a steady surface. But often since I use my laptop sitting on the couch or in bed, vertical angle changes and that affect the color which results in my constant micro-adjusting of the screen angle.

But in general based on this T400s, I’m very happy with a direction Lenovo is taking which gives me a hope that in 3 years when I’m ready for a new laptop ThinkPad is still will be at the top of my list.

 

Good to know about the HDD ultrabay drive adapter II, thanks. I'm guessing the one you got was III?

Do you have any experience with the Ultrabay battery? I see II (4 week shipping ... ) but I wouldn't want one that sticks out.

 

yes, only III (ultra-bay adapter) will work with T400s. Sorry, have no experience with ultra-bay battery. BTW I keep my power profile at max performance and w/battery its a little over 3 hours. I can get it close to 5hr with some BIOS and Power Manager tweaking, but performance is my top priority.

 

Just want to say that the reason I can't give up my old classic matte macbook pro is that I like the screen alot. Other than the thinkpad, the macbook pros have great ergonomics and keyboards. Perhaps Sony, but I like some sort of keyboard light and also quiet computing.

As soon as the Thinkpads get their screens back on track, I'll likely switch back. I decided that given that the screen is what you're looking at all day, every day, I want a good one. Also, given the fact that many of us are now using our laptop screens for viewing movies and now tv shows, I think emphasizing screen quality makes more sense than ever.

 

W510 with AFFS+ WUXGA LED please ;-).

It is really strange that no company jumps into this market of premium screens (well ok, Sony has nice screens, but unfortunately not quite the notebooks for me). I'd be willing to pay a few hundreds extra if I could get a really great screen. I guess I'm not alone. But mass market penetration seems to be a greater concern to the display industry.

 

That's probably not enough and there's too few of you all for Lenovo to take notice. My own 14" R60 with SXGA+ is the perfect blend of size, performance and screen real estate. The screen was perfectly acceptable for Office and Internet, but if you wanted to watch a movie or look at photos, it was terrible. I could never seem to see the whole screen at the correct angle. Either the top or bottom was off. It's why I upgraded to the IPS, though I'd prefer something a notch smaller.

 

I'd be fascinated to see the market research that helps companies like Lenovo determine which screens to put in laptops. I understand why you're not going to find a pricey high-end IPS screen in a 14" laptop (few, if any, manufacturers, power drain, and probably 98% of users don't need one) but I am amazed at just how crap some of the screens in laptops are considering that the screen is such an inherently vital part of a laptop.

I like the idea of a nice IPS screen in a lappy but ultimately don't need one since all the color-critical work I do is on an external monitor via DVI. I am, however, staggered at just how bad my last few thinkpad screens have been.

As to the T400s... it sounds like it harkens back to the era of classic and solid thinkpads (600, T20) but the lack of discrete graphics, the price and the lack of compatibility with previous T61 accessories/docks was ultimately what drove me away. GPU I could have lived with, but not the $500 premium (including new dock) that I would have cost -- almost 50% more than the T400 I eventually bought. It makes me wonder if that premium is justified -- does the T400s really cost hundreds more to build than a similarly configured T400?

 

Everytime a new "high end" model comes out, there will always be a price premium to recuperate research and testing costs. It's quite standard business marketing and it targets the early adopters. If you can't justify the price, then wait a few months. Just look at other trends. Dell's Adamo, just got a $500 price reduction, down from $2999. There were still lots of buyers when it first came out though.

 

i also think the price is reasonable, since it just came out. and looking at the price/performance per weight ratio it also compares very well to it's competitors, mthinks.

 

I think this is not correct. This Thinkpad Forum survey caught reportedly quite some attention by Lenovo, and one major complaint was the screen. And pretty much every review in the magazines debunk the mediocre screens. I think this certainly lowers Lenovos margins by loosing customers.

There are already choices for at least somewhat higher quality screens. For example, the matte LG WXGA+ LED screens Dell offers - these are the screens from the previous gen MacBook Pros. Or the double lamp CCFL WUXGA or RGB WUXGA LED screens...

My 6 year old WUXGA screen is as dim and crappy as current Thinkpad screens. This is not acceptable for my next upgrade, Lenovo better improves screens in the next gen.

 

when it comes to screens, I dont think Lenovo has much of a choice about what to offer. 14" screens in last couple of years were all notoriusly crappy and still stay crappy. For whatever reason there are quality 13" and 15" panels on the market (Hydis even makes an AFFS 13" for fujitsu t5010), but 14" panels remain forgotten. It might be conincidence, but good panels seem to come in form factors that Apple makes their laptops in. The nicest 14" display i've seen in recent years is the high nit WXGA panel on regular t400 (it probably has to have good contrast/viewing angles for outside use).

The version of panel I have on my T400s (manufactured end of June 09) is actually a big improvement over discontinued WXGA+ LG/Samsungs found in T400. If this panel was glossy, I bet it would actually be okay. Perhaps they are making an effort to improve a bit. Ideally, I would love to transplant the high nit panel into my T400s but dont feel like voiding my warranty yet.

 

Very nice review. Thanks.

I'm also thinking about moving up from a T60 to the T400s.

 

why did you get media-card reader instead of expresscard?

why not get expresscard so you have it if you need it and just get an expresscard media-card-reader?

 

Many people (me included) have no use for an ExpressCard slot, yet frequently use the media card reader - it's more convenient to have that built in. But that's an option as well for those who need both.

Thanks for your detailed impressions, twister. If the next generation of Thinkpads draw from the T400s, they will be really fantastic - too bad I blew so much of my money on my T500 already, though

 

Just for sh!ts and giggles, stopped by local Best Buy on a way from work. I looked at every single laptop in there from HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, and Asus. Sales guys thought I was nuts since all I did is flipped lid and bounced up'n'down to look at the display at different vertical angles lol!!! What I found is every single laptop they carry has glossy screen with a terrible reflection even inside with a poor lighting; and it seems they all have TN display. Aside from annoying reflection, they all have color wash out effect due to TN. Actually in comparison to all those screens, I found T400s display to be VERY good Keep in mind, they don't carry any laptop models over $1200 and there could be higher price models I'm not familiar with a better display. But at least it put my mind at ease.

 

My t400s arrived a week ago. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon period, but I haven't found anything not to like. In addition to what twister said:

I love the touchpad because it supports multi-touch gestures like two-finger scrolling of webpages and documents. I love the nub but scrolling is a pain, having to hold down the center button with a thumb while trying to move the nub. This is much better for me.

To the person who asked about a card-reader adapter in the express card slot, that's what I did but i wouldn't recommend it. the adapter I got sticks out a teensy bit and isn't flush as I'm assuming the factory card reader is. that said, when SDXC is released maybe I could get one of those adapters instead, so it does have flexibility.

I'm totally in love with the keyboard, especially the double-sized Esc and Del keys. I never use Ins and so would always need to feel around to make sure I was pressing Del. No more! A most welcome change.

I yanked the DVD drive and stuck a bay battery in there. Gives me 6-7h.

It's amazing to have a 14" screen for under 4 lbs. My mactard friends (including my wife) are jealous...

My config has an SSD, 4GB of RAM, and 64-bit Vista. Runs like a champ. I'm sure win7 will be even faster.

 

I have a 15.4" WUXGA W500 screen, and though it needs to be on full brightness in normal use, it is a beautiful matt screen, no better or worse than the excellent WUXGA screen I had on my 5 year old Dell Precision M70, and the 15" UXGA of my much older Inspiron 8100. If they were excellent 10 years ago, there is no necessity for them to be not still excellent. I would prefer a few more options to make the screen even brighter under some conditions ( I expect the next generation to be LED and have a higher brightness ceiling; but for indoor use, the present CCFL WUXGA is quite adequate - and way better than most laptop screens out there (e.g every "mirror" screen). None of my old screens were "crappy", and nor is this one. I would rather call them "awesome" - every one

 

Thanks, very nice review.

To twister: I'm a music producer myself and I'm planning on getting the T400s. Could you maybe tell me more about your experience with the T400s in this regard? I'd be specifically interested in latency aspects.

Thanks

 

so I got a 32G disk that plugs directly into the ExpressCard slot. it is flush with the side of the machine and is great. moved my music library there to free up hdd space.

when the SDXC cards come out, I will probably put a bigger card in that. glad I got the expresscard slot instead of the sd card.