Should I return my Thinkpad T420?

Hello,

I got a Thinkpad T420 yesterday. I was not that excited. There are a couple of issues. First I noticed an awful plastic smell. As I let it run for two hours my entire room smelled of it. I have never experienced something like that with any other Notebook. I think it got better though after a few hours. I think its coming from the keyboard.
This is my first Thinkpad. I always heard that the build quality is very good. But with my model I cannot agree to this. The palm rest on the left side is vulnerable to pressure. But whats an even bigger problem is the bottom right side of the keyboard where the arrow keys are located. Even under light pressure the keyboard in this area is yielding strongly. Its really annoying. Is that normal?
And the imprints of the letters on the keyboard are a little blurry, but maybe I am just a little picky.

If theses issues are normal with this model I am returning it to the vendor to get my money back. But if its not, how good are chances that Lenovo will fix these issues? Because apart from that, it's a nice notebook and with these issues fixed I will definitely keep it.


Thanks for your time.

 

I have never noticed what you have described on any of my T420's and we have had several.

 

put pressure on the right-side palm rest area (around right ctrl-key). there's a latch that's supposed to snap in but if the palmrest has been disassembled and not properly reassembled, you will notice lots of flex in that area

 

I only notice the plastic smell when the system is like brand new from the factory (I kinda like that - it's a like a new car smell in a weird sort of way...) but it tends to go away over time so don't get too worried about it.

I don't notice any yielding from my keyboard so try reseating it and possibly redo the palmrest if necessary, use the T420 Hardware Maintenance Manual as guidance on how to safely disassemble your system.

 

Perhaps a weird request but can somebody of you can take a very close picture of the keyboard imprints, maybe a little from the side to see the light reflecting on them?
I bought that laptop new, but it was coming with a keyboard with an english layout. The said it got replaced by a original Lenovo part, but I am not so sure about that, because the imprints are looking really cheap. How can I tell whether this is original or not. Are there even replica of Lenovo keyboards existing?

Thank you all

 

Where did you buy your laptop? It sounds like you did not buy it direct from Lenovo.

NotebookReview and NotebookCheck both have good pictures of the T420 keyboard. The T420 keyboards I've played with (and my T500 keyboard) have lettering that looks identical to what's shown.

 

Here's a pic of my T420 keyboard.

 

Not sure about the plastic smell, is the machine you got brand new, or is it second hand?

 

Thanks for the images, but I returned it today. Thinking of it, it just was not my cup of tea. Even without theses issues. I only had one notebook before this one and it was something totally different (it was an Acer 8571). I think I want something similar again. It seems its hard to find tough for a reasonable price (at least with a non-crappy screen).

It is new. They sold it a bit cheaper and changed the keyboard, because it was an import from another country.