Show me some SL300 / SL400 love ...

I desperately want a nice portable laptop with a good VGA (a X4500/9200GS would suffice), with Core 2 Duo, in a 14,1" or 13,3" form factor, and maybe with some nice touches like HDMI and Finger Reader (but I don't care less about HD and RAM).

I could have gone for Acer, Asus, Samsung... but I find a very nice deal on these Lenovo SL.

I can find a SL400 for about 550 euros and a SL300 for about 650 euros (they have T5670, X4500, 6-cell).

Price-wise, are they a good deal or not? Which one is the best?

Should I go with SL400, since it is AntiGlare and has Synoptics touchpad and better speakers?



p.s. R400 is NOT a viable alternative: I couldn't care less about its "advantages" over the SL line.

 

If it has the features YOU want and a price you like then go for it, just know that the SL line should not really be considered thinkpad (build) quality.

 

I think the SL series is under-rated.

It's like the outcast of the ThinkPad line, but it's still a good notebook.

 

I don't think the SL is a bad notebook either. It has its place, but to call it a ThinkPad and use less expensive/durable parts to make it, cheapens the brand if you ask me. The R series has historically been the budget ThinkPad. If you look them, the R series is more expensive than the SL, but a lot of the difference comes from the fact it uses less expensive parts like the CPU or the plastic case as an example. I don't know why couldn't offer the less expensive CPUs on the R series, which seems to be better built and thereby lower the cost. I'd bet there's a lot of people out there who'd love a R400/R500 with great built quality, but a glossy screen and a T5870 CPU. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

 

How much more expensive is the R series where you are? I remember I was thinking about an SL-500 before I decided on the R500 as I realised the price was pretty much the same (~£50 more), and I was getting a much better computer for the money.

 

Double the price, at around 1000 euros...

 

The prices of the R series at least on Lenovo's US website are more expensive, but they only use the P8400 as the base CPU option whereas the SL use the T5870 or T6470 I think as the base CPU and they start a few hundred less than the R series.