T420 Arrived - First Impressions

I finally received my T420. Here are a few things I have noticed so far. No formal benchmarks here, just first experiences by an actual user. I will be reporting more as I get to know my new laptop better.

- The screen IS bad. It is grainy, bluish, and low-contrast. I do not intend to watch movies or do any graphics-related work on my T420, but even for everyday use, it is sub-par. I am comparing it to my previous laptop - VAIO FW (I know this is one is not a fair comparison, but bear with me) - and my current Acer 1410 (11.6-inch), which cost me four times as little. Even when you compare it to my now defunct T43, it is way worse. The only good thing about the display is the resolution (HD+) and brightness (LED makes a huge difference in this dept).

- Overall build quality is great, not as good as T43 though. It is thicker and for some reason feels larger (and, probably, cheaper) than the T43. There are also minor annoyances as far as the build quality is concerned - the screen bezel seems to be made of very thin and cheap plastic and there is a gap between the screen and the bezel on the top. Furthermore, the battery wiggles when you carry the laptop.

- I am loving the new touchpad. It is quite easy to work with.

- To my surprise, the speakers are quite loud (compared to the T43).

- Startup and shutdown times were terrible (forget RapidBoot) until I uninstalled all the ThinkVantage stuff. Before, I had more than 80 (!) processes running even with no application open. Now, I got down to 62. I am waiting for my mSata drive to arrive and will be clean installing Windows to get down to my usual 40 processes.

- When the laptop arrived, I plugged it in to charge, and it took it about an hour to fully charge. Then, when the indicator light stopped blinking, I started the laptop to find out that the battery was only 81% charged. Probably, this had something to do with the Thinkpad Power Manager (now uninstalled). It looks like 81% is enough for about 4-5 hours with the brightness at 10/15 and moderate load. But this is still inaccurate as the battery probably needs to be "stretched".

- Some people reported having problems with the CPU stepping. None here. The Core i-7 that I have is running like a champ.

- The laptop has so far been quiet and stayed cool.

This is it for now. Will keep you posted about new things I discover.

------------------------------------
Update for April 21, 2011:

OK, after the few days I've been an owner of the T420 I can report the following:

- I still think that the screen could be better but I've grown to believe that I can live with the screen as it currently is. Especially, after I figured that the color skewedness (bluishness) and lack of contrast may be (partially?) due to the wrong presets in the Intel HD Control. By no means is the screen great but it is just fine and usable if they finally fix the presets (note, however, this will unlikely solve the low viewing angle problem). I've been contemplating about returning the T420 and getting the X220 with the IPS screen but I think I will have a hard time adjusting to the low resolution IPS screen given the fact that I've used SXGA+, HD+, FHD panels for the past 7 years.

- I've also grown to appreciate the rigidity of the chassis. As ThinkRob and others pointed out, the T420's have the rollcage, which eliminates the flex of the chassis. And considering my T43 had the flex, which possibly lead to the death of the WiFi card eventually (it "lost" the card one day), I am OK with the T420 having a little more bulk and weight.

- Startup times are much better (about 40-45 seconds with a 5,400 RPM drive) after uninstalling all ThinkVantage stuff and disabling the Intel AMT in the BIOS. The shutdown time is great (10-15 secs). I will be installing an mSata drive and replacing the stock HDD with a WD Scorpio Black (WD5000BPKT). I will also add another 4Gb RAM stick and will let you know how all these go.

- Oh, and I am loving how nearly inaudible and cool the T420 is compared to other laptops I've had. It's not silent but much better than anything else I've used.

- The Intel 6300 card seems to pick up signal from more routers in my apartment complex than any other machine I owned. This may be due to the antennae as well.

Well, that's it for now. The next report on performance gains after the hardware upgrades will be tomorrow.

 

Glad to hear overall. Bad screen...hmm...even though my vision's gotten worse over the past 6 months, that's gonna be the biggest gripe among 'em all. Then again, I hear that display quality tends to vary. My 2008 Dell's display was nothing to write home about. Good thing I don't plan to watch movies on my T420i!

As long as the build quality is great, I'm happy. Paying $911 after California's death taxes for my T420i even with an i5, Intel 6300, and webcam upgrade. No complaints here!

 

You'll definitely want Power Manager--although it is a bit bloaty and does extend startup time by a bit, many power saving features won't work to their maximum capability, and you'll lose features such as charge thresholds (which is a wise choice to extend your battery's usable lifetime).

Regarding the screen, if you do some tweaking to the colors, you may find that it can be improved a bit. My X120e's display was quite horrible, but after some tweaking in CCC, it's not all that bad, really.

 

Helpful information. Dunno when my Lenovo ships, but I've downloaded all the drivers ahead of time.

 

Thanks. I decided to uninstall Thinkpad Power Manager not because it prolongs the startup time but because I believe it is useless. It kicks in only after you boot Windows. That is, when you are not in Windows yet, your battery starts charging (just for a couple of seconds) before the PM starts working, and here you lose one charge cycle. Am I not understanding it right? Furthermore, it is quite annoying that your set screen brightness level (and other power settings) take effect only few seconds after Windows is up and running.

As for color correction, would you, please, share how to set it to get rid of the "bluishness"? What is CCC?

Another observation - you can shorten the startup time by setting the boot settings to "UEFI First". By default, it is set to "Legacy First".

 

The T4xx-series displays suck. There's no way around that. My T61's display was the worst TFT-LCD display I have ever used - contrast ratio, color quality, and viewing angles all suck. My T400's display is brighter (thanks to LED backlight) but that's about it. Contrast ratio and viewing angles are terrible on the T400, they're terrible on the T410, and I have no doubt that they are terrible on the T420/T420s.

The T420 is cheaper than the T43, by a huge margin. Your T43 was probably around $2000 in 2005, which is about $2200 in 2011 dollars.

In my opinion build quality is just as good as it has ever been, if not better. There are minor niggles like the flexy keyboard on the early T400 models, plastic creaks and other corners that have been cut. But as far as I can tell the T-series holds up as well as it ever has, or in many cases even better. The T4x had notorious motherboard flex problems, for example.

The charging LED has new behavior since the T6x generation. See:
http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/files/2010/07/ThinkPad-Battery-Behavior.jpg

Since the T6x, the charing LED is stays solid-on from 80% to 100% charge. The battery continues to charge until it reaches 100% (or whatever maximum threshold you have set in power manager).

This, to me, is one of the best reasons to buy a ThinkPad. They are simply cooler and quieter than just about any other laptop out there.

 

1.- No, the battery has circuitry inside it that Power Manager interfaces with--if a charge threshold is set, it will not charge if it is above the charge threshold, regardless of whether the laptop is off/standby/hibernating/in Windows/sitting in BIOS.

Your set screen brightness and other power settings should be effective right away, the brightness shouldn't be auto-adjusting unless you unplug/plug in your Thinkpad.

2.- CCC stands for AMD's Catalyst Control Center. However, the T420 uses Nvidia graphics. I'm not too familiar with Nvidia drivers and software, but I assume there's an equivalent that lets you customize screen colors, brightness, and contrast. I decreased brightness and increased contrast dramatically on my X120e, with pretty good results.

 

A "cycle" means a full discharge and a full charge. If you only discharge your battery half way and then charge it back up to full, you haven't done the equivalent of a full cycle.

In reality, battery chemistry is quite a bit more complex. Discharging a lithium-ion battery from 50% to 0% and charing it back to 50% does more wear than discharging it from 75% to 25% and charging back up to 75%. The general rules are pretty simple:

• At all cost, keep your battery cool. Leaving it in a hot car or leaving your laptop on while it's in a bag will cook your battery, which will destroy its capacity.
• Don't discharge your battery any more than you have to.
• Don't buy a new battery until you are ready to use it. Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time even if you don't use them.
• If you are going to let your battery sit, discharge it to around 80% and store it in a cool place.
• Not charging your battery fully will prolong its life at the expense of capacity. You can set this in Power Manager.

The minute or so of charging between when you start your laptop and when Power Manager kicks in doesn't mean much of anything.

CCC is Catalyst Control Center, which is used to configure the AMD graphics on the x120e. Your T420 has Intel graphics, so you should use the Intel control panel to configure the settings.

Right click on the desktop and choose "Graphics Properties". In the left side under "Display", choose "Color Enhancement". Under "Color", choose "Blue". Then adjust either Brightness or Gamma down until you get the right color balance. You are not going to be able to get good calibrated colors on the T420's display, so I would just recommend choosing values that you like.

 

Wow...the screen is that bad huh?

 

My understanding is that it's no worse than the screen on the T400/T410/x201 in terms of contrast ratio, sharpness, color quality, and viewing angles.

Of course all of those laptops have terrible displays. The T4xx series have basically the worst displays on any modern laptop in terms of contrast/color/viewing angles, although they do have the benefit of being anti-glare.

 

In which case, I think I would NOT have a problem with the T420 display. I am fine with the displays on my machines - at least in the context of what I do.

Edit: I must have very low standards.

 

Sadly, confirms the numbers from tests (see http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/570356-t420-t520-reviews-screen-differences.html ) translates 'well' into reality.

 

It seems clear from the various testimonies that people have very different expectations and opinions regarding laptop displays. I've always been perfectly happy with my low-contrast, narrow-angle, lousy-color Thinkpad screens (though I do find the brightness of the X40 to be annoyingly low - no problem with the T61 in that regard, though). The same seems true for many others on this forum. Yet others, however, seem to have serious issues with them. I think it all comes down to personal taste. I, apparently, don't need a very good screen. Instead, I'm very picky about my keyboards, and have problems tolerating anything below regular Thinkpad standard (and that's most keyboards). The question probably boils down to which group you belong to. =)

Try what I did: visit the local Lenovo offices. They're highly likely to have some demo machines sitting around. True, I had a contact I could call (a Lenovo employee I had met at a trade fair), but I wouldn't rule out that they'd be willing to accept the odd visitor who cold-called.

Probably wise if screen quality is somewhat important to you. If you're not terribly picky, though, I'd say you're just as well off finding a T6x, T400 or T410 to look at.

 

Thanks for all the info bsoft.

When you first fire up a brand new T420 or X220, what percentage should you charge it to and for how long? And should you do this before starting Windows?

And when at home with the charger connected, should you keep the battery inside the machine or remove it?

 

Thanks!..........

 

Re: "Thanks for your honesty, I won't be purchasing until I've seen the screen quality of one of these T420/i/s myself. Or found an alternative."

Folks, please, make sure you see the laptop "in flesh" for your self. My evaluation of the screen quality may be subjective (although I tried to be as impartial as possible by comparing to other laptops that I have owned). In the end of the day, you may find the T420 screen acceptable or even good depending on your reference point. However, as noted above there may be people (including myself) who may be willing to trade the screen quality for other things that matter to them (build quality, quietness, keyboard, etc.)

Re: "The T420 is cheaper than the T43, by a huge margin. Your T43 was probably around $2000 in 2005, which is about $2200 in 2011 dollars"

I believe your comparison of prices may not be correct. The T420 is still very expensive relative to other notebooks. Don't forget that, thanks to technological development (cheaper and smaller parts, larger markets), laptop prices have decreased by a factor of 2 if not more in the last 6 years.

 

I think mine is just fine, use it for Office every day in school, watch occasional movies on it. I have no complaints with it at all. Anti-glare is better for staring at all day as well.
If I want to do Photoshop or Lightroom I use an external monitor.
It seems to be pretty common knowledge that Thinkpad screens are not the best, so it should come as no surprise that the screen isnt outstanding.

 

It is more correct to compare Thinkpad to Thinkpad price/quality than to compare relative price of current Thinkpad vs other brands while still using old Thinkpad quality vs new Thinkpad quality.

 

Re: "It is more correct to compare Thinkpad to Thinkpad price/quality than to compare relative price of current Thinkpad vs other brands while still using old Thinkpad quality vs new Thinkpad quality."

You are right, you need to compare Thinkpad to Thinkpad quality. That's exactly what I am doing. The T43 had a far better build quality and materials. But you cannot simply compare prices from two different periods. You have to take the average prices as the reference point. And the average prices went down considerably.

Remember how much the first iPods cost and how much they cost now? This doesn't mean they have to be of lower quality. In fact the current iPods (as well as the average laptop in the market) are much better in terms of quality than they used to be.

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to boot with "UEFI only"? I tried it and it would not boot.

 

I have yet to witness a majority of consumers satisfied with their laptop screen regardless of the manufacturer. If a laptop comes with a good screen then they moan about the price of the product and vice versa.

As for myself, I have no complaints about my t420 screen. Actually I like its visibility in the outdoors as well as its visibility in low brightness. Makes working on the go a lot more versatile.

 

No moaning here. My VAIO had an absolutely gorgeous (though CCFL) screen and it was not as expensive as the T420. My Acer 1410 has a very good screen and I got it for $340. So, a good screen does not always translate into a higher price.

 

Ferganer80, a friend of mine who managed to help my sister's Dell E6410 use UEFI boot told me that to do it you need to prepare the disk into a GPT first before implementing UEFI. The simplest way is to put the drive into a caddy and use Disk Management to convert it into a GPT disk.

Though he did say UEFI is a bit patchy to implement and using the old BIOS method is a lot easier! I plan to give it a go on the T420 once I receive mine (prob use the Vertex II SSD as a test bed).

 

You must not frequent the MacRumors forums. Apple's latest products are frequently received as "cheaping out", "a step down", etc. compared to previous generations. This has been going on for the better part of a decade.

I think you're conflating a couple different things here. The T43 had better QA. It used different materials, perhaps ones that felt better or seemed stronger. Retrospectively though, I'd say that the T400, T410, etc. used better quality materials (at least insofar as they were more suitable for their intended usage); vast numbers of T4x series machines ended up dying from GPU/southbridge failure caused by the planar flex that the "better quality" materials allowed and which the newer, "cheap" materials did not.

It is my experience -- not just in the world of ThinkPads -- that nostalgia gives one's memory of technology a particularly lovely sheen. (I still have fond memories of many nights spent proofreading papers on my original Apple Color Monitor -- despite the fact that it had terrible sharpness, difficult-to-calibrate colors, and a known manufacturing defect that caused there to be a thin grey line which was always present one third of the way up the screen.)

 

Explain. What is "planar flex"?

 

ThinkRob, the iPod example might not have been the best comparison. I admit I've never owned an iPod, but was using the iPod as an example of how technology has advanced as well as, probably, the precision of engineering and quality control.

Let me give you a different example. Back in early 2000s it was quite OK to have a crappy cellphone by todays standards (remember those days with very low-res screens, cheap squeaky plastic faceplates, huge gaps between parts, etcetera etcetera). Those phones cost as much as a good smartphone today with no issues with build quality. "Good" smartphones (oh my good old SE P900 ) at that time cost as much as a Thinkpad today . My point is still that you cannot claim that the T43 was much more expensive than the T430.

And I don't have any nostalgia here either. As the screen comparison goes, I am comparing the T420 to today's laptops. My main issue here is that if you (Lenovo) make a high-end laptop, why not give a better screen at least as an option or make the screen not as mediocre as it currently is. I personally would be willing to pay $100-150 extra for the same-res IPS screen.

 

It's Lenovo speak for system board flex.

 

Crossing my fingers, and hoping I won't be let down by my T420 when it arrives. I tend to be picky

A few relevant points of comparison for me:

- I worked a desktop support job for a company that had a lot of ThinkPads, including plenty of T61 and some T400 models. Screens seemed fine on those.

- My current laptop, an ASUS UL30A, has horrible viewing angles and color accuracy. You tilt it a few degrees and black turns to light gray (with a glossy sheen to boot). I would hope it's quite a bit better than this.

- Current MacBooks (all models) have outstanding displays, even though they're TN. I know it won't measure up there.

If it's as bad as the UL30A, I will be very disappointed. But from my memory of the other ThinkPads I saw... if it's at that level, I think I'll be alright.

I'm very tempted by the x220. It doesn't cost much more than the T420. 768 vertical kinda sucks for programming though; that's what I was trying to get away from.

 

a development studio i was part of for a while as a consultant used ultraportable thinkpads, all docked in the office in a dual monitor setup, maybe get a dock?

 

You mean that a notebook's external material durability can determine whether its internal components get damaged?

 

The T4x didn't have a proper system rollcage at the time so if you hold it at a particular angle with one hand for instance it can put pressure on the system board to disjoint itself, including the GPU which can cause premature failures.

This was resolved however when Lenovo decided to add the magnesium system rollcage on the T6x/R6x series and has pretty much been there since for all the newer models.

 

Docks are great, though pricey.
Honestly 90% of my work is at home, with the laptop plugged into an external Dell 20" (4:3) monitor. Still, I have a laptop for a reason... I need to be able to work anywhere, without too many compromises.

1366x768 is pretty constrained, but IPS in a laptop has been my dream for some time. I thought it would be $200 plus, but it's only a $50 upgrade! Seriously tempted to switch my order.

 

this would be enough for me to go with a smaller one with a dock (or maybe wireless kb+mouse and just plug the monitor in, if you want to save cost)

if ur on the road just 10% of the time, i think the screen res isnt an issue. personally i have the X201 to carry about when im travelling for just a few days and only bringing hand luggage or when im commuting/working in the field/ chilling out at a coffeeshop and i use my WUXGA dell precision m4400 when im at home/in the office. i dont have an external monitor because i just travel way too much so everything has to be portable, like when i travel to asia for 2-3 months at a time i'll bring both the precision and the x201. if im going to be away for the weekend or a week or two, i'll bring the X201.

i'll probably replace the m4400 with a 17" or 18" model when its time to replace since i have the X201 now.

 

I also have an AS1410 and I'm not nearly as negative about my T420's HD+ display. It is low-contrast, but part of this is the antiglare coating on the display. If the T420 was glossy, it'd appear to be higher-contrast. Colors do seem to look different on the T420 versus the Acer, but it doesn't bother me as they aren't washed out. I don't see the "grainy" effect that others have complained about. I have no problems with the display for its intended use.

I've heard some talk that there are two different models of T420 HD+ display, so perhaps I have a different panel than you do. I can't figure out how to tell tell what panel I have from Ubuntu (Natty) though.

 

maybe there is hope then, if the alternate supplier is better.

i remember with the WSXGA+ displays on the precision m4400 there was the same grainy issue with one of the suppliers (hitachi or sharp? cant remember).

 

I seriously think you should change you order before it is too late.

 

I just did actually. T420 cancelled, X220 ordered :-D

Funny, 1366x768 is one of the gripes that compelled me to order another machine. IPS is so compelling that I'll learn to live with it. Besides, it's really nice to have an ultraportable.

 

Happens. I remember when the Dell Vostro 1500 had multiple suppliers too. Even the Ultrasharp monitors back in 08 had many many suppliers. I was lucky to get one with a Samsung panel. Some got AUO. Couple got ones with LG panels. I recall one guy's had a Sony panel. Each tended to be stronger or weaker in specific areas with the Samsung being the well-rounded one of 'em all.

 

For reference, my panel is an AUO B140RW02 V1. This is the same panel that ThinkRob has in his T420. I found the information in the Xorg log.

I'm wondering if I got the luck of the draw or if I'm just not as particular as some.

 

Eureka!!!!!! Uninstalling the Intel HD Graphics Controller and reinstalling just the monitor driver has solved the issue. Now, the screen looks just fine - no bluishness and better contrast. Not as good as one would expect from an expensive laptop but, boy, is this such huge difference.

 

I would be interested to know if anyone is driving an external LCD panel above 1920x1200.

 

Help with the graininess at all?

 

Do you have any pictures? Is there a downside to uninstalling the Graphics Controller?

 

Turns out the Graphics Controller is still there. I believe it was automatically installed with the driver. Anyway, the screen has improved. Don't know if it's due to the driver that I downloaded off Intel's website.

Graininess is still there but not as noticeable as before. I really cannot explain why the picture quality changed so much. Probably, the stock driver/controller that the laptop came with had really weird default settings for color and contrast.

Damn it, after a reboot the screen became bluish again. I really don't know what to do. At least we know that the driver may be the culprit.

 

This whole display thing is freaking me out! My T420 is already on it's way and I'm have doubts.

My current 4-yr old Fujitsu Seimens laptop has an EXCELLENT display, 12" 16:10, 1280x800 res, very sharp. According to AIDA64 the display info:

Monitor Properties
Monitor Name Lenovo LTD121EXVV
Monitor ID LCD58EB
Manufacturer TMDISPLAY
Model LTD121EXVV
Monitor Type 12.1" LCD (WXGA)
Manufacture Date Week 38 / 2007
Serial Number 173816843009
Max. Visible Display Size 26 cm x 16 cm (12.0")
Picture Aspect Ratio 16:10
Maximum Resolution 1280 x 800
Gamma 2.20
DPMS Mode Support None

Go figure!

 

Lol, thats a strange combination to get a Lenovo panel in a Fujitsu-Siemens notebook. I guess the notebook isn't as picky with the EDID data so would boot regardless, I would prefer if all manufacturers did the same too so we can be free to choose our own panel rather being vendor locked.

The panel you actually have iphetamine is a Toshiba LTD121EXVV, I can assure you Lenovo didn't really make the panel if you were wondering!

 

Yes. The screen on the T420 is so poor you have to use an external monitor. The poor screen reminds me of the HP CrapBook (ProBook).

DisplayPort to HDMI on 24" 1920x1200.
Works fine with linux.
Just use AR&R.

here is a little script to create a link to turn it on, then just reverse the details below to create a script to turn it off. So quick & easy!

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$(xrandr -q | egrep 'HDMI.* connected')" ]; then
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off --output HDMI1 --auto
fi

 

Yea .. I'm thinking of buying an X220 with IPS. This T420 screen is bad bad. Try to focus on the decent resolution. As some of the guys have said, it is pretty much the worst screen you will ever see .. which is obviously quite usable just dont expect great viewing angles, good contrast, good colours.

Anyway, they are so cheap you cant expect greatness.

 

OMG the T420 screen is horrible!!! Your eyes will bleed when you glance it at! You can't see anything. It actually absorbs any and all nearby light. I even heard it kills kittens.

Or not. Yeah, it's not great, but it's certainly usable. Yes, if you are looking for something to criticize, the screen is a good target... but come on... let's reel it on back to the realm of reality. The screen is not "so poor you have to use an external monitor". It's also not "pretty much the worst screen you will ever see". There are a *lot* of panels that are just as bad, and quite a few that are worse.

 

OK, after the few days I've been an owner of the T420 I can report the following:

- I still think that the screen could be better but I've grown to believe that I can live with the screen as it currently is. Especially, after I figured that the color skewedness (bluishness) and lack of contrast may be (partially?) due to the wrong presets in the Intel HD Control. By no means is the screen great but it is just fine and usable if they finally fix the presets (note, however, this will unlikely solve the low viewing angle problem). I've been contemplating about returning the T420 and getting the X220 with the IPS screen but I think I will have a hard time adjusting to the low resolution IPS screen given the fact that I've used SXGA+, HD+, FHD panels for the past 7 years.

- I've also grown to appreciate the rigidity of the chassis. As ThinkRob and others pointed out, the T420's have the rollcage, which eliminates the flex of the chassis. And considering my T43 had the flex, which possibly lead to the death of the WiFi card eventually (it "lost" the card one day), I am OK with the T420 having a little more bulk and weight.

- Startup times are much better (about 40-45 seconds with a 5,400 RPM drive) after uninstalling all ThinkVantage stuff and disabling the Intel AMT in the BIOS. The shutdown time is great (10-15 secs). I will be installing an mSata drive and replacing the stock HDD with a WD Scorpio Black (WD5000BPKT). I will also add another 4Gb RAM stick and will let you know how all these go.

- Oh, and I am loving how nearly inaudible and cool the T420 is compared to other laptops I've had. It's not silent but much better than anything else I've used.

- The Intel 6300 card seems to pick up signal from more routers in my apartment complex than any other machine I owned. This may be due to the antennae as well.

Well, that's it for now. The next report on performance gains after the hardware upgrades will be tomorrow.