T420 review after 48 hours

After having had an X31 on loan for a while and fallen in love, I bought my first own Thinkpad, the X40, almost seven years ago. Two and a half years ago, I started a new job that set me up with a T61 that I was allowed enough control over myself for a personal laptop to be superfluous. I quit that job a few months ago, going back to my hibernated (yes, it was in Windows hibernation for >2 years) X40, realizing how old and tired it was (even after rebooting and thus losing the longest nominal, though hardly real, uptime I'd ever seen on a Windows system) and therefore ordering a T420. I was certainly tempted by the X220, but having been spoiled with a 14" screen with decent resolution, I just couldn't go back to something-by-768.

The following are my impressions after a couple of days with the machine.


System configuration and ordering

Model: 4180-W1G
CPU: i5-2520M 2.5GHz
RAM: 8GB
Disk: HDD 500GB 7200rpm (Seagate)
Graphics: Intel HD 3000
Display: HD+ (AUO)
WLAN: Intel Ultimate-N 6300
WWAN: Ericsson F5521gw
Options: BT 3.0, IEEE 1394, Camera, Fingerprint, Smart Card
OS: Win7Pro (Lenovo preload)

Bought from lapstars.de (student discounts, yay!) for EUR ~1,200 (incl. VAT), including a switch to Swedish keyboard and English Windows. In addition, I also bought a 9-cell battery, a sleeve (that unfortunately is a bit too big, actually making me wish I hadn't bought it), a BT laser mouse, in-ear headphones (my old ones needed replacing anyway), some extra Trackpoint nubs, an Ultrabay travel bezel (that hasn't shipped yet, hmm...) and a warranty upgrade to 3-year onsite. Lapstars' prices are very good and their upgrade options are top-notch, and they also work relatively quickly (the main bottleneck is the international money transfer that's needed since Germany is a third-world country when it comes to accepting credit cards). However, they're lousy at responding to e-mails, at least when they're not in German.

I decided against an SSD, as they're still a bit too expensive for my tastes. Also, mSATA wasn't an option as I wanted the WWAN card. I'm planning a storage technology upgrade in a year or so.


Physical characteristics

It's everything I expect from a Thinkpad in terms of build quality. It feels sturdy, durable, rigid and all those other words meaning pretty much the same thing: it's one tough piece of hardware. It's clearly larger than my old X40 along all dimensions (not that I expected any different), as can be seen in the pictures below. It's also heavier. However, it feels lighter than the T61 I used to have, and having a sensibly-sized battery (compared to the T61's absolutely huge 9-cell) makes a big difference. Speaking of the battery, the two bulges on the bottom of both battery and computer are an unexpected Good Thing(tm), making the machine much easier to grab and carry around when the lid is closed.

Some weight measurements, using a digital kitchen scale:
Computer with HDD, without battery and optical drive: 1720g
Optical drive: 170g
6-cell battery: 320g
9-cell battery 490g
In other words, the tabook figures seem correct and, if anything, a little high.

Spoiler

Input devices

The Trackpoint is the Trackpoint is the Trackpoint. It's as good as it's ever been, and I'm happy to see those red lines again that I missed so much on the T61's buttons. I normally keep the Trackpad turned off, as I hardly ever use it, but I decided to give it a little whirl. Though this is one point where I expect opinions will vary wildly, I find the textured surface to be an improvement over the old, smooth one. Multitouch works well enough, but doesn't feel quite as responsive as on a Mac.

On to the keyboard. Being a bit conservative, I had my doubts about the new (as of the previous generation) layout, with larger Delete and Esc keys. I maintain it looked better before, but from a usability perspective, the change is actually an improvement. I no longer hit Insert instead of Delete, or F1 instead of Escape. On the whole, the keyboard is a dream, even by Thinkpad standards. It is clearly much better than on the X40, and though I may be imagining this, I think it's also better than on the T61. My typing speed increased substantially after just an hour with it.

Also, the new volume and LED-equipped speaker/mic mute buttons are very nice.


Screen

Ah, the (in)famous T420 screen. First off, as mentioned above, it would appear I have the AUO display. After these first couple of days, I am more convinced than ever of one thing: your perception of this screen will be entirely dependent on your expectations and your frame of reference. My expectations on this screen were the following:
1. It should be better than the X40 screen
2. It should be at least as good as the T61 screen
3. It should have good brightness, decent contrast, color representation and horizontal viewing angles, and lousy vertical viewing angles
That is also exactly what I got. I not only find the screen to be acceptable, I am very happy with it. I realize there are better displays out there, but that is not what I expected to get, and not what I need for the way I use my laptop. I think anyone who's been happy with an older (non-FlexView) Thinkpad display - or, for that matter, almost any run-of-the-mill notebook display - will be at least as happy with this one.

As for the griddiness, graininess and whatever else people have been calling it: it's there. However, I didn't notice it when I looked at a T420 screen a month ago, before reading all the opinions on this forum. Grainy, by the way, is a much better word than griddy. It's not a question of seeing the lines between the pixels. Rather, two comparisons come to mind:
1. You know how glossy photo prints have a smooth surface, while matte prints are somewhat textured? It's a bit like that.
2. If you've ever used a privacy screen, you know how it makes everything washed out and, indeed, grainy? It's like that, only much, much less. And without the privacy screen's blurring effect.
Once again, this is likely to be a very subjective thing, but I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. Others, however, might be.

The aspect ratio, of course, can be - and has been - debated at (great) length. Like most people on this forum, I would have preferred staying with 16:10 (though I'm no longer certain that 4:3 was better than that). However, I must say that 16:9 so far bothers me less than I thought it would. Given that my eyesight is good enough for DPI scaling to be unnecessary, and that the vertical pixel count is the same as on the T61 I used to have, so far the increased width is actually more noticable than the decreased height. The screen, oddly enough, feels bigger. But, of course, that 2cm chin on the bottom is an incredible waste of space that could have been used to fit a taller screen. If only...

For a comparison with the X40 (both on max brightness), see the photos below (warning: large images). Do note that what the camera sees is not necessarily the same as what your eyes would see. My impression is that both screens perform somewhat better in real life than on these images. Notably, the moiré patterns are a purely photographic effect; they're not there when you look at the screen directly.

Spoiler

Performance

I haven't been bothered to benchmark the system, as performance wasn't really the big selling point for me. WEI scores are as follows, for those who care.
Processor: 7.1
Memory (RAM): 7.5
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming graphics: 6.2
Primary hard disk: 5.9

Boot times aren't stellar at 70-80 seconds, but way better than my old systems. However, shutdown, sleep/wake and hibernate/resume times are very impressive at <10, 2-3 and <30 seconds, respectively.


Other observations

The noise level, or rather lack thereof, is wonderful, compared to my older machines. I can barely hear the HDD at all, and the fan has stayed pretty much silent since I fiddled a little bit in Power Manager to prioritize acoustics over performance. At any rate, I seem to nearly always have things or people around me that make a lot more noise than the T420, making it almost inaudible in practice.

The temperature, like the noise, is low and nice. No more singeing of my left thigh, and less worrying about laptop-induced fertility issues.

The port lineup is excellent, in my view. Not least Displayport and always-on USB are very welcome additions. Also, I was lucky enough to get hold of a system with a firewire port (that I'm likely to use very little) instead of the in continental Europe equally common V.90 RJ-11 modem port (that I would be likely to never use, ever).

The ThinkVantage suite remains a nice addition to a Windows-running Thinkpad. Some tools I don't really use at all (Toolbox) or even uninstall (Autolock), whereas others are great to have (Power Manager). The need for Access Connections is much smaller than in XP, as Windows' own software has become so much more competent over the past decade, though the Fn-F5 menu is still a nice addition, and handling of WWAN is very good. I really miss Presentation Director, by the way. I hope it makes a reappearance at some point.

I haven't had the chance to drain the 9-cell battery in a continuous session yet, but the 6-cell took 3:05 to go from 100% to 10% with enabled WiFi and BT, brightness at 9-11, ~45 minutes of HD video watching and the rest of the time browsing and just fiddling around in Windows.


In conclusion

The T420 is everything I expected and more. This, however, includes meeting expectations when it comes to weaknesses, mainly in terms of screen quality. However, for me as well as for a probable majority of users, it's certainly good enough. It also maintains the Thinkpad legacy in terms of build quality and keyboard excellence. All in all, a very good system that - for my needs - could only really be made better if it was a little bit lighter and had a 16:10 display with somewhat better viewing angles.

 

I've been waiting to have my T420 for at least a week before writing my review; I've reached that point now, and I thought I'd piggyback on this thread since I'd largely echo jazdc's comments.

Build quality seems to be outstanding. I'd occasionally grab my T42 by the base (with display open) and it would flex in ways that made me uncomfortable. The 420 feels wonderfully solid. The only minor complaint about build quality is that the battery isn't 100% properly situated, meaning that it moves a bit and makes a noise if you push up against it (if it's on your lap, not a problem if it's on the desk). It seems possible that not everyone would have this "problem".

The screen is fine for work, better than advertised by many on this board. The viewing angles aren't great, but the worst part is the color accuracy. It's far better than my T42, and it's not bad if you're just using it for normal Windows tasks, but if you do end up using it for basic photo editing or gaming, it's pretty ugly. It's the thing I like least about the system, but everything else is so good and there seem to be so few real alternatives that I've decided I can live with it.

The keyboard is a pleasure to type on.

A dedicated sleep icon would have been nice on the inside of the machine, but there's one on the outside so no real complaints.

To emphasis how well built the T420 is, my "major" design complaint is that the button to open the DVD drive isn't recessed like it was on my T42 and as a result I end up opening it accidentally when I have the system in my lap.

Fan noise was not great with the default settings. It was always on the second lowest level, which was annoying in a quiet room, irrelevant in a room with any significant ambient noise. I've followed the OP's suggestion and modified it in power manager; it's better, but not entirely sticking to the lowest possible setting while I use Word and Chrome/Firefox. Any specific suggestions there, jazdc?

I also like the buttons for volume control and muting the mic and sound. The volume control buttons are an improvement on the T42 because they can more easily be operated by touch without having to look down at the keyboard.

 

Nice reviews guys, I added both reviews to the first post on the T420 Owners Thread so it can help prospective buyers on this particular model.

 

Thanks for the reviews guys. One quick question: How light or otherwise does the T420 feel? I know what the specc'd weight is, but in real life, is it similar to the T400/T410? Or lighter?

Thanks

 

I can't compare to those, as I have no first-hand experience. However, I can tell you that the perceived weight is noticeably lower than the T61, noticeably higher than the T410s and T420s, and decidedly higher than the X40 and X220. Judged on its own merits, I would place it in the extremely well-defined category "not light-light, but not really heavy either".

 

i saw all three in singapore when i was there last week, they feel the same weight, cant tell any difference at all . was interesting to see all three screens side by side as well

 

The weight does seem essentially equivalent to my T42, but the solid build quality makes it much more satisfying to use (well, it doesn't so much matter when it's on a desk, but if it's on your lap it does feel much more solidly built and not any heavier).

I ordered a fully loaded T410s last year and returned it because it didn't seem worth the cost. Sure, I didn't need the SSD and nVidia graphics, so the cost didn't need to be so high, but I'm satisfied with the T420 in spite of my desire to substantially reduce my laptop weight. The fact that battery life is significantly improved from previous models also helps offset that issue for me.

 

The T420 definitely feels lighter than the T400, not even a question. After having both, I'm quite impressed with that. Both models I've had had the 6-cell battery, and with the T420 battery being flush, it's a smaller laptop too.

I can't tel you about the T410, not having owned one.

 

Thanks. I suppose, at best, I could compare it very favourable against the R400 (which I do have). I must say though that I do find the weight of the X201 optimal.

 

i dint notice much diff between the T400 and T420, but then again i dint check what batteries they had, maybe thats why

 

Good description of the graininess issue. For those who are trying to imagine what it actually looks like, I have another comparison. Imagine a regular laptop screen with (very thin) nylon/silk stockings pulled on it. That's what comes to my mind when I look at the screen .

 

I agree, that also fits fairly well. Good analogy. Not that I have significant experience of pulling stockings over screens, mind you, but at least this is kind of how I imagine it would look.

 

... If only everybody would agree the screen is horrible..

Still torn between the T420 and X220 and you guys are not making the decision any easier.

Thanks for the reviews, especially the X40-T420 pictures! I guess you're right jazdc, T420 will be much better then my X40 but not as good as the X220.

 

Your comments are very helpful but:

Should that read the i5 2520M?

John

 

What software did you use to check certain specs on your machine (such as the LCD manufacturer and model number)?

 

Indeed it should. Fixed. Thanks.

 

The pictures were taken with you in mind. And, yes, I think you're entirely correct in your conclusion.

I used hwinfo32 (just google it). There are other options as well.

 

I'm honoured Watching your 2000x1500 pixel photo on a X40 screen is a bit of a challenge though

 

I've got my T410 and my T420 with my every day at work. They feel identical weight-wise. I'm sure there's some difference, but simply hefting one in each hand certainly doesn't reveal it.

 

If you have your machine's serial number and model you can use Lenovo's parts lookup to get the FRU of the LCD, and from there we can figure out what you have.

If you're running Linux you can use get-edid and parse-edid to get the make and model of your LCD (that's what I used.)

 

Hehe. The original images were 4000x3000, so it's already a bit scaled down.

 

I've added some weight measurements to the original post. It seems the tabook figures are correct, or possibly even a bit on the high side. With the optical drive and a 9-cell, my system weighs in at just shy of 2.4kg.

 

Could you try a low end game or two and let us know how it goes? I'm trying to decide between this laptop and a macbook pro and while I do plan on using a desktop for my gaming, I would at least like to be able to play counter strike on my laptop.

 

Let me know what you consider a low-end game, and I'd be happy to try it out. =)

I'm a little retro in my gaming tastes, so low-end for me means stuff that runs on anything built in the 00's, or posssibly even earlier. I'm guessing others may have a slightly different view.

 

I recommend having a look at Notebookcheck Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech and lookup the NVS 4200M and the Intel HD Graphics 3000 to get an idea on how it will perform with games. For example, even the Intel GPU should handle Counter Strike flawlessly.

 

I have to say that I have had my T420 for about two weeks now and I absolutely love it. I dont know if it is because I have low standards, but the screen quality does not bother me at all and the colors look quite nice. I also have the 9 cell and I regularly get 8.5 hours on it. If I just do simple work I can get 10.5 hours with the wireless on, brightness at 11, and the performace set to balanced with a screen dim after 5 min of no activity. Charges fast too at about 2 hours for a full charge when is sleep. The speakers suck...they are loud but the quality is pretty crappy. Also, the speed of the 5400 rpm hard drive is killing me but I will get an SSD soon enough. For those of you on the fence of wanting to get the 420 or 420S, the 420 is much thinner looking than in the photos they show you and the large 9 cell is quite inexpensive to replace. Also a lot lighter than I would have expected

 

I don't think you have low standards. The T420 beats out my previous T400 and T61 in most areas. This includes the speakers, construction, and the LCD as well.

My only weak spots are that the keyboard is good, but not as good as the ThinkPad T60 era, touchpad sensitivity when scrolling is a bit of an issue (I usually use the TrackPoint anyway), and I don't believe the memory card reader supports XD cards like my T400 and T61 did (I know I'm in the minority here, but my digital camera uses XD cards).

All of these are very minor. In every other way so far, the T420 exceeds my two previous ThinkPads.

 

i own an r61 i purchased in late 2007. how do you think the t420 would compare to it? it only has the 1280x800 screen and i'm looking to get the t420 with the 1600x900 option (i'm digging the business-class construction of the thinkpads and can't really give it up now that i've had a thinkpad)

 

The R61 is a good laptop --but seeing as the T420 beat my T61, I think it would do the same for the R61.

 

good to hear....i think i'm set in picking the t420, darned be those reviews talking about a poor screen quality! would you happen to know when lenovo might have summer sales? i'm looking to possibly get it before i start school in september (although getting it sooner rather than later would be nice)

 

I have no knowledge of Lenovo's sale schedule. Between using a coupon code and possibly one of Lenovo's special purchase programs (visa card holders, contractors, etc.) you could save some now. Best to just keep an eye out.

As for the screen, look at it this way. The R61/T61 screens are often criticized for being dark and lacking contrast. The T420 screen is an improvement on them.

 

Don't mind them. Just ask yourself whether you think you'll be content with a screen that is just as good as most other screens (and even better than those of older Thinkpad models). If the answer is yes, then it's not a problem. If, however, you for one reason or another, need a high-end screen with great viewing angles and/or color representation, you might want to look elsewhere.