T420s with or w/o Optimus?

Hi all,
I am planning to replace my 3-year old Dell Latitude D630
(Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T9500 @2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, 150GB HDD 7200 rpm, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M Graphics Card, 14.1"WXGA+, 1440 X 900 resolution).

I am looking for a lightweight but powerful laptop and have settled on the T420s. I plan to use it for running statistical packages (i.e., STATA), Office, web, and video (no gaming). I will upgrade to 6/8GB ram aftermarket.

I am hoping you can help me with a few questions:

1. How important is the NVIDIA Optimus graphics card? Will it help/hurt battery life? I am currently very happy with my Dell D630 resolution and graphics (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M Graphics Card, 14.1"WXGA+, 1440 X 900 resolution). I want to make sure the T420s laptop screen won't be a "downgrade" for my eyes if I opt out of the Optimus NVIDIA card.

2. I would be fine spending the extra money on the i7 processor, but it seems like it doesn't offer much based on other posts on this site. However, assuming I go with the i5 and also add the Optimus card, Lenovo will not allow me to purchase their top end i5-2540M 2.6 GHz processor. (If you want the Optimus and i5, you have to get the 2520M 2.5 GHz processor). Not sure if this is a big deal or if either option will make much of a difference on performance or battery life.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

1. See the notebookcheck mobile GPU benchmark list The Intel HD3000 (#159 as I type this) is a step up from the Nvidia 135M (#234). If you are not running programs that can benefit from a dedicated GPU then the Intel GPU will be fine.

However, GPU power has no influence over the image quality and the displays used in the T420 and T420s could be better. There are separate threads about this. The good news is that they will be brighter than whatever was in your D630 but the bad news is that the 16:9 aspect ratio means that the display has less physical height and the pixels are smaller.

2. Notebookcheck's mobile CPU benchmark list shows how much performance difference there is between the CPUs. It's only if you go to quad core CPUs (and have multi-threaded programs that will utilise their extra processing power) that you will see a big improvement in performance. And quad core isn't an option for the T420s.

John

 

It looks like your questions revolve around three typical points. Screen resolution and quality, GPU performance, and battery life.

The screen resolution and quality is a pretty subjective matter as demonstrated by a couple of years worth of threads here and at other forum venues. I'm pretty picky about screens and I would say the 1600x900 T420s is the minimum bar for my personal tastes. I used to think that about the 1440x900 screen on the T410s but I actually think the T410s is better. Therefore, you might consider it a small step down. You do gain some horizontal resolution and that comes in handy for reading email with a preview pane, or a development IDE that needs horizontal space for a tools windows or something.

There is a very small gap performance wise between the Intel HD 3000 and the Quadro NVS 4200M. Day in and day out you would not notice much of a difference. The Intel iGPU should be more power efficient but I haven't actually run comparisons against it and the dGPU side of Optimus. I'd say if you can afford Optimus, get it. Especially if you plan to use a docking station and more than two attached LCD panels.

The battery life tests I've run with Optimus on the T420s were a little disappointing. It's the Achilles heal of the T420s. If the machine could routinely get 5-6 hours of life, it would be a star. It just doesn't get that kind of life on the included 6 cell.

 

Thanks so much to you both for some great advice. Very much appreciated.