T430 Owner's Thread

That sounds terrible. Although I wanted the form factor of a 14" laptop, I ultimately went with the HD+ T530 because of all the negative comments about the HD+ T420 screen.

I doubt Lenovo will improve the screen significantly in the future. The T4xx series is their bread and butter machine for corporate bulk purchasers.

 

Pics or it didn't happen.

Can you take a picture of the T420 and the T430 side-by-side?

 

Oh, yea, that would definitely be great to see!

Thank you very much for sharing you experience and your understanding of my reasons why not go for Mac. I owned it actually for a year and could not be productive with it though I see some people who are at the other side and cannot do with Windows PCs and other people, that I actually envy, can work very comfortably on either and they just get the one they like!

I also thought like you today that with the price of a Mac + warranty, you can get 2 ThinkPads + warranty of equivalent specs.

 

@timesquaredesi, If you're used to keyboard shortcuts on Windows, you'll get used to using keyboard shortcuts on the Mac. With that said there are several shortcuts that I really don't like on the Mac. I just have to get used to it. I use Lion during work and 7 at home.

 

Just FYI, notebookcheck just added both NVS 5400M and NVS 5200M to their GPU benchmark and gaming performance list.

It seems the NVS 5200M is so poor that its not even a noticeable upgrade from the HD4000, that its not worth the money

link

 

We predicated that months ago. Glad to hear some benchmarks now prove it.

Anyone actually tested a Intel HD 4000 only machine with three external LCD panels yet?

 

I think the nvs5400m is pretty good for a business laptop

But after hearing about the poor screen, limited processor upgrade, I am starting to think that sony s series might not have been a bad idea for 1200 w/free ps3....

But after hearing about the poor screen, limited processor upgrade, I am starting to think that sony s series might not have been a bad idea for 1200 w/free ps3....

 

Listing the card and infos on notebookcheck.net is not the same thing as benchmarking it and publishing those results... Without the accompanying benchmarks I feel like the order of GPU rankings doesn't really count nor matter

 

Yea I would have to agree with that. They do not have any statistics to back up their listing yet. They may however have all the components to predict a value/listing number but we need actual values!!!!

 

I would imagine we'll start to see better evidence soon as people receive their machines. Certainly by the end of this month.

 

PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN, HUH?!?!?!?!?!?

Here is the t420s on the left and the t430s on the right.


Here is the t430s when you are looking at it dead on.


Here is the t430s view if you are a little tall and dont want to tilt your screen back like all the way. NOTICE THE BLACKENING / DARKENING OF THE PICTURE on the upper right hand corner of the screen. compare that to the same location in the previous pic and you will see the issue.

 

Looks not entirely bad.

 

I can't make an informed decision with these pictures. I fear it might be best for you to overnight me your T430s so I can really see what all the fuss is about. I promise to overnight it back to you within a few days

[/endsarcasm] but in all realities, thank you for the pics. apparently it DID happen amirite?

 

Can you dump the EDID from both machines (or at least extract the panel model from it)? It'd be interesting to see which panels each one uses.

 

Could be just me... but, I wouldn't complain too much about either of those screens... It would be good to know which panels are being compared and what, if any, calibration was performed on them?

 

thinkrob - i posted yesterday the brand names of each of the panels.

brinox - yah it totally happened!

as for calibration, i personally haven't done anything of the sort. i simply turned on the machine & reinstalled windows, set the resolution to the highest and that's that.

 

Can you do the same for me, please? What is your personal opinion about the display compared to the old T420s? Also, if I assume that it is a good display, should the T430 carry the same display?

 

they both are hd+ screens but i personally feel that the t420s suffers from the problem less than the t430s.. the problem is very harsh (to me, that is) on the t430s although the screens are the same (hd+)..........

 

Really? Are you kidding me? Do you mean that the T430s display is worse than the T420s? Oh, Lord, what one should do to get a good ThinkPad?!

 

pchome - TO ME - i feel that the problem is worse on the t430s but it could just be me. i just got the feeling that the more i move around on the t430s the worse the problem is whereas on the t420s, the problem is bad when i move but not as prevalent as on the t430s.............

my experience is not a definitive "this is a horrible screen/laptop" -- lets wait until others receive their units (with the hd+ display) and see what their experience is.

 

the problem is more noticeable if you have a dark colored wallpaper or a dark colored window open.

 

I am not sure if anyone else was interested in the slice battery but it is pretty expensive.

Lenovo 0A36304 Thinkpad Battery 28++ [9 Cell Slice] 886843359815 | eBay

 

ThinkPad New Season: Very Disappointing!

 

I saw that, but I was interested in the full model information (ex: my T420 uses an AUO B140RW02 V1). Also, I don't think "LEN" is right. I've seen that on some displays before where the vendor name seems to be set to the OEM's name -- but since Lenovo doesn't make panels, I'm a little dubious of ones that report themselves like that.

 

LOL Thanks man!

 

^^ no worries, dude!

very good point... i wont have time today but maybe tomorrow i will run hwinfo and get the detailed specs. i will run it on all 3 models i have right now - one t420s and two t430s's... all with hd+ screens. thanks for the catch.

 

what model screen have you purchased?

 

Results of running HWInfo on all 3 laptops I have:

1) T430s: Monitor --> AU Optronics [Unknown Model: AU0213E]

2) T420s: Monitor --> Lenovo [Unknown Model: LEN40A1]

3) T430s: Monitor --> Lenovo [Unknown Model: LEN40A1]

 

I don't know what your profession is, but this is VERY commonplace, and its mainly due to supply availability of one part. Lenovo is making thousands of these systems at once, and generally there is no one vendor that can facilitate their specific parts to meet the needs of Lenovo's order pace. this is why you sometimes have an AUO screen vs a Samsung screen...

A lot of that variance is due to the "channel" and thats a whole other can of worms that someone else may get into

 

Hi. Would you mind telling us if there is any distinct difference between
the two screens on the T430s you have? Also, what do you think of the
the heat/noise under load on the T430s when compared to T420s? I have
heard many stories about T420s heating up and having excessive fan
noise, and wonder if there is any improvement on this regard on the
new T430s. Thank you.

 

1) Comparing only the t430s (AUO) and the t420s (Lenovo), i think the problem seems to be more visible on the t430s - this is ONLY WHEN MY DESKTOP BACKGROUND IS A DARK COLOR. With a lighter color, the problem is significantly reduced.

2) as for load, i haven't done any work on them yet so i cannot speak to that point. just having the machines on though, the fans are churning and the sound is definitely clearly audible. i literally just have these machines sitting here and the fans seem pretty loud to me....

 

I hope anyone who get their T430 share pictures and opinions about the display ASAP so I may decide to cancel my neglected delayed f... up order before it ships and go another direction.

 

None of those show the actual panel model, and the last two don't show the manufacturer (again, I'm 100% certain Lenovo does not manufacture the panels themselves.)

You'll need to dump the EDID directly. I don't know much about Windows anymore, so I have no idea if it's possible to do that from HWInfo -- but this application seems like it might do the trick. (I've never used it -- it's just the most-promising result from a quick search.)

 

according to http://download.lenovo.com/parts/ThinkPad/T430_FRU_BOM.pdf there are 3 source-able HD+ panels, including (my guess) LG and AUO and a third company, most likely Samsung:

04W3329 N LGD 14.0"HD A
04W3330 N CMI 14.0"HD A
04W3331 N LGD 14.0"HD+ A
04W3651 N AUO 14.0"HD A
04W3707 N SEC 14.0"HD A
93P5685 N SEC 14.0" HD+
93P5693 N AUO 14.0" HD+

 

I am probably just a complete idiot and do not realize the hd slot size but my vertex 4 ssd wont fit into the standard harddrive slot of my t430.... its 2.5" harddrive but its too talll!!!!!

 

stupid 7mm drives. Why couldnt they just do 9.3!!!!

 

I just checked the June TABOOK.PDF and it does appear they changed the primary bay drive specs.

That seems very odd to me.

 

Yea I was surprised. I thought about voiding my warranty on the vertex 4 but its 5 years and I realized it wasnt worth it to take top cover off. Instead I just found a sandisk extreme 240gb and m4 256gb for 180 shipped and their both 7mm and 2.5 sata 3. Just stinks that I am forced to put my vertex 4 in the closet for a bit until I have some use for it. Anyone know if the ultrabay battery from t420 will work with t430? also how about the harddrive caddy and will that support sata 3 to make use of my ssd vertex 4 full potential.

 

In terms of physical dimensions, the T420 UltraBay HDD caddy adapter should be usable on the T430.

SATA 6.0 Gbit/s? Doubt it. Anyway, you should check the T430 mobo spec, as this has nothing to do with the caddy adapter.

UltraBay battery? Huh, I though this thing is only applicable to the "s" version.

 

The best 7mm SSD on the market appears to be the Samsung Series 830. That's what I have in my T420. It rocks.

 

if we speak about ssd i bought corsair force 3 and its broken after month... Damn i should buy crucial or samsung... Any benchmarks about nvs 5400?

 

Notebookcheck had released the benchmark of NVS5400M,#128

Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

i checked the link - no benchmark. they might have guestimated its position based on the spec. it seems to be slightly slower than quadro 1000m - the one that's on the majority of W520.

does anybody have a link to actual numbers of the benchmark on NVS 5400m?

 

Its just bad luck. I have installed more than 15 F3s in past year. All working flawlessly. I run my own PC from 2x 240GB F3s. Not a single problem.
Before that i had 4x 64GB Crucial M3. Also worked perfectly fine.

 

so there's no room for 9mm drives in the t430 without a caddy? seems a ridiculous move in such a fat business notebook

 

I have a T530 and the included hard drive is 7 mm with rubber rails. I just placed my 9 mm hdd into the slot with some paper fillers instead of the rubber rails. It works perfectly fine, but it probably isn't too secure. I'm eventually going to put my 9 mm hdd into a caddy though.

 

I tried to jerry rig it but the 9mm wont fit period. No if ends or buts unless you take apart the vertex 4 casing and void warranty. t530 might be different but I was refering to t430 . I ran 3dmark06 with the free trial but for some reason it only used the default intel hd 3000 drivers for my i5 2520 and not the nvs 5400m... Cant tinker with settings much because its a trial. Never did any benchmarks before so if there is a free program out there that will automatically use the 5400 then were good.

 

SCORE
9270 3DMarks with Generic VGA(1x) and Intel Core i5-2520M Processor
SIGN UP



RESULT DETAILS

SCORE
9270 3DMarks
SM2.0 SCORE
4213
HDR/SM3.0 SCORE
3933
CPU SCORE
2458

I changed nvidia control panel to run 3dMark06 with nvs 5400m despite for some reason it still says system spec is intel hd3000 for 3dmark06 application and the nvidia control monitor showed nvs 5400m as on so I guess these results are reliable???

 

^on a previous page did you mean you've ordered a new display for the t430? if so which one?

 

So let me get this straight. The T430 uses a 7mm HDD in the primary bay with the included rubber rails. However, an older T420 rail for 9.5mm HDD will work fine in the T430?