T430 vs T530

I'm a college student and I'm considering buying either a Thinkpad T430 or a T530. The T430 appeals to me because it is more portable. I bring my laptop to class a lot to take notes. On the other hand, the T530 offers a high resolution 1920x1080 screen which will be helpful for programming, which I also do a lot of. Should I sacrifice the low weight of the T430 for the better screen of the T530? Would the bump in screen resolution from 1600x900 to 1920x1080 be worth it? What else would I be giving up if I buy the T530 instead of the T430? What do you guys recommend?

 

Equipped with a 6-cell battery, a T530 does not make itself felt, in terms of weight, in a good backpack. However, I wouldn't consider it a compact notebook, especially if you intend to use it to take notes in class. Its relative large size could be acceptable on a table or desk in the library.

I commute a couple of times a week with a T520. I like it a lot, especially its FHD 1920x1080 screen, which definitely provides ample display space. I sometimes carry an X210 in my bag when I only need to do presentations or take notes at the client's site.

What would I do if I were in your shoes? I would get a T430 with HD+ 1600x900 screen. It's relatively more compact and more portable than a T530. You could get a decent configuration for about $700 (before tax) with the current specials.

 

You could also consider buying the T430 (or even an X230) and an external display. That's the sort of setup I used all through college, and it worked great for me.

 

Back in 2008 when I was in the market for a notebook for school, I was suck deciding between the T400 and T500. I eventually decided on the T500 mainly because of its slightly stronger graphic capability. An extra 1" and a few hundred grams wasn't a big deal to me.

I suggest if this was your only pc, you'd be better off with the bigger 15.6" LCD.

 

Eh, right off the bat, I'll tell you that's I'm not especially fond of the T4x0 series. I feel as though if someone's looking for portability the X2x0 would be better, but for a very nice display and other specs the T5x0 (or even W5x0) would be better. T4x0 is a jack of all trades, master of none .

Anyway, I'd lean towards the T530 and the 1080p display. Being a college student myself, I have to take my computer (and binders, books, etc) everywhere on and off campus (a very hilly one, at that). However, the 15.6" Thinkpad does not weigh me down whatsoever, and I have no issue moving it around campus with it in the backpack. For your back, 5.75lbs is practically nothing...maybe a particularly-full binder or so. I'd tried everything from netbooks (Thinkpad X120e) to portables (Sony VAIO T) to 17.3" monsters (HP Pavilion dv7t, Envy 17 3D) when I had them as review units, and the only ones to give me trouble are the 17.3" machines (a mix of weight and sheer size). The 1080p display is worth *much* more than having my back deal with an extra pound or two of tech.

Just a comparison of the different display resolutions, and what's possible on a 1080p display that isn't on others (two full-sized windows size-by-side ):

(768p on top, 900p in middle, 1080p on bottom)

Spoiler

^^^To compare with a real-life analog, a sheet of wide-rule filler paper has 26 rows that you can write on.


^^^College-ruled filler paper has 30 rows to write to.

1080p two full-sized windows:

Spoiler

 

How does the battery life of the T530 compare to the battery life of the T430? The amount of time that each laptop can spend away from a power plug is another factor of portability. Would the T530 with a 1080p screen have much worse battery life than the T430?

 

At the same spec, the difference should be small to negligible.

 

Shouldn't the 1080p display on the T530 take up quite a big chunk of power compared to the 1600x900 screen on the T430? I read somewhere that nearly half of the electricity used by a laptop is used by the screen. If getting the T530 with the 1920x1080 screen will make a signifiant impact on the battery life, I might have to go with the T430.

 

Probably more somewhere around 30%-50%. But anyway, my laptop can get about 7-8 hours of battery life on the 9-cell when using the Intel GPU. T530 should get 6-7 hours on the 6-cell (I tested this with the W530 and Intel-only), and the 9-cell should give you around 8-10 hours. T430 numbers should be pretty similar, with a small advantage due to the display being a little smaller.

Display resolution won't affect battery life that much compared to the physical size of the display. Maybe a minute or two at most, if anything.

 

Thank you for the advice. Your comment was very helpful - I especialy appreciate how you included numbers and data to back it up.

 

Thanks. Forgot to mention that the 6-7 hours on the W530's 6-cell was tested with a 900p display. http://www.laptopreviews.com/lenovo-thinkpad-w530-review-2012-07

 

There's a lot of factors that go into this, which is why I specifically said "at the same spec". Both my X220t and my T430 (which are not of identical, but very similar spec), both idle at about 5.5W, so much of the difference in realized run time will be from battery capacity. This is despite the fact that the T430 has a larger screen with more pixels, and why I believe the difference between the T430 and T530 won't be that much either. This mirrored my experience with the X200t and T400 as well.