T430s owners'/would-be owners' thread.

OK, I posted last night that I was not happy with the display and even went to the trouble of getting a return authorization from Lenovo.

I just tried the 'dialing down the gamma' thing and it definitely improved the situation. Maybe I can live with this

I can't recommend strongly enough that you go into control panel and locate the calibration tool to dial down the gamma - much improved.

 

So I just got my T430s today.. So far I'm really disapointed, I just now (as I was typing this noticed my n key sticks... damn) but other than that it also has a scratch along the palm rest, and some scratches on the surface of the screen next to the right edge. Also has scratches around the VGA port. The top left of the P in the thinkpad sticker is also slightly bubbled.

Mild scratching near VGA:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0139.jpg

Mild scratch on palm rest (begins above the windows sticker, and continues all the way up to the edge where the keyboard begins)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0141.jpg

UNACCEPTABLE scratch on display:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0142.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0143.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0148.jpg
(to be honest I could live with the display otherwise, it isn't that bad.)

SQUEEKY + STICKY N key
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0144.jpg

Stain on plastic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/kardon2/IMG_0150.jpg
(wont come off with rubbing alcohol)

I can't believe the quality control of this company in comparison to Apple (sorry but I had to, my non-unibody mbp has less flaws than this BRAND NEW thinkpad.) I understand that this machine costs alot less than a Mac, but even some junky $500 acer seems to have better quality control than this. I will be on the phone with lenovo tomorrow.

I do like the keyboard, and the thinklight, and the overall size and feel of this machine, it just let down by a total and complete lack of attention to detail.

 

Is the T430 with a 9-cell significantly better than a T430s with the bay battery? I'm getting worried about battery life before I've even gotten the laptop... I might have to switch brands if this is an across-the-board issue. I was hoping for at least 7 hours with the bay battery + 6-cell in the T430s.

I bought the T430s for college because my current HP sucks battery.

 

Whatever you do, report it right away and RETURN it. I would not let them talk you into repairing it.

 

You have 21 days from the date it ships to return it.

1. Make the Rescue and Recovery factory image disk set first. Should be four DVDs.
2. Load up your apps and data
3. Test the crap out of the machine in the first week by running your apps, making sure all the ports work, etc.
4. Make your long term decision

It'll probably work out but if you wanted the best battery life, the T430 was probably the way to go.

 

The slimmer versions of the T4x0 notebooks tends to be slightly inferior for battery life compared to its standard sized sibling, this is probably to be expected due to the smaller form factor so it limits the amount of power they can pack in to the batteries.

If battery life was a paramount concern then I would've stuck with the standard models due to larger battery capacities available. I have a T420 with a 9 cell battery and it does at least 7 hours easily without trying to be conservative, with general browsing sessions it can last me 10 hours on a single charge. I would expect the T430 to be pretty similar if not a little better.

 

For those of you who complain about AUO panels, my T430s contains LTN140KT03401 Samsung display. Although it is bright, contrast is pretty poor and vertical viewing angles are about 2 degrees.

As someone already mentioned, dialing down gamma helps somewhat.

 

This is a SHAME.

Only a loser/sucker would try to justify the above. Please, get your full money back and shop elsewhere. I dare Lenovo to make up to this customer by offering a FREE notebook with the CEO's note of apology.

Why design a freaking slim notebook so that it can be, oh so lightly, portable and mobile, BUT can't be used "off the wall" for, like, 2.5 hours???

Can smartphone manufactures dare to do that?

Please, we users need not justify for Lenovo's so-called designs. Just say NO.

 

thanks for testing, so I waited, now I know that does not make sense to buy i5 and nvidia, much better to buy i7 . I am a fan for years Lenovo ThinkPad - now I t420s top model .. and wants to buy t430s.. but the new model of Retina Apple MBP also looks wonderful ;-)

 

Weird question, I know. But anybody can measure the dimensions of the box shipped?

 

Macbook Air 2011 definitely last less than 2.5 hrs under load. Apple mainly wins in idle scenarios due to the efficiency of OSX. T430s's 44whr is a bit too small, but I'd choose it over Macbook Air's irreplaceable 50whr one.

 

is anyone that replaced the 500gb hard drive with a solid state drive getting better battery performance ?

 

Is there any foolproof way to avoid the restocking fee if I decide that the T430s isn't right for me? Maybe outrageous battery claims?

I don't know if the T430 would be a good fit, as I'd prefer a thin-and-light for college. I might decide to get the new Ivy Bridge MacBook Air if this doesn't work out.

Would I not be charged the restocking fee if I didn't open the box at all?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

 

15" x 5" x 11.25"

 

I avoided restocking fee by making a complaint about the screen being washed out at normal viewing angles. They did ask for a pic which I supplied.

P.S. If you want to be sneaky go into screen calibration and set the gamma at high and make sure you take the pic with the screen vertical or a little forward leaning. Use a web page with a lot of graphics and they will appear very washed out.

Good luck.

 

Ireland, if you don't mind, could you provide a link to the image(s) that you sent re: the washed out screen?

 

Ha, they might notice a pattern.

 

The same pattern of low quality that the users have noticed?

 

That's terrible, you must have had a lemon which was handled a little more roughly than usual. Get an exchange or a refund. My T430s had none of these issues (or perhaps, my eyes are not as discerning as your's).

 

On the phone with technical support, I will be sending the unit back.


Wow seriously lenovo?? Your website says

All I get is a message telling me your hours.

I call tech support, and the people they need to deal with are also closed. Now I've got to restart this whole process over again on monday.

They want me to exchange the unit, and I'm unsure if I should. Honestly the first impressions I had with the machine were positive, and if it were flawless (like a new machine should be) then I think I'd enjoy it. But can a person really support a company that has this low QC?

I don't know what to do, I shopped around and nothing else on the market appeals like the thinkpad line for this price.

 

Kardon,
It looks like you got unlucky, my machine at least appears to be a decent quality build. The two issues I would have would be the screen and battery life but if you can live with those then I would just get a replacement rather than a refund.
I ran into the same problem which I was discussing with someone yesterday, if not a Lenovo then what? I think apple is a great brand but I'm not an apple person and need the IBM for work. HP and DELL I don't trust.

I have to say I didn't realize how much I like the track knob thingy on the Lenovo til I got the touchpad which I think sucks in comparison.
----------------
P.S. There is a rumored T Series Ultrabook for later this year - might be worth waiting for - does anyone know anything about this machine.

 

Yeah, it's the T430u, launching late this year. However, I hear that it's going to weight just as much as a T430s, have a screen resolution of just 1366x768, have no optical drive and featured a sealed-in battery. It's a thinner version of the T430s - thin enough to be called an Ultrabook.

 

I heard about it and saw the quick review video in CES 2012 and I do not think it is the way to go for me due to the reasons XX55XX mentioned!

 

I also noticed that the buttons for the trackpad did nothing out of the box, I figured I had to turn them on, but finding now in the mouse options of the control panel that they are already turned on, and for some reason they just don't work. Can anybody else confirm if there is some hidden setting I must enable or is this yet ANOTHER factory defect of this computer?

 

They work fine for me. Install the Synaptics driver, perhaps?

 

Would that not have been installed from the factory? In device manager I have a ThinkPad UltraNav Pointing Device listed, and there is a UltraNav tab in the Mouse Properties.. Where would one find the appropriate Synaptics driver? SWTOOLS?


Here is my video review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSbS4_YB_Bg&feature=youtu.be

 

This thread makes me worried. My unit comes in this week, but I'm not sure where my expectations should lie. I got the 6 cell + 3 cell bay battery, so can I expect 5 hours easily (i5 with Nvidia)? For external monitors, will there be any problems trying to run 2 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 monitors, either with or without the laptop LCD?

I was really hoping to get something like 5+ hours running things like Solidworks, Eclipse, Chrome, and Office (maybe not all of them at the same time, but at least 3), and I thought that was reasonable based on the 13 hour spec, but you guys are reporting times of 2-3 hours with very little running.

 

I'm not too familar with the newer Lenovo laptops but I seem to recall in older models the trackpad could be enabled\disabled in the system BIOS so you might want to look there.

Nice video, btw. You were a lot more calm than I was expecting you to be given the circumstances.

 

It should work just fine. I got one from nimitz and it works like a champ.

 

Even without the Synaptics Ultranav drivers, the touchpad should still work using default Windows Mouse drivers. As mrsean said, check the BIOS to make sure the Touchpad is not accidently disabled.

If everything seem to be in order then you may need to take out the palmrest to make sure the connectors are not dislodged. I encountered something similar when I had a replacement palmrest, I had to reseat the connectors under the touchpad and it worked fine after.

 

Has anyone bought an aftermarket 3-cell ultrabay battery for the T430s? I didn't buy one with my order, and now I am wishing I had. Where can I buy one from and could you share your experience with one?

Thanks in advance.

 

I got mine from a reseller on Amazon:

Amazon.com: Genuine Lenovo Retail Packaged - Factory Sealed Thinkpad Battery 43 / Lenovo Part # 0a36310 3 Cell Ultrabay Battery for Thinkpad Systems T400, T500, R400, T400s, T410s, W500, Z60, Z61, T60, R60, T61, R61 - This Replaced Part # 57y4536: El

As for whether it's worth it, it is. I get five hours with these two batteries. Without the bay battery, I get only three. My old T420 got 4.5 hours on its six cell.

 

Didn't Lenovo implement some chip device that prevents aftermarket batteries from working on Ivy Bridge ThinkPads?

 

I believe so - not that I would buy non-OEM batteries anyway.

 

Thanks for the info and review.

That actually works out to be more than I could've spent if I had included that with my laptop order from Lenovo Canada ($120CAD minus discount). Oh well.

 

5 hours is probably about the best you can hope for, based on my experience with the same system (6 cell + bay battery). You will be able to run two external monitors at 1920x1080 (haven't tried 1200), but the internal LCD will be disabled.

 

How's the 5200M? Does it offer a significant boost over the Intel graphics?

 

Well you see the touchpad itself works fine, I can use it with tap to click (instead I'm using trackpoint), but the hard buttons below the trackpad do not work.

 

The Touchpad buttons uses a ribbon cable under the palmrest so I would check that to make sure it hasn't been dislodged by reseating it. If that still don't work then unfortunately you probably need to call support for a replacement.

 

Nope. It's a total waste of $300. Benchmarks are almost identical for the 5200m and Intel HD 4000 16 GB of RAM.

 

Thanks! I also forgot (neglected) to buy the ultrabay battery on my t430s that should be coming on Tuesday but I definitely need more than 2 hours of battery. Is the ultrabay battery heavier than the stock ultrabay DVD drive?

 

What about real world use? I'm mainly interested in CAD applications, and I think that was the intended use of the 5200m. Maybe I'm mistaken, but is it possible the benchmarks test it for something more like gaming, which it isn't designed for?

 

Is the battery life really that bad? In the review of T420s, notebookreview measures close to 4hrs of browsing time and close to 3hrs of DVD playback time. And that's for a i7 processor. A 44wh battery is only 10% smaller than the Macbook Air's 50wh one.

 

Well, I do not know how those websites measure the battery life, for example I received a brand new T420s last week (company I work for) and tested the battery life this weekend. In Ubuntu I am able to do 2h40m, out of the 48Wh battery, of web browsing normally with display a little less than maximum and flash disabled from browser.
I did this twice.
It eats ~40% of the battery every hour. (i5 with 8gb ram, intel 3000, and intel 160gb ssd). So with an extra battery of 33Wh in cd drive I assume will give me around 1h50m extra, which is close to 4h30-5h that people are getting from the new T430s ones and makes sense.

The only way to get a lot of battery time with those machines is to turn them on and do not touch them. (It can eat as low as 11w with wifi on, sreen almost to full brightness, but the right moment you start scrolling into a web page, cpu/graphics start eating the battery at around 16-20w, which gives me the 2h30m).
Yes if you don't touch it you can reach 4h30m with only the 48Wh battery. Having a script refreshing a webpage is not that realistic since scrolling and visual efetcs (minimize, alt-tab, etc.) eats a lot of cpu/gpu in terms of watts

 

Yes, it's almost twice as heavy.

Have you tried games on it? That was what I was looking for.

 

On my T430s I played a couple of games of league on med-high settings with no lag at all using the hd 4000

 

I apologize, but do you meen the drive itself is twice as heavy or the laptop all together?

 

Twice as heavy as the DVD drive the battery replaces.

 

Your battery life under Ubuntu is horrible, but my bet is that's because you're just running a normal out-of-the-box installation (which doesn't enable a lot of the hardware's power-saving features.)

I can easily reach 4+ hours of life on the 6-cell, and that's for real actual use.

 

The quoted price is very similar to Lenovo prices . The amazon price is 119.89 USD, it's Thinkpad Battery 43 (3 cell bay) | 0A36310 | Lenovo | (US) , it's 119.99 USD.

It's 119.99 CAD, if you order for the Canadian Lenovo site (same price), and if you guys can use the Employee Purchase Plan,(Canada, not sure about US) it comes down to 95.99 CAD. For you Canadian folks, not sure about the US EPP.