T430s owners'/would-be owners' thread.

I just wrote up a review of my T430s on my personal blog. For those asking about battery life, I did a battery drain test by continually running a DVD at 80% brightness. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes of DVD watching to drain the primary battery.

T430s Review

 

What are you planning to get to replace the T430s?

 

Thanks for the review. It is sad to hear that the 5200M scores so lowly. I am considering doing a return now as well. Does anyone know how difficult it will be to avoid paying the 15% restocking fee? Especially if I just plan on exhanging for a T430 instead. Those models have the NVIDIA 5400M for less cost than the 5200M in the T430s.

 

Do you have a link or something with what you did?

 

I'm still debating. My IT department orders either Lenovo or Apple computers.

My basic requirements are:

• 13.3-15 inches
• Lightweight (close to 4lbs)
• High resolution (minimum 1440x900)
• Can power 2 external monitors
• Supports 16gb of RAM
• Dock would be nice, but not mandatory

Unfortunately, I'm not sure any Thinkpads fit my needs. The T430 is a possibility, but it is a bit on the heavy side, and I'm assuming it has the same disappointing screen as the T430s. The X1 Carbon isn't out yet. I'm also a little annoyed with Lenovo at the moment.

I might petition for the new Macbook Pro (retina), because I don't think any other Macs can run 2 displays without getting a $900 Thunderbolt monitor. Or perhaps another Mac if I can find a thunderbolt dock, but I don't see any available right now.

I've briefly scanned other possibilities - the Sony Z series is nice but pricey; the S series might be a fallback if I can get IT to break ranks. I'm not going to go too far down this path yet though.

 

The MacBook Air can drive up to three displays (built-in monitor + two external displays).

 

I've read that, but it seems to require Apple's thunderbolt display. $900 is a bit much for a monitor, especially a super-glossy one. I would think it would be possible with some sort of Thunderbolt dock, but the ones that I've seen won't be out until September.

 

MacBook Pro Retina, then. Unfortunately, supplies are a bit short, and it weights half a pound more than your stated criteria.

 

It's also far more expensive.

 

Good lord you guys are scaring me - Mine is not even shipped yet and seriously wondering if i should cancel... I just bought replacement/upgrade ram - I am ordering the mSATA (for cache) tomorrow (Probably going to hold off on this till i have the system in my hands.)

 

I'd say if you are looking for Mac quality or even ultrabook quality, better cancel. It's a $700 laptop, probably doesn't worth more than that.

 

I'm here working on my company-owned T410 and i just performed the same test positions that jjmorse did in his review with the T430s screen. My screen looks exactly the same in the same three photos that he posted. Given that, I don't see any problem with using this screen for business or internet surfing. Yes. It is a little washed-out for my tastes but I haven't seen any modern notebooks lately to compare it to.

All the negative reviews posted here about the T430s screen have really frightened me out of purchasing my first Lenovo notebook PC. The X230 screen is way to small for my eyes, the T530 too heavy and the X1 carbon looks cheap.

My question to you all that are disatisfied with the T430/s is have you relayed your concerns directly to Lenovo? Venting here is okay, but nothing's going to change this way unless Lenovo is monitoring this forum.

 

I've made a comparison video of my T430s vs my old MacBook Pro 15, you can get a good idea of the quality of the thinkpad's display and speakers vs what was once a $2000 computer.

Lenovo ThinkPad T430s vs Apple MacBook Pro 15 - YouTube

 

Hi, can anyone please tell me if the T430s has a thunderbolt port? This is a very important and is a dealbreaker for me if the T430s does not have it.

 

i7 models have Thunderbolt. i5 do not.

 

Why is it a deal breaker?

 

I'm planning to do a egpu set-up and am betting largely on Thunderbolt. My predicament right now is that I need a semi-portable laptop for college to replace my desktop (I play quite a lot of games, use sonyvegas/autocad/output to a larger screen) and am not willing to go the route of gaming laptops. The W530 is too heavy and the graphics card is not comparable to my current GTX560Ti. Hence, if I can get egpu working with thunderbolt, which is little to no bottleneck, I can use my existing desktop parts (my psu and gpu) to the fullest extent.

 

Good luck. The T430S should cover your bet two ways. ExpressCard or Thunderbolt.

A third way is of course XBOX.

 

what converters are you using for mini displayport? I looked up on monoprice for mini-DP to HDMI, but it only supports upto 1920x1080 while my monitor is 2048x1152 (Dell SP2309w) while the cables there do not support audio.

 

What are you using to drive the monitor at that resolution today?

 

I am yet to receive my T430s but currently my HP dv3000 runs it using HDMI. Even VGA port does 2048x1152 but crappy quality. my dell monitor has HDMI, DVI and VGA port. I want to get adapter converting to HDMI in case i have to connect t430s to TV

 

I was under the impression HDMI was limited to 1920x1080. I guess that isn't the case.

 

Well, the Windows 8 RP has been giving me many problems on this laptop, especially with that notorious "freezing" bug, which you can read here:

Windows 8 RP "freezing bug" reportedly fixed - Neowin

I'm downgrading it back to Windows 7 this afternoon.

 

Depends, HDMI 1.3+ started support for upto 2560x1440 resolution. 1.3 has been around since 2006 so i think most consumer laptops with HDMI have 1.3+. I'll update if I find a good miniDP to HDMI adapter.

what about headphone jack on this machine. it is the 3.5mm audio/mic combined jack on this machine i think, so the headphones that come with most smartphones will work the same way with this machine too?

 

Hmmm seriously wondering whether my T430s i7 with "just" integrated graphics will be able to drive 2 x Lenovo L2440p via DP at 1920x1200 .... Anyone care to guess?

 

How did those guys get 15 hours of battery life on their T420? I'd kill to get seven hours on my T430s.

 

Do let usknow - I might consider exchanging for the i7 version if it can power 2 external monitors at high resolution. I believe a previous poster said he was able to power 3 displays, but at reduced resolution.

 

you can run hi res but you need the thunderbolt displays to do it check this out hes using a mac but thunderbolt should be thunderbolt
Dual 27" Apple Thunderbolt Displays Daisy Chained via Macbook Pro - YouTube

 

I had the same exact problem and I am going back to Windows 7 tonight. Problem is you cannot simply uninstall it and you have to fresh install.

 

Funny thing is that my Core 2 Quad-based desktop is having no problems with the RP.

Finished re-installing Windows 7. Much more stable now, and I can install the SSD Toolbox from Intel now.

 

Re: re-stocking fee - in my case, I told them I had just ordered another Lenovo laptop to replace the T430s I was returning. The only reason I cited for returning was the poor viewing angles on the screen.
They asked for both order numbers, and then proceeded to waive the restocking fee (so full refund!) and gave me a prepaid UPS shipping label too.

 

I am honestly expecting lots of bugs even with the final release version of Windows 8

 

What did you order instead?

 

@pchome - Maybe I'm being super paranoid, but I'm going to wait for Lenovo to process my refund before I comment on what I ordered instead =)
It wasn't a TXXX, though.

 

Hmm. I should receive my T430 this week and after all these comments in the forum, I guess it is going back anyway. Actually, I do not have too many options if I am going the ThinkPad direction.

By the way, is there any better FHD panel in the market (other than Mac) than the one in the ThinkPad T and W series?

 

I looked around for a mini DP to HDMI adapter that lists support above 1080p. I don't see one. Maybe there is a cable but I gave up looking around since I use DisplayPort, not HDMI.

As for the headphones, I switched to USB.

 

Can anyone tell me what kind of battery life I can realistically expect from just the 6 cell? I am trying to decide if I need to get the ultrabay battery or not.

Also, How does the Intel integrated graphics with the i7 perform in fairly simple games? Anyone tried it with World of Warcraft yet?

Also, I know if I buy the T430s, This Samsung SSD will fit fine. If I buy the T430 though, will I need to get an adapter or something to get to 9mm?

 

I've heard that it's actually pretty good, and can handle simple games. Not sure about WoW specifically though.

Nope. The T430 uses 7mm too.

 

You will want an ultrabay battery. The primary battery only gets around 3 hours with regular use.

I haven't tried WoW, but it should play just fine; I've seen other reviews for laptops with Intel HD 4000 that can handle it.

 

I'm just hoping it will be equal to or better than my T510 with NVS 3100M. Is the 6 cell of the T430s lower capacity than the regular T430 or any other lenovo with a 6 cell?

 

Guys, I think that I'm going to hold my nose and wait for the Dell 6430s. I hope it that it comes with the 14.0” HD+ (1600x900) screen that's not on the website but mentioned by a Dell csr as an available upgrade otherwise it will be back to square one.

I will not go near anything with the words "HP" on it and Apple laptops are for consumers. I require a business-grade device. I really wanted that device to a Lenovo but I guess if just wasn't meant to be.....at least for now.

 

Check out what sony is doing, most of their laptops have above average screens, but poor speaker performance. I think it's what I'll be buying once I get my refund from lenovo.

 

That was what I was thinking, instead of getting the T430s I started investigating around the new Sony Z series. People say it has the best 13" screen you can get on a laptop. Maybe I end up with that sony. Problem is I need something that works on Ubuntu so I expect some tweaks are going to be needed on that sony but hopefully not many of them.

 

Yes. If one of your primary concerns is battery life, do NOT get the T4X0s.

 

Seven? With sincere prayers, you may get half that.

 

The more I read this thread the more I regret buying this laptop...

 

jmorse in his review said he got 5 hours with 900p and discrete GPU.

 

i7 arrived today, LTN140KT03401 Samsung screen in there, transplanted my T420s Samsung 830 drive and quite pleased so far. Even 2x 1920x1200 over DP in my Dock Series 3 Plus works fine on the Intel HD4000.

Less amusing however was the fact that the 3-cell ultrabay battery for the t420s is incompatible so I have one to sell and need to buy a newer ultrabay battery.

 

I hear the new Asus ultrabooks are quite good, too, and less expensive. Those have IPS displays.

Also, something on the touchpad: It's far more responsive and smoother than any non-Apple touchpad I've used. Synaptics is upping its game.

 

Just to clarify, you are able to power 2 large monitors at full resolution and the laptop resolution remains at 1600x900? Did you get the newest dock with USB 3, or is it an older model?

Thanks.