T430s owners'/would-be owners' thread.

Quick question about the Barnes & Noble Link that AllFiredUp kindly posted above for the best prices ( Link here )

Has anyone from Australia tried buying from there?

If no (which I assume, since we have a ( way more expensive) local Lenovo website) - has anyone tried price matching/ talking to reps here?

Any advice greatly appreciated, the T430s prices are ridiculous here compared to what is available to me!

The spec I am interested in is:

ThinkPad T430s - 1 Year Topseller Express Depot Warranty
$2,579.99
$1,236.76 web price (3DAYSALE)

Part number: 2352CTO
• Intel Core i7-3520M Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
• Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
• 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
• Intel HD Graphics 4000 with Intel Core i7-3520M Processor
• 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
• UltraNav multi-touch touchpad & TrackPoint with Fingerprint Reader
• 128GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
• DVD Recordable
• 6 Cell Lithium Battery T81+
• Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
• Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
• Mobile Broadband upgradable
• 1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

+ ThinkPad Battery 43 (3 Cell - Ultrabay Battery)
Part number: 0A36310 (included in price)

I noticed how much cheaper extended warranties are as well: $300 LESS

Looking to buy asap - thanks guys!

 

Alright thanks a lot guys. Are you guys getting 6Gpbs speeds or 3?

 

UltraBay SATA? 6Gbit/s.

The chipset supports 2 SATA 6Gbit/s ports and 2 SATA 3Gbit/s ports. Lenovo assigns the two faster ports to primary bay and UltraBay.

 

So to be sure i need a 7mm SSD, that's fine.

Will the 7mm HDD fit into a standard ultrabay caddy or do i need to get a specific one?

 

7mm HDD will fit.

 

Just how much of a hurry are you in?

I just picked up this config:
- Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
- 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
- NVIDIA NVS 5200M Graphics with Optimus Technology (1GB DDR3 Memory), Intel Core i5-3320M Processor
- 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
- Keyboard Backlit - US English
- 720p HD Camera Mic
- 128GB Solid State Drive, SATA3 (this was on sale and was actually $30 cheaper than the mechanical disk)
- DVD Recordable
- Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader
- 6 Cell Lithium Battery T81+
- 90W AC Adapter - ANZ
- Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
- Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN

For NZ$988.99 (including 15% sales tax) off the Lenovo website by watching for a good sale to happen, pretty crazy considering how weak the dollar over here is compared to yours

 

disss, that IS an awesome deal! I had a brief chat to an online rep, who said they have different deals every 2nd week, although I don't know if they are always this good. Seems like in AUS they are pushing the older models at the moment. I just tried out your exact spec and it is AU$1,641.10- so I think you came out pretty good!

Will maybe wait a week or so and also talk to someone, but anyone with experience buying in Australia, would appreciate any tips. The 3W ultrabay battery is also not on sale - $231 instead of $76 USD

 

Just ordered a T430s, used B&N discount

Specs:

Intel Core i7-3520M Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 - English
14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
Intel HD Graphics 4000 with Intel Core i7-3520M Processor
4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Backlit - US English
UltraNav multi-touch touchpad & TrackPoint with Fingerprint Reader
720p HD Camera Mic
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
DVD Recordable
Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
6 Cell Lithium Battery T81+
90W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Mobile Broadband upgradable
Publication - US English

1 2352CTO ThinkPad T430s - 1 Year Topseller Expres $ 986.30 $ 986.30
1 0A36310 ThinkPad Battery 43 (3 Cell - Ultrabay B $ 76.79 $ 76.79
1 57Y4294 ThinkPad 14W Sleeve Case $ 11.51 $ 11.51
Subtotal $ 1,074.60
Environmental Fee $ 6.00
Taxes $ 91.35
Total $ 1,171.95

 

Hey guys quick question


After using your t430s and then closing the lid, does the part of the lid close to the hinges heat up?

Mine does....

 

Despite the slightly slower speed, I find that Lenovo in some documents dissuade the user from booting the system from the mSATA drive. Is this really making the system "unstable", or is it just Lenovo's harmless advice?

In the HMM:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0b48538.pdf
Chapter 2. Important service information:
"• If the computer is equipped with both a hard disk drive and an mSATA solid-state drive, do not use the
mSATA solid-state drive as a bootable device. The mSATA solid-state drive is designed and developed for
“cache” function purpose only."

And in the user guide:
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/user_guides/t430s_ug_en.pdf

Chapter 8. Advanced configuration

CAUTION:
If your computer is equipped with both a hard disk drive and an mSATA solid state drive, you are not
recommended to use the mSATA solid state drive as a bootable device. The mSATA solid state drive is
designed and developed for the "cache" function purpose only. If you use the mSATA solid state drive
as a bootable device, its reliability is not guaranteed.

 

Nope, I have a Lubuntu and my MBR (Grub2) set up in the mSATA, no problems so far


And I am bumping my previous question... I tried to attach my external monitor to the laptop via the Thunderbolt port using this adapter...

Mini DisplayPort DP to HDMI 1.4 Adapter with Audio support 3D for ATI dell Black | eBay

and Thunderbolt is enabled in the BIOS.

But I don't get any kind of data transfer between the monitor and the laptop.

Should it have been automatic? Or is there a special trick that I have to do in order to get it to work?

Thanks all!

Edit - This is for Windows, if you know any kernel that supports thunderbolt, I am all ears :-D

 

I believe they are referring to the optional 16GB mSATA SSD that Lenovo sells; it probably has fewer write cycles than a normal SSD and therefore would wear out pretty quickly if it were to be used as a system drive.

 

Hello all, my new T430s is on the way and I'm excited to do some upgrade myself. I'm looking to get a mSATA SSD and installing it as the boot/OS drive. So can someone recommend a mSATA SSD or a good website to buy them from?
Also, does anyone know whether the compatibility issue of fingerprint reader and UEFI is resolved or not? I read elsewhere that Lenovo has been working on a fix since last year.

 

Solid State Drives SSDs | mSATA | MyDigitalSSD | MyDigitalDiscount.com

 

My wife would like to get the T430s. Are the current B&N discounts are the best that have been published for this machine or was there cheaper prices from B&N before? I wanted her to wait till Tuesday to see the next offers but not sure if it will be cheaper! Also, she was thinking of the X1C but I honestly advised her that I would recommend the T430s over it because the weight is not much more (1 LB) and the display is almost the same and it is still thin but at the same time you get the upgradability and power of the full mobile processor rather than the ULVs. Thoughts?

Also, would it be better to get the 500GB HDD with 7200 RPM or the 5400 RPM if it will be used in the ultrabay after upgrading to SSD? Consider that choosing the 7200 RPM pushes the shipping date by few days!

 

Right now, you can pick up a T430s for about $720 before taxes for the base model plus HD+ screen off the B&N website. I got mine for $850 when they were first out.

Get the 7200RPM 500GB hard drive. It's worth it.

Anyways, I take the upgradability and versatility of the T430s over any
old ultrabook anyday. It's a hair over four pounds, but still very portable.

 

I find the 7200rpm drive to be a bit too noisy for my liking, though. Performance is great, but sometimes I wonder if the 5400rpm wouldn't have been a better choice.

 

I believe the screen on X1 Carbon would be MUCH better than that on T430s, though it's also TN rather than IPS. You can easily find reviews on the web or comparison videos on Youtube.

And I also believe the design of X1 Carbon would be even better than T430s. It would be even sturdier, even lighter and slimmer. The keyboard is supposed to be the best. I really like that the F1 ~ F12 keys are separated into three groups like a traditional keyboard. T430s has all the Fn keys squeezed together.

The down sides of X1 Carbon are that it's an Ultrabook, practically you can upgrade nothing (RAM, CPU, HDD are all soldered), and much more expensive, but still uncompetitive in performance as low voltage CPU is employed. Besides, expansion ports are less (e.g., 2 USB, no VGA).

 

That is what I believed too. Should I get the 5400RPM if it will be used for just archiving and not the OS or apps? Also, what about the display mediocre quality that has been discussed over and over here. This is the only discouraging factor for me to get it till now. Is there any improvement in the display?

 

The volume button on my T430s feels very loose now; like it might fall out of the keyboard if I turn the laptop upside down. Very annoying. And I can't remember feeling it break or anything.

Does every unit have this?

 

Display is still pretty mediorce where contrast and viewing angles are concerned. If the display has to be good, I would get the X1 Carbon, but you would be giving up upgradability in the process, and a number of useful ports, while shaving off only a pound in carrying weight.

T430s is a well-rounded machine with some caveats. If they sealed in the battery to create a more uniform bottom and included a better display, it would be the best laptop ever.

 

That's probably what I'd do, but that's mainly because I'm quite nit-picky when it comes to noise. It only becomes an issue at night when there is no ambient noise, otherwise you usually don't hear the laptop at all when idle.

The display is slightly brighter than on my 9-years old X31 (even before the backlight started to wear out), but viewing angles and contrast are about the same. Obviously, an IPS screen would be much better, but it's not that bad either (I'm more annoyed by the noise, personnally, since I'm used to working with a mediocre screen).

 

Oh, are you saying that it also has high noise?! Regarding the display, I do not care much about the viewing angles. However, I am annoyed with the bluish tinge on the screen. Also, the pixels that appear on the display (do not remember what it is called).

 

It's only the HDD that is too noisy for my taste, and that's because my previous X31 was extremely quiet when idle. However, with a SSD and TPFanControl, the T430s is most likely completely silent on idle.

But as I said, it's only because I'm nit-picky; at maximum fan speed it's still making less noise than my wife's Compaq CQ-61 laptop on idle.

My screen was very, very slightly blueish before calibration, but now it's perfectly fine. When looking straight at the screen, there's really no issue, though you do have to adjust the screen tilting every now and then to make sure you're at the right angle.

It could be because I'm used to ThinkPad screens, but I don't think there's any real issue with the screen. There are better laptop screens out there, but for a business laptop it is not bad. I'm using two Dell P2210 monitors at work and I'm not bothered at all when I switch back to the T430s screen at home.

 

Just took the dive on the t430s and can't wait for my new laptop to arrive. Thanks to all the posters here that made my decision much easier.

I need some help in deciding what type of ram to upgrade to. I plan to upgrade to 16gb to future proof the performance (hopefully). I haven't been following the evolution of ram and am not quite sure which brand to choose from. I'm looking for value, peformance, reliability and low cost, which I know is what everyone wants.

Seems to me that crucial is the most reliable, but you pay a premium for it. I'm also trying to find more info on Kingston Value Ram, which seems to be the only ram from kingston that is being offered for the t430s. Corsair seems to be hit or miss, meaning that I've seen reviews that love it and others where the performance was actually lack luster; although it seems to have some of the best benchmarks for the type of ram required for the t430s. There are couple of other brands, g.skill, team, gantham (sp??), patriot and any other that I may have forgotten to mention. Could you provide me some insight on which brand you've upgraded to and your experience (performance) with the memory?

Also, last thing. Some of the ram comes in 16gb sets and others in 8gb individual sticks, which are generally cheaper. Does it make a difference if I order the individual sticks and combine them to get the 16gb?

Thank you.

 

Have you seen the different reviews of the display? Are you gonna be able to live with it?

 

Don't worry about the brand of RAM.

No, really. I know it's nice to think that there's some "more reliable" brand out there and that if you pay a few bucks more you'll get a better product, but... well... you won't.

Get the cheapest RAM with the necessary specs. Then, once it arrives, run memtest86+ and let it do a couple runs. If the RAM passes, you're done. If not, return it and get more. RAM either works or it doesn't. The brand name on the sticker should play no part in this process.

Performance? Let me put it this way: if your work is so performance sensitive that the chip-to-chip variance of RAM matters, you're not using a laptop. The difference between brands is basically in the noise. You simply aren't going to notice a difference based on brand. Based on clock speed, maybe (although I have my doubts about that), but not based on brand.

 

Funny, you should meant this because that where I am right now with my brand new T430s. I read every single posting in this thread before purchasing so I knew the screen would be sort of a disappointment. However, I have a T410 from work with bad black levels already so I assumed the T430's screen would be the same. It's worse actually. Like it's been stated many times before, the viewing angles and black levels are awful, but the worst is the washed-out over-contrast that I can't seem to get use to. The only saving grace here is the crisp text, but that is more of the HD4000's doing. This panel would have been top of the line back in 1987, but today it's more of a sales killer.

The laptop itself is gorgeous. I love it's light-weight, fingerprint reader and the back-lit (but oddly laid out) keyboard.

So now I have a dilemma. How can I justify spending $1000 on the sub-par T430s when there are laptops out there selling at less than half the price with a better display? The problem is that there is no better overall notebook in this class from a top-tier manufacturer available today.

To the OP, I wasn't looking to upgrade from 4GB of ram right away since I purchased this laptop primarily for web-surfing, but NE had 16gb of Gskill memory on sale for $80 last week so I jumped on that and a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD for $90.

 

It appears that Ultrabooks are getting the best screen options at the moment.

The T430s's display is not terrible per se, but I have seen many other laptops with similarly mediorce screens. It's a universal problem that is only being partially rectified by the arrival of Ultrabooks. It's not just Lenovo that is at fault here - many manufacturers do the same thing.

 

Not sure about T430s build quality
I am thinking to get the T430s. But after reviewing all these posts in here, like all these comments for the screen resolution, I am not sure if it is a good machine.
I also read some of the posts in Lenovo forum. Many of the T430s users suffered from Bios problems, blue screen issue, screen color collaboration, scratched screen, keyboard buttons no respond…. Etc…

Computer usage
I use my laptop for internet, email, movie, online movie streaming, game (only PES Winning 2012), connect it to my Dell 24inch IPS monitor… I have never use a ThinkPad but now starting interested in getting one as its classic and durability outlook.

Comparison
Actually I notice there is on sale for the Ideapad y480, it features CPU i7-3610QM (4 cores) whereas the T430s use a i7-3520M (2cores),
comparison: Compare Intel® Products
any idea which one is faster???

Also y480 has the Nvidia 640M LE 2GB … vs the NVS 5200M… will I able to play high quality in PES Winning 2012???

Please let me know your comment and advice. Thank you so much!!!

 

Thanks for the responses. Hopefully for me, the screen will be acceptable for my purpose and the reliability and the usability will outweigh the screen quality.

I guess for the RAM I'll wait for a good deal before I dive in since the brand or the manufacturer are not as important as it once was. Thanks for the info.

 

Outside of the screen, the T430s is a great choice. The build quality of mine is excellent so far and I have looked it over extensively for issues. Yes. There are people who had some of the problems that you mentioned but I haven't seen more than two people here complain about the same thing other than the display.

Lenovo is probably churning out hundreds of T430s' a day. There's bound to be a small percentage of defects in any large production run.

 

thanks for reply!
so according to my usage, you still recommend T430s to me?

I am now looking at the Edge s430 which is pretty cool in terms of weight and ports (both DP/ thunderbolt)... but it's edge not thinkpad

 

I would. The screen isn't that bad.

 

The only thing really bad about the T430(s) screens are the viewing angles. Everything else is fine if you play a bit with the Intel graphics manager (set saturation to 20 and lower gama to 0.8 or 0.9).

 

I did a clean install the other night just for a trial run before I get my caddy for my SSD. After a couple hours of trial and error, I figured out the bare bones (CORE) drivers I needed to do everyday tasks. Here is a list in case others are having trouble and if you guys could add your input, that'd be awesome.

Note: Driver links are for Windows 7 64 Bit. All other drivers are located on the main page here. ( Drivers and software - ThinkPad T430s)

Chipset ( Intel AMT Management Engine Firmware 8.0 for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad)
Networking: Wireless LAN ( http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS014964)
Intel Rapid Storage ( Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver Windows 7 (64-bit), Vista (64-bit) and XP (64-bit) - ThinkPad) (what is this for? I installed only because it was labeled as a "critical update")
UltraNav ( Synaptics UltraNav driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit) and XP (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad)
RealTek HD Audio ( Realtek High Definition Audio Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad)
Intel HD Graphics Driver ( http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS029033)
Hotkey Features Integration ( Hotkey Features Integration for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad)



Is the Power Management Driver necessary? I may have been just paranoid but I noticed my fans running a little warm and I remembered reading that there was a driver that controlled fan speeds, so I was thinking of installing this driver...Would I also need to install the USB 3.0 driver for it to properly work?

 

Eh. Contrast is still off even with calibration. But it's usable.

 

Had my T430s for about a month. Trackpoint and Touchpad started acting up. I can't right click on stuff and the touchpad has demonstrated to be unresponsive to touch. It just slowly inches it way diagonally across my screen. The right keys of the touchpad and the trackpoint both are unresponsive when I press on them. My left bottom for both trackpoint and the touchpad also mistaken for the right keys when I press on them. It's impossible open, close and click on links on browsers.

The monitor does bother me. It has severe light leakage. However, I guess I got what I paid for.

I've called Lenovo tech support and I'm sending my laptop back for a replacement of the parts I mentioned today.

 

Yes, but with saturation, you can make the colors more shiny without more contrast.

 

I'm glad you brought this up. Here's my short list:

Drivers

• Intel Chipset Driver
• Intel HD Graphics Driver (package also installs Intel Graphics Control Panel application)
• Intel Network Connections Drivers (LAN & WLAN both Intel; if ThinkPad b/g/n selected, WLAN driver is Realtek)
• Lenovo System Interface Driver
• ThinkPad Power Management Driver
• ThinkPad UltraNav Driver
• Camera Driver (usually Ricoh; if camera selected for CTO)
• Audio Driver (Conexant, Realtek, as applicable)
• Media Driver (for multi-card media reader, usually Ricoh)

Lenovo Applications

• Power Manager
• On Screen Display
• Hotkey Feature Integration

Lenovo factory image is over 40GB (the SWTOOLS folder alone is 4.5GB). A clean Windows 7 install, with the above and before major applications, and with hibernation off, can be as small as 25GB.

In my case, application suites and Window XP Mode bring the C: occupancy to 35GB (perfect for a 64GB SSD boot drive, which can be had for about $68 today).

 

Can't the screen used in the x1 be used in the t430s??

 

This question has been raised in this thread. The general answer is yes. It is a TN screen by LG Philips, with product code LP140WD2 (TL)(E2). The challenge is to find the exact, genuine screen on the open market.

Why Lenovo doesn't use the X1 Carbon screen for the T430(s), or any HD+ screen of better quality than the current ones, nobody knows for sure.

 

The WLAN driver is Thinkpad b/g/n, which is not ubiquitous for all models, there are Intel brand alternatives. Just point this out for others to check their actual configuration before installing the incorrect driver.

For Intel Rapid Storage to work I believe your machine needs an mSATA drive installed to act as a cache, otherwise this is redundant. But maybe my interpretation of this tech is wrong.

"Power management DRIVER" is definitedly required for your system to work in optimal state. But the "power management application" can be skipped if you desire so. I think the On Screen Display should be installed. In fact I'm curious that after these barebone driver/application installation, can you see any OSD when you tune the volume, or brightness?

As my experience on T400, to enable such on screen display, you need the following modules installed:
1. Power management driver
2. Hotkey feature
3. On screen display

 

Just wanted to chime in to say my VGA output is not perfect. On a 24", full RGB monitor there's some noticeable horizontal line flicker. Waiting on an adapter to see if the Mini DisplayPort produces a clean signal.

ETA: Unplugged (on battery power) the flicker is greatly reduced, so it could be a grounding problem.

 

My current laptop is also a core 2 duo. As I plan to buy the T430s, would you please tell me if there is any significant improve of speed during normal daily use? like loading software, pictures, games.. etc

 

My old computer maxed out at 3GB of RAM and had a 5200RPM hard drive. My new one has 16GB of RAM and an mSATA SSD, so it's not really a fair comparison, but I would say for basic tasks like word processing and browsing the web, the speed difference isn't all that perceptible. The processor bump will be noticeable rendering images, starting programs up, etc. The RAM and drive are at least as important as the processor when considering the general speediness of the system.

 

Thanks for reply!
If there is not much different, may I ask what makes you want to buy this laptop??
Especially when there are people out there keep saying the poor quality of the monitor.

 

Well, what do you use your laptop for?

For HD video editing, programming, and many other resource-intensive tasks, upgrading to a T430s provides a huge boost in productivity, but for browsing online forums or writing e-mails, obviously you won't notice any difference unless your Core2Duo was already running at 100% CPU load (which would be surprising).

If you don't need extra CPU power, extra screen resolution, extra storage capacity and bandwidth, extra wifi range and bandwidth, extra connectors (USB 3.0, miniDP, Thunderbolt), then it would make little sense to upgrade indeed.

Also, the HD+ screen isn't that bad. It's a standard ThinkPad screen, so it does have terrible viewing angles and black levels, but it's perfectly fine for everyday use.

 

In fact, I have posted my usage in #1030.

Computer usage
I use my laptop for internet, email, movie, online movie streaming, game (only PES Winning 2012), connect it to my Dell 24inch IPS monitor… I have never use a ThinkPad but now starting interested in getting one as its classic and durability outlook.

Comparison
Actually I notice there is on sale for the Ideapad y480, it features CPU i7-3610QM (4 cores) whereas the T430s use a i7-3520M (2cores),
comparison: Compare Intel® Products
any idea which one is faster???

Also y480 has the Nvidia 640M LE 2GB … vs the NVS 5200M… will I able to play high quality in PES Winning 2012???

And also, I notice the S430 and T430U, they are seem good options but not classic thinkpad design...
Please let me know your comment and advice. Thank you so much!!!

 

My bad, I didn't notice your post. For PES, I don't know how well it'd run on a T430s, but it'd most likely run noticeably better on a i7-3610QM + GT640 LE configuration. Also, I believe that the NVS 5200 is not available on the T430s with the Core i7 configuration (at least it wasn't available for me when I ordered it).

Regarding web browsing and movie streaming, it would probably not make a big difference to upgrade to any laptop from your current C2D laptop, unless you find it makes too much noise when playing HD movies, or if it stutters when the movie bitrate is too high.

IdeaPads are more consumer-oriented (movies, games, etc.) while ThinkPads are more business-oriented, so it might be more interesting for you to look into IdeaPads (or even other brands), unless you want to pay a premium price for features that won't really be useful to you.