T430s owners'/would-be owners' thread.

Welcome to the T430s club. Your machine is similar to mine.

 

I ordered a t430s last week and it should be here Thursday. I have been reading about how to create a bootable USB recovery drive, and plan I plan on doing that right after it arrives so that it is still at the factory settings. I have found out that windows 8 gives you the option to copy the contents of the recovery partition to the USB drive. What is the difference between a recovery drive made with and without the recovery partition, and which do you recommend? Also, should I update anything before I make the recovery drive? And does anyone know if windows 8 lets you make more than one recovery drive?
Thanks

 

It's advisable to create the factory recovery media after you see the Desktop for the first time. But, should you do it, say, a week after using the notebook, it is " still at the factory settings." Because it has nothing to do with what you've done to the C: partition.

With an appropriate software tool, and without the recovery partition, you can make an image of the boot and system partitions for the purpose of "recovering/restoring" the system to the state at the time the image is created. This may turn out to be more convenient, as such an image also contains all your applications and settings.

The Lenovo recovery partition (usually labeled Q: ) allows you to: (i) make the recovery media with which you can boot from and restore the system to the factory state; and (ii) do the recovery in-place.

Certain users, confident that they can restore the system to an image that they have created, choose to delete the Q: partition and reuse its space.

Revisit the first answer.

 

Hi all...

In the market again for a ThinkPad. This time, its got to be a 14" affair but light! I came up with the attached config. What do you guys think? My usage pattern? (1) a lot of document creation (long documents - Word, Excel primarily), the usual Cloud services (including gmail), movies (sometimes - I prefer to use my tab for that), reading books (pdf and other usual e-text formats), maybe run some simulation programs. Most importantly, I will need to be mobile and may have to carry a laptop AND a tablet.

Thanks in advance.

 

@lines of flight,

Looks good, pretty much the same as mine one except the WWAN and the 3 cells ultrbay battery.

Personally i would avoid the 3 cells ultrabay battery, since it doesn't hold much charge, and cost the same as the 6 cells, Instead get another 6 cells.

But the rest of the specs looks good.

 

Thanks. Will do and recost. Ideally, I would have liked to have an additional HDD in the ultrabay...but here they don't seem to offer it.

@lead_org...perhaps you can help me with this: What I am ultimately looking for is a very light-weight laptop - I am tempted to say ultrabook. Maybe the T430s does not fit the need. I looked at the Carbon too, but was deterred by the lack of an ethernet port. So, if you have any suggestions, I am open to them.

 

T430u may fit the bill, but the resolution is only 1366x768, which is lower than what you need.

 

Apparently not available on the Lenovo UK site. I checked after reading your review!

 

Scrubbing the the OEM SSD and adding an after market mSATA SSD after you buy may save you a few bucks, and would allow you to remove the cheaper HDD thereby reducing the overall weight slightly. Based on your usage this wouldn't present any performance issues. The HDD caddies can be found on eBay in the states, so I'm sure you'll be able to find them in the UK.

 

Thanks. Yes, that is certainly an option.

Actually, I am looking for something with the profile of a MacBook Air - though I would not want the MBA because I am into the Win/ Android eco-system and moving etc would just be a pain. So, my question is would the T430s approximate the MBA or is there another alternative from the ThinkPad stable?

Thanks in advance.

 

X1 Carbon would likely be the prime candidate, if you want the closest offering from Lenovo that competes with the Air. RAM is soldered on and SSD is proprietary, but if that doesn't turn your stomach it may be the best one for you. The T430u low res screen is a none starter for me... 1600x900 is the bare minimum with which I could cope... Ah, the joys of new tech purchases...

 

Heh...heh...yes those things do make me jittery. But the biggest problem, I think, is the lack of an Ethernet port. I was looking at the Carbon. I'm really hating this business of buying a machine this time around. Sometimes I wish I was on the Apple bandwagon. Life would be much simpler, but then again, I would probably have to be much richer!

 

Don't they offer an ethernet dongle for the X1C... The major issue as I see it is the max of 8 GB of RAM and the max of 256 GB SSD. If they never offer an SSD upgrade, which I doubt they will... That's a major storage issue for my needs...

 

The only real compromise on the T430s is the screen on some models and the video chipset. The Optimus machines don't do much for you now. About all you can do with the NVIDIA dGPU is assign applications to run on it.

The screen on ours is the Samsung and is pretty good. More than good enough. No ugly screen door effect. It's actually there, but very faint so it isn't bad at all. The screen angles aren't great but it isn't PLS or IPS either.

We are happy with our purchase and with 16GB RAM and fast storage, it's plenty good for a lot of workloads.

 

But is it light enough to cart around all day? That plus a tablet? It will be a typical load I expect to be carrying about 3-4 days a week. The R400 is breaking my back and my previous x201 was lesser than the R400, but still weighty. Of course, the weight of my tablet has come down since I gave up the Acer A500 and got the Nexus 10. That's my big problem - else I would go with the T430 s config I posted earlier.

 

If you have a problem carrying a T430s and a slate computer, the problem isn't the T430s.

 

Haven't carried a T430s, have I? Wouldn't know. But you have, haven't you?

 

4 lbs is 4 lbs, not sure how to differentiate from the models you mentioned. Let me put it this way, the T430s is about the same weight as most ultrabooks, and its only 1.5 lbs heavier than the very lightest. Cart all day for me means take my bag to the truck in the morning, then to the office, then reverse about 12 hrs later. The rest of the crap in my bag probably weighs 3x as much as the T430s.

 

My backpack weight ranges from 25-40 pounds depending on the contents. The tech is rarely the heaviest items. It's usually water, or books, or other dense materials.

Lately, I am carrying a magnesium cased Samsung Series 9 NP900X3D ultrabook that weighs 2.5 pounds. I must admit, I can tell the difference in carrying all of the previous notebooks I've ever had.

 

So Thor, you put your unobtainium hammer in the backpack when you are not hammering your enemy with it? So when are we going to see you doing a Bear Gryll style survival show.

@lineS of flight, have a look at the weight comparison chart that i did a while ago.

 

@lead_org...thanks. That is very helpful. You mention the T430s with a 4-cell battery @ 1.89 kgs. So, with a 6-cell, it would be around 2kgs. Right?

 

"cart all day" for me means just that. Going from one lecture theater to another then to my office - all day. Plus, walking to and from a bus stop (10 mins each way) 5 days a week. Bag would contain laptop, tablet, one notebook, food.

 

the 6 cells would add around 100 grams to the weight of the laptop so around 2 kg.

 

Thanks. So tech weight would be around 2.6 kgs (without cables etc.). Not too bad, I think.

 

2.6 kgs including your tablet? But note of warning, the i7 CPU on the T430s chews through battery at a rapid rate, for the 4 cells i am only getting around 3 hours on battery saver mode (with factory shipped ssd), the 6 cells was giving me around 4.5 hours.

This battery time was like the T400s that i got with 6 cells battery.

 

Yes, 2.6 KGS with the tablet. The Nexus 10 is about 600gms or so. On the UK website, the only option for the battery is the 6 cell. But even 4.5 hrs is cutting it a bit too fine. May have to opt for the T430 and live with the excess weight.

 

or maybe get the X230 with 9 cells battery?

 

Trying to avoid the 12.5" screen though I enjoyed my time with the x201.

 

@Thor...,
The 1.5 delta came from the T430s and the Samsung you have...

@LineS...,
It seems the choice is becoming quite clear... If you want a ThinkPad with a screen larger than 12.5 and the lowest weight possible... The X1C has to be the choice... If you want flexibility then that opens up the door for the T430u and T430s. If you want to consider other laptops then the Samsung and the Asus have to be on the table... That's my take at least...

 

Yea, I know.

My backpack gets rather heavy and I wouldn't want to cart it all over campus at it's heaviest. It is packed pretty lightly at the moment but it isn't stuffed either. The difference between the Series 9 Samsung with AC adapter compared to my W510 and a 135W AC adapter is about 5 pounds. You can definitely feel the difference. Add water, an iPad, notebooks, food, and other stuff and certainly any pack gets heavy.

When the max amount of RAM for a notebook was 8GB, we used to tote two notebooks. Now that was fun. I still have a nice roller bag for the truly heavy loads but fortunately I no longer need to use it. Needing to go beyond a 32GB W510 is a rare day now. I have lots of choices in between.

The Samsung Series 9 I have is my lowest spec machine. It is perfect for email, web, light editing, or running a single virtual machine.

The opposite side of the scale are the quad core notebooks with plenty ram, storage, etc.

A T430s with 16GB of RAM and 2-3 storage devices is a good compromise. But it IS a machine that does have some compromises. Battery life is one of them. Video chipset is another. It can handle moderate to heavy workloads but it isn't designed to cool as well as the W530.

The W530 ends up being the choice for many because it is just a better workhorse, solid battery life, bigger better screen (FHD), better cooling, etc.

But my wife would never tote one. Thus the T430s will replace her T400 soon.

 

Yes, thanks. That's what I am seeing too - except that I can't buy the T430u - not available off the Lenovo UK site. So, it's either the X1C or the T430s. Would prefer to stick with a known devil...aka ThinkPads!

 

I am an average sized woman and the optimistic side of me says it is good exercise to carry around the T400

Being the owner of an X200 and a T400 I can feel a significant difference when carrying either one in my backpack. The times I do carry my T400 is because the screen is bigger than my X200 and for the times I forget to charge my X200. Other than that I carry a 7" tablet and my X200 as well

 

Lol! I have been doing that with my R400 and its killing me!

 

IIRC the R-series are a smidgen heavier than the T-series ThinkPads. If you do get a T430s please let us know how its working out!

 

Yup....its looking that way...the T430s and me (and the Nexus!). Will keep you folks posted.

 

I've got a Corsair Force 3 SSD Force Series that just doesn't want to fit in the HDD bay.
It's a 7mm height SSD, so it should fit, right?
The HDD that came out is even thinner, and has rubber rails on the edges.

 

The T430s would fit a 7 mm drive provided you have the correct rubber rails. Does the rubber rails fit the drive?

 

I placed a complaint with lenovo after I realized that power manager wasn't working on my t430s after updating to windows 8. (yes I did update all drivers from the lenovo site). When power manager launched, it would hang, and start eating more and more memory until I killed it. Anyway, without contacting me first, Lenovo overnighted me a new 4 GB stick of RAM. I guess I can't complain as it didn't cost me anything but I already upgraded my machine to 16 GB and have tested it extensively. The problem, in my mind, is related to their software which they seem to not be supporting on windows 8 unless you buy a machine with windows 8 preinstalled, in which case it comes with a metro style application called Lenovo Settings.

 

Received the T430s today and love it. Touch pad is still the same rough surface that I hated with the X230 but it is much easier to use probably because of the physical buttons below the pad. Got a great screen (1600x900) that is very clear / not grainy and no dead or stuck pixels. Strangest thing with Windows update (factory installed hdd, Windows 7), it would always update 50 things and then fail, over and over. Probably due to all the bloatware and me uninstalling a couple things and somehow messing up Windows update, who knows, never had this problem with any laptop or desktop before.

I switched in a ssd and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7, did NOT use factory restore. Instead I downloaded Lenovo update utility and the wireless lan driver to a usb flash drive and just used Lenovo update utility to install all drivers and utilities. No bloatware now at all and Windows updates as it should. And I don't have any wasted space on my ssd from restore files. Highly recommend this method if you want to do a fresh install of Windows onto a new hdd or ssd.

 

Bought new 430s with 500g SATA with Win 8.
Bought Crucial m4 256G mSATA SSD.

Want to simply use mSATA SSD, and only use 500g original for extra disk space.

If I had a fresh copy of Win8, I would probably load from scratch and go through the hassle of reloading drivers, debugging.
But since I do not have a copy of Win8, I was thinking I might just "clone"?, or run something to do what I want.

Any info is appreciated.

 

I hope everyone is loving this baby like I do

Got me through rough times, even she's a new addition to my family...

 

You should be able to find a legal copy online, and you just activate it with your OEM key.

 

You should be able to backup the environment using Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload then use that backup to restore it to the new SSD.

 

So I got this laptop about a week ago.

It is literally PERFECT in every way except one. It has a perfect keyboard, trackpad, mobility, power, ports, build quality, speakers....

but the screen is AWFUL. I can't get over how washed out the colors are, how HORRIBLE the viewing angles are, how awful the contrast is...

I would be willing to spend an extra $500 just for a better screen...

Is there anyway to put a 3rd party screen in this beast?

 

Although I share your disappointment, I must say that the awful screen should not have come as a surprise. Forum discussions on T420/s and T430/s have indicated that the HD and HD+ screens used on those models are below average. It seems that, regarding the HD+ screens, the LG is slightly "better" than the Samsung, which is slightly "better" than the AUO.

HWiNFO can help you find out which screen is installed in your T430s.

(I recently spent a weekend with a T430, helping a friend setting up the new notebook, and found its Samsung screen acceptable.)

 

Hey,
I am still waiting for my order of the t430s. I want to upgrade the RAM(configured with 4gb) to 16GB.
Will two of those: Corsair Memory
fit the t430s?
Corsair Value Select 8gb SODIMM ?
thanks

 

This Vengeance pair or this ValueSelect pair should work, if you prefer Corsair.

 

I did hear their screens weren't very good, but I honestly expected better than this.

I currently have the LG screen. Anyone have suggestions about other laptops?

Using this for less than a week has made me a lenovo thinkpad fan...

How is the X1 Carbon screen? Is there any plan for a thinkpad with a better screen?

I liked the w530 but its too expensive. I also like the x230 screen, but 12.5 is too tiny =/

 

If your technical specs requirements are not at the high end, you can get a T520 with FHD 1920x1080 screen for the price of a T430s, or maybe less. This AU Optronics screen is excellent.

But, then again, the T/W530 are not as "slim" as the T430s.

 

Yeah It was a mistype. I meant the w530 is too heavy.

Oh well.