T440 series and Windows 8.1

Thinking of buying a T440p but I'm curious how reliable/mature the Lenovo drivers are with Windows 8.1 and if there are any known problems or things that simply don't work. Much as I love Win7 Pro and usually subscribe to the theory of "if it ain't broke...", I've seen no decent arguments not to get the newer OS with a new machine and several arguments in favor (lower power consumption, improved hardware support etc.).

Still, I don't want to discuss Win7 vs. Win8, but just wanted a heads up of any Lenovo-related issues there might be on Win8. Thanks.

 

Do bear in mind that Lenovo doesn't officially support Power Manager on W8 in any shape or form.

While it can be installed, they advise against doing so.

Whether this is an issue to you at all is a whole another matter, but just as FYI.

 

What does the Lenovo Power Management Driver for Windows 8.1 do? Is that simply to allow the machine to interact with the native Win8 power management utilities? If so, does the Win8 power management support profiles like the Lenovo utility?

I actually don't use a huge number of Lenovo utilities on my Current T420... the only ones I do use are Power Manager, the UltraNav stuff, Active Protection, Hotkey stuff and System Update

 

I would presume so, but since I don't use W8 I can't say with certainty.

AFAIK, the answer is "no", at least not to the extent that one could configure them in the conventional Power Manager.

 

The short version:

Quoted from the *very* long thread on LF:

ThinkPad software for Windows 8 - Lenovo Community

 

I guess Power Manager is the only one I'll miss. Is Power management that bad under Win8?

 

If you're used to creating your own battery charging thresholds as I am, then the answer would be "yes".

Once again, I don't use W8 so I can't offer any first-hand experience on how things work within the realm of that OS.