T440s - what I wish I knew before buying

Hi all,

My new T440s arrived today and I was totally caught off guard with what I ended up with. I thought I'd share this information in the hopes it could help someone else.

First of all, this laptop is not intended to be user servicable. I was aware that it didn't have easily accessible doors to change/update RAM and mSATA drives like my T430s did, but I wasn't expecting to have to pry the case apart. It's a really delicate process and it's extremely easy to gouge the plastic when doing so. I highly recommend the use of a plastic putty knife and a large reserve of patience to do this. There is a hardware maintenance manual you can download for the T440s which describes in detail what order to loosen screws and where the pry points are. You're going to want to get familiar with this:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?DocID=UM018202

Second, I had no idea that M.2 was a new form factor for SSDs and wireless cards. I wrongly assumed I could transfer the 256 GB mSATA SSD I was using in my T430s into my new machine. I learned this was not going to be possible only after I had opened the machine up and saw the new connector. Also, be aware that M.2 (aka NGFF) has multiple form factors for their connectors, so not all M.2 drives are created equal. So far I have not been able to find a compatible M.2 SSD on NewEgg or Amazon. I have little interest in paying Lenovo's aftermarket prices for things like this, so I'm still searching.

It's been a huge disappointment to discover these things after having bought the machine and waiting three weeks to get it. Please do yourself a favor and order this laptop spec'ed the way you want it from the factory - changing or upgrading things after the fact is not a pleasant process at all.

Just some advice,

Scott

 

It was well known that the T440s, and basically all new Lenovos for that matter, would have M.2 SSDs. Heck, it was even on the config page.

As for the upgrading pains, that is indeed disappointing for a Thinkpad. Nevertheless, it seems that many on this forum have upgraded their T440s successfully, although with some difficulty. There is no way I am paying $300 extra to Lenovo just to save that hassle.

Any other thoughts on the T440s?

 

Heard someone sent in their T440s for a screen fix and Lenovo is going to fix the case he/she also damaged a little while doing upgrades. I wonder if I could do that but instead just walk into an authorized service provider and have them replace it there. But I too will not buy the upgrades,

 

OP, i take it you didnt lurk the forums before joining, huh?
If you had, you likely would have known all of this before purchase.

 

Before everyone piles into this thread with their smug comments about how I should have known better, please understand my intentions are just to serve as a warning to others. I recognize that I should have done more research before my purchase and figured out what M.2 meant (I honestly glossed over it and assumed it was the name of the slot used for mSATA drives). I feel like an idiot enough for not keeping up with laptop tech, no need to rub it in further.

I'm also in the process now of installing Ubuntu 13.10 on this and will share any significant findings in the T440s Linux thread.

Scott

 

Upgrading a notebook computer, especially an ultrabook class machine can be a daunting task. Experience counts.

I am a pretty firm believer you should test the machine as it arrived before cracking the case. That way if there are obvious show stoppers during the return period, you don't need to do much to revert it to the factory state.

Looking forward to my delivery. I received the ship notice this morning and hope it is here before the weekend. Most likely it will arrive early next week.

 

As someone who has been building, upgrading, and tinkering with computers for nearly 30 years, I appreciate this point of view. On the other hand, I also realize that insisting on having that level of access really hampers innovation. Do I care that my ipad is not upgradeable? Not when it means it's half the weight and 1/3 the thickness because it's buttoned up so tightly.

 

I think you should be glad that it was hard to remove that back cover as this would make the ThinkPad much stronger and less likely to break apart. I broke two of the latches but it doesn't matter since the screws and remaining latches do a excellent job.

 

Thanks for the heads-up
Could someone (the OP?) please tell me: Can I still put a standard SATA SSD in my t440s in place of the HDD?

 

How difficult is it really to remove the back case to change the RAM/HDD? I'm really quite curious to know.

 

Yes, most modern SSD's will fit. 7mm thick I believe.

Not really that bad. Remove the screws, pry carefully at the appropriate points. I think Lenovo's own documentation could be more thorough, as for my first one, following it, I still broke one of the the tabs slightly. Went back together fine though and seems to be very secure.

 

zenlinux - why not add a link to the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) in your post to really help anyone looking at your post. It explains with diagrams how to remove the base without breaking anything and covers most other issues raised.

 

Good suggestion - I have edited my first post in this thread with the info.

Scott

 

I've taken many of my Thinkpads apart (upgraded the CPU in my T60P which was fun.) When I got my X230T I transferred the WWAN Card to it from my old laptop. Having some compatibility between upgrades can be nice, but I don't really rely on it much. When it comes to ultrabook type machines I've dealt with that before where drives may be slimmer, ram soldered, etc. so by no means do I take for granted the inter-operability of parts. But I can see the OP's point, it used to be easier

As far as taking the case apart, yeah, what a nightmare. I commonly will swap my Win 8 SSD and my Win 7 SSD on my X230T to do testing and it literally takes less than a minute. I wouldn't relish doing that on the T440s. Fortunately there shouldn't be a lot of reasons to open the case a bunch of times, maybe once or twice and you should be done, so it shouldn't be too big of a hassle. They ought to provide better instructions though in the box.

I don't mind the switch to M2, looks like you go from one mSATA slot to 2 M2 slots, so now I don't have to decide between a little ssd and wwan anymore, now I can have both, that's a good thing.

 

One advice for opening the T440s. USE PLASTIC PRY. I used a normal wide screwdriver to pry the back cover and eventhough I followed the HMM to the point, I slipped once or twice (it holds together really well) and scratched the chasis a bit (nothing serious) - removed the top layer coating. Also broke one latch, but as others posted, that's unnoticable, since the screws hold the chasis together really well.