T440s Owner´s Thread

If you know the command to find that out on Linux, I'll be pleased to oblige

 

Haven't tried it but this should do the trick:
Absolutely!: Get EDID information

In particular, we're interested in Identifier, VendorName and ModelName fields or you could just post the whole output. Also tell us what do you think about your display.

 

I have another potential build quality issue. There's no screw around it so the center vent in the base cover deflects inward about 1mm when pushed on. Is this normal?

 

EDIT: I made a new thread instead simply asking people to post the removal info.


So, my laptop has shipped and it should arrive the day before Christmas or Friday. That gives me enough time to take a chance and put RAM in it before school starts.. 2 questions

1)Is there an official user guide to removing the base. I know there is a Lenovo video but I know some people have broken parts/hinges despite the instructions. Could someone direct me to the exact post number(s) and threat that give the best advice for removing the base?

2) For those that did remove the base with some damage, did you ask Lenovo to send you a new one, or just take advantage of of your next business day warranty and have someone put it back together for you?

I am worried that I will remove it, possibly break something, but worst, not be able to reattach it. Crucial RAM has already been purchased via Amazon.

 

y.a.k did a good job of taking pictures whlie removing the base cover. Check out this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...website-ips-screen-1080p-316.html#post9495929

 

Every time I open one of the Lenovo apps like like Support or Companion, I get the message "Enhanced functions for this application are available". I click the message, a browser opens up, I download "dependecypackage.exe", I install, setup asks for a restart and I let it, and the process repeats again and again. I keep getting this "Enhanced functions..." message. It is driving me crazy. How do I end this cycle?

T440s
i5-4300U
4GB RAM
256GB SSD
Factory Win 8 upgraded to Win 8.1

 

Thanks. The pictures show me how it is supposed to look but didn't really explain how to take it off. Although it another posts the poster said
"This means you have to pry the base outwards. So for example in picture 1 I was pushing the pry tool in and to the left. In picture 3 in and up.Generally it's not too hard if you have the right tool. I wouldn't attempt this without one but I suggest getting some quality pry tools.:

This was helpful and sort of not. I guess my questions is at what step are so many people cracking a part near the hinges. Again, it is a part that many people say is inconsequential or no one really notices but at what is everyone doing or not doing to get it. Is it that they did not have the right pry tool or there is something we have to do. I made another thread but no one has posted in it...Odd.

 

I got my T440s about 1 week ago and here are my thoughts:

I am a business type user and was looking for a machine that had a touch screen, ability to upgrade peripherals (especially storage to 1 TB), fingerprint reader, touchpoint, good keyboard, and good battery life.

Overall, I'm very happy with this notebook (I'm upgrading from a X220 tablet). I don't think there is another notebook out there that offers all of the same feature and the ability to upgrade things to this degree.

PROS:

Screen -- in my opinion, very nice. I have the touch variant. Some LED bleed apparent from the bottom on the initial black Lenovo screen but never notice it during windows usage otherwise.

Thumbprint reader -- improved over my X220, seems to register better

Keyboard -- topnotch, I would say comparable to the X220... maybe slightly better with the chiclet style

Storage / Upgradeability -- I ordered an M.2 (16 gb) cache drive with the 500 gb 5400 RPM drive.
There is a free RAM slot, and I added a Crucial 8 GB RAM stick which worked without issue.
The hard drive mounting area will accept a 9.5 mm drive!! So fortunately, you have many options; I ordered a Seagate 1 TB SSD/5400 rpm combo drive that is working beautifully.
There are two 42 mm M2 slots (at least in my model). One is located next to the WLAN module and the other is located under the metal enclosure next to the blank panel where the SmartCard (not multimedia card) would insert. I added MyDiscountDigital 42 mm M2 128 gb drives to both and installed Windows 8 with a clean install on one of the M2 drives... Windows flies now...

CONS:

- The trackpad/trackpoint buttons really stink... significant downgrade from the X220. I especially liked the X220 trackpoint dedicated buttons. Now they are integrated into the trackpad and require the entire thing to be clicked.
As I am getting more used to it, I am finding that it works fairly well and is not quite as bad as I had initially thought. However, it is annoyingly loud.

- Casing is difficult to get into. Now that I have opened it up a few times, I've gotten better at it. However, I think it is quite easy to initially break some of the plastic latches/tabs holding it together if you don't do it right.

- Battery (6 cell extended) adds quite a bit of height to it... would have been better if it protruded in depth rather than height....

Anyway, I'm satisfied overall. Hope you all enjoy too...

 

Bahmad (and anyone else who has done this)

A few quick questions on your install of the 42mm 128GB SSD drives. I bought a 480GB SSD drive that Im going to replace the main drive with, and didnt order the laptop originally with any cache drives. Would it still behoove me to buy a 128GB drive for the M2 slot and throw window on that instead of my Sandisk Extreme II SATA 3 480GB drive that I will be installing once I open up the case?

I guess my question being, is the M2 slot potentially faster for some reason than putting the OS on the main drive? Even if I still decide to put the OS on the 480GB drive, I don't mind throwing a 128GB drive into one (or both) of those slots if there may be some future benefit to it.

I only ask because based on the stories about the pain it is to open the case, Id rather do it just once. Thus Im maxing out the ram and throwing in the 480 SSD at the same time. If most people think it's worth throwing in a 128gb drive into one of those slots now too, I'd love to hear some reasons why

(Also, I'm guessing you got these through Amazon for $99 a piece?. That's the only place I see them.)

 

Yep, I got them through Amazon for $99 a piece. I personally upgraded the M.2 for the OS rather than an SSD hard drive because I need about 1 TB of storage for files, multimedia, etc. I would have been limited in total size if I chose a SSD hard drive.

I am guessing the OS performance using the M.2 for Windows or using an SSD hard drive for Windows should be similar.

Again, as a business type user, I wanted one storage device for swift OS access and another for maximum storage.
This configuration fits my needs best but of course, yours may vary.

Good luck!

 

I have a buddy who got his T440s a few days ago and I finally got a chance to play with it (actually typing on it right now). Are the trackpads for the T440s and T440p different? Because the trackpad on his T440s sucks compared to mine (T440p owner). It's way jumpier and it has this extremely annoying tendency to jump to the top of the page when using two finger scrolling. Occasionally the trackpad just seems to freeze up and doesn't respond to any input (this seems to be triggered when something is installing on the machine). Both our machines are using default settings on the trackpad.

 

He may want to update the drivers for the trackpad if he has not done so, but it should be the same trackpad.

 

Which RAM are you guys getting for this? I would want the same one which is soldered in making it 8GB, as I don't know the specs of that which one should I go with?

 

RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com

Most people here with their recommendations and did not have any issues.

 

Lenovo released new trackpad drivers. Many T440s tend to suffer that same problem when two finger scrolling. I actually heard that it was also happening on Dell XPS 12 which seems to be using the same software as Lenovo.

 

I was one of the first person to mention this problem awhile back in the thread. The key thing is to slowly make your way around the laptop. The hardest part is when you reach the front of the laptop where the palm rest is. Just slowly pry around the whole unit. I ended up breaking two tabs but it was my fault and I am not going to make Lenovo fix it (the tabs are not on the bottom cover but on the actually frame of the WHOLE device) or waste my time sending it back for such a minimal problem. It doesn't really affect the function of the T440s. Just make sure to take your time and avoid denting the frame with your pry tool and avoid applying too much pressure.

 

Thats correct. I gave up on my T440s order and went ahead and bought a Dell XPS 12 on Saturday. Its trackpad was having the same issues described here and after I went and updated the drivers, it seemed to fix the issues.

 

Can you use the MyDigital 128GB M.2 drive for storage purposes as well? Or can it only be used for cache purposes, OS booting and optimization? Basically, do the drives show up as normal hard drives for using under Windows Explorer?

 

Woohoo! I finally got mine, and even was able to free it from the bureaucratic grasp of my employer just before the holidays. Our tech guys installed the M.2 drive, and running the OS off of that is GREAT. I do have a couple of questions - I'm running Windows 7, fyi:

1) At startup, how to you get into the BIOS? I'd really like the remove the spinning drives Windows install as an option at bootup, but I don't seem to be able to get into a proper bios.

2) I cannot get the middle click to open new tabs in firefox. The appropriate settings are chosen in about:config, and the middle click when used with the trackpoint does nothing when clicking on a link, but allows the trackpoint to scroll, and when used on the trackpad acts as a left click as far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure I have the latest trackpoint drives, and I couldn't see any relevant settings in the Setpoint section of Control Panel>Mouse.

I can post some pictures, including comparisons with my other computer, a T60, just for giggles.

Also, my first impression is that the clickpad is really annoying. I wish I could use a light tap while using the trackpoint, but I guess I understand why that's not really an option.

 

Ahh, I just realized one aspect of my mistake - when using the trackpad, there IS no middle click zone, only 3 finger tap if you configure it as such. However, that too does not seem to perform a middle click in firefox (or in IE, where it just does scrolling also).

The keyboard is lovely, though I think I just heard the beep that was a problem even back for my T60 if you type too fast/hit too many buttons at once. Maybe it was a fluke or something from another program, but I really find that startling. Guess I have to go into device manager and silence the beep.

 

You can assign tap zone and make one corner of the touchpad act as a middle click. It is great for opening links in new tabs. The only problem is that you can just go from TrackPoint to clicking the tap zone without using the touchpad for a second as it prevents the touchpad from functioning (besides clicking) when you are using the TrackPoint. You can also get rid of the beep in the BIOS easily. It will beep if you trigger a certain combination of keys.

 

You're right, that works in Firefox just fine. But why on earth doesn't the button that marked and labelled for middle click act as a middle click?!

 

You mean where the ridges are, at the top of the touchpad? That's not a middle click, it's a scroll button used with the TrackPoint (you hold this and use the TrackPoint to scroll).

The three-finger click works for me in Chrome and IE. If I press on a link, it opens it in a new tab. When not on a link, it enables the standard middle-click scrolling (which is pretty useless when you have two-finger scrolling).

 

That does explain the behavior better, though it's described in the Synaptics diagram as a middle click. I seem to recall on my T60 you could either choose middle click as a scroll button or a middle click. Anyone know if there's any way to configure it as such (registry perhaps)? It's certainly not particularly easy to do a three finger click when I have my middle finger on the touchpoint, and I'm not even really sure multifinger touch works when the touchpoint is in use.

Honestly, I thought I could live with the buttonless arrangement - the loud click and far travel are annoying, but honestly if these buttons worked like the old dedicated buttons I wouldn't have that much of an issue with it. As it is, it's more than a little obnoxious.

 

You're right -- the diagram clearly says "middle click". And yes, there used to be an option to configure it as middle click in old UltraNav drivers. Unfortunately this has been removed, even older machines loose this option when you upgrade them to the latest drivers. At least they have an option to revert to previous version but T440s never had drivers with this option.

I'm not aware of any hack to bring this back, sorry.

 

On my T410s I use the middle trackpoint button to scroll, but use TPMiddle to make the button middle-click when there's no trackpoint movement.

I really hope that'll work with the T440s too!

To make it work best, I needed to disable the auto-scrolling on middle-click in some apps. e.g.,

• in chrome, I installed this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-smooth-scrolling/oikddacoldignalphkgeppnpalkmkgbo
• For Word, I disabled middle-click altogether via an AutoHotkey script:
  Code:

  #IfWinActive ahk_class OpusApp
    MButton::
    Return
  

• For Excel, I did the same as word: same code as above, but XLMAIN instead of OpusApp

 

How do I test this? I see in task manager that it's running but I see no effect. If press and release the middle button without touching the TrackPoint, I see the cursor/pointer change to the scroll cursor and back. Nothing else happens. If I understand correctly, it should generate a middle click if I do this?

 

Yes, on my T410s the cursor changes to the scroll as you describe, and a middle click is generated. I use it to close browser tabs, open links in new tabs, etc.

 

The TPMiddle tool works, but the click zone is difficult to find, even with "large buttons" selected in the mouse utility, and it mostly seems to work for a single click and then requires a short wait before middle click works again. Again, I don't mind them taking away my physical buttons per se, as long as they work close to similar to the originals...

 

Great, a 3-week shipping delay on my order of 2 weeks ago .

 

Is this a good deal? I'm in Canada.
Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 MHZ PC3 12800 1 35V Laptop RAM Sodimm Memory CT51264BF160B | eBay

 

Hey everyone! So I just had the mediocre FHD Non-Touch display replaced in my T440s by the technician just a few minutes ago.

To settle the debate once and for all, there ARE indeed two different screens Lenovo is using for this option. As confirmed, the LCD mine shipped with looked to be an LG with the following info:

Model: LP140WF1 (sp)(k1)
P/N: 0C00349
FRU: 04X0626


Per my request to Lenovo they shipped me and the tech installed the LCD with following info:

Model: AUO B140HAN01.2
FRU: 04X0436

Again, while the LG is not a bad display, it is obviously inferior to the AUO. Whites are MUCH better, no sparkles, and everything just seems crisper.

Also, NO, and I mean ZERO backlight bleed! I'm now very very happy with this laptop.

The only downfall to this whole experience is learning how cheap the entire display assembly is. The front LCD is basically not much more than an elaborate sticker, and I dont think my tech put it back on perfectly center (although you really have to put your face close to the screen and inspect it to notice. Plus there are a few areas that dont lie perfectly flat where he had to pry the sticker off. Not a huge deal, but this was his first time taking apart the T440s so just an FYI to warn your techs if you have them do this for the first time as well.

He also removed the base for me. He kind of did it super fast, and didnt break any tabs. I told him to leave it off so i can add memory and replace drive on my own, and he was fine with it.

Anyways, that's the story! AUO screen > LG screen on FHD Non-Touch! At least in my own honest opinion. Merry Christmas and Happy new Year to all my fellow T440s owners... hope you get your systems soon!

 

Thanks for the info. I will have to check this when my laptop arrives.

 

Thanks for posting about your experience. I'll attempt this here in Germany after holidays.

Thank you very much for noting down the FRUs of both displays.

I think they decided to make the bezel a simple sticker to keep the thickness low. Instead, they focused on making the back of the lid sturdy using carbon fiber. I wouldn't say this is cheap but definitely has some disadvantages comparing to the old plastic bezel. Some users reported the bezel peeling off after some time.

By the way, is the perceived quality of this new screen similar/same as that of the G1?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!

 

HKINGS, thanks for posting that information. The tech who will be replacing my screen Friday has received the part and it is the AUO FRU to my relief. Lenovo is also sending a replacement machine, and it's ship date is almost a month out. The customer service rep said the two reasons orders are delayed are because of memory and lcd panel shortage. The LG FRU isn't listed in the parts list still, so it's possible they were brought in as a supplier only recently because AUO aren't able to meet demand.

On a side note, I had some very minor flex between the palmrest and roll cage. Fractions of a millimeter (much better than previous models). If you experience the same, remove the base cover and hard drive and you will see the roll cage. The palmrest plastic is fixed to the roll cage through studs that come through the roll cage. Pushing down on the rollcage (to remove any gap between the two), put a very small amount super glue (ideally epoxy) around the few studs and it really fixes them together making for an absolutely solid palmrest. It's possible mine was a build quality issue, or it could be that's how they're designed, but this makes the palmrest rock solid.

 

Yes, the screen is on par from what I remember with the HP 840 G1 and I'm very happy about it! I feel like i have the best screen, best keyboard in a very portable package. Just need to get used to button less trackpad now.

 

It looks like there is a hack, you can read about it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/732797-thinkpad-t440s-review-32.html#post9504363

 

Why must I stumble upon this post. I did a recent ips mod to the t431s, but with the LG screen. The fact that there is a better fish in the pond makes me want to fish some more . How much better are we talking about here? We talking macbook pro retina/ipad air quality (not resolution wise of course), some where in between?

 

What about screen brightness? I got the LG P140WF1SPK1 and it tends to dim whenever I move a little the screen, actually the brightest part of the screen seem very small. I made a video to demonstrate, you can see the oval of light and the darker area around it : Luminosity on T440s IPS LG screen - YouTube

Did anybody else experience those problem? Is the AUO screen brighter or with wider bright area? I'll be calling lenovo service if it's the case!

 

I've had the T440s a few days now, and the more I've used it the more I've came to loathe the LG screen. The viewing angles are awful for an IPS display, and it's not particularly clear either, the anti-glare coating is too heavy and grainy. It's bad enough that I would've paid $100 to get the AUO display from ebay myself if Lenovo didn't replace it.

 

That also! Makes every white background looks like snow.

So you made the change from LG to AUO? The viewing angels are better on it? Because that's the hardest to cope with. Each time I move my head I can see the screen getting darker.
Even in the best position the whole screen is not completly the same brightness! Does the AUO fix that in your opinion?

 

My screen is being replaced on Friday with AUO. The viewing angles can only be better than this. It's almost like having a TN panel right now. If anyone has the LG panel, it's a good time to get it replaced. Seems the parts stock in USA only has AUO, so getting it is as replacement is guaranteed for the time being until LG proliferates here.

 

I have next day on site. IF I were to find something wrong with my screen. Would I request an AUO screen and then have them come in to replace? What would my "complaint" be? Until the past few days most people who had the non-touch screen only complained about bleed. But all including reviews said the screen was beautiful. Now suddenly, everyone is finding problems with only the LG screens. I am sure the at least one of the 4 or 5 reviews out there had to be done on an LG screen.

 

Just to answer everyone's questions, yes, if you call Lenovo support and have next day on-site warranty support, they will come out and replace the screen, and you can request the AUO display by asking for the specific FRU number which is 04X0436

As an FYI though, for those that go through with this procedure, please make sure your tech takes his time with the replacement. This was my tech's first time doing anything with the T440s and he rushed through it quickly (due to it being Xmas eve and all) but in doing so, he ended up pretty much every part of the LCD display bezel, including the LCD lid, which now has two dimple/dents protruding through the top cover. In addition, in prying the bezel sticker off, it now doesn't lie flat anymore, nor did he center it properly. Whats more the lid doesnt close perfectly like it once did. All-in-all it was a very shoddy job.

I called Lenovo last night again and they are shipping all the LCD Bezel parts, including a new Bezel sticker, to a new tech. Hopefully they will put together better on Friday when they come out. Those that are having this done may need or want to have them send a bezel sticker as well if they can on the first attempt.

Back to the LCD quality though, the AUO is an incredible screen and is MUCH better than the LG. Like has been mentioned here, the LG had poor viewing angles, almost TN like, and a poor anti-glare screen with lots of sparkle/graininess. Brightness seemed ok, but the AUO is definitely much more even, and I got one with almost zero light bleed.

Merry Christmas to everyone and good luck on the replacement!

 

I think you can also look up which LCD part is in your machine by keying in your serial number and machine type here:

Lenovo Support - Parts Lookup (CA)

While I am still waiting on my T440s (it has left Shanghai), I keyed in my work X230's info and it shows me all the parts including the AUO TN display that it has. This might be another method to confirm which kind of LCD your machine was built with..

 

My experience with the T440s: Horrible.

I received my T440s yesterday. I have been an Lenovo/IBM user since the T42 days and I have done hundreds of clean installs and am Microsoft certified. I purchased the i7, FHD (1080) non-touch, 4GB RAM, 500 GB HD, and started my upgrade. I upgraded the memory to 12 GB (yes I used the correct clock Crucial 8 GB chip) and intended to do a clean install with a Crucial 1TB SSD (firmware updated). I tried numerous clean installs to Windows 8.1 and even Windows 7 Pro (all 64-bit) and most of them failed in one form or another (and yes I corrected all the bios settings such as UEFI etc). I finally got a good install of Windows 7 Pro but the Bluetooth won't load every time, just occasionally when it wants to. I always install drivers in perfect order and use the Lenovo driver update as a last resort. I've decided to call Lenovo tomorrow and return it.

My overall impression is that for a business class machine, it is flimsy and cheaply made, the screen is marginal OK (nothing like my Samsung or MacBook Pro screens), the clunky trackpad is enough to make you cry, and I think there are hardware issues causing intermittent gremlin problems. Lastly, why they won't sell the nvidia option here in the USA really torques me. I do a lot of video work and many of the video programs and encoders use Cuda.

Also, just to read all these posts regarding having to switch to a different LCD panel is borderline mental illness. You mean to tell me that after all these years, Lenovo cannot produce a business class machine with a nice trackpad and beautiful display right out of the box?

FYI: After all tweaks, I got a Windows Experience Index of 6.5.

I really hope Lenovo can do better than this in the future, but in my opinion the T440s is one big FAIL. Goodbye 2013 Christmas present . . .

 

Just bought a slim adapter off ebay for $35. Sharing the deal with others who are interested.

Original 65W Slim Power Charger Adapter for Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Ultrabook | eBay

 

Are you saying you can just ask them to replace it without giving a reason?

I'm surprised they didn't replace the bezel the first time. The HMM clearly states that the bezel must be replaced with a new one each time work is done on the LCD assembly.

Also, are they sending the parts to you or to the tech? Would it be possible to get the parts and do the swap yourself?

 

I had this idea as well but my list didn't include the LCD FRU.

 

My T440s arrived on Monday. For a while it appeared it would be in limbo forever, given the repeated ominous emails about it being delayed and 5% off and such. Then on Friday, the day it was supposed to be delivered, there was a customs problem in Louisville and it got delayed again. After reading up on the UPS messages and seeing nightmare reports about peoples' packages sitting in customs limbo for weeks, I feared the worst. However, it was cleared about 24 hours later and on its way. Unfortunately, it was Friday so this meant waiting another 3 days.

The box was a lot smaller than I expected, but there's nothing wrong with that. After I opened it my immediate task before even turning it on was to upgrade the HDD with the samsung 840EVO. This was a very involved process due to the many clips around the edge of the base. It appeared for a while that I would just not be able to get the base off at all without breaking things. I started at the back where the hinges are and worked my way around, but the front right of the case is where the clips refused to budge at all and I was stuck on that part for a good 20 minutes. Finally, after a few more iterations of working my way around the perimeter with the pry tools again, the stubborn part started to give way and I was in like flynn. Surprisingly, I didn't break anything, but it was a very frustrating process.

The swap out of the HDD was accomplished by removing the screw in the metal bracket to the left of the HDD near the side edge. Once I got the spinning drive out, I then took the cover off my desktop machine and hooked up with it and the Samsung to do a clone. I didn't want to deal with the snafus of a fresh windows7 install, losing all the drivers, and running into product key issues. In retrospect I am not sure this was the correct decision because of all the adware/crapware that comes preinstalled. Since this is a Business laptop I was not expecting there to be any crapware, but I was sadly mistaken. I spent a good 40 minutes uninstalling all the adware/crapware that came preloaded. I'm still not sure if it's all removed yet.

Wireless seems very solid and hasn't dropped out once yet. The keyboard seems fine and isn't having the issues others reported with it. I've never had a keyboard with function lock before so I had to get used to that. There is a conspicuous absence of LED indicators. No LED to show when the battery is charging. No LED to show HDD activity. Just an LED on the power button, and various ones on the keyboard for things like mic mute and function lock. There's also a red LED on the back of the cover that doubles as the dot in the i in "Thinkpad." This one indicates system status when the lid is closed.

The HDD clone went without a hitch and I verified the SSD sectors were properly aligned (partition starts all a multiple of 4096). Once this was finished I transferred the Samsung to the T440s. It fit with no issues in the bracket, I was initially afraid it was going to be too thin and require some padding to keep it from shifting around. In actuality the 500GB spinning drive was thinner. I put the bottom back on and started the machine up. No issues getting windows 7 set up, the clone worked perfectly. For anyone wondering, the HDD interface on the T440s is your standard SATA one that you see on desktop machines.

The display seems to have issues. The backlight bleed isn't too bad, but whites are a tiny bit off, on the yellow/reddish side. It's not terrible and I could live with it if this was all that was wrong. Text looks crisp and sharp and I'm not seeing blatant sparkling issues. Unfortunately, the viewing angle is terrible, it's like having TN display. From reading the posts here, it appears the T440s comes with a good AUO FHD display, and a mediocre LG. I checked in the registry, and my luck being what it is, I got the LG, of course. I hate how having to get on site service seems to be required nowadays because companies can't do it right the first time. The display isn't coming unattached along the side like others have reported, however.

The trackpad takes some getting used to. The clicking mechanism feels loose and clunky. I am having issues with scrolling down on pages, sometimes it works fine, other times it isn't registering or else it snaps down almost to the bottom of the document after removing contact from the touchpad. That is pretty annoying, I will have to see if there is any way to resolve it in the settings. I also had an issue where the trackpad was freezing up and not working at all. When checking the mouse settings in control panel it reported that the driver was corrupted. I upgraded the trackpad firmware and drivers to the latest version and have not since noticed any problem since.

The build quality I am not sure what to make of it. It feels very plastic-y, so I have concerns about its long term durability. Perhaps this is some new material, but it feels like it will be susceptible to chips and cracks. I would not want to test standing on this laptop like I've seen others do in the past with the old IBM thinkpads. It feels quite fragile to me. I do like how it is very light and portable, however.

I got the 6 cell battery for the extended battery life. Charging goes pretty slow I've noticed. The default power adapter also is not sufficient enough to power the laptop at its full performance capability while charging. I did not realize this was the case with laptops nowadays. I do like the ability to swap batteries out without powering down due to the internal battery. Since I'm going to be mostly using AC, it is suggested I keep both batteries around 50% charge to prolong life, which is kind of inconvenient as that requires I know ahead of time for several hours if I am going to be travelling anywhere. Also, I noticed some issues with setting charging thresholds. If I set it to start charging at 40% and stop at 55%, for example, that works fine, except when the laptop is off and I plug in the ac power. Then it seems to charge both up to 100%. I did update the power manager software, so maybe that problem is fixed now. The six cell battery lasts a very long time, I was getting estimates as high as 20-24 hours of battery life remaining when both batteries were fully charged.

Sound seems ok so far, I haven't noticed any issues. The built in webcam works fine, but suffers a lot of image noise especially at lower light levels. This problem is unfortunately par for the course for cheap cameras.

All in all, I would probably be satisfied if it weren't for the viewing angle problems and the build quality concerns. I am going to see if I can get the display replaced and then will have to evaluate whether this laptop is going to last me 5-10 years like I want it to. I have not yet tried stressing the integrated graphics. I might try running Diablo3 to see how it fares. I suspect it won't run very well, but I don't really need to play modern games on this machine so it's fine. The only concerns I might have with the integrated graphics is working in video editing and Unity3D.