T440s Owner´s Thread

I've only read a few pages. Is the t440s worth getting? Lenovo sent me a 25 percent coupon for my birthday and it's about to expire so I'm itching to get something. Just to be sure these max out at 12gb of ram?

 

@zizo79 could you pm where you got your system from if you dont wont post it in public.

 

Yeah, I had been waiting for an update from you. IIRC you ordered around 2 weeks ago?

If I don't see any movement in 2-3 weeks I'll probably cancel mine too.

Yeah I would guess so. Was torn between the touch and non touch models, but the touch ones seem to have more luck getting the AUO panel so ended up getting that.

 

ordered 12/31 and given a ship/arrival date of 1/28 and 2/4 (USA)

I got a shipping confirmation today.. guess it'll show up in a week or so - non-touch FHD, core i5, 500gb/4gb/6-cell.

 

Upon receipt of your T440s, do let us know if you get the LG or AUO screen.

 

Just wanted to share my experience purchasing a T440s. I ordered a touchscreen model with the i5-4200u, 4 gb of ram, and the base 500 gb hard drive. I placed the order on December 27th and was shipping to the US. The original date they said it would arrive was ~January 30th. It came early and arrived on January 12th with the AUO screen. The screen is great.

I bought 8 gigs of RAM (Crucial from Microcenter, Crucial 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL11 SO-DIMM Laptop Memory Module 649528754592 - Micro Center) and a Samsung EVO SSD ( Samsung 840 EVO Series MZ-7TE250BW 250GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE250BW - Micro Center).

I got the back off the laptop fairly easily. Removed all screws and pried open very slowly. The RAM slot is easily accessible. I had some issue with installing the SSD and recovering the OS. I put the recovery on an external hard drive and then replaced the internal hard drive with the SSD. I then loaded off the external and attempted to recover the OS. It seemed to work, but nothing would load afterward. I'm not sure what was going on, but here is what I did. I removed the caching SSD from the m.2 slot located under the internal battery, put back in the original hard drive, and rebuilt the recovery on the external hard drive. I put back in the SSD and recovered the OS. I then removed all the boot devices from the boot order except for the SSD and everything worked. Finally, I reinstalled the caching ssd in the m.2 slot on the top of the motherboard next to the wifi card, but haven't used it for anything yet. I also noticed that the m.2 slot under the battery might be able to be adjusted to accept a larger m.2 card. I'm thinking of trying to get a m.2 SSD to put in there, but there aren't many choices for the short m.2s.

Some nitpicky things. First, a lot of the ports are on the right hand side which makes mouse use on a crowded desk annoying (especially the headphones port...). Two finger scrolling is better than a lot of other Windows laptops I've used, but still not on par with Macbooks. The function keys default to what I would consider secondary usage (volume, brightness, etc.) as opposed to being used as f1, f2, etc. There is a function lock you can turn on to make them behave as f-keys, but this turns on a fairly bright LED. One of the things I really liked about the t440s was the lack of LEDs, so this is somewhat annoying. None of these complaints really matter, but I thought I'd mention them.

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My system came with the stock 500GB mechanical drive, which I replaced with a Samsung EVO. I left the thin foil on the mechanical drive, so that can't be the cause of the creaking in my system. If it weren't such a pain to open, I'd have investigated it by now.

 

Out of curiosity can you change the Fn lock in bios to default it to the Fn keys?

 

No, this is not possible.

 

Sorry they bumped the price. I bought it from Macmall. It is going to ship soon.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

Yes, I ordered on 06/01 and it should have shipped today but they postponed it to friday, fingers crossed!
I'm kinda of regretting not getting the touch model, at least I'd guarantee the good display.

 

I can't believe that Macmall has shipped my 1/20 order. Here is to hoping it has the non-LG display. I thought they'd cancel my order for the $370 price error.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

Just ordered mine.

i5-4300u, FHD non-touch, Intel N wifi, 6-cell battery, 3 year onsite+accident warranty. Probably will be a while until it ships but hopefully it works out well, particularly the display.

 

Depends what you want in a laptop. This isn't the thinnest or lightest, nor can handle any graphics-intensive tasks (either gaming or programs). But it can give you amazing battery life for a slight bump in weight and and an elevated bottom.

It does only support up to 12gb RAM.

 

Is there lesser performance if your memory setup is 4+8 versus 4+4? I know there's that dual channel business, but I'm not sure if the quantities must match too.

 

Please report back if you get the AUO or the LG panel.

 

I definitely will!

 

Good news, order shipped, hallelujah!
Took them 2.5 weeks to process everything, now just a few days and I should have it.

 

The Intel chipset in the T440s runs in flex mode if you have 4+8. The matched 4+4 will run in dual channel mode, and the remaining 4 will run in single channel. I have 4+8 and it showed up as dual channel in CPUID.

 

Thanks for the info. Wonder if I should just go for 4+4 then and save a bit of money.

 

If you don't need 12gb, then 4+4 is the way to go. Not too many people need more than 8gb right now.

 

Does any one know why does the first SSD cost $50 more than the second on Lenovo website? What supposed added advantage are there on the first one over the second one?

1) 240GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 Opal
2) 256 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 eDrive Capable

 

First drive supports Opal Storage Specification.

 

Any ideas??? Does anybody know when 8+8 is going to be an option?

 

It won't, max you can get is and will always be 12gb for this model

 

That's not bad at all from Lenovo. Best of luck with the screens!

 

arrived this morning. Got the LG screen (.LP140WF). Already have an RMA from Lenovo..

pretty f*&^!-ing disappointed.

 

A word of warning if you decide to keep your T440s laptop, want to have the LG screen replaced with the AUO one, and will be utilizing the depot warranty via the prepaid UPS mailer. When I first called Lenovo support to set up a ticket, they told me that there were plenty of AUO screens in stock (the person paused on the phone to check inventory, or at least pretended to) and that it would be no problem getting it replaced. Then it took me a couple of days of arguing with support, supplying detailed descriptions of the problems, videos, etc. before they would finally replace the screen. So then I started getting emails that a "part" was on backorder. So I called today, now that they have had it for 20 days, and they have no way to know what the “part” is, and that that the "part" is coming from China (via a slow boat I imagine) and furthermore that they can not give me a lead time for its arrival; in fact, they said that it is possible that they might not have it in stock in China and that they may have to wait until it is manufactured by the supplier. So it is highly likely that the "part" is the AUO screen, and they just lied to me when I started the whole support ticket process. If I had known that it was not in stock I would have just returned the laptop and moved on to a different manufacturer, and of course they suspected that as well, and that is why they lied to me. So lets see, from the time I ordered the laptop until now it has been 57 days and I have actually had the laptop in my possession for exactly 1/2 of a day, and who knows, it could take several weeks or months more before I get it back. If you have the on-site warranty, you have an even greater problem, as noted by the horrible shoddy work they have performed on people's T440s's on this forum.

 

Wow that's not cool. Mine is supposed be here anytime. Fingers crossed.

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About the bolded, do you have any links? Or are they buried in this thread? I ordered mine with the onsite warranty and it hasn't shipped yet, just curious. I'll try to search to see if I find anything.

edit: Found this -- http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/734969-t440s-owner-s-thread-70.html#post9504580

 

Yes, there are a couple of people buried in this thread and elsewhere. This is a new laptop design and I guess you can just blame it on the tech's lack of experience, although that isn't very comforting. Maybe it's me, but the whole idea of having someone coming into my house and fixing a laptop on my kitchen counter doesn't sound like a very good idea at all.

 

How hard will it be to replace the screen myself? i might order one from eBay (100$), but the bezel looks glued and it doesn't seem to be durable enough to last a replacement.

 

That totally sucks. Can you still return it even though it's at the depot? I also have the LG and depot warranty. After trying to get a replacement through my local authorized service provider for the past few weeks, they finally told me that they can't get the specific AUO part from Lenovo. I then called Lenovo support again and told them that I can't do without my computer, and that I can replace the screen myself. They put in an order for the AUO screen and a bezel sheet to be sent directly to me, but no surprise, the AUO is back ordered. I have no idea how long it will take, but since I have the computer, I'm willing to wait. I still can't believe that Lenovo would put such an inferior screen in a high-end ThinkPad model. Really doesn't bode well for the future of the ThinkPad brand.

 

Wish you the best, but haven't heard of anyone getting a non-touch AUO recently. I think the last person to get one and post here was located in NZ. It's pretty much out of stock as a replacement part as well. Not sure if they're holding some just for the on-site warranty folks though.

 

As stated in the hardware maintenance manual, the bezel sheet is supposed to be replaced when the LCD panel is replaced. You can get Lenovo to send you one if you call them. Judging from the manual, the replacement doesn't look difficult at all. Remove the bezel sheet and 4 screws and that's it. I know another poster who has done it also said it takes just 5 to 10 minutes. If and when I ever get the AUO panel sent to me, I will post my experience and some pictures.

 

Don't know, I doubt it. I will give it a while because I like the laptop otherwise, although I only had a couple of hours to play with it.

What really pisses me off more than anything else is that I spent a lot of time doing research before buying this laptop, and part of that was based on detailed reviews by third parties. Do you think that Lenovo sent evaluation laptops to these hardware review sites with an inferior screen....I think not. I hope to God I don't have any of the other problems that are showing up with this laptop on this and other forums. This is definitely my first and last Lenovo purchase. I have used "IBM" Thinkpads at work in the past, but unfortunately they too have become yet another company to become "Chinacr*pafied".

 

If they were/are out of stock for the AUO panel, wouldn't it affect the touch model as well? Recenly, many users reported receiving the touch with AUO.

 

I bought the AUO screen from ebay for 100$, with 30 day return policy. if lenovo decides to replace my t440s machine with a new AUO screen i'll return the screen to the ebay seller. now i need to get a new bezel and it's done. who wants the LG screen? (for free )

 

Yeah, it's definitely unethical to switch to a greatly inferior panel after the reviews are out. I wonder if a real supply shortage forced them into it or if it's a calculated move from the start. I hope it's the former.

I do like the rest of the laptop. I had some wifi issues with the latest Intel drivers, but they actually seem to have abated after I went back to the default Microsoft drivers that came with Windows 8.1. Everything else has been working fine, and with the i7 and an 840 EVO, it's nice and speedy. At this point I don't know if I'd ever buy a Lenovo again, but if I eventually do get the screen replaced and it holds up well over the next few years, I'd probably at least consider it. Seems like there just aren't too many good alternatives in the PC market. All the manufacturers have their share of issues. But I definitely wouldn't order a new model within 6 months of its release date and definitely not around the holidays again.

 

I wonder how long it will take for Ebay to be out of stock if this continues.

 

Not sure I've ever seen anyone report getting a touch model with an LG panel. I believe the panel and touch layer are made as one unit, so it's a distinct part from the non-touch panel. It's likely that they only sourced the touch panel from AUO, and since fewer people order those, they had enough supply to meet the demand.

 

I seriously considered this option too, but I'm going to wait to see if Lenovo will send me the panel eventually. It just feels wrong to have to resort to Ebay parts for a brand new high-end laptop. I really wish we had build-it-yourself laptops like we do with desktops.

 

A huge +1 to this. I have been building my own desktops at home and servers at work from individual parts for 20 years. When I build a computer I research the parts and make sure they are of high quality and they are all compatible with each other, and they just keep on running and running without any problems.

 

I just got my T440s that I kinda stole from Macmall for $1,256. It has the dreaded LG display. Booooo

 

@zizo79 is yours as bad as everyone describes?

I think I'll reserve a AUO panel from ebay just in case...

 

You can definitely see the ghosting. Why would I do that if I have warranty?

 

I have never seen any reports of ghosting on the LG panel; maybe you are using the wrong term? My LG panel certainly had no ghosting, but a host of other issues. I did see a couple of posts of ghosting with the AUO panel however. Are you sure you have an LG display (LP140WF1-SPK1)?

 

Ah, thanks. I will say though, I used my on-site warranty a few times with my old Dell D630 and each time the tech was very professional and competent in fixing the device. I would actually feel better about seeming them fix it in front of me instead of sending it into a depot, though it depends on the technician of course.

 

By ghosting, I meant the issue found in this video. Luminosity on T440s IPS LG screen - YouTube

 

Ghosting is a completely different thing. Yes, what you are seeing is a property of the LG screen; not sure what the proper technical term would be, but people have been using the words "luminosity" or "spotlight" effect.