T440s up on Lenovo website (IPS Screen, 1080p)

Thats what I thought, and it doesnt make any sense. The i7 4750HQ has a combined (CPU/GPU) TDP of 47w while even the i5 4200U(15w) (that you linked) and a 730m(33w) have a combined TPD of 48w. Both the cpu and gpu are faster and they would use less power if they went with the 4750HQ.

 

The 730M has Optimus. In the most cases the 730M won´t active, instead the HD 4400 will be active.

The HQ CPU lacks many energy-saving modes that ULV CPUs offer. The ULV CPUs are SoC, the 4750HQ is not a SoC. That means, the chipset is seperate from the CPU and it takes additional power, which is not inside the 47w TPD (for the ULV CPUs, it is). At the end, the HQ CPU would still take much more power. For a machine that meant for business use and mobility, it wouldn´t be very smart to use the 4750HQ. The i5-4200U (and the optional i7-4500U) is a much more logical choice. A T440s with the i7-4500U and the 730M should have more than enough power for all business-related tasks. These aren´t gaming machines.

Of course, Lenovo could have wait for the upcoming 28w ULVs with the Iris Pro 5100, but still, the 5100 is weaker than the 730M.

 

Not sure about the energy saving modes the HQ has but I know the desktop Z87 chipset only uses 7 watts so I would imagine the mobile taking little to nothing. I dont see why intel would leave out power saving features on flagship chips considering they are in a race to lower power consumption across the board to compete with arm products at every level. I am willing to bet the power consumption of the chipset is equal to or less then the 730m when powered "off" (I cant find any documentation stating whether or not it completely powers the chip off or just uses a very low idle state which I think it is). I personally think it has to do with profit margin, if you really want a 4200U you can get one in a $450 acer right now. Also trust me, I realize these are not gaming machines. I have a desktop with 2 titans a 4770K at 4.7ghz with 8gb of ddr3 2666 on a Z87-XOC. I just want components that are worth the money.

Just found the tpd for the chipset, 2.7w, even still I think the power requirement between both platforms would be nearly the same.

Also here is the comparison between the U and HQ http://ark.intel.com/compare/75460,76087
And one of the 3 compatible chipsets http://ark.intel.com/m/products/75525/Intel-DH82QM87-PCH

You can see there is nothing the U chips have that the HQ doesnt. While consuming a total 1.7w more but you get alot more features and I/O options.

 

Lets compare some real world reviews and benchmarks rather than theoretical TPD ratings:

Review Schenker S413 (Clevo W740SU) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

it comes with a 53 Wh battery, bigger than the T440s standard battery. But still, they only manage to get 6hrs in idle. With a Haswell ULV CPU, you could get up to 12 or 13hrs runtime in idle.

It is clear why: It just uses much more power than an average ULV CPU, even in idle. ( Review Sony Vaio Pro 13 SVP-1321C5ER Ultrabook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews much smaller battery, much more battery runtime).

The same thing applies on a ULV system with a Gt 630M, because it still has Optimus, even if the GT draw some small amounts of power when its powered of. Even with the 33w TPD of the 630M you couldn´t reach the 78 W maximum power usage of the i7-4750HQ.

Accept it (or not, its your decision): For a machine that for mobile business users a ULV CPU is much better.

The T440s just isn´t build to be a gaming machine or a mobile workstation. For gaming, Lenovo has the Y-series and for the people who need a mobile workstation, Lenovo has the W-Series or the full-size T-Series.

 

Bingo.....

 

Your comparing a system with 2 cores and an extremely weak igpu to 4 core and a powerful gpu. Of course it is going to use more power.
The 4750HQ is more than twice as fast as the 4500U in terms of both cpu and gpu processing power.

Clevo-53Wh
We could browse on the internet for 4 hours and 17 minutes in realistic conditions using Wi-Fi and the brightness adjusted to about 150 cd/m² until the battery was drained. These runtimes can roughly be expected when playing an (HD) video.

Sony-40Wh
Far away from the manufacturers' specification of eight hours is the WLAN runtime of just 5:16 hours. The wireless connection was activated and the brightness was adjusted to 150 cd/m² (reduced by three steps). Energy-saving settings for the CPU (Silent), GPU (energy saving) and display (40 Hz) were also active.

So for less than half of the processing power and a smaller screen you get a smaller battery and an hour more of runtime. Sorry I would rather have the processing power, we all know lenovo makes all kinds of batteries and this new swappable battery tech would be awesome for this application. Its very doable and I think it would do very well, not everyone want a large desktop replacement workstation or a weak thin and light notebook.

Now should this be the only option? Absolutely not, of course keep the options that would allow for more battery life and less processing power giving the users choice. The only reason I am keeping on about this is because the form factor I think is a perfect balance between high mobility and desktop replacement.

 

I'm a server software developer, I run all kinds of virtual machines, Java and nodejs for text mining/artificial intelligence software. My typical app involves launching four server instances with a web front end, with a browser or command line for interaction. For my portable system, I want a balance of battery life and decent performance. If I need any heavier duty processing, I do it on a separate 32GB or more system(s). I don't want a system that runs really hot and noisy with fans blowing all the time.

If it has decent battery life, I'd be very happy with the t440s as described, dual core/four threads with an SSD for the OS + SSD for data would be fine. Thinkpads have excellent Linux support. The only disappointment I see is the 12GB limitation, the extra 4GB would be nice. My x220t has 16GB and with an SSD it's pretty quick, I just find the screen cramped.

If I were developing eg WebGL code I'd care more about a GPU, but I'm glad this series doesn't include one.

Some people participating in this thread seem to want a gaming machine, where I would not think of the t440s.

 

Co-rrect...

 

I prefer different computers for different purposes. At home I run a T430 for some side business which I want to be powerful. On the road I carry a X220 around everyday for both entertainment (music) and work (programming, pdf books reading), and occasionally remote login into the T430 at home. I am very happy with this arrangement, and cannot image myself working with only a single computer.

 

Seriously, I don't understand why people are complaining that an *ultrabook* has ULV CPU options only. Clearly this isn't the laptop for you, please move on and wait for the T440p and leave the rest of us in peace.

Also, for those saying it could be an option to have a standard voltage CPU or GPU, realize that they'd need to redesign the cooling system to handle that load which would add weight and it'd be a waste for those of us who don't want them, or else they'd have to have a different system at which point it'd become a different chassis and thus a different laptop.

 

FWIW, the Lenovo y410p is really nice for those looking for better performance. Even though it's a quad-core PC, it's more quiet and less hot than my dual-core Latitude E6430 while doing basic word processing, web browsing, etc. The thing I really disliked about the y410p is its screen is incredibly glossy / reflective. I admit I was hoping for the t440s to have better performance, but it makes more sense to have a matte IPS FHD option for the y410p (and/or offer higher-end performance options for the t440 / t440p) than to make the t440s into something it's not.

 

Agreed.

If I do play games on the t440s, it'll be games like Football Manager, Front Office Football, or Franchise Hockey Manager. More CPU intensive rather than graphics heavy. I have a desktop at home for that.

The reason why I'm looking at the T440s & Yoga is because of their weight and monitor size/resolution. Dealing with spreadsheets on a 1366x768 resolution gets annoying after a while. The X1 Carbon is out of my price range, despite the HK government subsidy.


Regarding battery life, I tend to just take 1/2 of the spec provided by the manufacturer.

 

Maybe it's not that people want the T440 to be a gaming machine, so much as they want Lenovo to announce a Haswell ultrabook that they can game on, and this is all they've got so far. Lenovo's got a lot of laptops out there but not a lot of Haswell ones, which is what new buyers are looking for.

 

The W-series effectively replaced the "p" T-series machines after the T61p, so there have indeed never been any "p" version of the T4xx or T5xx. If, as rumored, a "p" version of the T440 or T540 does appear, I would expect it to potentially offer CPU options at least close to the W series since as far as I know the "p" models used to be the Thinkpad workstation machines. Heck, maybe the W-series is gonna be retired and replaced by a T540p.

My bad on the M3800... I guess Dell's best 14-incher is the XPS14.

 

But surely the Y410p is exactly that... a Haswell ultrabook for gaming?

 

The NVS cards are not real (powerful) Quadros. They are just slowest dGPUs paired with Quadro drivers for cleaning old generation stock.

That is a Clevo, and being a Clevo means terrible battery life. Last generation ThinkPad W and Clevo P/W both used standard Voltage i7 Quads with hybrid graphics. The battery life were quite different.

The Y410p is only slightly better than a i7 4X50HQ machine for gaming. It's cheaper though.

+1

 

W540 is more than a rumors, it listed in lenovoservicetrainings Lenovo Service Training Manuals Reveal Upcoming Product Model Numbers - Laptop User Reviews
same for T440\T440p series, it ALREADY exist in lenovoquickpick.com and have partnumbers from Lenovo

guess, no quad core option for even T440p, as it not listed as for T540
http://www.lenovoquickpick.com/usa/system/thinkpad/t-series/t540p

 

Y410p doesn't qualify for Intel's Haswell ultrabook specs. For Shark River/Haswell, ultrabooks need to have a manufacturer stated battery life of >=6hrs on HD video playback. I'm not including touchscreen as part of the qualification. Nor is the CPU a SoC/CULV chip.

It is a nice system (similar class to what the 4820TG was upon release), and I would have thought about getting it if it wasn't for the weight of 2.5kg.

 

Was able to try out the T440s.

Specs available are as listed on the HKNotebook website for Lenovo.

Screen is matte 1080p.

All four corners of trackpad can be used to click. Top left & bottom left of trackpad = left click and so on. Allows for one handed use of Trackpoint.

 

So you can confirm that the i7-4500U + nVidia 730m + IPS-FHD - version is available from the start, at least in HK? Or did you only try one version?

 

Is it possible that in different countries there will be different screens? For instance IPS only in Japan/HK? They write in lenovo.com/jp that the screens are IPS, but in Germany (the student shop), the same resolution screens are not IPS.

 

you've mistaken, pls check&share your source

 

Campuspoint is wrong. It is IPS/AHVA.

 

So what did you think of the new trackpad?

S

 

So Verloren, we are going to need a little more from you. We know the screen is matte 1080p. How does it look? lol What version did you test out, HD vs SSD? Yes, I would like a mini review assuming you turned it and was able to touch it. We are desperate lol.

 

T440s vs W530 how do you guys think these will compare to each other? what would be the pros and cons of purchasing one over the other?

 

They are completely different machines. Although they will be roughly the same price, the W530 is a big and heavy workstation that packs a lot of power, while the T440s is a thin/light ultrabook.

 

here's hoping that the updated w5xx will have an ips option. i have an hp 8560w that i've run into issues with. hp support is a nightmare. is apple the only us computer maker that has decent support?

 

HP pro support (with pro/elitebooks) is quite good, as is Dell's pro support.

 

I'm currently trying to get my 8560w elitebook replaced. I have a dreamcolor display and it started having issues. They replaced the screen twice (both had red color cast), replaced the system board, replaced the graphics card. Now the trackpad no longer works. They offered me a refurbished replacment unit that does not have a dreamcolor display. I said no way, and now i'm running in circles trying to get them to provide a proper solution, i.e. a brand new unit with a dreamcolor display.

No that it is not good support. Tech support is helpful, they tried to fix it, but it didn't work out. However, replacements are handled by a separate department called Executive Customer Relations. They are an outsourced group that does not have the slightest clue on technology. Here you have a group that handles replacements and they do not know the technology of what they are trying to replace. Unbelievable.

 

At 5.5 pounds and 1.29 inches thick, I would hardly call it an ultrabook. Personally, I'm not looking for a gaming machine, but I would like an ultrabook with a decent CPU. I don't feel like I should have to sacrifice speed when I don't need a 9 hour runtime on battery. There is absolutely nothing out there that meets my requirements. I was hoping the T440s would be that laptop, even though I'm not a business person, but it seems like it'll be stuck with an ULV processor.

 

True, it's not exactly an ultrabook, but it is a decent gaming machine. I've not yet seen a Haswell ultrabook (even a 15+ inch one) that doesn't use an ULV processor, though whether that's because of the heat issue in a thin chassis or the slow rollout of the M processors I've no idea.

 

The core definition of 'Ultrabook' is the use of the ULV processor (intel owns the term and they decided exactly what they require a machine carrying that name, ULV and touchscreen being a few)

What you're looking for is a 'thin and light' machine. So something like the old T430s, X230, or U4/510. Currently, there are very few (if any) non-ULV Haswell machine available. But my prediction is that laptop overall (with the help of Haswell) are going under a design change where the new standard is 4lb, 1in, touchscreen, 1080p, 8 hours battery life.

 

Looks sleek. Very nice modern look. Almost like taking the MacBook Pro and industrializing it one step further to a simple, contemporary design feel. Easy to carry in one hand. Nice chassis, and screen goes 180 degrees to keyboard. Thanks to my sailing & science background, I've always been a proponent of function>>form, and the T440s fits that to a T. I don't need all the bells and whistles as long as it functions how it should.

Logical layout of ports, especially when compared to the T431s (why would you put the heat vent on the right hand side?). For those worried about a dock, have no fear! There is a Thinkpad docking slot on the bottom of the case. I'm assuming it's as standard port.

For reference, I'm coming off an Acer 4820TG, so that will be my baseline comparison for some of the interfaces.

Display is matte, and very crisp (should be with that ppi). I completely forgot to play around with the functions (brightness, volume etc) so the comments are referring to the brightness that the T440s was set at before I began to use it. Bear in mind I was looking at my phone (HTC One X) moments before, so there will be a bias (IPS screen under Gorilla glass). The monitor seemed grainy at a few points (either phone bias or something wrong with the coating). The coating may be a full matte rather than a semi-matte (as can be observed on a Dell U2713HM). Colors seemed a bit muted, and not enough pop (calibration or brightness?). Use of the T440s for things like color correction is not advised due to matte coating. Like I mentioned before, this could be due to using a phone moments before looking at the T440s. Other potential biases include being used to a 4820TG (averages >300nits) and a semi-glossy IPS monitor at home.

Keyboard was superb, although this is on par with most ThinkPads in the past. Not mushy at all.

It was a HDD+SSD cache drive. There wasn't much software available, so I wasn't able to test start times for programs. Loading the system with a massive amount of tabs didn't do much (would have preferred to use Chrome for this due to being more memory intensive, but only IE was available).

Feel of trackpad is very responsive and smooth. Basic two finger scrolling works well. The trackpoint excessively sensitive, but that's probably because I haven't used one since the late '90s. The trackpad doubles as the left and right click, but only the corners act this way. Very intuitive design from Lenovo in setting it up so the top left and top right corners correspond to trackpoint use. They also were highlighted by red lines, providing some visual cues from the older Thinkpads. There will not be any issues with accidentally pushing too hard on the left border and accidentally clicking. The axes for clicking is based upon the x and y axis down the median line of the trackpad. Approximately 30-50% of each quadrant corresponds to being clickable. To click, some force needs to be applied. IMO, Lenovo hit a pretty good balance point. It's not going to cause finger fatigue, but it also isn't going to have a bunch of accidental clicks. Clicking a massive number of times in a row may be an issue due to the minimum force needed (this specifically applies to gaming - disclaimer: I used to go 13-10 playing CS on a trackpad in the early 2000s). I haven't touched a MBP (probably one of the best trackpads) in 2 years, so I'm unable to compare.

My choices going in were the Yoga 13 vs the T440s. My basic desire was a high resolution monitor in lightweight form factor. The only thing preventing me from getting the Yoga 13 straight off the bat was some questions about the scaling of the monitor (which it didn't have). I occasionally coach football & American, and the touchscreen was what suckered me into the Yoga for the ability to draw out plays & systems (I don't have a tablet in any shape or size and will not get one). However, the T440s looks and feels like a great system, and I'll probably end up regretting my decision 1 year later simply because the T440s is specced higher and is more DIY friendly.

As it is, I will probably have to add another SSD to the Yoga in a year due to it only having 128GB of space, thus negating any cash savings.

 

Ah, the graininess must be from the coating then? I have a Dell U2212HM and it has something of the matte coating but I got used to it pretty quick, it's not a bit deal IMO.

Thanks for your insight!

 

O look who extended their sale...

 

Web purchase and thus official specs are out on september 1st. But resellers already got machines since yesterday. Alas in my country just the i5, HD 4400 versions. That's why I asked Verloren about the i7, 730m version from HK (at least hknotebooks is offering them) but either he consequently overlooks questions about specs, or he simply doesn't know.

 

Great. Many thanks for the review, Verloren. Really informative. And nice to have some more intelligent comments on the new trackpad.

S

 

Hopefully it's from the coating and not something wrong with the panel. I've had issues in the past with air bubbles between the coating and panel itself. The coating might be removable, if someone is willing to experiment.

Sorry. Missed out on your Q when I was writing the mini-review.

100% confirmed is the availability of a i7-4500U, GT730m, 1080p AH-IPS non-touchscreen model from the start and pick up will be around October 10-12. Same applies to the i5 version. I am assuming this is the maximum spec of the T440s as it does carry a suggested retail price of 2k USD.

As the reps were not from Lenovo, I wasn't able to confirm how many options can be customized with the T440s.

What they did tell me was that 1080p is non-touch, while getting a touchscreen results in a 1600x900. Not sure if they can pack a touch screen + 1080p monitor together. All HK models via HKNotebook/HKEdOffer will come with a 730m.

 

can you give more details ? where ?

 

Thank you. How do you know that this version got a suggested retail price of 2000 USD and why is hknotebooks selling them for 1160 USD? Even for a student discount this seems too much? Do you now the suggested retail prices of the other models too?

Web purchase in USA ETA on september 1st. Resellers all over the world I guess, at least in Germany, I can confirm they arrived yesterday.

 

Whoops. The 2k USD is for the T440s i7 touch version. It says on the HKEdOffer website as well as in the pamphlet they distributed.

The FHD i7 non-touch has a SRP of 1750USD.

University students are able to purchase these notebooks at a discounted rate due to a government subsidy (which doesn't work with Apple). The HK government has a massive surplus of cash, and paid out around 700USD per citizen of age in 2011.

Cost of living in HK is very high, and sometimes these students come from families that don't make a lot. Fresh graduates also don't make a lot after graduating (1k USD per month is around average).

To be honest, if I were to quit my pursuit of a postgraduate degree, I could make 4-5k USD per month just teaching kids conversational English on a 20h working week.

 

This is strange because the Japanese website currently has i5 FHD touch screens on sale for the T440s.
I would absolutely love to see an i7 FHD touch screen model but haven't seen that configuration anywhere.

 

It seems as if touch screens take a screen resolution hit as well. To me, the higher price + the worse screen + the lack of functionality (the T440s is just a traditional laptop, after all) makes the touch screen not worth it to me.

 

Anyone know why the T440s has a GeForce 730M GPU (as opposed to one from the traditional business-oriented Quadro/NVS series)???

Will the T440/p also have a GeForce GPU???

My current needs are more for pixel-pushing (1440p/4K external monitor) rather than 3D rendering applications, which I feel the GeForce series better suits...so should I buy a T440s or wait to see what's in the T440/T440p? Or is it likely that the T440/p models will simply have a NVS/Quadro GPU, and thus not worth the wait for my needs?

 

Here is a German Review of the T440s: T431s ThinkPad T440s Review + Vergleich mit X1 Carbon! [ACHTUNG BILDER + VIDEOS!]! There are some nice pictures and videos

It seems that nVidia abandoned the NVS line. I have heard nothing until now about new NVS chips (unlike the Quadro and the GeForce chips, which are already updated).

 

So maybe a mobile Geforce GTX GPU in a future ThinkPad? Interesting. I gotta try this new trackpad/trackpoint out for myself, but those videos and review make me doubt its potential for anything but failure. Thanks for the link!!

 

Guys, let me distract your attention away from handsome T440s onto... its brothers T440 and T440p

Compare those pairs of images:
* T440s
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...00x300/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440s-front.png
http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/560x345/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440s-main.png
* T440
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...400x300/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440-front.png
http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/560x345/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440-main.png
* T440p
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...00x300/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440p-front.png
http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/560x345/lenovo-laptop-thinkpad-t440p-main.png

T440 is chunkier to T440s and T440p is gross thicker against both of them!!! Do you see that behemoth? I'm wondering what might be under the skin of T440p...

 

From those pictures, the T440s is the best looking I think.

 

X240, L440/L540 pics are also online!

X240:
http://www.lenovo.com/images/galler...inkpad-X240-main.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...nkpad-X240-front.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576

L440/L540:
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...nkpad-L440-front.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576
http://www.lenovo.com/images/galler...inkpad-L440-main.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576
http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...nkpad-L540-front.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576
http://www.lenovo.com/images/galler...inkpad-L540-main.png?AID=10899282&PID=3640576