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

I forgot about this use case a couple pages back, but it's hugely relevant to Lenovo's core buyer: sales engineers for enterprise software companies run entire datacenters in their laptop under virtual machines. To demo (for example) an email anti-virus gateway or database vulnerability scanner, you might need a DNS server, 2 mail servers, database server, domain controller/DHCP server, directory server AND a couple of virtual clients -- all running on a single box, simultaneously.

These guys spend 3 out of 4 weeks per month on the road and portability is key. They are responsible for literally billions of dollars in sales across the IT industry and so have very frothy tech budgets. Imagine how many SEs are at IBM, CA, Symantec, Oracle, SAP, and other "old school" tech companies -- 10's of thousands.

A big shop with enterprise buying agreements can let their users buy, say, anything in the T-series line. Office workers can get the T440 (mostly docked using external monitor, so cheap screen is OK), Sales guys can get the sexy T440s, and SEs get the heavy duty T440p. A company like IBM can buy 50,000 systems in a single year, if it meets their needs.

I think Lenovo will be pretty successful with this line. But I'm still pissed about the TrackPoint buttons.

 

Have you used the trackpoint buttons? I'm not too concerned given my liking to wireless mice (logitech M305 is my daily mouse). My occasional use of the trackpoint will be fine...and I'm sure lenovo didn't totally blow it, but those who do pound the trackpoint buttons all day maybe should worry about the new mechanism...seems prone to break...we will see.

 

No, and I'm more than happy to admit I'm wrong if the new design is awesome. My primary concern is the feedback from people who have used it and been extremely critical of the feel, comfort, and consistency. Hearing that you need to click 2 or 3 times for it to register worries me greatly. Maybe those were bad units? A driver issue? I definitely need to be hands-on for a while to decide for myself.

I too use an external keyboard and mouse as my primary inputs, but travel enough that the integrated devices make a difference.

For the record, I was pissed about the island keyboard too -- and was wrong. The 6-row layout blows monkey buttons, but the feel is delightful.

Thankfully, Lenovo apparently listened to complaints about the lack of function key grouping, as they're now back to groups of 4 in the T44x line. Maybe they'll (eventually) recreate the two-row PgUp/Down, Home/End, Insert/Delete layout that God intended.

 

But what are these people running currently? What 14" laptop has a quad core option? Not the T430 as far as I can tell.

Though I have to agree that that is a valid use for a lot of VMs. That kind of work benefits more from the presence of additional hardware execution threads rather than pure speed, so I'm kind of idly wondering if Intel has any plans to introduce ULV quad core parts. Would be an interesting use case certainly. I also wonder if AMD's Bulldozer architecture might be enough for those tasks with the extra execution hardware.

 

There people are running pretty much any laptop that can take 8-16GB-32GB RAM and have enough storage to fit all these VMs. CPU power, particularly quad core, does not matter in these setups at all: most of those demo VMs are idle. CPU is almost never a bottleneck. Larger problem in the older days was I/O, as booting a dozen of VMs of a single physical HDD wasn't fast because of seek times, but SSDs have fixed this. Oftentimes though, these people drag 2 or 3 laptops with them, not for the sake of power, but merely for multiple screens and keyboards to demo client-server-admin scenarios more efficiently.

Software developers, especially coding big projects in C++ and other languages, in the companies that allow source code to be on laptops, do benefit from fast CPUs and quadcore: more cores = more multithreading issues come up early. As do benefit people who try to edit/preview, even if rough and max 1080p, video on the go (there power is ON/OFF case - either the machine has enough power to produce a preview in real time, or it does not). But most users don't really need to have quadcore AND small size, 15"+ screen machine is preferred to allow at least some productivity while not connected to external screens.

 

Lenovo T440s Hands-On and Hot-Swap Battery Demo « Ultrabook News and the Ultrabook Database

 

I see a lot of 15"ers, and a surprising number of MacBook Pros (15", but the retina display helps when so much is going on at once) running Boot Camp or Parallels. You're right though, not many great 14" options (that I know of). That's a problem for a frequent traveler - I know one SE that uses an Air. He takes the hit on performance just to save the size (and he mercilessly mocks my T430 as a dinosaur from another era).

I think the hope that Lenovo could offer a good powerhouse 14" option for these use cases is one thing that has driven this thread to 121 pages.

 

That is supposedly the touch FHD screen. The reviewer on the video is saying it's a matte screen but it looks very reflective. Maybe that's due to the touch version?

Also, on the T440s, the user can have the option of either choosing a 3-cell or a 6-cell removable battery? According to this video, the 6-cell gives great battery life - more than 10 hours.

 

No problem. Real "systems engineers" carry W520's and W530's configured to the max. (Real "systems engineers" travel heavy, are technically knowledgeable, and have great communication skills.)

 

Love the IPS screen (hope those just keep becoming more and more common), but the buttonless trackpad is a little disappointing. Some work well, and some are unusable to me. I hope the ThinkPad's trackpad is up to par.

 

Is the RAM upgradeable on T440s?
Thanks

 

Yes, there is one user-upgradable slot that can use an 8GB stick. The stock 4GB stick is soldered. Max RAM is 12GB.

 

The 6 cell with the internal 3 cell gives more than 10 hours. Not with the two 3 cells.

 

please delete

 

It'd have been nice if they had a step between 23 and 72 Whr. One capacity is too small, the other too big, when combined with the internal 23Whr.

I went to Best Buy today to look at OSX and Windows 8. I'm really convinced to get the touchscreen T440s now. It's a joy to use as an interface compared against even the best touchpads or trackpoint (in my X220). It's also the only saving grace of Windows against OSX. Lucky for Lenovo, their keyboard is the best in the world by some margin. OSX is a wonderful OS.

16:10 is still helping Apple. 1920x1200 in the 13" Retina is very good, lots of vertical space. Allayed my concern of having 1080p in the 14" screen, text was perfectly fine.

I hope the T440s pricing is competitive. Apart from the keyboard and touch, there isn't anything compelling me to Lenovo anymore.

 

There is a 47 whr 6 cell but it is the same size as the 72whr. So I guess the only difference will be in price.

 

Parts listing only shows 23.5Whr and 72Whr. I've seen the 47Whr mentioned elsewhere, but I suspect that's the total capacity of the internal and 3cell external (23.5 + 23.5).

 

Interesting....Never heard for having two extended batteries, same size but different Watt hours? But then again not familar with extended batteries. Your reasoning makes sense. I mean their option page would need to have:
3 cell 23whr
6 cell 47 whr
6 cell 72 whr

I don't think consumers want that many options.

 

Especially if the lower capacity is the same size as a higher capacity battery. No incentive besides a couple ounces I suppose.

 

I hope Lenovo will change the soldered 4GB RAM to soldered optional 8GB RAM.

 

Yeah it would only be a price difference. If it takes the same physical space why not get the max? We will know what the options are when it goes on sale in the UK. It seems it is not getting here until October

 

if this thing happened. all the new series will be a hotsell.

 

Past tense. I "carried" a W520 with 32GB RAM and not quite 2TB of storage, PLUS the extra battery. Now I do pretty much the same thing on a T430s with 16GB of RAM and the same 2TB of storage. Performance difference is negligible. What I truly miss is the extra 16GB of RAM, but the > 3# of weight loss is more than worth it.

Real "systems engineers" are also about efficiency.

 

Okay. Next?

 

OK, not to complain more - but I just looked at the new keyboard layout again and noticed that Lenovo removed the Sleep hotkey (fn-F4). What the hell, Lenovo?

Am I the only one that uses that all the time? I want the laptop to stay alive when I close the lid, so Fn-F4 lets me quickly sleep them machine to jump on a plane, throw the laptop in the car, or just be sure the damned thing sleeps and doesn't get hung up from some open network connection. Now I need to go to Start -> Shutdown -> Sleep every time?

But there's a dedicated F-key to open Control Panel? Are you sh!#ing me? And they dedicate two F-keys to Search and Explorer, because Win-F (or Ctrl-Esc) and Win-E I guess were just too hard.

OK, time for new muscle memory. Ctrl-Esc, Left arrow, Right arrow, S. Much easier than Fn-F4. Thanks Lenovo!

 

Why don't you just push the power button?

 

Honestly the thought never crossed my mind. However, even though it's set for sleep in the Control Panel settings, pressing the power button does nothing.

Holding it down for about 5 seconds forces a power off, but a quick tap seems to be ignored. I have about 35 windows open right now, so I'd rather not experiment with holding the power button any longer than a tap just to see what happens.

And I guess that's part of the answer to "Why don't you push the power button?" -- If I'm in a hurry and have got a lot going on, psychologically the last button I want to push is the one designed to erase all my work if something screws up.

 

The only reason I asked is because there are several people in this thread who seem personally offended and convinced that it's a sign of the end of ThinkPads that this doesn't have a quad core option. As a software developer myself I know full well how useful (or not) a quad core can be.

 

The Lenovo press release says end of October. I had hoped it'd at least be beginning of October. Maybe this delay is Intel driven, the Haswell MBP's aren't out yet either.

Lenovo Extends Battery Life with Thinner ThinkPad T, X and S Series Ultrabooks

 

Why don't you set your laptop to sleep once you close the screen or set the power button in the start menu to default to sleep?

 

I like being able to close the screen without the machine sleeping so I can go from office to office and get right back up and running when I open it up. This was more important before I got an SSD and more RAM though, as it could take at least a full minute to spin back up from sleep.

But yes, I can make changes to work around the omission of the quick key. It's just one more thing that I use all the time that's gone in the new design. IMHO, Lenovo had the best keyboard layout, TrackPoint implementation, lights/indicators, and expandability. All of these are now compromised in some way.

I'll still probably get either a T440s or T440p, but I'm a bit frustrated that I'm a little less efficient, comfortable, and satisfied with each new generation (e.g., the downgrade from 7-row to 6-row keyboard in going from T420 to T430). It just seems like every time I look around I find that another little something I liked was removed.

 

That reviewer is clueless.

What I noticed in the video is what looks like ventilation vents on the underside. Someone please tell me this thing doesn't require air flow from the bottom, because I sometimes use my laptop on my lap and in bed, and put it down in random places like the rug or sofa...

Photo here: T440s ThinkPad T440s Review + Vergleich mit X1 Carbon! [ACHTUNG BILDER + VIDEOS!]

 

Thinkpad always have vents on the underside. In fact lots of laptops have vents on the underside.

 

My T410s doesn't, The Macbook Air doesn't, and neither do the T420s, T430s, T430, Sony Vaio Pro 13...

 

I remember my T430s and T420s for having vents on the underside : at least one above RAM slots and one above CPU. Probably the same for non-"s" series.

 

I see vents on your T410s? http://msinetpub.vo.llnwd.net/d1/keithcombs/blog/images/t410s/T410s_bottom.jpg

Vents on T420s
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas...ebooks/ThinkPad/T-Series/gallery/T420s-8L.jpg

Vents on T430/430s
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/WW/produ...ad-T430-Laptop-PC-Bottom-View-14L-940x475.jpg

As for the other two, I am not sure but thought Macbooks have vents at the bottom at the back? But if having vents at the bottom is a concern, I think you need to find one with no vents (maybe the Macbook Air or Sony then) because lots of laptops have vents at the bottom (in addition to the main CPU vent on the side).

 

From the official Lenovo announcement:
ThinkPad T440p and T540p: Premium Business Notebooks
The T440p and T540p offer the ultimate combination of performance and mobility. Powered by up to Intel Quad Core i7 processors, the T440p and T540p offer high performance combined with mobility features. With battery life up to 13.7 hours on the T440p and up to 12.6 hours on the T540p, with the Extended Battery Pack, workflow is continuous even with the most strenuous of computing tasks.
Powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT730M graphics on select systems combined with up to 16GB SDRAM ensures high performance is always on tap. Solid State Drives (SSD) and Hard Disk Drives (HDD) up to one terabyte means storage needs are easily met. Full connectivity options including 4G/LTE along with mini-DisplayPort, VGA, 4 x USB 3.0 ports and an SD Card reader guarantee compatibility with existing accessory investments.

Pricing and Availability2
ThinkPad T440p, T540p and W540 pricing will be available closer to availability dates.
ThinkPad T440p available starting November.
ThinkPad T540p available starting November.

 

Sales rep in the UK said (as of today) 2 to 3 weeks most likely.

 

My T430s doesn't. Neither did any of the W5n0 units I had. They all go through the back and side. Another one of those functionality over form aspects that keep going by the wayside.

 

English is not my native language so I could be wrong but I think we are not talking about the same thing : you are talking about "ventilation", and NBreview and I are talking about "vents"
The T430s has vents on the underside, on the belly for at least the 2 RAM slots and the CPU. Whether these vents are passively or actively ventilated is another debate. Personnaly i think they are passive vents.

 

No, NBReview1 is right. Nearly all ThinkPads have bottom vents, including your T430s and the W-Series.

T430s: http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/13_unterseite.jpg
W510: http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/lenovo_thinkpad_w510_unten01a.jpg
W520: http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/_processed_/csm_IMG_6533_Kopie_12bdb44b52.jpg

 

t540p protoype
Bild: t540p_prototypee7sxd.jpg - abload.de

 

Yeah. The W530 bottom view:

http://www.lenovo.com/images/OneWeb...530-Laptop-PC-Bottom-View-gallery-845x475.jpg

X1 Carbon has bottom vents, too:

http://support.lenovo.com/ContentResources/images/pd027828_bottomview.jpg

 

You're right. I don't think the bottom vents are actively ventilated either.

Yup, I stand corrected.

Yup, looking at the underside of my T430s now.

 

The vents actually allow ThinkPad to support longer boost clock without overheating. These are ThinkPad that are designed to survive many situation including high temperatures. The MacBook Air is also made of aluminium which can help cool the MBA.

 

anyone able to give me insight how the t440s will perform running games? lets say league of legends to assasins creed

 

I may be wrong on the T430, but the others mentioned do not have any important vents on the bottom.

 

If you're in the US you're stuck with HD 4400 graphics which is a little bit faster than the last generation HD 4000. I'm guessing you could play LoL at low/medium settings fine, dunno about Assassin's Creed. Seems like basically you will be able to play the same games as an Ivy Bridge integrated laptop, just a little faster, whatever that entails for you.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually in the UK so hoping to get the sweet 730. Big step up from my current pavilion g4 with lowest possible settings and FPS drops to 5?

 

Why are you buying a business-grade ultrabook (T440s) to play games?