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

Took some pictures while getting the base cover off to install the SSD:
https://plus.google.com/photos/117436154327433424940/albums/5958446209463702609

 

i already explained that to Robisan two posts above yours, did you miss the post?

 

Thanks for these. I was just going to ask about it. It appears Lenovo got rid of the easy access covers for RAM and HDD. That's disappointing as it was one of the reasons I purchased Thinkpads. Is the cover full of fragile plastic clips that are easily broken? Was it easy to remove?

 

@droyder @phamhlam I see. Any inventory carry above zero is bad business practice, regardless of product success, market demand or expected market life of the product. Period. No exceptions. That certainly explains why Apple is a failed company...

 

Thanks for these. They're the best ones I've seen so far. I couldn't really tell for sure from the pictures, but are there small "teeth" on the base cover that catch on? When you're prying it, did you just pry up or was it up-and-out?

 

Yes, the teeth are on the base cover. I forgot to take a picture of them. On picture 5 you can see the holes that the teeth go into. 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. Mine were cheap and were quickly wearing out during the procedure. You can even see some green chips of plastic in pictures 4 and 11 -- there was more but I wiped it off before taking the shot.

Picture 12 shows what seems to be a crack in the base cover that has been filled using some brown thing to fix it. Interesting.

 

I can confirm ibmthink's reponse here. I just got off the phone with a Lenovo post-sales rep and she informed me that my laptop shipment was getting delayed since they are running short on a part. Upon querying which part, she told me it was the base cover of the laptop. So there you go...probably the most low-tech component of the laptop is holding it up!

Ninja edit: Also explains y.a.k's broken/cracked base cover here: https://plus.google.com/photos/1174...5958446292066805266&oid=117436154327433424940

 

Maybe this fire? It could explain the shortage of the 8gb ram modules?

 

whatever's allegedly in short supply, it's a total snafu on Lenovo's part. I just got a second email from them telling me I might not get my laptop before the holidays but that they'd try their hardest and potentially give me 5% off. At least they're communicating, even if that communication gives me absolutely no clue when I might get my machine

 

I too got the 5% off email, for the second time even after cancelling my order.
Did anyone else here also cancel the order? If so, how long did it take to get the confirmation email from Lenovo? They didn`t keep putting the value on hold after did they?

 

If they actually cancelled your order, you should get a confirmation after 2 business days. If you hadn't gotten one for more than 3 business days, then I would call them again. The first order I cancelled, the rep actually emailed me saying he put the request in. I didn't receive a confirmation, so I emailed him after 3 days and got no reply. It was only after I cancelled my second order and received a confirmation that I called in to ask about my first cancellation. Turned out it was still active and due to ship that day. But it got delayed, so I did receive a cancellation confirmation 2 days later. However, I still received 2 of the 5% off emails for it even after the confirmation, so they're stilled screwed up somewhere.

 

I got my T440s today morning, after 6 days from the ship date. I'm really impressed, the screen is superb. The audio quality is also very good. I'm in love with the keyboard. At first I didn't notice any backlight bleed, but later in the night I noticed some during boot up when the lenovo logo comes up, but once windows is on I didn't notice any backlight bleeding. Also, I was a little worried about the clickpad; its not noisy at all and is rather really good. (Although physical buttons would be better any day)

If only the screen to go back 360 degrees, it would have been perfect!

 

Thanks for update and its nice to hear some positive reviews coming in from some people who have just recieved their systems today and yesterday... maybe Lenovo has fixed some issues with this last batch. Gives me some faith mine will be ok too (shipped 12/16 at 7am, but still showing only Label generated.)

Mephistopheles, where abouts do you live that it took 6 days from ship date?

 

Am I reading correctly that all the 440s models have two 3-cell batteries and with both combined I should, in theory, get 12 hours of life according to Lenovo's estimates? I realize real world would most likely be 8-9 but that seems really good.

 

Ordered on 11/26; original ship date pushed to 12/17 and then 12/25. Got two of the 5% emails.

 

My order just got postponed for the fourth time, by only an extra day this time, until January 2nd. I ordered on Black Friday. The longer it is delayed the better; maybe they will get their act together and fix some of the problems by then.

 

My thoughts exactly.

I also noticed later on that there is some very little backlight bleeding during boot up. Not an issue for me.

I managed to fix my clickpad by inserting a pry tool above it and sliding left and right couple of times. Now it's working fine but yeah, dedicated buttons were better. Maybe I'll get used to it.

When not using the trackpoint, the clickpad is very nice -- roomy and smooth. You can tap to left click without causing it to recess and only press it in the corner from time to time, for right click. That's how I use it.

 

The T440s has a built-in 3-cell and a removable 3-cell or 6-cell. Lenovo's 6 hours estimate is for 3+3, not for each separately. Good news is that it's what people are actually seeing in real life. If you need more, you can get the 3+6 setup.

 

Well, to add one more opinion to the delivery drama:

Ordered from the german Lenovo Webshop on 11/22, it took one week for the money to arrive (!) on 11/29 and since then the order is "in Bearbeitung" / being worked on. It seems that german customers don't see an estimated delivery date at all, only the hotline has that information. For my T440s the estimated delivery date is 1/10 in 2014... so 6 weeks instead of the promised 1-2 weeks when I ordered...

Machine configuration for the statistics:

Produktname: ThinkPad T440s

 - Intel Core i5-4300U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.90GHz)
 - Windows  8 64
 - Windows 8 64 MUI EMEA WE (EN FR GR IT NL)
 - T440s 14.0 FHD WWAN
 - NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M 1GB
 - 12G 4G Base + 8G (1 SoDIMM)
 - Tastatur mit Hintergrundbeleuchtung, Deutsch
 - Fingerprint Reader, no-dock
 - 720p HD Camera
 - 1TB-Festplattenlaufwerk, 5.400 U/min
 - ThinkPad Battery 3 cell Li-Polymer (23.2Whr)
 - ThinkPad Battery 3 cell Li-Polymer (23.2Whr)
 - 65W Slim AC Adapter - EU
 - Intel 7260 Bluetooth
 - Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
 - Veröffentlichung – WE (FR/GE/IT/DU/EN)
 - 3 Year On-site

I haven't received any email regarding a 5% refund, but opened up a ticket regarding that matter on the hotline yesterday. They promised to get back to me after looking into the case.

I hope that at least the 10th January date is accurate and that is doesn't take even longer. Definitly the first and last time I ever ordered something directly directly from Lenovo.

:thumbdown:

 

After two 5% off emails, I got another delay email this morning, said it won't be shipping today and they will update the ship date on the order page, which they haven't done yet. Doesn't look like it will be here by the 25th now so I guess I'll be getting 5% off.

 

I didn't need a Christmas computer so I am happy to get 5% off. Money saved to wait two weeks longer for a laptop I will have for years. I wish people would recognize that since the day the T440s came out up until Black Friday week the estimated ship date was about 23 days. Suddenly during Black Friday week it dropped to 10 days (at the busy buying season). I didn't believe it. I prepared myself for a "delay." Not telling anyone to get over it but just know that like a week before everyone ordered the estimated ship days was over 21 days. This delay may not be out the norm. So unless it was a Christmas gift for someone else and not your self try to think positively. If it were an emergency there has to be a backup laptop.

Let's hope that there is a delay to "Fix" common problems or to do an extra quality check. However, I just don't see them really learning about the T440s problems as 1) so many people still don't have one despite the complaints on here. Still not enough.

 

They should give you 10% off then, tsc.

 

My T440s order from 12/9, that shipped this Monday 12/16, just left China today (9pm their time). ETA is tomorrow 12/19 by Noon PST. Fingers crossed.

 

Ok, now you're just bragging. Let us know what it's like when you get it, preferably with pictures, so that those of us less favored by the gods of Lenovo fulfillment can get a little vicarious enjoyment.

 

Haha, I wish it worked like that since I've gotten 4 of those emails, 2 of them for an order that was cancelled a week ago.

 

You call it bragging, I call it keeping my fellow T440s laptop community informed of order logistics... potato tomato

I will most definitely post my initial impressions on the machine, specifically the ones people have reported issues with, and will post some pics as soon as time allows.

 

I also got the delay email a few times with last one saying an ETA of Jan 4th, so I cancelled and grabbed a refurb latitude e7440 from dell outlet which was shipped right away. It's a very nice machine with size and weight similar to T440s (with independent right and left touchpad bottoms - yay!). I paid $820 plus tax for one with 1080p ips display, i7-4600 with vPro, 8GB memory (upgraded to 16GB), 512GB mSATA SSD and dual-band intel 7260 802.11ac/a/b/g/n wireless card) and it comes standard with 3-year warranty. I highly recommend anyone waiting for a T440s to take a look at E7440 as well. They have a 25% discount promo for their business outlet laptops running till the 20th.

 

When I talked to Lenovo last to get the price match, they said orders are shipping by UPS Express this time of the year to guarantee delivery by Christmas. My notebook shipped this morning around 6am and is scheduled to be delivered by no later than 12pm tomorrow. 36hours from being picked up in Shanghai to being delivered in Chicago is unbelievable. Good on Lenovo for doing this at no cost to customers.

 

They did the same for me. Mine is arriving tomorrow by Noon (assuming UPS isnt behind schedule.)

 

I almost pulled the trigger on a similarly loaded e7440 in the Dell Outlet with the coupon as well (total was $840 for one with a 256GB SSD and 16B memory. I passed on it because I found out it has the same soft touch palm rest as my work Latitude e6430 which bugs the ever-loving snot out of me. Someone who has the e6430 and the e7440 also confirmed with me the keyboard was worse on the e7440 than the e6430, and I find the e6430 barely acceptable.

The 3 year warranty doesnt bother me much as I go through laptops every 2 years, and my credit card automatically extends the 1 year warranty, plus I bought the 1 year on-site warranty upgrade.

I ended up paying about $200 more for the fully loaded T440s, and hoping I will be much happier with it. Fingers crossed!

 

Haha... I hear you!

I've always hated with a passion those icky, cheap-looking soft-touch/silicone coatings that Dell and HP insist on slathering on even their high-end laptops. It feels awful, is awful to keep clean and within a few months also looks awful. It just smacks of a cheap way to cover up cheap plastic on an expensive computer.

 

I can't understand how anyone likes that... your hands dont slide naturally over the palm rest when typing. And especially with me having so much arm hair, its painful, haha.

Oh, and I also heard the the 1080p FHD Non-Touch on the e7440 is not the greatest and actually has some sparkle/screen door effect on whites. I decided to stay far away from even trying.

 

I ordered mine from Lenovo Germany on 11/18, money transfer went through on 11/22, laptop shipped on 12/10 and arrved on 12/17, typing on it right now. Still longer than "1-2 weeks" but acceptable I think.

Only slightly different configuration: i7, 500 GB HDD, Smart-card reader and Win 8 Pro.
I got a 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO from amazon.de.

Was also irritated that here in Europe (it's not just Germany) we don't get estimated ship dates. Didn't know you can call in. I was refreshing the page several times a day always expecting to see the same "in Bearbeitung". Imagine my happiness when one time I saw "Bestellung abgeschlossen" (order completed) instead.

Good luck with yours!

 

Are you saying you only paid around $1,000 for a fully loaded T440s? How did you manage that?

 

It was $1100 and change, but not fully loaded... so I apologize for being misleading. I ended up going baseline on hard Drive and memory and Im upgrading those on my own.

 

Ok, that makes me feel better. Thought I missed some amazing deal or something.

 

Well you say not cost to customers. But that probably costs less than the 5% promise they are making to get it before CHristmas. So...
At this point I will take the 5% saving instead but thankful either way.

 

Even on a $1500 configuration 5% is only $75. I'm sure that UPS Express internationally would cost much more than that even for a large customer like Lenovo. That service is $300+ for a retail customer from China.

PS: I too would have preferred another 5% discount over receiving by the end of the year.

 

I got an idea. Why dont you send me your laptop and I will send you mine whenever it reaches me in 2014 + 5% of whatever you paid for yours

 

Wow, my order status just changed to shipped via UPS on their site. No tracking number though. This after four 5% off emails and the "your order has been delayed" email earlier today. Estimated delivery date is the 23rd.

 

And my order gets delayed another week to ship on January 10... this is seriously screwed up. Ugh. Almost 2 months after ordering.

Edit:

Went to call Lenovo but the after sales centre was closed. How does a company of this magnitude not have a 24hr call center! Talking to a sales rep via online chat. Hopefully something comes out of this...

 

After my second 5% off email and a further "we're not gonna get it to you by the holidays" apology, my ship date shifted forward by one day and my arrival date by two. Normally I'd say this is good news, but in the mean time I planned a trip out of town (having given up hope of my shipping date improving) and will now not be here on the new estimated delivery date or five days prior, so if it is brought forward any more I'm screwed!

Lenovo really is being a pain in the rear with its utterly shambolic shipping estimates. Please just pick a new date and stick with it Lenovo! Quit with this constant moving around

 

Moments like these I wish I was more of an OSX kinda guy...

 

Even worse when you're an OSX guy and are forced to use Windows. If only Windows wasn't such a shiz experience on Macs..

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

They rake in the bucks and the orders no matter what, and they know it, that's why.

High quality product (mostly and opinions vary) that has been around for many many years.

Followers, believers, forums with threads dedicated to them........

*duh

 

Drinking some Wine might help. At least you would need to fire up the Win less often.

 

Tracking info was added now. UPS tracking says it will actually be delivered tomorrow, but I noticed this message in it:
"The service selected is not available to the destination address. / Downgraded, forwarded to consignee, selected service is not available."

I guess that means UPS express isn't available here?

It is also set as signature required, so if you won't be home you have to make other arrangements to get delivery.

 

It is weird how Lenovo still authorizes charges even before the laptop ships. My last ship date was to be the 16th. Checked my credit card and there is an authorization blip from Lenovo from the 17th. I assume it will drop in a few days like it for the very first/original ship date.

 

Same here. My credit card had a hold until yesterday and now its dropped again. My last ship date was 16th and now its 25th. Original order date 25th November.