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

Seriously...they have already missed (or are very close to missing) the key Back to School buying season. This seems like it would be a great college laptop - except that it doesn't have an Apple logo on it. ;-)

I like what I see, though I'm still ticked about the lack of TrackPoint buttons. I'm still waiting to hear the specs on the T440 (non-"s" version). I mostly want them to announce the T440s so the leaks on the T440 can start! :-D

I'm holding out small hope that there will be at least a little re-engineering of the abysmal user experience on the faux buttons for TrackPoint. Please please please...

 

Me too... the T431s and T440s models are too compromised for me spec-wise so I'm curious if the T440 (and T440p perhaps?!) offer the same configuration options as the T430 (more RAM, mSATA, discrete GPU, ultrabay) with the more modern case design of the T440s.

I was about to buy a T430s but am happy to hold off for a month to get the new design and better battery life in a T440, and I'd be even happier to have the option of a quad-core T440p with better GPU.

 

I don't think T440/T440p or any full-voltage haswell thinkpads would be announced before October, not until macbook pro haswell show up.

 

Sadly I agree with you. Given the slow roll-out of the T440s, I just don't see more models coming out before October at the soonest, and who knows how long until mass availability and decent shipping times.

I just bought an 840 Pro SSD for my T430 to carry me through. I would have bought a new system if the full T440 line was available, but I'll hold off now until Q4.

 

Thanks, didn't know the T431s had the same speaker design. One review says they're acceptable for a business laptop, another says they're quite good. I'm assuming they tested with the laptop on a desk, so that leaves the question of the sound when on a lap or in bed...

 

I looked at some other threads and the situation looks really bad. M.2 42 mm aka NGFF SSDs don't yet exist in capacities larger than 64 GB, and the format doesn't have much momentum yet, so a true dual-drive T440s isn't feasible yet

 

I just stumbled across this Lenovo launch slide in a youtube clip - it shows the screen options for the T440s and x240s. Doesn't seem to tally with what I've seen elsewhere though. Perhaps it's inaccurate - just posting for info. S

 

I had actually ordered a T431s to evaluate the design being that the T440s would share the same shell. And in my opinion, I felt that the speakers were quite good. You won't get killer bass of course, but the sound clarity and volume levels were very very good. Using it in your lap or on a desk did not matter or change the sound reproduction in my time with it. I used it for about a week.

 

Lenovo started selling the T440s recently in Japan (Corporate customers only at the moment): Google Übersetzer

 

I'll second that remark, it's the only reason I'm holding out for my next laptop. I'd pay an irrational amount of money for a device that will last me years to come.

 

Make sure you check out 600x's thread on using customized profiles with Dolby's Home Theater 4.0 drivers to boost volume and bass ( see thread here). It (or something similar) should also work on the T440s, since it's also DHT 4.0 compatible.

I haven't tried it yet, but the feedback has been phenomenal (and thanks to 600x, who's somewhere in this thread, for putting the link to it in his signature!). I was excited to learn that the T430 can use the Home Theater drivers, even though the specs claim to only support Dolby Advanced Audio 2.0.

I know these are business laptops, but I do play an occasional session of Path of Exile. I was a little sad (but not surprised) to see that the sound specs didn't change at all on the T440s, and wish there was decent 5.1 output from the docking station.

I'm looking forward to trying his tips to see whether the stereo out gets a significant boost on the 430.

 

yes this sucks. why did they choose m.2 over pcie ssd anyway?

 

Because M.2 isn´t the format for the main drive (the T440s has a full-size 2.5" SATA 3 Port for SSDs and HDDs). The M.2 ports are used for the wirelesscards (much like mPCIe before), such as the WWAN cards and the WLAN cards. The cache SSDs Lenovo offers are just optional for non-WWAN models, which come with an HDDs.

 

so, no fhd ips for T440s...
Too bad

 

Gigabyte P34G just completely replaced this machine for me. Now just have to be patient.

 

i boot from an msata in the mpcie slot which gives me space for 2 full size 2.5 inch drives in my t420. seems like a step backward for people who want to use the port in this way; i was going to get an x240 thinking i could have a decent capacity m.2 to use as a primary drive, but if i can't get two good sized drives in it i won't.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't go for anything with less than 2TB of max possible storage. I can't believe some people are still ok with 128/256Gb. There's nothing preventing vendors from landing 4xmSata or 4xPCIe slots, even in an ultrabook. There are 15" laptops with 2xmSata + 2x2.5" + Optical drive - up to 4TB!

 

I can't believe some people are still ok with spinners. I've got 2 x 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD's + 1 x 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD in my W520. Cool and fast terabytes. (Can't pass up a chance to brag.)

 

Hey, thanks for this. After reading the messages from you, Aikimox, and Kaso I changed my order from a Samsung 840 Pro to a Plextor M5M mSATA for my T430. I didn't even know this was an option, and it was totally off my radar. I agonized over losing the performance of SATA3 vs. the SATA2 in the msata port, but ultimately decided that (a) I wouldn't notice it too much in real-world performance, (b) it would be easier to keep my stock HDD in the existing 7mm spot vs. getting an Ultrabay adapter for it, (c) it ended up being $30 cheaper, and (d) anything would be far better than my current spinning disc.

Looking forward to my upgrade, thanks again!

(sorry all for being off-topic on the T440s)

 

What's a spinner ?

 

Spinner = HDD

 

This shows what Lenovo could have done!

I wonder what the max external monitor resolution is over HDMI on the Gigabyte? I prefer DP, but so few laptops have it...

 

2 TB in a laptop? What do you have on there? Even my video editing rig doesn't have that much storage - I back things up when I'm done.

 

Virtual machines in my instance. About a terabyte's worth. Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Linux (SLES, RHEL), etc. Multiple, variant configurations for multiple generations of ECM and BPM software platforms I specialize in.

 

If you're that serious about VMs, why aren't you using a workstation with multiple HDD bays and 32 GB RAM?

 

100% I'm only using spinners for storage (ISOs, movies, music, backup, etc). Main system drive should always be a ssd.

Everything! Plus dual boot. My wife's W510 got 1.5TB and she's scratching the limit . And yes, we have an offline backup as well. It's just so convenient to have everything on your mobile system.

 

Interesting how no one is comparing this to the MacBook retinas. To me, what good is this FHD display if you still can't increase the clarity of the UI. You guys enjoy interacting with tiny UI or am I missing something?

The FHD 14" display is around 153 PPI. The MacBooks have around 220 PPI.

 

Heh. At least for this old abused ThinkPad owner, when it comes to display I have veeery low expectations. "Is vertical resolution > 768? Great! FHD?? Wow, is it Christmas?!"

The day Lenovo goes to "Retina" displays is when Apple is shipping native 4K on the iPhone.

 

Windows 8.1 has greatly improved UI scaling and I think the RTM is due in September, which should coincide (if not predate) the T440s' launch.

Also the rMBPs have ghetto scaling - everything is just scaled 4x. That's easy for Apple to do because they have 100% vertical integration. MS can't take that easy way out with Windows because they have to deal with a huge array of form factors and resolutions.

Digital packrats

 

Yeah. All them MKV and MP4 movies, typically 3GB each, off the torrents. Why someone wants to drag hundreds of them around in a notebook is beyond me.

 

Nah, Macbooks overheat, software lags behind, and there's a lot of performance issues whith retina screens. I had a rMBP and didn't like how choppy was scrolling of web pages, pdfs, etc. There was also a very noticeable screen tearing. Also, MBPs lack some very important features and ports (no RJ45, no expresscard, etc).

Or a bunch of 30GB+ bluray movies

 

I happen to watch super-high-quality Bluray movies in the comfort of my basement entertainment room, with proper screen and surround-sound speakers.

 

Comparing this to MBPr is rather pointless: anyone who wanted MBPr already got one. For many MBPr is just not an option, whatever the screen dpi it might have.

Btw. a large percentage of Windows desktop applications work fine with 125-150% scaling even in the existing Windows 7 / Windows 8. W530 FHD even comes from factory with 125% scaling as default in Windows. In Windows 8.1 it's going to get even better, because the major annoyance is finally addressed: it is possible to have different scaling settings on different monitors, 100% on large externals, and 125%+ on the tiny laptop screen.

 

< Co-rrect. It's very handy. Doing it now with Win 8.1 RP.

 

How are you liking 8.1? Were you a fan of Win8 before upgrading? Pros/Cons vs. Win7?

Does it make the the touch screen a worthwhile add for a T440s purchase, or would the multi-touch TrackPad be good enough (ugh, I hate trackpads, but can see the value for charms and certain multitouch swipes).

 

I've been on Win 8 since the Consumer Release, then went to the Release Preview, then got the deal for $14.99 to upgrade to Win8 Pro x64 when it came out. Most people's heartburn is with Metro, but that was easily circumvented and now, with 8.1, you can go straight to your desktop if you want to (which I have all along).

That being said, two points: 1) Win 8 boots and does file I/O much faster than Win7, 2) keep track of how many keystrokes or mouse clicks it takes you to do something in Win 7 and what you will find is that it is the same or less in Win 8.

If you get a touch screen then you may find, as I did, you do a lot of stuff on the 'Net in Metro, most of your heads down, "work" type stuff on the desktop with your apps.

Any downside would be drivers, but with a mainstream manufacture isn't an issue.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, B

 

looks quite good. i might wait to see what the t440 is like, but i'm not sure there's much to keep me with thinkpad anymore since i don't use the trackpoint.

cool

 

Lenovo has already released quad-core Haswell Y-series gaming machines (Y410p and Y510p) so hopefully it won't be that long for a T-series version

 

Yea this makes me excited . I wonder if they will do a quad core option for the t440? A lot of people had to put quad cores in t430 themselves which never caused any heat problems but voided the warranty!

 

I just want the T440 to have user upgrade-able parts, at least 16gb RAM limit, around 4 lbs. weight, a good screen - it does not have to be IPS. As for quad-core, it would be nice but not a huge requirement, at least for me. As long as there is a full powered CPU option, that'll be great. Then it would be nice.

 

You're going to be disappointed then!

S

 

Why? I expect the regular T440 to have 2 accessible DIMM slots just like the T430. Yes, the recent 's' versions have one soldered stick of RAM, but that IMO is the price you pay for needing a thinner, lighter machine. I would be surprised if Lenovo turned its back on its core business market for Thinkpads by cutting such a basic upgrade feature in the regular versions

 

Would there be any way to make the T440s weigh less than the advertised weight by removing/replacing components? All I would like is a 14 inch equivalent of the x230 (I am looking at the X1 Carbon but its not using the new Haswell chip yet).

 

Will there be any sort of IPS? I am confused I thought there was. I think FHD is the 1900 x __ version? I don't care if it is the 1600 x__ version. I just wanted the greater viewing angles of IPS.

 

An FHD (1920x1080) IPS screen is listed as a feature on the Israeli Lenovo teaser site for the T440s, so I assume they'll be available eventually in all countries for all the T440 series (s and non-s). But ultimately I'll only believe it when I see it listed as an actual option when configuring a machine to buy.

Interestingly, the same site suggests even HD+ screens will be IPS, but the text is rather confusing: "In-Plane Switching (IPS) FHD or HD+ (1920 x 1080 resolution) LCD displays with high brightness."

 

It is weird. But the Asian website in post #407 of this thread shows no IPS option....

 

Huh. Weird indeed. Both the Israeli and Finnish Lenovo sites show the option:

ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook Laptop | Lenovo (IL)
ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook Laptop | Lenovo (FI)

 

T440s prebuilds with prices from Lenovo HK
FHD IPS present

 

and prebuilds from EU resellers
ThinkPad T440s 20AQS00500 20AQS00600
Notebooks (Lenovo), Lenovo Notebooks (Campus), Lenovo Thinkpad T440s Serie - LapStore.de - Notebooks, Tablets, PCs und Zubehör

Lenovo ThinkPad T440s - 20AQS00600 - Campus (Notebooks (Lenovo), Lenovo Notebooks (Campus), Lenovo Thinkpad T440s Serie) - LapStore.de - Notebooks, Tablets, PCs und Zubehör model with Premium FHD

already posted here before: http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...-website-ips-screen-1080p-23.html#post9294629

 

I hope so because I gave up on the T431s for this. Although I'd buy the T440s over the T431s because it has 3 usbs instead of 2 and hopefully better battery life. So I have no choice I am at the mercy of Lenovo. Whenever it comes out I may have to be the first in line reviews or not.