The Final Countdown: T400s or T410s

Gonna use it for websurfing, youtube and watching HD Movies/TV Shows, no gaming at all.


And I need either one of them because I am going to continue Studying in france


What made me make this topic is that do I really need an i5? or Core 2 Due is sufficient for me?


Also integrated Intel HD or Discrete ATI or Nvidia is sufficent for me? (Don't want the computer to overheat even if it's for the price of the performance)

Also, T420s is a no-no for me, because it's gonna be above my budget (which is 1100$ maximum).

P.S. as you all know, I am so gonna future-proof it!

 

I don't see a problem with core 2 duo in the foreseeable future, but my T410s is pretty sweet . I think it's probably better if you go with the i5 T410s it's a good enough jump from core 2 duo to justify the upgrade. Core 2 Duo would be fine with what your doing, but why not get something better.

 

Before the X220 got released I was all set to get a T400s or T410s. For me it was a easy decision to go for the T400s. They both have the same screens, chassis and ports. So if you don't need the extra cpu power or graphics capability, it's a no brainer to get the T400s. Battery life is simply useless (for me) in the T410s. Sounds like the T400s is the right choice for you too (my usage matches exactly what you wrote) since the 4500MHD graphics can easily hardware accelerate (decode) all HD content, and the cpu can as well if you choose to do it through software decoding.

 

I like to buy as high as my budget allows I think a t400 might work but the t410 may be easier to resell if needed to upgrade laptops you know one generation old is easier to sell than two.

If you can get a t410s with a i5 or i7 you might be more future proof and get a solid three years of use out of it.

 

I've had both. I bought a T400s from the Microsoft store when the closed them out. It was a great deal but I couldn't stand the performance of the Intel integrated GPU. Returned it for that reason and a couple of others.

Last October I bought the T410s Optimus when I received a decent EPP discount. It's a great little machine. I love the form factor, weight, etc. It's plenty powerful and runs everything I throw at it.

I would buy the T410s with confidence. Enjoy.

 

True that, but it's more like my usage versus the price, where T410s is still to expensive for my budget (Unless the new models and "possibly" the T420s is released).

We're on the same bandwagon .


It's because T400s is also cheap right now especially for a 1.5 years old Thin & Light model, which tend to be expensive and stays expensive for a while.

About the Display, I thought T410s use LED screen versus T400s using something else that's older technology (CTFL, CFLT don't really remember the abbreviation ).

Can you mention the other reasons you returned the T400s for?

I am so keen into Optimus looking at how it performs, but the main question here for you is: what's your main usage of the computer?

 

GPU performance was a significant downer on the t400s. It just felt sluggish especially considering all of the other ThinkPads I use for work. It was a significant step down from the t61p, t400, and w510 so I could really feel it when I knocked of work and used it for leisure.

The other issue was the t400s I received was supposed to have the 34mm ExpressCard slot. When it arrived, it was the stupid media card reader. That was a deal breaker.

 

Sluggish performance is unacceptable.

But, what were you working at it? I bet some heavy graphical work.

 

I have no trouble watching Blu-ray rips on my X200t with the LV Core 2 Duo and X4500. If that's the most demanding thing you're doing, then the T400s should be fine. If you want good performance, get a SSD and 4GB of memory. I'd vote for a X220 or a X20x with the AFFS mod. A good quality screen is probably a more tangible benefit than a iX CPU.

 

the T400s/T410s media card reader comes out with a single screw from the inside.   once removed, you're left with a bare expresscard/34 slot.   the card reader FRU is nothing more than an expresscard adapter with an angled bezel to match the chassis profile.

 

Blu-ray should be my Ultra-top most demanding thing to play on the laptop.


X-series in general is too small for my needs, would prefet T400s/T410s for the best of both worlds.

 

The 4500MHD easily handles bluray playback. Get the T400s. It's better in every distinguishable way for your usage.. cheaper, significantly better battery life.

 

You could get the t410si for around 750, not sure if the seller is reliable. Lenovo THINKPAD T410SI / 2901 BUSINESS NOTEBOOK INTEL:I3-330M / CI3-2.13G 2048MB / 1-D. Lenovo 2901AKU. But their rating is pretty high on resellerrating.com http://www.resellerratings.com/store/EXcaliberPC

 

i am using the T400s as my daily work laptop along with my X200. There is nothing really slow about about it if you don't game. Chuck in a decent SSD (i got the Lenovo factory 128 gig samsung) and sufficient ram, i don't see why one would feel sluggish at all for the kind of usage you are talking about.

Finally, if you need more graphics performance get a DIY vidock.

 

Seems closest choice right now, but a basic MBP 13" entered the competition with T400s. (OS X looks awesome and something refreshing than ol' Windows OS)

Read the first page of the seller, almost a quarter of them gave it 1 out of 5, gotta be careful from such sellers, and to be here, I prefer buying expensive and big stuff like computers and beyond from a store or the company that produce the product itself.

 

It support SSD? didn't know about that.


And doubt I would even need a docking, except in rare and exceptional situations which I Don't know when.

 

We don't allow OS X on a PC discussion here. Please keep it mind.

 

Ok boss.

 

I do a lot more then that and my low voltage core 2 duo handles it without breaking a sweat.

 

I wish I had known that then. I'm usually pretty paranoid about cracking the case until after the return period is up, and the machine is really a keeper.

As far as I am concerned, the T410s is superior to the T400s but if you can get a new T400s for 600-750, it seems like a prudent move. Good luck.

 

I removed the screw holding the card reader in the expresscard slot on my T400s, so i can easily switch between the card reader adapter and the express card adapter for my DIY Vidock.

 

Going on from this. I'm going to mention that although many people don't realize, the screen is the most important feature/upgrade on your laptop. I highly recommending locating/ordering a T400s/T410s with the WXGA+ 1440x900 screen (not a WXGA 1280x800 screen), if you do get a T400s/T410s. It's a lot better for basically anything, including Websurfing because you won't be scrolling all the time.

About the Core 2 Duo vs Core i-series, I switched from an i7 dual-core laptop to this precision M4400 in order to get a 16:10 screen, and I haven't noticed too much of a performance decrease. C2D should be fine, especially for light usage.

 

^^^ True. However, "good quality" means more than pixel density. The T410/T410s WXGA+ panels are particularly better. (The T510/W510 FHD 1920x1080 panels are quite good.)

These days, the "interface" is predominantly visual. The user sees/reads/watches what's on the screen (while clicking and scrolling) more often than typing.

 

Screen resolution is no.1 priority to me in choosing any Laptop along with the build quality.

Also been doing some reading on the i Core (specifically i5 and i7), and they seem that those are good for lots of multitasking load and work, as for light use you won't use much of their "true" performance.

Good to read such positive experience.

That's the price I am looking for in a T400s, but no hurry now since my top priority is continuing to study in France.

True, especially for leisure where you won't right much except for writing websites and sentences/words in google.

 

Dude, just buy something already.

 

Take your time and buy your perfect laptop, especially if you are on a limited budget When I decided I will buy laptop it took me months to finally pull the trigger and it was well worth it even despite the fact that my initial laptop was a lemon because I got well spec'd machine with good warranty for very cheap.
But remember to future proof it if youre that kind of person whos not sure what will happen to his laptop in year or two.

 

Did t4x0s ever came in the wxga resolution?

 

No, they all use either a TMD or Samsung WXGA+ screen.

 

I know you asked for t400s vs t410s, but have you considered the x301? I heard it was the best ThinkPad ever made.

 

Never.

Oh well.

That's what I am doing right now.

And your case remind me of the Asus g73 where I keep reading horror stories about (Budget gaming laptop with awesome specs).

Thats quite old.

Though similar speced to the T400s apart from the screen size.

Gonna give a look at it, thanks for mentioning it (When I thought there wasn't any 13-inch Thinkpad).

 

No point getting the x301 now. Since these cost more than the t400s and there is no expresscard slot for the DIY vidock setup.

 

And 14-inch is a plus.


Gonna end up replacing my non-trusty Toshiba Satellite A200-1GB HDD with a Low Storage, cheap HDD since the latter malfunctioned, and gonna buy a non-geniune Windows Vista since my recovery disc is scratched from the age battle.


By next year I am buy either a new release of Lenovo or Apple.


Hopefully Lenovo build quality will remain the same or even gets better by then (and no glossy finish on Thinkpad).

 

What's the battery life in hours of the T410 (9 cell) during very heavy usage?

 

I have not tested heavy usage, but when its loaded then probably around two hours, if you stress it to the max.
If you watch movies then around 2 movies should be achievable, depending on screen brightness and movie lenght.

 

Thanks for the reply.

It buffles me that the new X220 with the battery slice you could get b/w 15 - 20 hrs while you get 2-3hrs with the T410

 

Under heavy usage? Where do you see a review that indicates under heavy usage they are seeing that kind of battery life?

How are you defining heavy usage?

 

I doubt X220 will exceed 4-4.5 hours of heavy use with 9 cell battery from total 15h claimed at best while 6-9 hours with 9 cell and slice combined.

 

Realistically speaking, if I project from my present experience with the X201, the X220 doing "ordinary" work may last 7 hours with a 6-cell, or 10 hours with a 9-cell. Now, if you add the slice, the total may be around 14 hours and 17 hours, respectively.

If you turn off WiFi and dim the screen just enough to work on documents (gosh, a $2000 mobile IPS typewriter!), you may get an hour more.

 

But if that is so, then it is roughly comparable to the X201 in which case aside from the IPS and the ability to slap on a battery slice, what is the difference?

Edit: Are you saying that the X201 with a 9-cell battery gets less than 4-5 hrs?

 

Seems to be going a bit off topic, I thought the OP was only interested in T400s vs. T410s.

@ Pochi, it seems the most demanding thing you'll be doing is watching HD movies, which the T400s can easily handle. So since you're on a budget, I'd say just get the T400s. As for concerns about future proofing, computers nowadays have much more horsepower than the average non-gamer will need. I have a T410s with an i5-560 CPU, but haven't transitioned to it and still regularly use my old HP DV1000 which has a 1.8GHz Pentium M CPU. I don't watch any HD movies on the computer, but I will usually have multiple Firefox tabs open, multiple Excel spreadsheets and Corel WordPerfect running. I recently installed RM Clock on the HP, and discovered that the CPU pretty much just lopes along at 0.6 GHz (the lowest speed for the CPU). It only occasionally cranks up to 1.2GHz for a second or two and rarely gets to 1.8GHz. So, if a 6 year old single core CPU can handle this usage while idling at minimum speed, I'm sure the C2D in the T400s will have no problem with your usage for now and for the next several years.

 

If I am buying a computer right now then it's a T400s for sure, but most likely I'll give it a year of waiting and see what apple has in mind for MBP 2012.

Still though, Thinkpads have a weird magic that sucks me into their bandwagon, gonna look again into the market and check for good deals.

 

Im just thinking about real life battery numbers when doing heavy tasks and not just have internet open and some word documents open, its nothing serious. I might be off by hour or two for X220 given that current X201 might handle heavy tasks in the numbers I mentioned (4-4.5h). Im basing my opinion on my T410s battery life and Lenovo's claimed battery life numbers on upcoming X/T series. If T410 was supposed to have 7-9h battery life then on load its more like 2-3 hours, its 3 times less than what Lenovo claims in best case scenario if doing some heavy lifting. I dont see reason why it should be any different with new ThinkPads.
It all depends on battery, model and load on cpu/gpu.

 

So, what is the advertised (by Lenovo) battery time on a X201 9-cell?

And, what is the real-life (average) experience of X201 (9-cell) users?

PS: This is seriously off topic.

I'd recommend the T410s.

 

Hehe.