ThinkPad T440p HMM and Userguide posted

Yesterday, the HMM and the Userguide of the T440p has been posted:

HMM: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t440p_hmm_en_sp40a25467.pdf

Userguide: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t440p_ug_en.pdf

I think it is a very interesting new construction. This year brings the first generation that is completly independent from the T60-Gen construction.

 

Nice find. Ultrabay and two DIMM slots are good. Not so good is that the M.2 drive is "for caching only". Is that a BIOS restriction or just a reflection of the fact that no large capacity 42mm M.2 drives are available yet?

 

That means Lenovo only sells them with Cache SSDs, it does not mean that you can use no normal storage SSDs

 

Here are some important info for people.
1) There is an Ultrabay.
2) The bottom cover only has two screws holding it in place.
3) There appears to be NO DGPU....WAIT , I see there is Nvidia Optimus support so we will definitely see a model with a Nvidia GPU.
4) The speaker seems to be huge. The holes are located at the bottom front of the laptop. (under the trackpad)
5) The screen bezel might be thin.
6) It appears Lenovo is using dual exhaust like the L430.
7) FHD is the max res.
8) Backlight keyboard.
9) It appears the laptop can dissipate 135W of heat. I wouldn't be surprise if it will have a i7-4700HQ or hopefully an i7-4750HQ with Iris Pro 5200

 

There is an indicator light for camera on/off beside the camera.

 

I can't believe what I'm seeing--you have to remove the bottom cover and then take out an additional screw to change the UltraBay device? Goodbye, hot swap. Goodbye, easy switch between storage and optical. Good bye, additional battery capacity. Goodbye, easy switch to travel bezel for reduced weight.

Why are they still calling this Serial Ultrabay Enhanced? Since it's no longer easily removable, they need a new moniker to prevent confusion. I propose Serial Ultrabay Gimped.

Yes, I know it doesn't matter to some, and putting money into an eject mechanism would be anathema to the goal of selling more simple, cheap machines than the other manufacturers. From the perspective of profit at the expense of everything else, they could be right. But in my opinion, they've throw out every last attribute of what made ThinkPads nice machines in their race to the top this generation.

I think it's over between us, ThinkPad. Our irreconcilable differences are overwhelmingly obvious. I appreciate that you made your changes rapidly and let me know where you're going rather than leading me on and encouraging futile hope for our future.

 

You can just leave out the screw and remove it easily. Thats something I did with my L520. Unless you don´t drop the ThinkPad, the UltraBay module sits save. But true, it is not as easy as before...

These should be still options, but the question is: How often do you change these? Most people today don´t need an ODD, so if you want to switch out the ODD, you will likely do this one time and then leave the 2. HDD inside the system. If you want to use the ODD one or two times a year, that would be okay.

This option was gone long time ago.

 

Anyone confirm this thing will have quad core CPU?

 

I change these at least weekly, and usually more often. Especially between additional storage, travel bezel, and battery. The optical drive goes in every few months.

This is a misleading statement that I would expect from an apologist. The battery option exists in the current generation (T430s). One can try to twist things and say that the T440p is a successor to the T430 and thus it didn't "lose" the battery option, but in truth it's just as much a successor to the T430s--the T440p is the only 14" T-series machine with full voltage processors and an UltraBay (the interface, at least). A lot of current T4x0s owners will be looking at the T440p rather than T440s due to its lack of RAM options, lack of UltraBay, lack of full voltage processors, etc.

I realize "most people" don't use these options, and since Lenovo can save 7¢ per machine by excluding them, they're apparently taking that option. However, for the 2%-5% of users who make use of these things, it's a big deal. Lenovo's made it really clear that they're not making computers for people who appreciate and make use of nice things, and I get it. I just liked their old ethos so much that I need to vent about it a bit before I go, and hopefully like-minded people will find sympathy and catharsis in reading this.

 

I'd be glad if there was the ultrabay battery option too. What if I don't use optical drive at all and one hdd is enough for me, I get to carry a useless space, making the notebook even thicker. Also, when I want to get a bigger battery I need to have that extended one with an edge outside the notebook. It would be much neater with that ultrabay battery. I'd look for another thinkpad, but that's the only one 14` with full voltage processors and FHD :/

Haswell T430s with IPS FHD would be so awesome.

 

Totally agree... the beauty of the ultrabay is that it WAS hot-swappable. No more.

It still has some utility, but attaching the word "ultra" or "enhanced" to what is now simply a plain old removable drive enclosure is just silly.

 

So is this new version of the ultrabay not hot-swappable? I guess if you have to remove the back then the machine must be powered down.

Seriously, what was Lenovo thinking? Must they cripple every new model they come out with in exchange for giving us nice displays?

 

The drive is still hot-swappable. As I said, you can leave the screw out, and just take the UltraBay modul out. You wont have to shut down to change the drive if there is no screw in the scrwehole. "Hot-swappable" means taht you can disconnect a device without the need to power down or restart the system.

Not neccesary. You can have the system in the standby and take the drive out.

 

So the screw is just there to "lock in" something in the bay if you so choose? I assumed if Lenovo's plan was to have you remove a screw each time that they would require you to power down if the laptop, even if you bypassed their plans by leaving the screw out.

 

Yes, it secures the drive so that you can´t take it out.

As I said, I left the screw out of my L520, and then, I could easily take out the ODD. It was totally secure in normal use, if you don´t drop it, it won´t come out, unless you take it out yourself.

 

While a workaround exists, one cannot dispute that it is a definite regression in the stock functionality.

Will Lenovo support me if I take that screw out and have failures hot swapping? i.e. is it an officially supported use case.
How durable is that configuration since by your description it would be the connector holding the drive in place instead of the traditional locking mechanism.

To me the defining Ultrabay characteristic was hot-swap, and now that is gutted. And sure the technical definition of hot-swap only means swapping without reboot, but SATA natively has that, what made Ultrabay was the speed and ease of actually swapping bays.
It may well be that their research indicates not many use that feature anymore, and they can choose to to omit it on new models to save space and weight. But admit the regression of functionality instead of hiding it in the HMM and marketing it as having "Ultrabay", that is inexcusable.

 

If you are mad at Lenovo then you should just buy another brand.

 

The user guide specifically says "Turn off the computer, then disconnect the ac power adapter and all cables from the computer" (page 79). Are you sure it can be removed and reinstalled without doing that? And even if the "power down" is just so the back can be removed and the the screw is instead permanently left out, how secure is the ultrabay gonna be? I have images of picking up the computer and watching it drop out

 

Indeed, and that's probably what I'll do, not only for myself, but also for the many thousands of machines I specify for enterprise clients. The 430-series was underwhelming, so we waited for the the 440-series, and while they are better in some ways, they are worse in others. It's a real shame. I have been a ThinkPad fan since the legendary 600, but it looks like my current T420s will likely be my last.