Thinkpad T510 Owners lounge

Well, who knows? I had two day shipping (only because I'm in Alaska and free basic shipping wasn't available) and mine went from order - 3/3 to ship - 3/12 to delivery - 3/15.

 

So, my T510 arrived yesterday and I'm so swamped I can't do much with it. I've unpacked it and charged up the battery. I haven't even turned it on since the first thing I will do is image the drive, swap to an encrypted drive I have, restore the image and install from there. Probably not till Friday.

Generally the quality is top notch. The bottom half is rigid and sturdy, no detectable flex keyboard or case. There is some give in the lid behind the display. I don't know how much that will be evident on the screen when on yet, because I haven't had the screen on yet!

However, there is something I want to see if anyone else has on theirs... at the top of the display, where the camera is, that part of the bezel is a bit loose and can be easily pulled away from the display itself. Is anyone else seeing this or are yours tight as a drum in this regard?

Thxs.

 

Fair play in getting the T510
I'm typing from my 5 year old M6ne17 and it's been a trooper for 5 years, but it's really getting slow now (too many tabs
Wish your T510 will last as long.
When you get a chance, could you give us a comparison of Screen T510 vs M6Bne ? Also size wise, how do they fit side by side, on top etc...
(Can I be so bold and ask for pic?)
I'm in the market for a 14" now cause the move to 15"6 makes the body slightly to wide for my taste (and I used a 13" at work which was fine, but little to small for general use).
Cheers

 

Sure, glad to accommodate, but it will be Friday before I can. My Asus is 5 1/2 years old. Still running fine, but getting a bit slow like yours.

In regard to size, the T510 is ~3/4" wider, ~1" shorter, and ~same height as my 15.6" Asus. Can't comment on the screen yet since I haven't turned it on. My first task is to image the drive and restore the image to a 500GB encrypted drive I have and install from there. Unfortunately, I have a killer work week and have to delay gratification.

 

My T510 would be arrive tomorrow, just FYI i ordered on Marth 7th.

Here is a status progress of UPS,

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, US 03/16/2010 10:27 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
VERNON, CA, US 03/16/2010 5:50 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
03/16/2010 1:20 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
GARDENA, CA, US 03/16/2010 12:53 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
GARDENA, CA, US 03/15/2010 7:59 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
US 03/13/2010 4:11 A.M. CARRIER AND CUSTOMS RELEASED
CN 03/11/2010 10:20 P.M. DEPARTURE
03/11/2010 10:00 P.M. RECEIVED INTO UPS SCS POSSESSION
US 03/12/2010 11:30 P.M. ARRIVAL
03/12/2010 10:06 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

 

Cool! Feel free to post a mini-review after you get her up and running. First impressions are always interesting to read.

I just got my shipping number from UPS!

Ordered 3/10 AM
Shipping Notification 3/16 AM
Shipping Number 3/17 AM

It looks like our waiting times are/will be similar. At least they are being consistent right now.

 

Yep, thanks, i must do some commit tomorrow morning. But i'm afraid that i would do that with most of the part such as "solid" "pretty fast" "..." lol. I would try to say the first feeling.

I saw you order on March 10th, so you could count 3 or 4 days on tomorrow, which date would be your laptop arrived.

 

Has anyone been able to get TPFanControl to read the temp sensor on the Nvidia NVS 3100m GPU? Mine just says "n/a" for the GPU temp. In fact can anyone suggest any program to read the GPU temp sensor? I've tried a few (HWinfo32, SpeedFan, HWMonitor) without success.

 

The HD+ plus screen is on 18 Days leadtime. Are people finding this accurate?

 

hi, I noticed that, but for me, from the date i ordered till tomorrow the laptop will arrive, it just take 10 days! So, that 18days would be FHD in my thought.

 

Thanks that's really cool of you. In any case, enjoy your machine first, then share the love

Do you expect your new machine to last as long? (I sure do for my next purchase)

 

I would hope a Thinkpad would last at least as long as a consumer Asus model. I don't know if I will want to keep it another 5+ years though. At least not as my primary computer. The Asus was a record for me in duration (since 1984 - my first computer). I probably would have replaced it a year or more ago if life hadn't gotten so busy!

 

I got my T510 on Monday and had a few days with it and thought I share my thoughts...
First the specs:
i7-620m CPU Win7 x64
15.6 FHD display
NVS3100 discrete graphics
4GB PC3-8500 RAM
128GB Hi-Per SSD
Intel6250 Wimax & bluetooth
Fingerprint reader & integrated cam
DVD burner
5-1 card reader
9-cell battery and a spare
3 year warranty

First impressions are I was initially pissed because the ship date was estimated to be 4/25 when I placed the order on 2/22 and was tempted to cancel - but a got a great deal on it waited so long to replace my old t60. Lenovo really needs to get that set up right - you can call support and get different answers each time.

So the good:
FHD is definitely the way to go - anyone else who says otherwise most likely never had FHD (or 1920x1200) on a laptop or is piping it. I have two 24" LCDs on workstations that are 1920x1200 and now they don't look as good compared to my T510... Are there working on a LCD better than 1920 yet? I still wish it was 16:10 (or rotate my keyboard and screen 90 degrees) but it is definitely nice.
I am not a gamer or at least the games I do play tend not to be so graphics intensive so I can not speak to the graphics card but there are plenty of reviews and postings on that.
I don't have the keyboard issues, the screen really has very little give, the touchpad is textured which I like. There is a speaker on each side of the keyboard which is an improvement - I was tired of lifting up my laptop to listen to some webinars better. The CPU is solid no issues so far as I do a lot of coding, but I haven't really did that much on laptop yet. Battery is actually better than I thought - glad I did not go for that slice battery. The fan and temperature of the unit never gets loud or hot. At least on mine, the fan really sounds minimal at worst.

The bad: - The "Hi-Performance" SSD is kinda of a stretch- while boot times and installation time seems quicker - at the price point I would have deferred, but I got it half off so what the hey. Battery lock gets a little jammed but maybe it will work itself in time. The ThinkLight does seem to be as helpful as it used to be but maybe it is me. I know I am picky, but one thing I did not get in the package were the "red belly buttons" I wonder if they can ship them or I will have to ask the DSM next time I see him this month.

Bottom line - get the FHD and if drive noise doesn't bother you avoid the SSD. I was thinking I would have to change laptop brands after 10+ years of using the TP - but I am glad to see it still works for me - except the 16:9 - please bring back 16:10.

 

Nice review. Did your unit come with the Copper or ALU heatsink? I suspect copper since it is using the discrete gfx. Also does the SSD (samsung I assume) have Trim functionality right out of the box?

 

It is a Samsung for sure - but not sure if it accepts TRIM - WIN7 sends them I have read. Link me to a utility or tell me how I can spot it and I will let you know.

 

Sounds like a great system, thanks for posting your impressions! I'm curious though--what are these red belly buttons you speak of? This is my first ThinkPad so maybe I missed the boat on something? The only things in the box with my laptop were the power adapter, and a plastic bag with a couple of sheets of paper--I think they were on the warranty and a "quick start guide" or something (very minimal documentation anyway).

 

They are the trackpoint buttons. You get different ones.

 

Oh. What's different about them? I definitely didn't get any extras, just the one pre-installed in the keyboard. What about other T510 owners?

 

Nothing really different except texture and after awhile they wear down.

 

I am typing when the door bell was ringing. It comes....

 

*am jealous* lol

Mine left HK earlier today. Looks like it won't be here till next week.

 

Interesting. Mine flew out of Shezhen from what I can tell.

 

Oh I see. Can anyone with a T510 confirm that they got extra red TrackPoint nubs in the box? I've seen a few T410/T510 unboxing vids also and they didn't have it in-box either.

 

you need to buy them now.

 

re. Trim.

Try SSD tweaker:

http://majorgeeks.com/SSD_Tweaker_d6382.html

or Intel SSD Toolbox which works with other brands also.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

 

I didn't get any extras either. That would have been appreciated as I can see how that might be a part to replace from time to time.
.

 

Hi all, i'm back, and I am working on th T510, after taking the pictures and recording a short clip for the new laptop, i just found 2 boring thing.

1) About the noise. I found a kind of very tiny and high frequency noise when the laptop works, so the idea came to me whether the noise comes from the power adapter or the laptop itself. Very sadly, a very simple way to identify the noise came from the screen, how? When I close the laptop lid the noise went out when the screen turned black, then after I opened the lip again, the noise came back.

So, i think this Levono's fault. Turning the brightness high or lower could not lower the noise or increase it. Anyone else found this?

2)About the the kind of "form" just behind the back and left position, i got the same device, i could out identify whether it was sucking the air or just pushing the air out. So, i will follow to see how it works.

What about the others? I ran the Windows 7 Rating, the lowest score is graphical card about 4.8, lol. Everything else I just satisfied about. Only except that high frequency noise, i can hear it all the time, except the speaker was playing the music. FYI: The speaker quality really good.

I would commit more about the new laptop later. Good luck guys.

 

@tinyvane - I ran the Windows 7 Rating, the lowest score is graphical card about 4.8, lol.

I have a discrete graphics and my score was 4.9 But I needed it for the FHD.

@Durazig - thanks for the tweaker - but I dont see anything about TRIM/

 

Really? Mine shows 3.9...

 

Hi two friends, have you ever encountered the noise from the screen? Very tiny but boring

 

Louisville, Ky, Us
03/18/2010 3:01 A.m. Import Scan
03/18/2010 1:56 A.m. Arrival Scan
Anchorage, Ak, Us
03/17/2010 5:00 P.m. Departure Scan
03/17/2010 12:49 P.m. Arrival Scan
Chek Lap Kok, Hk
03/17/2010 8:01 P.m. Departure Scan
03/17/2010 5:32 P.m. Hub Scan
03/17/2010 5:31 P.m. Origin Scan
Hk 03/16/2010 1:36 A.m. Billing Information Received


Scheduled Delivery Date:
03/18/2010

There's no way, is there?

 

I have the noise but not from the screen. It's there even with the lid closed.

 

I can't believe it! UPS came just now!

2 day shipping really was 2 day shipping. Woohooooooooooo

EDIT: This thing is a BEAST!

 

antsiou - In snippets of time I imaged the HD and restored the image to the new drive. Last night I started it up and started getting windows set up. Initial impressions on the screen relative to my Asus.... much brighter. There are reports here of uneven lighting, but I'm not seeing that. If I were to compare this screen with other new screens, maybe it wouldn't fare as well, but compared to the older Asus screen, it is a definite improvement. BTW, this is the HD+ screen.

More to come.
.

 

At least we can be sure there some noise come from somewhere. LOL, i am in the campus, I just could ignore the noise....

 

I don't have any noise coming from my screen or anywhere else. This thing is surprisingly quiet. It's only loud when the DVD drive is being accessed.

 

I'm really glad to hear that the T510 is really awesome after all.

Could you guys do some game benchmarking of the nvs 3100m on games like Modern Warfare 2 or Starcraft 2?

It would be so nice to successfully associate light gaming to professional work!

 

Kiwikat I am so jealous.

I called the guys today and they said it would take 3 days from ship date (16th) to get to Toronto. And only then would I get a tracking number that works. Blah, oh well.

 

Well here's my first impressions for anyone interested. I am a first time ThinkPad owner, by the way.

The lenovo store was one of the most painful online shopping experiences I've had. Their system really needs some work. UPS, on the other hand, managed to deliver it from Hong Kong on the 16th to my house in Wisconsin on the 18th in 2 days. I'm shocked to say the least. UPS is usually lackluster at best. I probably would have hugged the UPS guy if he hadn't have been in such a hurry, lol.

The lenovo packaging is underwhelming to say the least. Having a physical backup disk would have been nice. Everything came safe and secure though. Functionality trumps looks here.

Speaking of looks, I was surprised at how sleek the T510 looked when I removed it from the plastic bag. It is a lot sexier than I thought it would be. So many people complain about thinkpads looking like big black rectangles. I guess that's not untrue, but I like the look. The scattered colors on the keyboard, and especially the trackpoint stick out against the matte black finish. Style-wise, it is much nicer than my old ASUS C90S.

I also immediately noticed how sturdy the thing is. The bottom half of the laptop feels nearly indestructible. The screen twists a little bit when you move it by one corner, but it doesn't feel like it is stressing it at all. The whole laptop has a definite solid feel to it, yet it remains surprisingly light, even with the 9 cell battery. It is noticeably lighter than my old C90S. To me it feels closer to the weight of my EEE 1000H than it does the C90S. There are only minute amounts of flex in the palm rest area. Some people had reported keyboard flexing issues earlier on, but it has definitely been fixed. I am experiencing no keyboard flex anywhere. Overall, it gives me the impression that it will last me at least a couple years of serious use (several hours every day).

The trackpad was pretty awkward at first because of the dotted texture, but the more I use it, the more I like it. It definitely gives it a grippy feeling that other smooth trackpads don't have. The touchpoint is completely new to me. I'm not sure if I will use it much or not. To me it doesn't seem any quicker or any more accurate than the touchpad, but that's probably because I have no experience using it.

The speakers are covered in a cloth-like material but are solid. Resting your hands on them barely flexes them. The sound is clear but has very little bass, as expected. At max volume they aren't a whole lot louder than the speaker(s?) in my EEE 1000H. For any serious listening, I'd get some headphones. A pair of 20-30 dollar Sony headphones sound 500% better.

I selected the HD+ 1600 x 900 screen due to costs. It's got a very nice matte finish. Thankfully, mine came with no dead pixels. It looks very sharp at 1600 x 900. Cranking up the contrast and brightness a little bit definitely gives the screen a better look. I've been working with the backlight at 12-14. If you are in a bright room, you'll want it on at least 13, probably 14. Any setting under 10 is too dark in any situation for my tastes. This is definitely not a screen to use for photo editing. The colors are way too washed out. It looks like it would be fine for web graphics and logos though. I've been on the computer for about 4 and a half hours now and my eyes don't feel strained at all.

Performance-wise, it feels very similar to my overclocked Quad-core gaming rig. Windows 7 Pro 64 definitely takes more time to boot. The Adobe CS4 programs seem to take only slightly longer to load, in fact, the difference might just be my imagination. There's no noticeable difference in Visual Studio 2008 or the MS Office 2007 suite. Google Chrome is lightning fast and loads instantly. One thing I noticed is that there are a LOT of processes running. Right now I've got 84 processes running with Google Chrome being the only application I have running. The ThinkPad utilities are numerous and use a fair deal of memory.

I was looking for a tough laptop that would survive the rest of college and beyond. I'm a programming and web design/development student, so CS4 and Visual Studio performance are important to me. So far the T510 seems to be exactly what I was looking for. I'd highly recommend it to any other students with a budget around 1000-1200 (US) dollars.

PROS
-Sleek and sexy design (YES!)
-Sturdy design
-Matte screen (may be a con instead, depending on what your needs are)
-Desktop-like performance with the i5 540M and 4 GB DDR3 ram
-Excellent connectivity
-Relatively cool to the touch in almost all areas

CONS
-Fn key placement
-Weak speakers
-DVD drive is LOUD
-More bloatware than I care for
-The Lenovo store needs a lot of work

OTHER COMMENTS
-Intel integrated graphics
-I'm not experiencing any high pitch noises anywhere on the laptop
-I need to get used to the keyboard after typing on an EEE for over a year
-Feels like a much more complete package than my C90S did
-My bank account still hasn't been hit...

 

Awesome dude!!!

I only saw it when I dragged a small image around the screen. On the whole, I don't really notice it either.

Where in Canada are you located? Mine took quite a while from Mississauga to Vancouver.

 

Wow those were some extensive impressions! I've just quoted a few lines here...

Agreed, not a whole lot heavier than my EEE 1000HE either. It's significantly lighter than my old tank of a 17" Toshiba Qosmio Q30!

You can swap the function and ctrl keys in the BIOS settings. That was one of the first things I did and I haven't looked back. But yes it would have been nice for them to fix the physical placement instead.

It likely has been, but can take a few days to show on your account online.

 

I've called on the phone though and it definitely hasn't been hit yet. Every other purchase shows up instantly on the phone.

 

Hmmm yeah that's weird. I know I watched my credit card online quite regularly while I was waiting for my order to ship, and I continued out of curiosity to watch it after the shipping date, and it took a few days to show up. My laptop shipped Feb 22nd, and looking now at my credit card statement, it got posted on the 24th (posting date), with a transaction date of the 23rd. So I'd expect it to show up today or tomorrow on your account.

...and if not... don't complain!

 

Hamilton. The UPS tracker seems to work now and this is what I got:

CN 03/17/2010 6:01 A.M. RECEIVED INTO UPS SCS POSSESSION
CN 03/16/2010 9:01 P.M. DEPARTURE
03/16/2010 8:00 P.M. RECEIVED INTO UPS SCS POSSESSION
CA 03/18/2010 6:00 A.M. ARRIVAL
03/18/2010 2:55 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

I'm hoping for a tomorrow "out for delivery"

 

@Gimlin oh yeah shouldn't be long now. Here's mine, for comparison:

ANNACIS ISLAND, BC, CA 03/03/2010 12:50 DELIVERED
03/03/2010 6:57 OUT FOR DELIVERY
03/03/2010 3:00 ARRIVAL SCAN
CONCORD, ON, CA 26/02/2010 20:26 DEPARTURE SCAN
CONCORD, ON, CA 25/02/2010 22:06 ARRIVAL SCAN
MISSISSAUGA, ON, CA 25/02/2010 21:32 DEPARTURE SCAN
25/02/2010 20:44 ORIGIN SCAN
CA 24/02/2010 9:06 CARRIER AND CUSTOMS RELEASED
CN 22/02/2010 22:05 DEPARTURE
22/02/2010 20:00 RECEIVED INTO UPS SCS POSSESSION
CA 24/02/2010 6:00 ARRIVAL
24/02/2010 19:18 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

 

my t510 with full hd and ssd delivered today!

but not to me, it needs to take one more international hop. ill take it for 35% off my countrys price!

 

Something odd just happened...

I was on a forum and my screen started dimming a little bit by itself. Then it randomly went back up to the setting i had it set to. Is this some energy saving feature or what? (note it didn't show the screen brightness bar)

I've been using the touchpoint all day and I am loving it. I actually disabled the touchpad.

The battery life is amazing. I've been unplugged for an hour and I've only used 12%!

 

Wow I must give UPS credit when I went to bed last night my TP had just left Alaska and by the time I got to work to check on the status it was on a truck for delivery. I paid the extra for 2 day shipping not sure if that helps with customs or not. Here is my tracking information in case it helps anyone else.

NC, US
03/18/2010 9:55 A.M. DELIVERY
03/18/2010 7:05 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
03/18/2010 6:08 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
03/18/2010 5:38 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
03/18/2010 5:10 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
LOUISVILLE, KY, US
03/18/2010 3:59 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
03/18/2010 3:01 A.M. IMPORT SCAN
03/18/2010 1:56 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
ANCHORAGE, AK, US 03/17/2010 5:00 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
03/17/2010 12:49 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
CHEK LAP KOK, HK
03/17/2010 8:01 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
03/17/2010 5:24 P.M. HUB SCAN
HK
03/16/2010 1:36 A.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

So far I am impressed with the machine, this is the 7th ThinkPad that I have had, dating back to the 760EL, and it seems as well built as any other and better than some. I do hear the occasional high pitched noise but so far it is not bothering me. The screen seems plenty bright for my environment and I have not been able to find any dead/stuck pixles. My LCD was made my AUO.
I am off to keep setting up my new toy.

 

Looks like yours was on the same flights as mine!

Congrats!

 

If yours has intel integrated graphic card, you might encounter this problem:

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090723/lesson-intel-graphics-power-saving-feature/