Thinkpad t420 review(1st review)

This is my first every laptop review so I hope it will be helpful. I have been looking for a laptop since December and after waiting for the latitude e6420 I decided to tryout thinkpads since that design was so disappointing. My configuration is below:

Intel Core i5-2520
Intel hd 3000 graphics
2 gb ram (about to upgrade to 6 by adding a 4 gb stick)
250 gb hard drive
1600x900 screen
6 cell
Bluetooth

Display
Probably the sketchiest point when it comes to the t420. In my opinion the display is pretty good. I have three 22 inch viewsonic monitors at work and I cant say I prefer them that much more. The t420 display does have some gridiness when you put your eye point really really close but I cant really tell when sitting at a normal distance. I think its a really really bright screen compared to most laptops. Its a little annoying the amount of bezel surrounding the screen but its no biggie.

Keyboard
Awesome keyboard. Great feel. Zero flex. I really like the inclusion of button for volume. Its annoying that alot of keyboards are being designed right now without dedicated volume buttons.

Trackpad
Probably my least favorite thing so far. For me even with sensitivity increased all the way its not sensitive enough. Also two finger scrolling doesnt work sometimes for me. The textured pad is kind of annoying I would prefer a smooth surface. The button are small but positioned perfectly.

Trackpoint
Awesome. I find myself using this over the touchpad more and more. Scrolling with the middle button and the trackpoint is a joy to use.

Build Quality
Ridiculously good. I can pick up the computer from any edge and I get no flex. I could go on for awhile about how good the build quality is.

Performance
I use my thinkpad for four things: CAD, Ray tracing, movies, and music.

CAD
Using either Solidworks or ProEngineer is pretty smooth. With really really big assemblies I get some slow down but its nothing serious. I have an HP CAD station at work that cost 4 grand and my thinkpad runs almost as good. There is a huge misconception that dedicated graphics are needed for CAD. Integrated graphics work just fine.

Ray Tracing
Using Oslo or Zemax my thinkpad performed well. Running intensive numerical solving(optimization) caused some slow down but it wasn't too bad.

Movies
Movies look great but I am having an issue in that movies seem to "buffer" and get choppy once in awhile. I watched Tron and maybe three or four times the movie got choppy for about 5 seconds. Not sure if this is because of the low ram. Ill know once I upgrade.

Music
Speakers are pretty loud. Lacking bass but you still get good quality.

Battery
Watching all of tron on max brightness cost me 30 percent of the battery. With just web browsing I get about 4-5 hours. The only thing that really destroys my battery is CAD. Modeling for about 2 hours and my battery got down to about 20 percent.

WEI scores:
Processor 7.1
Memory 5.5(Went to 7.3 after putting in an extra 4gb to bring the grand total to 6gb ram)
Graphics 4.6 (Seems a lil low)
Gaming Graphics 6.1
Hard disk 5.8

Conclusion
Hands down the best laptop I have ever owned. Durable, snappy, and smooth. This is the first computer that I found the items installed by the manufacturer actually useful. I still haven't upgraded to 6gb ram yet so I know its going to get even better. The only issue I have had is the movie buffering issue I mentioned before. I thought it might be cause of my slow HD or low ram but either way its not a big deal. I payed 750 for mine and to honest Im so happy I would have payed more. For perspective buyers the only issues I could see is a slightly griddy screen and textured trackpad. I will update once I upgrade to 6gb ram to show the improvement. If anyone has any questions please ask and I will do the best to answer. I didnt post pictures or weights because there is so much out there already.

 

Congrats on the T420 and welcome to the club! I think the graphics score is related to the RAM you have on the system (if you have the Intel GPU option). With 8GB RAM my graphics score is 5.9 so maybe you'll see a boost when you upgrade it.

I'll add your review to the T420 Owners Thread for everyone to see.

 

oops. I forgot to add my graphics info. Thanks for the heads up.

 

What battery do you have and how long does it last?

Sorry! Just noticed you covered the battery, great review, I just read it too fast!

 

You should be able to get by on 2GB of RAM for video playback. Try using MPC-HC.

Awesome review!

 

great review!

I also own T420 and it's my first Thinkpad The build quality is superb!! the keyboard is so awesome.-better than my macbook white

 

After my ram upgrade my graphics score is still 4.6. Any thoughts?


My ram score jumped alot though as you can see in my edited review.

 

Damnit, now I've switched from the E420 Edge to the T420.. I love the build of the T series.