Trading in my W500 for a T400s, what do you think?

I ordered a T400s (non-touch) to replace one year old W500 WUXGA system. I heard great things about the keyboard on the T400s and also the weight will be a huge improvement over the W500. Also the new system will have a 128GB SSD drive installed (which I may upgrade to a 256GB SSD).

Anyone else do a similar 'upgrade'. Would you considered this an upgrade? Your thoughts. Spent a bit much on the T400s, looking for help justifying it.

 

I would, but I'm the type who really judges a laptop by its mobility. If you don't need the extra power on the road, or at all if it's your only computer, then yes. I'd say it's a very nice upgrade, congratulations on the buy!

 

if the keyboard is the main attraction for you
if you wait a month, the t410 will have the t400s keyboard
at a more affordable price point

 

If you do not need the W500's large screen real estate or its GPU, then the T400s is a very fine upgrade - congratulations

I don't think it's really a great decision to upgrade to a 256GB SSD in the near future, especially if you do not have a conveniently-accessible money tree, as prices for those are still sky high. If you don't need all your data with you all the time (and I bet you probably don't), invest in a nice 1TB 3.5" external eSATA drive to sit on your desk to hook up to the T400s when you need to access additional data.

 

They're both specialized for different purposes, so I'd be hard-pressed to call it an "upgrade."

 

I'd prefer the T400s over the w500 but that's because I don't need a FireGL card or WUXGA display on a laptop. If you need either, the T400s will probably not work for you.

I'm with MidnightSun. Stick with a smaller SSD (64-128GB) and either use a 2.5" 5400RPM HDD in the Ultrabay or invest in external storage (USB/eSATA HDD or NAS).

 

I agree on the SSD, the 256GB drives are just too expensive for the capacity and performance right now. When Intel introduces their 320GB drive the Indilinx and Samsung controller 256GB drives should come down. And if money isn't an issue, the Intel drive will likely be the best performer unless SandForce's or Toshiba's upcoming offerings can finally provide real competition.

 

If you put the W500 up for sale on the marketplace, feel free to PM me. No guarantees, I'd prefer new and I am considering other laptops too, but I'd give it some serious consideration.

 

That is not an "upgrade", any more than changing planes from a 747 to a 737 is an "upgrade". But you obviously wanted a much more portable laptop and you will certainly get that. Having a SSD after a HDD is a significant "upgrade", as will having Win7 rather than Vista or XP. So, along with significant size reduction you will find significant performance and environment improvements over your old W500. Sounds good.

 

w500 is a workstation laptop for graphics design work, and hence the inclusion of the FireGL graphics card. While, the T400s is aimed at people whom are interested in the ultra portable laptops, but would prefer something that has more LCD real estate but not the weight.

So they are really aimed at two different market.