W500/T500 cons

Dear all,

I am asking the owners before I make my purchase, what are the cons of the W500 thinkpad mainly and if possible the T500 also.

 

T500 LED WXGA doesn't have much for black, or atleast it used to on the origonal shipment.

 

Hugely depends on whether you need a professional GPU - to do 3D modelling, etc.

If you do require that, then W500 is more suitable; for everything else, T500 might be the more appropriate choice.

 

Is there a massive difference between the 1920x1200 res on hte W500 and the res on the T500?

Also I am enquiring about built quality??

 

The W500 is the same as the T500 except the GPU is optimized for OpenGL/CAD and the option of the high res screen for those who do 3D modeling and want the extra workspace. Most people find the WUXGA too much on a 15.4" screen though. The build quality is identical and every other component is identical.

 

DisplayPort on the T500/w500 does NOT transfer audio if that matters to you.

 

The WSXGA+ has 128.65 PPI (pixels per inch), the WUXGA has 147.02 PPI. So any equally sized image is denser on the WUXGA. But PPI is a hardware - the software needs to be set also - a little more adjustment is needed with the WUXGA to ensure image size as seen on the screen is big enough to enjoy. Once set OK, the WUXGA is wonderful - closer to the quality of print (200+ PPI). I have used W/UXGA 15.4/15" screens for 10 years, and love them. The W500 one is very nice; little different from the others I have had - despite some reports, to me it is plenty bright enough on full-setting for normal indoor use. On lower settings (like the default setting for away-from-mains use), the screen is certainly too dim, except for the first setting down, which I use often at night (in combination with the keyboard light).

I don't believe there would be any difference in quality between W500 and T500 - they are twins - there is more difference from the vast array of possible configuration options than between variants.

I have found no "cons" with the W500. It is a beautiful notebook, elegant and quiet (with a SSD in place of a HDD, and integrated gpu running, it is silent). Keyboard is great, screen great. The switchable gpu operation in Vista is fantastic - I use the integrated gpu 95% of the time, as it uses less power and is fine for mundane computing. To have a decent dedicated gpu on tap is fabulous. When you need it for specific programs, it makes all the difference! But it is nice not to have it using its extra power (and so needing fan-cooling, hence extra noise) when not needed. If I had chosen the WSXGA+ screen, I would have bought a T500, as the slightly different dedicated gpu's were not a factor to me (I don't use CAD).

PS The 160GB 7200rpm HDD that came with the W500 was an excellent HDD. I preferred its acoustic to that of a third-party WD 500GB 5400rpm Scorpio Blue, I tried subsequently. It had a lower pitch, and was very quiet for a HDD. I had worried about hearing about greater heat, sound and vibration from a faster-spinning HDD, after 15 years of using a 5400rpm. But found no problems at all. Perhaps that was helped by good design from Lenovo, with rubberized seating of the HDD. But of course neither HDD was a match for the third-party 120GB OCZ Summit I ended up with.

MidnightSun's review is very fine, and mostly positive: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=365492.

I don't think you can get a better laptop than a T500/W500 for serious, quiet, cool, computing.

 

My review of the T500 (link in signature) has a list of Pros and Cons. Here are the cons I listed:

 

Wouldn't your prefer to look at the glass half full?

 

I have seen this video, and am very scared of the quality ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8sOO-8LP4E&feature=related)

 

The T500 cons for me:

-The colors on the screen are a bit drab.
-The headphone jack is located in the front.
-Lack of HDMI port.

 

That is probably the most famous current-gen-Thinkpad-critical video review. At least in my experience, the T500's build quality is not nearly as bad as that guy makes it sound.

Some of his concerns are legitimate, though, for example the 9-cell battery does make the T400 a lot heavier in the back. Also, with some batteries, battery wobble is present, although that varies on a case-to-case basis. My T500's 9-cell doesn't wobble at all; my dad's T60's 6-cell wobbles quite a bit.

 

I've been pretty outspoken in the past about how subjective and unqualifiedly opinionated that video review is. The main thing you need to know is that the T500/W500 empirically seems to be a more solid chassis than the T400. All the chassis flex complaints seem to be directed at the T400, because I do not recall reading anybody saying that their T500/W500 exhibits remotely similar amounts of chassis flex as shown in the video.

 

The thing is, though, that logic defies that: a smaller chassis, reinforced in about the same way with a metal skeleton (which is what the T400 has) should flex less than a larger chassis. Perhaps the reason there are fewer complaints about chassis flex in the T500/W500 is that fewer people buy them, and so there are fewer complaints as a whole.

 

I've read from a few different users, among those who have complained, that the T400 seems to flex a fair bit at the sides, especially where the Ultrabay drive is located. However, that's also not a common critique of the T400, so ultimately, I don't know what to make of it since you can't draw solid conclusions from a handful of forum users and one video review. Nonetheless, between the chassis flex, keyboard flex, loose battery bays, and the occasional warped chassis, I'd have to chalk up all the issues to wild variances in chassis tolerances that really shouldn't exist.

My T500 is pretty solid, but in a way, you have to go into the purchase without internalizing everyone else's complaints about build quality. My T500 came with the Swiss cheese keyboard, but I honestly didn't notice much flex. I got the replacement keyboard because it was offered, and it does feel better, but it has more to do with the keyboard having a different tactile feel because it was made by NMB instead of Chicony. Meanwhile, you have a bunch of users who complain of major keyboard flex even with the newer keyboard-reinforced chassis. While I don't believe Lenovo's T400/T500/W500 build quality is consistent, I think the inverse placebo effect is at work for most of the people who claim to have issues.