Which Thinkpad for me?

I've been browsing around trying to find the laptop for myself and have narrowed it down to the thinkpad line. However, it has been a headache trying to decide which thinkpad suits my needs. The models I"m looking at are: T420, T520, W520, and X220.

I'm a freshman at university and I'm a software engineer major. So basically I need this laptop to read/write/compile code. No games. And the odd movie once in a while. So not too demanding.

Now I would like to hear some opinions from some of you more computer savvy individuals in order to narrow down and choose a suitable notebook for me. Once my choices have been narrowed down some, I will start asking questions to better determine a notebook for myself.

PS. I'm aware that this should be posted in the "Help me choose a laptop" section, but seeing as I've narrowed it down to thinkpads, I found it more suitable posting in the "lenovo" section in order to get more insightful replies.

 

Well W520 you can throw out the windows. It's too much power for your needs.

T520... meh
T420... terrible screen. Don't bother.

Pretty much X220 if the screen is not too small for you

 

Hi. I'm in a similar situation, I will be a freshman in computer engineering, and I'm trying to decide between a T420 and a W520. Though, I'm the most concerned with the battery life on a W520 (if it's around 8hrs, it's good enough).

As I understand it, the X220 has the best battery life, then the T420, then T520, and finally, W520. I personally think that the T420 is the best compromise between size, processing power, and battery life (notebookcheck.net reviewed the 6 cell unit to have 6hrs of battery life on WLAN), but with the current sale in Canada, a W520 offers the best value.

 

and you're basing your opinion on what exactly? not on first hand experience as you've not actually used one.

 

Do you really think someone here personally owns all four of these machines here??? I doubt the OP is looking for someone to come in and say "I only own T420 and it's screen sucks" and that's it... that's not what he was asking. He's asking for comparisons between these four and what's best for him out of them.

It's from what I've read on these forums from users who HAVE used it.

 

At first I did intend to get the T420 as it seems best compromise in performance, size, and battery life but after reading the multiple reviews that commented on the screen quality, I'm kinda hesitant.

T520/W520 there doesn't seem to be much reviews on them. How good is the battery life?

 

I would rule out the x220, the screen resolution is not great if you are working in an IDE. I would recommend the T520 or the T420 with HD+ screen.

Is portability important to you? Do you plan to bring the Laptop with you everyday. If you are only going to bring your laptop to the class once in a while, the T520 is a good choice. The T420 would be good if you are taking the laptop with you everyday to class. You will be grateful every pound you don't need to carry on you.

 

Yes portability is important. Battery life as well. I definitely would consider the T420 as the best choice, but due to the reviews on the screen quality; this has caused me to be hesitant and rethink my options.

How much battery life can I squeeze out of the T520/W520? They seem quite large and heavy though, I'm not so sure of the portability.

 

I take a T420 to class every day (nurse anesthesia grad student) and take notes for 6 hours every day in the lecture hall then go to the library for another solid 4-5 hours and study powerpoints and read .pdfs on the T420 high-res screen.
Then I go home and usually watch a TV show or movie on it, maybe play some Defense Grid to wind down.

The screen isn't as bad as people say for day to day work. Is it a MBPro or Vaio screen? Nope.
But it is fully sufficient for daily work. If you need color accurate photo work, buy a second monitor and dock it.
I dock it to a 24" Dell 1080p monitor when I'm at home and not laying on the couch or when I want to play in Lightroom.

The people who have actually owned a T420 and hated the screen have probably used consumer laptops in the past or a Flexview Thinkpad and have bloated expectations. I knew what I was getting in this laptop, and knew that Thinkpad's are geared towards getting work done as a tool that is right for the job, not for being known as having the best displays in town (quite the opposite, and I knew that buying it).

That said, best laptop I've owned.
The past two laptops have been a 2008 MBP 15" anti-glare (that was a nice machine, but I like Win7 more) and after that the new XPS 15 1080p RBG w/ i7, that Dell was absolute junk, horrid. The screen was the only nice thing about it.

If you're a student, you can't go wrong with one similar to the one in my sig. Nice and light with a good 8+ hrs of battery life and plenty powerful. Solid rig too, dropped it 3 feet onto tile and it slid down a few more feet in the lecture hall, picked it up, not a scratch on it.

 

Is the T420 screen as bad as x120e? If so DO NOT consider that at all, because you want to watch movies now and then, but it's a real disappointment. One degree off and the colors wash out really bad. Especially blacks. But for browsing, coding, etc there wouldn't be a problem at all

 

Since you want to do coding I would suggest that, if you eyes are OK with it, higher resolution is better. I wouldn't bother with a 15.6" 1366x768 screen. The W520 offers 1600x900 and 1920x1080 screens. Both are much nicer for coding than a 1366 screen. The extra vertical lines are nice and, if you use Matlab, with the higher resolution screens it's not hard to have the editor occupy half the screen while the main window occupies the other half. I use this all the time now that W7 makes it easy to get a window to fill half the screen.

Clearly you want to move this computer around which is a strike against the W520. I have a 15.4" laptop which is about the same size as the W520. I wouldn't want to carry it from class to class. To and from the office is fine.

If you are going to be doing light work on the run but can handle connecting to a real display for coding at home then I would suggest going with a smaller computer and a second screen. A second screen is really nice for all sorts of work and it gives you the ability to have a larger, nicer screen for movies in the dorm as well as for working at home while still having a very portable laptop. My personal setup is the laptop in front of the monitor. With the monitor raised up just a bit I can see the big display over the laptop screen. Because it's easier on the eyes I make the large external screen the main display and use the laptop display for secondary information. This lets me use just the laptop keyboard while still using the larger, easier on the eyes display as the main screen. Over the years I've really learned to value setting a monitor as far away as possible. Perhaps it was too many 8 hour days with my eyes literally 10" from a 20" CRT.

 

well, i've seen some negative comments and probably at least the same number (or more) non-negative comments, so i don't see that your opinion is founded on that much credible, objective evidence and casually perusing your profile, you don't have much personal experience with the majority of the thinkpad models. so you're choosing to merely parrot what some people have posted without carefully weighing how well-founded those opinions might be. that's why i 'called you out' on it.

when i read that someone thinks a display is bad, i ask them what laptops they have used or handled in the past because that can have a marked effect on their judging criteria. for example, if someone has mainly used or seen netbooks and mid-range consumer laptops, my experience is they're have a different opinion of display quality that someone who's been exposed to a different segment of the laptop market.

i have not seen the 420 but i have seen a 410 and i can tell you even without seeing the 420, that baring the possiblity of someone getting a defective display, it's extremely unlikely that the 420 has a worse display than a 410. and the 410 display, like many of the thinkpad business models, though they're perhaps unremarkable (at worst), to call them terrible is frankly, rather inaccurate.

and in reading the reviews of the 420 that have been published, the majority of them corroborate what i think too, eg. the display quality is not terrible and that they're on par with the displays that accompany similarly priced business laptops from Dell, HP, etc. in short, the display quality is adequate for general use. if you're a discriminating user that needs a higher quality display, than yeah, you're probably going to want look at something else.

ps. i'll get around to checking out a 420 as soon as they hit some local shops here in NYC, time permitting.
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to the OP and the other poster who was looking for laptop suggestions, first get a general idea of what your budget is, how you will be using the laptop, and clarify what qualities are important to you and whether you have any special needs. basic things that you should consider are weight, screen size, screen resolution, and battery life. special needs might be things like processor or video choices, disk size/disk types, portability, durability, ease of getting service, etc.

then look at the lenovo line and see what models fit in with your criteria. next do some research and read as many online (objective, reputable reviews) as you can to get a basic understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the different models and then you can check out the existing threads and post questions for more feedback. if there are retailers nearby that you can visit (doesn't matter if they don't stock lenovos), i recommend that you go there so that you can get first hand experience seeing the different screen sizes, handling laptops of different weight, and typing on the keyboards.

for the average student use, a 13.3-14" screen size is generally a good safe place to start and you may find that you might want to go larger or smaller than that, as you explore your options.

 

I just ordered an X220 for web development. It's among the best machines out there for portability and battery life. I initially ordered a T420, but switched my order after reports of unsatisfactory screen quality. That was the push... the pull was the IPS screen on the X220 (a $50 upgrade).

Yeah, as mentioned the resolution can be a bit constrained for development. I use vim, so there's minimal toolbar debris in the way... but if you're working with an IDE with lots of toolbars, it could leave you with a pretty small working area. It should be easy enough to make a judgment call on this for your own needs by testing on another machine -- most notebooks are shipping with 1366x768 resolution these days.

 

You need to walk into the biggest local computer store and check out various screen sizes AND resolutions. Check the computer you have at home for reference as well. You listed the entire thinkpad line and I don't think anyone here is fit to decide what is right for in term of portability and screen real estate. Battery life is another consideration you must decide on your own, how much power you will need without being plugged in.

 

This is a tough choice but I would definitely go with the T420 with HD+ resolution. I believe that it offers the best for what you're planning on doing. You get a good resolution screen (even if the screen itself isn't the best), good battery life (I'd get one with a 9 cell battery. The increase in battery life is good and it's not like it weighs that much more than a 6 cell.) Compared to the X220, the T420 is definitely not as portable and compact but it's usable (I have a T410 which I carry around a lot and it's not that bad). Do be aware that the X220 hard drive size is 7mm and that the list of drives is limited. With the T420, you can also swap out the DVD drive and put in a second hard drive in the Ultrabay. One last thing that I find to be very important is the balance between power, battery life, and size and I believe that the T420 scores high on all 3 compared to the X220, T520, and W520. Good luck on your search.

 

Don't write off the W520 from your list! It is a not especially big or heavy for a 15.6" notebook; its extra power (higher cpu options and far superior gpu's) is there when you want it; but its configuration can be quickly set to power levels not so different from the alternatives. There are battery options to suit various scenarios, so you need not have to carry around its rather big power brick. It is much much more miserly with power than the previous generation - again, you can power down or up quickly and dramatically. For detailed work like coding (as well as any clear text; also image work; photography,etc) the 15.5" FHD screen option is the way to go. Once you are not walking, but working, the W510 has no competition. It has features, like usb3, that should be standard across the thinkpad range. It has others fabulous options like quad-core cpu's and RAID. The W520 is the portable work-station with the lot....Sure, a T420 is more portable, and easier to position in tight physical environments. But if you really want portability, maybe consider something smaller still?...the X220 comes to mind...

 

I've been curious about docks for a while. What kind or which dock do you use?

 

I just set it on a cooling pad and plug cables in, I'm not spending $200 for that extra convenience.