X230 or T530?

My daughter would be going to Uni for Biomedical Sciences degree. I am looking to buy a good notebook/ultrabook. She wants something mobile (not heavy) with a very good battery life. The downside is she is used to working on a fast workstation/laptop.

I have narrowed the choice between Lenova X230 or Lenova T530. Considering her degree course, could some one advise me on a choice between these two please?

I am not looking to buy MBP; it is amazing but I do not think it is worth the price compared to Lenova X230 or Lenova T530.

Thanks

 

Out of the two I'll go for the X230 for the portability and battery life, not to mention the very good Premium IPS screen on offer with that system.

 

Buy her a x230 and a external monitor, the T530 is not mobile

 

Thanks folks.

I believe X230 is a dual-core.

Would that be enough for her Biomed programme? Does it have a docking station?

 

Yes it has a a dock -- I am using it now, and you can drive 2 monitors with HDMI. Great unit -- should be no problem I have the i7, and it it is a dream to work with.

 

More than enough. An i5 CPU would provide plenty of power. Remember to select the "Premium IPS" screen upgrade ($50 in the US).

I like Lenova, as you wrote. In my book, Lenov o is masculin and Lenov a is feminin. Lenova suits your daughter well.

 

Oops...I did not realise the spelling error.

Thanks every one for all the recommendations. Hopefully, she would see the merit of Lenovo over MBP.

 

Oh, just some light humour.

I notice your British spelling of 'programme' and 'realise'. (I'm using single quotes, and spelling 'humour' above, the British way.)

I hope the X230 will serve your daughter well.

 

@ SSri09

I am a student in the sciences and an intern in Biomedicine at the moment. I have owned and used both a T400 and an X200 during the last 2 1/2 years of school. The differences in size and weight between a T400 and X200 are significant in my experience! I am not a frail woman but the T400 with textbooks and other miscellaneous items makes the X200 a blessing! I imagine the T530 might be a bit overkill for her purposes and a bit too bulky for day to day academic usage. Please keep in mind that science textbooks required for classes are thick and heavy. My X200 (with 9 cell battery) is actually lighter than many of my textbooks

Most of the specialized tasks needed for gathering and interpreting data are done with computers that are already in the classroom or lab. So far the only software I was issued from my university was for interpreting NMR data. The hardware requirements for the NMR program are not very demanding. I think the CPU in my Blackberry 8900 could run it!

The dock and external monitor are supreme ideas! I have the T400 in-dock connected to a monitor that I use when the need for a bigger screen arises. The setup is really quite effective! The X230 should serve her well in her daily academic schedule. Good luck

 

I have a big fat fatty T530 and even as a large male there are times when I find it a bit bulky and large. For notes and et.all, a X-series may be worth the money. Of course, if $ is no object, you can take a look at the T420s/T430s series. T-series power in a thinner, lighter chassis.

 

Thanks Kaso, turqoisegirl08 and graytotoro.

I really appreciate the useful insight. The X230, T430 and T530 are in similar price brackets (in the UK!). If X230 has more than enough power to get through the academic and social loads, the lightweight is certainly preferable over the T series.

Cheers

 

May I ask where you will be ordering you new laptop? The UK Lenovo site won't have them for around 3 weeks I was told by the rep :/ Are you importing ?

 

It will be from the UK Lenovo site. I can wait for 3-4 weeks. That's not a problem. It is really not worth importing with all hazzles of international warranty, import duty and VAT.

 

I saw that x230 is in the Virginial Tech's bookstore. so it probably meet the requirement of many engineering programs

 

Hopefully, it does. I intend giving their technical department a call. thanks

 

Yep, either the Thinkpad X220 or X230 would be more than enough computing power for your daughter. Yay, another bioengineer!

 

thanks.

 

I am at University at the moment in my second year, electronic engineering, which I imagine will be in the same catagory for computing, as an Undergraduate she will not be expected to run much software, mainy word proccessing and browsing, most people end up having Matlab and visual studio installed on their personal computers as well. Though at undergradute level even those programs will be run at a very basic level (compared to the pros) and so any modern computer will be fine. I know lots of people on chemistry, biochem, electronics that are still using 4 year old computers without any complaints.

 

Thanks polop!

 

I checked the Lenovo Uk site and compared the specs with the US. I notice a couple of differences in configs of the processor and the display.

The US offers 3 variants of i5, while the UK offers just an i5 3510M, then i7 3520M asking £271+. The US site offers you more choices, which are nice.

The displays in the US offers two variants of Premium HD (2x2 and 3x3). The difference is an integrated camera. The UK site does not offer this choice (it is a straight 3x3) One can buy a decent web cam off the shelf.

A lack of CPU choices in the UK site is surprising; the £271 jump is pretty steep for a moderate bump in clock speed (of both the CPU and the Graphics). Not sure if it is worth price.

I am thinking if it is better to stick with the basic i5 3510M and 7200rpm HDD and add the after-market (1) 8 or 16 GB DDR3 and (2) SSD or mSATA for OS. They would most probably more than compensate the difference between an i5 3510M and an i7 3520M. After-market upgrades is also likely to be cheaper than buying it from Lenovo. Would that affect the warranty?

 

The i5-3210M is more than plenty for processing power, in this case. You definitely don't want to spend extra money on the i7.

I'd suggest the following configuration (I did some quick shopping at the Lenovo UK website):




You can add another 4GB RAM module later, to bring the total to 8GB RAM, although I feel 4GB is adequate. There's no need for 16GB.

Let your daughter use the notebook for a few weeks to see if she is comfortable with the 7200rpm HDD performance (most people do). If an upgrade is desired, you can install an mSATA SSD for OS and applications, and use the HDD in the primary bay as storage drive.

Make a set of System Recovery discs (1 CD + 2 or 3 DVDs) within the first days of using the notebook. You'll need an external USB-connected DVD drive. Later, with these Recovery discs, you can restore the system software onto the mSATA SSD. The stock HDD will then be reformatted for storage (documents, songs, pictures, etc.).​

Adding RAM and mSATA SSD will not affect the warranty.

 

Thank you. I was thinking on the same line. The £270+ is better spent on RAM & SSD.