alternatives to t410? or is it the best? i'm about to buy

i'm about to buy it NOW, but there a couple things of it that bother me

1. no hdmi - though i never use the hdmi in my laptop now, it's nice to know it has it
2. gfx - i currently have a 512mb 9600GT in mine. i barely do any gaming, but i do a lot of photoshop and sometimes HD video editing. obviously i plan to get the dedicated nvidia, but is it enough?
3. headphone/mic combo - is this ?! and why would you combine them into 1 port?!

besides the 3 i mention above, i see no reason not to buy

comments/suggestions?

 

Engineering always involves trade-offs. What does not make sense at first glance may actually be a superior solution after taking a closer look.

1. Rather than direct HDMI you have Displayport, the solution embraced by Apple. With DP, you can use an adapter that either converts to DVI for high resolution external monitors or HDMI with full sound support. Although I didn't like this architecture at first, I appreciate its flexibility!

2. Yeah, graphics remain a big question mark. They're not switchable, and better graphics cards consume more power and room while producing more heat.

3a. The combined headphones/mic port works with all the head sets designed for cell phones w/ 3.5mm jacks. I think (90% certainty) standard headphones w/ 3.5mm jack would work in stereo. The combined jack is longer, and I think the 3rd ring on the end is just for the mic. If you want to use the PC for VOIP applications, a cell phone headset is probably a better solution--certainly more portable--than the cheap ones in the electronics store. You can use some nice hifi headsets w/ mic that were designed for iphone/ipod/generic cell phone.
3b. The BT option is cheap. I don't know how good the sound is with stereo BT headsets though.

 

1.- DisplayPort will work just the same as HDMI. In the Tx10 generation, there's audio out via DP as well, so there's pretty much no difference. DP > HDMI adapters are quite cheap and small.

2.- The Quadro NVS 3100M in the T410 will be weaker than your current laptop's GeForce 9600M GT. It will, however, be more powerful than the T400's Radeon 3470. Definitely enough for Photoshoping and HD video editing (technically, integrated graphics would handle that just fine as well), but not really for anything more than intensive gaming at low settings.

3.- How often do you use a line-in microphone? If your answer is "not at all," the combined jack doesn't affect you at all - it's just like a normal headphone jack. Lenovo combined them because users didn't like the front placement of the audio in/out on the Tx00 series but at the same time wanted even more ports. It's combined to save space.

 

1. didn't know about the DP. thanks for the info

2. how sure are you a nvs 3100M would be able to handle photoshopping just fine?

3. i rarely use it, but last week, i had to use both the mic in and speaker out at the same time. i had to test to hear if what i was recording was good.

 

because photoshop doesn't use the graphics card
sure, there are a couple filters that can use the graphics card for even faster rendering
but photoshop is mostly cpu dependent, not gpu

even integrated graphics would be more than great for photoshop!

 

ok...sounds like i'll buy it tonight. seems like for my problem #3 i'm just outa luck

now...tell me some other reasons i shouldn't buy this laptop!

 

2.- Very sure. As I said, even integrated graphics will handle it fine.

3.- If you do need to use both at one point, you could use one of these - although this particular one I linked to seems a bit overpriced.

The only other thing I would possibly be concerned about is the screen - the T410's screens aren't anything to write home about. Depending on how critical you are and what screen you're coming from, you may or may not be satisfied.

Also, if you are coming from a Tx00 Thinkpad, you may notice that the T410 might run a bit louder, possibly due to its fan having to work harder to push hot air out of the smaller heat exhaust grilles. It's still a very quiet machine overall, though, just maybe not completely silent all the time.

Other than that, the T410 seems to me to be a very solid machine.

 

what is wrong with the screen? display? build?

 

The main complaints I've seen are regarding poor viewing angles or relatively poor contrast. Haven't seen many of these complaints recently, though.

It seems the T510's display options (specifically the HD+ and FHD screens) are of higher quality, though, so if the T510's size is no object, they may be worth looking at if screen quality is important to you.

The build of the T410/T510 seems to be very solid, just as solid as the previous generation, and improved in some regards as well.

Frankly, though, you can always convince yourself not to buy any laptop, so my advice would be to check out some of the reviews of the T410 that are out there. If the T410's strengths/shortfalls match well with what you need/don't care about so much, then it's probably a good choice.

 

I like my T410 screen. Is better than all laptops I've had before.

May not be 'perfect', but I'm not a graphic designer.

Note: It can be made better than the delivery default by tweaking the settings as mentioned on another thread to brighten the colors a little. This makes it more vivid than 'out of the box'.

The built in microphones are actually very good too. I no longer use a headset for VOIP.

There are a few little irritations, but as a whole I'm very happy with it.

 

hmm now i'm thinking between t410 and t510...