layman's review of a T410

Layman’s review of a T410

First of all let me tell you what my system specs are.
Processor: i5-520m
Ram: 4GB DDR3
Screen: WXGA
Graphics: Integrated Intel
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
HDD: 250GB (5400rpm)
Wifi card: thinkpad BGN
Battery: 6cell
Cost: $900 (everything included)

To give you a little background, I have been a hard core Dell enthusiast for the past so many years due to budget constraints (as a result of being a college student) and, also because of the good value for money that dell offered.
Since I graduated and started working last year, the need for a more up-to-date laptop gradually started to increase. Last year my friend bought a T500 and that’s when my love for thinkpads was cultivated. This might sound silly but I just loved the “thinklight” and subconsciously I think, this reason, swayed me in favour of the thinkpad over my other choices.

Build quality:
Overall the build quality feels solid but, the loose battery and the creaking palm rest takes away some of the glory. I find the loose battery more annoying than the creaking palm rest to be honest. I read somewhere in this forum that the battery is loose as a fail safe measure in case you drop the laptop but I still find it annoying. Its not a deal breaker by any means but, after reading so much about thinkpad quality, solid feel, ruggedness, toughness etc… I feel it was a slight let down.

Performance:
Coming from a pentium M processor, this thing is screaming fast. The system boots up in 45 seconds, programs load faster, everything is just FAST!!!

I don’t game at all. The only causal gaming I do is limited to to my iphone. Therefore the intel integrated graphics was the obvious choice for me. The only graphic intensive thing I was going to do on my T410 was watch high def movies and watch high def videos online which the T410 managed to more than satisfactorily with no stutter whatsoever.

The screen (WXGA in my case) leaves a little to be desired as far as color reproduction goes but otherwise I am a happy camper. Initially I was concerned about the less screen real estate with the WXGA especially since I work with a lot of excel files but after a few comparisons with a WXGA+ I found that at the most I would lose 2 to 3 vertical columns on an excel sheet. The multitouch pad kind of offers a solution to this in that I can zoom out while I’ve opened an excel file and get more of the spreadsheet on the screen.
EDIT: The screen is super bright, almost too bright. I never have felt the need to use it at full brightness while indoors. On a couple of occasions however when I pulled out the laptop outdoors in bright daylight the extra brightness+ matte screen came in real handy. My colleagues hp dv4t screen was a nightmare with the glossy screen.

I was never really picky about keyboards to begin with but the thinkpad keyboard is really quite nice. I never cared about flex before but after typing on the T410 I have come to appreciate the nice feeling of a good keyboard. I finally get why so many people rave about thinkpad keyboards. I like that the keyboard is spill resistant as well. I have never spilled anything on any of my previous keyboards (and nor do I plan to) but my brother has on his hp dv4t and now it lies under his bed waiting to be thrown out.

One of the best things I love about my T410 is how cool it runs. Compared to my former dell and my girlfriend’s hp this thing is heavenly. I can keep it on my lap for hours and watch a movie, get my work done and not once has it heated up to a point where it has got uncomfortable. Even when it does heat up the only area that seems to heat up considerably is the panel which you remove to upgrade the memory/access the keyboard screws. Not only is this good for me but as I learned during my research its good for the overall lifespan of the laptop as well.

Battery life is great as well though more often than not I have my T410 plugged in. The few times I did run on battery I easily got 4+1/2 to 5 hours on my 6 cell on “energy star” mode.

The thinkpad BGN wifi card has served me well so far with no dropped connections or anything of the sort.

The larger than usual textured multitouch pad took a little getting used to but after you get over the initial “unintended zooming in and zooming out” you learn to love it for the different options (two finger scrolling etc) it gives you.

Thinklight. LOVE IT!!! While it may not be as visually appealing as a backlit keyboard its far more practical. Not only does it illuminate the keyboard but also gives enough light to read a document in a dark environment. It’s one of the coolest features I love about the T410 and everybody I showed it to fell in love with it too. It’s such a simple feature yet it offers so much real world practicality.

For those who are interested I got a score of 4.6 in the windows experience index.

I guess that’s about it. Pardon the grammatical, spelling and technical errors I may have made.

Feel free to correct me where I may have erred and finally I hope this helps someone out there looking to buy a T410 with similar specs to mine, a first time thinkpad buyer or someone who does not have an extensive technical knowledge such as myself.

 

Thanks for your impressions. I'm anxiously waiting for mine to arrive.

 

nice review

 

Never have I heard anyone who is so crazy about the ThinkLight lol. Does it really have that much practicality? Because the only time I find it useful/working right is when the room is COMPLETELY dark which is like 0.000001% of the time. And even then the ThinkLight mostly covers the top keys only (which probably make sense considering that most people probably don't have those keys memorized).

And I agree with you on the battery being a bit loose. I don't like that either.

 

Very nice. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the responses guys!!!
Talin, you will have a blast with your T410s and NeeGo, true you only use the thinklight in absoloute darkness which like you mentioned is 0.0000001% of the time but it makes that 0.00000001% time AWESOME!!!
I use it mainly when I stay up working on something after my girlfriend has hit bed, which is almost everyday.

 

Plus the thinklight is just fun to turn on and off.

 

Thanks for your review...well done. Like your friend I have the T500 (first Thinkpad) and love it......no complaints.

 

Well that depends on the angle at which you have your LCD. You can adjust it to get better coverage, though that may not be ergonomically correct for you at that angle (and with the relatively narrow viewing angles, it might also obscure your view of the screen).

But yes, I agree with you that it's not a vital feature at all.

 

That's true!!!! How very true!

 

Drake437 - The T500 is indeed a really good laptop (stating the obvious I know... ) The only reason I didn't get something similiar in size is because I have to lug around my laptop quite a bit and from my previous experience with a 15.4 inch system I found it to be tedious.
Jaredy - You just gave me another reason/method to enjoy my thinklight
I already flicked it on and off a few times after reading your post and it is FUN!!!

On a different note, what do you guys do about all the dust that accumulates? I find that I have to wipe my T410 down every couple of days (key board, palmrest, screen)

 

Yeah my ThinkPad is like a dust magnet too. I deal with it by using microfiber cloth and compressed air can.

I also noticed that the keys (particularly the spacebar) are starting to shine a little at an angle from normal usage despite owning the laptop for only a month. I was hoping that it didn't happen so soon.

 

NeeGo, the shine on the spacebar might actually be because of oily residue on your fingertips. On a couple of occassions after I had moisturized my hands and used my laptop I noticed the same thing. I either wipe it down with a clean piece of cloth or wipe it off with a pre moistened lens cloth.