Any Thinkpad T550 owners? Comments?

Hi - Everybody :-

How's the Thinkpad T550? There is very little information on this notebook, except for 1-3 videos on Youtube demonstrating battery life (not important to me) and a review from Notebookcheck (positive).

I buckled down, after a lot of researching, and decided to place my faith in (probably untrustworthy: Superfish) Lenovo. Placed an order on the T550 with the FHD display (TN panel I believe) last Friday.

Intel Core i5-5200U
500GB HDD 7200rpm
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (1 DIMM)
15.6FHD WWAN
Intel 7265 BT ACBGN
3 Yr Warranty + Accidental Damage coverage
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if anyone has this notebook, would love to hear about it. Especially with regards to the screen quality (I am not a photographer nor need it for graphic work) on the non 3k screen.

 

There's almost no information out there about this thing for some reason. It seems to be an unpopular model even though it comes better specced than the 450 and appears to have more upgradeability than the 450s. I bought one though, but not with the same screen as yours. This is my third thinkpad and it's replacing my last laptop which was a macbook pro. So far I'm really liking it. It's thinner than I expected it to be. Maybe the 15" is deemed to be not portable enough for many, but it doesn't bother me even coming from a 13" previously. The build quality seems good and overall it feels very solid. The off centered touch pad was odd at first but now I don't notice it. Performance wise, the new i5 seems plenty fast enough to me. The battery life is indeed very good. It's nice having a computer with the nipple pointer again however it seems that the touchpad has come a long way since the older thinkpads so I find myself using it most of the time anyway. I personally like having the number pad on the keyboard, always having to reach up to the top of the keyboard when doing math and inputting long decimal numbers repeatedly is frustrating. I've looked in the back and it has two slots for ram, the stock ram is in one of the slots. A few places online seem to indicate the ram is soldered in but it's definitely not.

 

Just got the laptop yesterday. Now for those reading this and wondering about the TN panel vs the $300+ IPS, bare in mind I am not into photography or video editing, but the 15.6FHD WWAN display is great. The angle of the screen does have to be right, but it isn't a big deal to me at all. Colors are good, pictures and video are good, no complaints with the screen. If most of the TN panels Lenovo uses look exaxtly like mine, reviewers on the interwebs are choosing the wrong machine for the job or something. I was kinda scared reading about how horrible the TN panels were, that Lenovo put some real junkers in there, but I simply don't see what they're talking about.

I like this laptop a lot. I got the default CPU and it is fine. It plays old console emulators (NES/SNES/SEGA/PSX1/N64) which is about as "taxing" as anything I'd ever do on this machine. Its mostly a work machine (Microsoft Office). The off center touch pad I got used to in ~15 minutes, like you also don't even think about it. The dedicated trackpad buttons are great!

10/10 for me.

 

I got the T550 last week during a 35% off sale. Comming from a T430s it lacks the outside magnesium casing. I got the 5300u with the 3k screen (which is a Panasonic). The display quality is excellent and is worth the upgrade (the display on my T430s is mediocre). Planning on either putting in a m.2 ssd or replacing the HD for a SSD.

 

I'm a developer and bought the T550 for a job i did.
It has a two core CPU, but i was mislead by the i7 5th Generation hype.
You will find no review on Youtube on elsewhere claiming that it is desk top replacement. The reviews i have seen, will not even mention it's performance in relation to the McBook Pro or the Dell XPS 15.

Why did i buy it? The Hype. Lenovo Claims it is a high-end "Business Laptop". Desktop replacement? -- well i guess i've been duped.

I should have bought the XPS 15 which similiar to the Macbook Pro 15 has a 4 core i7-4712HQ (MBP has a similiar 4 core CPU I7-4870HQ)

The CPU is an i7 "4th Generation" CPU, but it is (in my opinion) faster than the 2-core i7-XXXXU "5th Generation" CPUs, sported by the T550. I am writing this because i had colleagues with the DELL MX4800 & DELL MX3800 laptops in the office, sporting similiar "4th Generation" 4-core CPUs (their machines were purchased in 2013 & 2014) Their compile times where at least twice as fast. And my T550 had serious problems dealing with extra monitors. The T550 has an i7-5600U CPU. These CPUs (i think he U stands for "Ultra" low energy), it use less energy and allows the user more battery life.

But if they do not perform, it like driving a 5th generation Vespa because you get more gas mileage and it is quieter, than on a 4th generation BMW motorcycle.

As a developer my laptop needs CPU muscle and no heat on top, allowing the wrists to remain near the keyboard the entire day. If the fan makes a bit of noise or if i have to plug it in every 3-4 hours, it is more than worth the compromise.

Even as i write the this review, my Internet Explorer has about 15 Tabs open and i have two sessions of Visual Studio running, skype, a couple PDFs open, Word is Open. And the mouse freezes on me. It is slow.

My MBP is also opened on my desk -- similiar load. It has no Problem. It makes some fan noise sometimes. So what. Better that it freezing up on me because of the load.

 

The function keys are also tiny and tinier than the previous X230T, W500, W400 lenovo models i had. This part of the T550 keyboard is definitely toy like buildt. Odd to use.

It makes working with the function keys (used in different contexts, by eg software developers when debugging and others) quite cumbersome.

Also (software developer) colleagues who have 4 core cpu laptops (from 2013 & 2014) (as i commented elsewhere too) have laptops that are much faster (my T550, state of the art 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD, i7 CPU 5600U) has a 2 core cpu and is much slower ... freezes a lot

 

The T550 has also problems with its high pixel screen (coughs sometimes on it ... picture freezes and the like ..depending on the general load on the cpu)... and connecting an additional monitor is really asking for trouble.

 

How's the built quality of the T550 vs T540? I bought the T540 but returned it. It felt a bit flimsy more like the Edge series than a real, old school ThinkPad.

 

Can someone explain to me why with all of the options for configuring a T550, Lenovo doesn't offer a keyboard without the numpad that is centered?

It seems to me like this would be an easy thing to do and make many customers happy.

 

Yeah, I don't get it either. If you want a 15in with numpad, there are (and have always been) hundreds of options. So lenovo is a little late to the game, that could explain why apparently nobody has a T/W550. The 15in w/o numpad people (like myself, unfortunately), which have bought lenovos in the past will probably go 14in now, and then there are hundreds of options again.

 

So far still enjoying my T550. For my needs, I don't need anything faster. 10+ tabs Mozilla, Open Office, Skype, and music is about the most stress on the system that I place on it and it all works just fine. And it plays my emulators -- even PS1 is really nice.

 

So anyone can share something about the screen? Is the FHD screen matte finished? I am interested in this laptop but worried about eye strain. I am currently returning retina 13" because my eyes just can't stand it. Should I just get the HD screen?

And how much battery life you guys get from T550?

 

I don't know what is going on with the T550, but here is my experience...
I bought a T550 for my wife primarily because it has a number pad. I ordered a loaded i7, touch screen, and solid state HD. It arrived and she used it a couple times. We were out of town for a week, and when we returned it wouldn't start. It was unplugged while we were gone, so I'm guessing the battery was completely drained.

After trouble shooting with Lenovo tech support, they concluded it was a bad system board. The quickly shipped a replacement from China.

Our replacement has worked fine after several uses. Again, it sat unplugged and unused for a week or so and again it is dead. I can't get it to start. Now I have to contact Lenovo again.

 

It seems that you should have bought T540p not T550.

 

I think Lenovo is not that late - not hundreds of options - only dozens