Can't decide between T400s or X201i

I'm buying a second laptop, and shortlisted these two, T400s and X201i.

What I like about the T400s are the screen, roomier is always a good thing, plus it has higher resolution which is very very useful when I need to process pictures in Lightroom; bigger touchpad, too, I'm fine with the trackpoint but lazy scrolling with the touchpad is hard to beat.

The downsides are the bigger size, most of the time I'm working at the desk so size doesn't matter, but when I go to a press conference or live reporting from an event, it does. Currently I'm using a MacBook Air, which isn't small but very light so I can use it at a very arkward position if I can't find something flat and stable enough to put it on. The T400s is about a pound heavier than the Air so that might not be possible.

Also, the T400s can't use big battery (am I right?) so 6-7+ hours working without charging is not possible, I prefer not to bring any spare batteries.

About the X201i, it has Core i3 CPU which I really like, I want something more powerful than the Air, of course i3-330M isn't that fast (if any) compare to the SP9400 in the T400s but its Westmere microstructure makes me drool over it. It also have the possibility of using large battery enough for like 8 hours plus which I love.

So, I got this offer for these two notebook for the same price of $1099 (all kind of taxes and shipping fee included, I'm from Vietnam) and still can't decide which to buy.

I love my MacBook Air, but I need something more powerful for Lightroom, also I want something that can last for over 6 hours.

Buy both is an option, but I don't think it's a good idea to have three notebooks for myself, I would like to buy just one of them.

 

The T400s is 2801-AQU and the X201i is 3249-J2U if that's helpful.

Any input is greatly appreciate, thanks in advance.

 

I would buy the x201i because of the battery life and that it has a normal 2.5in hdd. I would only consider any computer with 1.8" hdd only if it is a ssd or I going going to upgrade it very soon.

 

You said that you need lots of battery life => x201i or even x200i

 

I will upgrade to SSD immediately, X25-M or X18-M.

Err... I edited my post, I want something that can last over 6 hours, I don't really need it. I prefer not to bring the spare battery but occasionally when it's critical to stay on I will have to.

What I really need is a powerful machine for Lightroom processing and bigger screen with higher resolution of the T400s is very nice.

 

if you are going to use CPU intensive tasks all day, i don't think the X201i would last that long even when you max out the battery option.

 

No, I don't use any resource hogger when I'm mobile, several browser tabs and several text files usually.

I just got CineBench benchmark results of the SP9400 CPU in the T400s, it's strangely slow when on battery, like 50% of its result when on AC adapter. Is it normal?

 

is that under battery saver or performance mode?

 

You could buy the ultrabay battery for the t400s.

 

I have no information about that, only the results (CineBench R10):

more like 25% to me, I said 50% above, sorry about that.

 

Are you using XP or Vista?

Under Thinkvantage Power Manager;

You can change the power manager mode to run the laptop when under battery with full CPU load. Try it first.

 

There's no complain about T400s performance by now, so I think it's not a common bug. It's may be caused T400s's owner had the laptop switched to maximize battery life, which in return, is performance penalty. Tell him to run the benchmark again (on battery), and make sure that the laptop is running on high performance mode. I'm pretty sure that the score will not significantly different from running on AC Adapter.

 

Thank you all, I decided to take the X201i, realized that I have just sold my one month old Dell Adamo partly because of its weight (4lbs) I don't think I will feel comfortable with it. Of course with 9 cell battery when I need it the X201i will weight around 3.5lbs but I won't have to use it everyday, plus when I have to carry the extra weight I know that it will last long, that might lighten the machine a bit.