Confused between R or SL...

Hi,

i am planning to acquire new R400. I am split between R400 or SL400. Could anyone give me breakdown differences between them?

I saw the physical unit in my office. It seem SL series look more appealing, you know, with the glossy lid and red LED lamp on the Thinkpad logo. I havent touched any of them though.

Some opinion i red here unfavorable toward SL series. Could anyone elaborate please?

A guy from my office advise me to choose SL series though. Because he thinks R series is sort of a "castrated" T series. You better get SL or directly jump to T. Never choose the middle man.

 

SL series is thicker, doesn't have roll cage, generic touchpad instead of the synaptics model...overall just lower build quality.

 

The R400 does have a few more "enterprise" like features such as 32-byte pre-boot password & BIOS port lock-down, offers SmartCard option, full disc encryption of hard drive. It's also slightly better built, having a roll cage internally while the SL series does not. And the R400 has a ThinkLight while the SL400 does not.

That said, the SL400 has its advantages. Glossy screen, probably more attractive with the glossy lid (depends on your taste), it has an HDMI port that the R400 does not (R400 has DisplayPort, which seems to be dying as a standard, Lenovo has indicated future ThinkPads will have HDMI) and best of all the SL400 is cheaper.

 

Wow, thank you for the fast reply. I didnt know that SL does not have a roll cage. For HDMI i think it is not that important know.

How about multimedia quality such as the speaker? Being a business unit, does R400 have better speaker than SL400 or vice versa?

Thanks again.

 

I like the R series better, but I don't like the glossy cases or screen. I would say it's more than slightly better built. It also has docking station option, which the SL does not.

 

R series built quality is worth the small price difference .

 

The R-series is essentially a slightly bulkier T-series with not-as-high-end CPUs and especially GPUs. It does, however, maintain the typically great build quality of the Thinkpad series. The SL series is even bulkier, especially the SL400 and SL500, and in general has slightly inferior build quality.

I'd say its only advantage over the R-series is HDMI-out instead of DisplayPort-out (which, in the Intel Montevina platform, cannot take audio out, although the digital video out can be easily converted to HDMI).

 

The SLs are a consumer build, and although they feature general ThinkPad styling, just aren't them on the inside.

The R series isn't a T, but you see that by the price. Getting the R recommended.

 

If you want a ThinkPad, get the R.

 

R400. I still dont understand how the glossy casing and dodgy LED can appeal to people.