First time Thinkpad owner, opinions.

I just received my my new T400 a few days ago, and have been playing with it for a while. This is my first Thinkpad ever, and I come from a Toshiba L25 and a Vaio N110. The specs are as follow:

- Core 2 Duo P8400
-4GB DDR3 RAM
-1440x900 LED backlit display
-160GB 7200RPM
-Intel 4500MHD/ATI 3470 256MB
-DVD-R/RW
-ExpressCard/PC Card slots
-9 cell battery
-Windows XP, upgraded to Windows Vista.

Some thoughts:

Build quality:
Nicely built, certainly way better than my previous laptops and of many I've seen. Hoewever, there are a issues: The case flexes over the optical drive, nothing serious, but worth noting. Also, there's some flex above the ExpressCard/PC Card slot. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the build quality.

Display
I'm no display expert, nor are very demanding about color accuracy, but the LED backlit display looks really good to me. By the way, my Thinkpad came with an LG screen, so I can't comment on Samsung ones. I find the resolution PERFECT for the screen size. Text is perfectly readable, and that's comming from someone who uses glasses. When looking for a Thinkpad, I was extremly worried about the display quality, but now I'm satisfied with it. At first, I intended buying it directly from Lenovo, but they ran out of the LED WXGA+ display. I ended buying a TopSeller mode 2765-33U just for the LED screen.

Keyboard
One thing that I really liked about my Toshiba keyboard was that it had no flex at all. When I got my Thinkpad, I was worried about the keyboard flex issue. My keyboard flexes when you intentionally push hard, but when typing it's a bliss. Anyway, I requested a free keyboard replacement from Lenovo, so I'm still waiting for it. Then I'll be able to compare both keyboards.

Battery
Wow! Now this is what I call awesome. I can easily get 7 - 9 hours on a full charge. There are many 12 inchers that don't get the battery life of this machine! I've noticed that I get better battery life when using Vista rather than XP, and that's using many of the default Vista services (Indexing, Superfetch, etc). That battery takes a long time to recharge. I've set the Power Manager to charge the battery for better battery lifespan.

OS
The machine came with Windows XP SP2 (yes, SP2, I had to download a bunch of updateds including SP3). I would have thought that by this time they should have included SP3 already. My machine came with a Vista COA, and tried requesting the Vista recovery CD's, but after hours spent on the phone they refused. Anyways, I ended up installing Vista by myself, and I am quite happy with it.

Performace
Impressive. This machine eats everything I throw at it for breakfast. The 7200RPM hard drive certainly helps as well as the 4GB of RAM. Also, the switchable graphics are great when you want battery life or performance. Also, the in-OS graphic switching is really great too (my main reason to switching to Vista). As for games, well, this is certainly no gaming machine. Currently I play L4D which it handles nicely at mid-high settings.

I think Lenovo has won me as a customer, Thinkpads are great machines, and I'm really sastified by my T400.

 

Congrats on your purchase!


Do you think its a little bit on heavy side?
and do you feel warm on your right hand side palmrest?

TIA

 

Hi yuhu, yes, I was quite surprised by the weight. The 9-cell really makes it heavy, but I think that has to do more by the fact that the battery un-balances the machine towards the back side.

Also, the right palmrest gets warm, especially with high disk activity. I thought it would be cooler.

 

I work on a T61 at times and I must say overall I really like it ... just too heavy for my needs, but apart from that it is a great and fast machine, runs Vists Business (I don't like Vista). Am buying an X200s this week ... need to travel a lot.

 

when did you order the T400? did you just say the keyboard had some flex and then they sent you a FREE one?

I heard after March 9th 2009 they "fixed" the issue.

I am looking to get a T400 but lenovo doesnt have the wxga+ LED anymore

 

razmatazz999,

I bought it brand new on ebay. I used the tabook to look for models that came with the LED screen. I found that the model 2765-33U had the more respectable price (around $1200 - $1300). The other models with LED screen were outrageously expensive (>$2000). I also found this model in the Provatange store.

My machine was built on November 21, 2008, so it came with the flexy keyboard. In the Lenovo forums, there's a thread discussing the keyboard flex. They had instruction on how to contact the Lenovo employees that roam the forum, and you can send them your address and machine type and serial, and they will send you a T61 keyboard. However this goes until the end of March.

 

I must also add that the TrackPoint is miles ahead of the touchpad. This was the first time I've used a TrackPoint and I have already disabled my touchpad The TrackPoint is so much better.

 

thanks for the info...hopefully when I order my T400, there issue will be resolved.

 

When choosing the "Vista Business w/ Downgrade to XP" option on the Lenovo website, it clearly states that the computer comes with Vista Business DVDs. Wouldn't you be entitled to these DVDs?

 

It is a TopSeller model. On the support website it is stated that it came with Windows XP. I told them that the only way the machine could come with XP is through the Vista downgrade program. I spent several hours with several people on their support line but they each one of them refused to send me the Vista recovery DVD's (for free or for a fee).

 

Congrats on your purchase. You will find out yourself in a couple of months how good thinkpads are. I have my X61 for a year now and I love it. I don't carry it in a special bag or sleeve, i throw it on my sofa/bed, and it really can take a beating. (i didn't pour water on the keyboard yet and I don't think I will). Enjoy it.

 

First of all congratulations on your purchase, a good choice you definitely will not regret. Second of all, the part about:

This "problem" is on pretty much any Thinkpad you buy, it won't buckle and break under pressure but you do notice it when you push down on it, on my T61p it's a very small flex. But as someone mentioned when your Thinkpad is 1year + old, you will really understand how great a laptop it is. It's never gonna fail on you Have fun with it!