HP Defector with a question

Hey all,

I'm a current HP Envy 14 owner who's thinking about selling his Envy 14 and switching to a Lenovo. The one and only reason I'm contemplating doing this is that I can't stand this damn chiclet keyboard. My typing speed in class is only 1/2 what it once was with my Dell keyboard which I kind of miss. I hear Lenovo keyboards are top-notch. Is there a 13" or 14" Lenovo that goes for $1,000 or less with an alright resolution and good keyboard whose keys aren't spaced miles apart that you guys can recommend? The Lenovo T420 seems promising.

I have to say that I'll miss my 1600x900 resolution. However, I couldn't care less about the GPU. I don't LAN with my buddies anymore. I just need a machine for typing notes. I'll probably have to eBay my Envy.

 

No gaming, no heavy video/graphics? Don't care about GPU? Love to type on ThinkPad keyboard? 14"?

Get a T420, i3 with integrated GPU, HD+ 1600x900. The other items are easy to choose/upgrade.

Watch for discount coupons and you can certainḷy get a T420 for well under $1000.

Easy sell, this.

 

Yep. I game on my desktop replacement. I'll miss the Envy 14's thinness, but again, I can't stand the fact that my typing is sluggishly slow. At work, I can type on my standard desktop keyboard at lightning speed.

 

I think you're probably right to look at the t420. You can get the 1600x900 resolution as a $50 upgrade on this model.

 

Coolness. So how often does Lenovo release coupons? Should I favorite the NBR Lenovo thread section and check daily? I'm not looking at too many upgrades beyond screen and I plan to upgrade the wifi card via Lenovo's site if I can save money over buying the same card on eBay or Amazon. I don't really need an i5 processor though again, if I have to paid the price to be eligible for the coupon, I'll upgrade to it.

Also, how is the touchpad and its software? Does Lenovo do a good job of ensuring that the keyboard turns off while typing? Is two-finger scroll smooth?

 

There seem to be new coupon codes at least once a week, sometimes more.

 

The TouchPad software (Ultranav) has all sorts of controls for your preferences. The keyboard is the best in the industry as far as I am concerned. Still!

 

Don't want to sound like a hardass. But I'm going to need to definitively know two things before I settle on the T420

1. That palm swipes don't interfere with typing and

2. [OPTIONAL] Scrolling is done at pixel level.

If I can confirm #1, that will be a potential deal-sealer. If #1 and #2, I'm in for 1!

 

lol I like the thread title, HP defector.

Just as you know with HP, Lenovo also whitelists WLAN cards, so you will need to buy a Lenovo branded WLAN card or modify your BIOS (Lenovo branded ones are only slightly more expensive).

The HD+ screen is an absolute must and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

And welcome to the Lenovo community!

 

Oh yeah...I read about that somewhere a year back. White-listed cards. So that's what they meant. And yeah, the 1600x900 is a must for mult-taskers who divide windows into 2 sometimes

And I think this is a sign I'm no longer a heavy notebook gamer. I'm a future office worker. Need something that's built purely for work. I can't deal with chiclet keyboards.

 

You sure about that?

In all seriousness though, I don't own a T420, but I'm fairly certain that Thinkpad touchpads in general have supported general features in Synaptic touchpads such as palm check, two finger scrolling, etc. and it's a pretty smooth experience overall. The touchpad has a "dimpled" surface as well, although it's largely personal preference as to whether someone prefers it one way or the other.

Although to be perfectly honest I would be happy with any touchpad that isn't HP's horrifying implementation of a clickpad.

 

I ask in all honesty because HP DOES NOT incorporate either of these features!

I have to use Touchpad Locker to turn off the touchpad while typing. I use a Google-based touchpad software someone else else coded that turns my scrolling from mouse wheel-level scrolling to pixel-leveling scrolling. Makes a world of a difference. I'm probably going to wait until after finals to sell off my Envy 14. It's got an SSD, 8gb of RAM, and an i5-520M from the good ole' Arrandale days. After finals, it'll still have 2 years of transferable Square Trade Warranty left.

 

The T420 certainly does disable the touchpad while typing. Just confirmed.

It's the nicest laptop I've ever used (got today!) and I think I'll be a lifelong customer.

I don't quite know what you mean by scrolling per-pixel, but I feel like I can scroll well using any combination (middle mouse button + touchpad/trackpoint) and arrowkeys.

I don't know how to scroll too well with the touchpad using gestures. Never been my kind of thing.

But there is a lot of customization options to deal with the types of navigation. I'm sure it can provide you with what you're looking for.

 

What's the return policy? If they don't charge a restocking fee, I'm down for buying one, testing it out, then deciding if it suits my needs.

 

zeth,

Here are a couple of screenshots from Ultranav which is used on my w520 and the t420 you'll likely get.

One of them shows the quick access to turn the pad off if desired right from the tray area.

The second screenshot is the advanced settings and I think the constrained motion setting allows for the precision you are looking for. If you can describe a test for me, I'll look into it more fully.

 

Great. But is there a setting that allows you to automatically disable the touchpad anytime you start typing? Touchpad locker has a 750ms of delay when you hit any key. I don't like having to disable my touchpad anytime I wanna type. HP's touchpads allow you to disable the touchpad by double-tapping the top left corner. It's an extra step I'd rather not have to take.

Dunno about constrained motion. Pixel-leveling scrolling means that when you two-finger scroll, it's smooth as butter. None of this jerking motion.

 

Yes, typing locks down pointer movement and the trackpad.

Two finger scrolling smoothness is application dependent. Inside Word 2010 it's silky. Inside Acrobat it's flaky.

The Trackpad and Ultranav also allow for edge scrolling in regions of the trackpad.

 

The restocking fee is 15% I believe.

 

Sounds good so far. So how is scrolling in Chrome?

15% restocking fee is an ouchie. Wish it were 30 days no questions and no fees. I'll have to think about this long and hard!


What websites/threads do I go to for Lenovo coupons? What kind of coupons can we expect to see?

I have to say that the fact that they now use a carbon fiber composite type of construction in their chassis is a plus as it means less flex. I like the fact that they've reintroduced IBM's old school boxy design.

Just to confirm one last detail. Will I be able to hook this to my 60" back home and play 1080p blu-ray-quality movies? When I go home sometimes, I don't have much to do...

 

Yes--the T420 has DisplayPort-out, which can easily (with a <$10 adapter) be converted to HDMI or DVI, the former of which will also support audio-out.

 

Will the GPU be more than enough to support really high-quality 1080p movies with zero lag?


Sorry to repeat my question, but what are some places to visit for sweet coupons?

 

the intel gpu can certainly handle the 1080p decoding, and the nvidia gpu should also be capable of doing the decoding no lag.

 

One last question for now. Is the 1600x900 display glossy or matte?

 

matte only always

 

Pure awesome.

Real pity though. Does this mean anti-glare too? I noticed that the 1366x768 has the antiglare label next to it in the options section.

 

They're just name for marketing.

Antiglare = Matte,
Vibrantview = Glossy

 

I think the t420 would be a perfect match for you. The GPU isnt the best, but should still do a little gaming here and there.

 

I thought so. Anti-glare coating is needed only of it's glossy.

The Envy's chiclet keyboard is my main gripe. I can't stand having to raise and lower my fingers to type a word. With a keyboard like the T420's, all you require is slightly more depressing action but less raising. Hard to explain in words.


I guess that's that. Right around May 10th, I'm going to wipe out my hard drive and place it on eBay. Mean time, I need to find some websites that post coupons for Lenovos, more specifically T-series.

 

10% coupons are always available at logicbuy.com. if you are eligible for education pricing then check out their education store at Lenovo Higher Education Students. Sometimes you can get good deals there. You can also check the Visa site to see if they have deals on Lenovo computers for Visa cardholders.

Personally, I have had the best luck by dealing with one of their sales reps either via webchat or by calling the 800 number. My most recent purchase (ordered last night) was for a T420 based on the 4178-9RU which is one of their pre-configured models and which retails through costcentral.com for about $990-$1000 depending on the day. Specs for the 4178-9RU are at: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 4178 (41789RU) - Laptops / Notebooks and today's price for it is $995.


I dealt with a sales rep on the phone yesterday and we put together a machine with the same specs as the 4178-9RU for $856.03.

 

$856? Do you live in the states? What number did you call?

Hopefully California taxes don't hurt too much! I'm a student, which at best will probably alleviate them.

 

I am also considering buying the T420. X220 was tempting, but I need a big palmrest surface to reduce strain. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I know what you mean about that smooth scrolling... I spent the past hour at Best Buy just fooling around on their generic laptops. I opened up Engadget on different models and tried scrolling, ughh... not even remotely comparable to how smooth it is on the latest MacBook Pro - too bad I dislike OS X, lol.

I doubt it would be as smooth on the T420, but what can you do.

 

One other question of mine. When Lenovo ships their notebooks, do they do as HP does, which is allow for a minimal installation that keeps the factory restore partition intact? I'd like to keep the option to do a factory restore and minimal installation around if possible...

And yeah, smooth scrolling is one thing I can give up. It's not that important.

 

There's a 35-40% off deal on T420 right now, ending April 20th. In addition, there's a 10% off code when you check out, not sure when that's ending.

I just bought one for $900 shipped after tax with the following specs. Modify it to your own needs, you can definitely get one for much less if you're willing to forgo certain upgrades.

CPU: i5 2520m (You should go for the T420i with i5 2410m if processing power isn't a big concern)

RAM: 2gb DDR3 (will replace with 8gb myself)

HDD: 250gb 5400rpm (will replace with SSD myself)

Screen: 1600x900 upgrade for $50, not really an option

Trackpad: standard, no fingerprint reader

Webcam: 720p webcam b/c I need it

Smart card reader: upgraded for $10, I figured what the heck, might as well

Battery: 6 cell. If you need more juice, certainly get the 9 cell. Reviews peg the run time for the 6 cell at 6-6.5 hours.

Wifi: upgraded to Centrino Ultimate 6300N. I got the 3x3 AGN one b/c wifi around here can be spotty. Get the 6205N if you have a good network, or go w/ the free upgrade to the Centrino 1000N.

Bluetooth: got the upgrade so I can link w/ my phone.

If you get the i5 2410m, 2gb ram, 250gb hdd, no bluetooth, webcam, fingerprint reader, smart card reader, Centrino 1000N, and 6 cell battery, I'm seeing ~$800 shipped.

Link here:
Lenovo - 14" Laptop Deals

Code is on their website, just search for it under Special Deals and eCoupons.

 

Found the code, but not the 10%. Dammit. Could someone post it here?

Also, could someone tell me whether the T420s comes with USB 3.0? I may be willing to pay extra if it has it.

Talking to a rep. Tells me he could get me a better deal than the 40% off code, except that he says that the 40% code is just a 5% code off what's posted. Dunno. Made a quote, waiting for his answer.

Real pity I may end up not getting USB 3.0 as the T420s too expensive to justify USB 3.0.

Created 2 quotes. Waiting on rep to respond. I think I'm going to hit the books now.

 

It is not at all clear to me what you are doing once on the Lenovo site....but here is the coupon code for 10% off: USX10T0414

Yes, I believe that the T420s has USB 3.0 support. Check the Lenovo PSREF/TABOOK detailed T420s specs: http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf

 

Coupon not valid for T420i...

Got a price quote of $827 for my configured Lenovo. Configured it with the upgraded display, Intel 6300 card, and the webcam. That's $46 cheaper than what it would cost with the 40% off coupon. Not bad. Taxes are going to bring it back up to $900, but the price is justified. Depending on my budget, I'll end up upgrading the RAM and HDD on my own dime later.

Soooo.....does Lenovo have an option for "minimal installation" at BIOS that takes away most of the bloat, or do I need to manually uninstall everything and hope that whatever registry cleaning tool does the job?

 

Congrats...whats the config?

 

Don't wanna create a wall of text.

i5-2410m
1600x900
720p webcam
Centrino 6300 Wifi card.

 

I would create an account, make the recovery media and use it and see if you like it.

My Z61t with just 2 GB of RAM came with just an OEM install with 33 running processes and I used the Lenovo recovery media and it went to 46 and I hardly notice a difference.

And most business oriented notebook don't come with bloatware.

 

So they don't ship you recovery media either, eh? Dang PC industry.

No worries. When I have time, I'll make my own. That's interesting though. You can create it through their website? That's new to me.

Did my budgeting. I should be able to sell my Envy even with the blemishes for at least $700 conservatively. I got it for $500 after the double cashback bonanza. Upgraded it with extra RAM and an Intel G2 120gb SSD.

I know I'm full of all sorts of questions.

But say I get an SSD. Will I still be able to install recovery media onto it?

The reason I ask is that my HP notebook won't let me do so on my SSD. It thinks I'm trying to install a Windows for HP OEM license onto a non-HP computer. I wound up having to reinstall the software driver by driver. Ticks me off!

 

Yes you can use recovery media but I don't recommend it as the SSD could not be aligned properly causing decreased performance as well as a shortened life as there are excessive writes over the cells. I would recommend a clean install for an SSD.

 

Clean install with all the minimum drivers, eh? Will do. I'll start looking for driver listings after finals. Probably power up the Lenovo once to make sure it's working once it arrives then shelve it away until finals is over.

Alright, time to hit the books again.

 

I'm not sure I'm reading you right (thus my question):

Since Lenovo is building their new ThinkPads with mSATA SSD capability as well as a standard build-to-order 2.5" SSD, wouldn't the recovery discs one creates be made with this in mind, to reload the OS onto an SSD if needs be?

 

It's that, or a hybrid hard disk drive. SSDs are coming down too slowly in price. That quake in Japan pretty much delayed any price cuts industrywide for at least another half a year.

 

Newegg.com - Intel 310 Series (Soda Creek) SSDMAEMC080G2C1 mSATA 80GB mSATA (mini PCIe form factor) MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

 

The way I understood was if an SSD is not aligned properly a block of data can be in 2 different cells causing double the writes to cells, causing degraded performance as well as excessive cell degradation.

I know Intel Toolbox and some feature of Acronis can fix this.

 

So is there a way to switch the FN and Control keys?

 

Yes. Starting with the previous T410/510 generation the option for switching the keys is in the BIOS.

 

Right, although after 4 years of using a T61 and now my T400, I now actually prefer the FN-first placement.

 

I understand that part. I think I'm just confused by the way you phrased it, but let me quote again:

Wouldn't using the recovery media (I'm assuming you mean the discs you create when you first boot your ThinkPad) to reinstall on top of the SSD count as a "clean install"?

That's where I'm confused --you said you didn't recommend using recovery media, and I'm not sure how else one would reinstall their machine to put the OS on the SSD.

My 80GB mSATA SSD arrived today from the `Egg --just awaiting the T420 now.