Help please: T400 & X200s Screen and CPU Already bought

Need help, thinkpaders.

I ordered a X200s one week ago and it's on the way to the States. This X200s is supposed to replace my T400 back to last year, since i travel 1-2 times every month.

Occationally read an review about X301 today. They said the CPU of X301 suffered a lot from the low voltage, and the screen quality is too bad for a premium.

So, i am a little concerned about my coming X200s.

1. My T400 is LED backlit, same for the coming X200s. Can anyone who experienced both models tell me are the screen quality identical? Better than X301's right?

2. MY T400's CPU is P8400, and the coming X200s' is SL9400. Will the SL9400 suffer from low voltage? I read a rank before which indicates that P8400 is definitely better than SL9400, but dont know what about from daily performance view, such as start up, Photoshop editing, etc.

My mind is heated now. Please help. If the screen quality is the same as the T400's LED one, and SL9400 is not too far away from P8400 and way much better than SU9400, i will keep it. Or i will never open it when it comes this friday and put it on Ebay immediately.

Many thanks for those help.

 

And anyone can add a photo of size comparison between T400 and X200s like the attached?

I mainly work on word, excel, and ppt. So i dont know if the X200s' screen will be too small?

Should ask these questions earlier before i buy but it's on the plane now.

 

The SL9400 is NOT much slower than the P8400. You give up about 300MHz, but double the L2 cache, and reduce the TDP by 8 watts (improve efficiency and battery life). It is highly unlikely you will notice the difference in most applications. Additionally, the SL9400 is 460MHz faster than the SU9400, has a faster FSB, and more L2 cache.

I had a x200 with a P8600 CPU for a while, and have NEVER felt that the SL9600 in my x200 Tablet is lacking.

If you're concerned about application startup and "daily performance" I suggest you buy an SSD or a the fastest 7200 RPM drive you can find (probably the 500GB Seagate 7200.4). This will make more of a felt difference in almost all applications than core frequency.

Someone else will need to verify the screen for you. However, I believe that the x200s, T400 WXGA+ LED, and x301 are roughly on par (i.e. all are acceptable, but none are great). All three of these are identical in resolution and only differ in DPI. If the text on the x200s is too small, simply use the screen closer to your eyes or use the applications zoom feature.

Short answer: KEEP THE x200s, I think you'll love it (especially the fact that it's 1/2 the weight of the T400 with little to no sacrifices).

 

What do you mean when you say suffering from low voltage problem? I have never heard of any issues facing the cpu due to it being a low voltage other than in order to consume less power it is going to have lower clock speed than regular processors.

Also, someone correct me if I am wrong...from what I can tell both the SL9400 and the SU9400 are available only in BGA format which means that they are very likely soldered to the motherboard and not socketed which means they are essentially not upgradable.

 

Thanks.

I feel more confident about the CPU's performance now.

Just still kind of worried about the size of the screen if anyone who can help. I am a university student and need to work on a lot of papers and my future job too since i will teach and do research.

This is my coming X200s.

43Y5866 SBB INTCORE2DUO PR.SL9400(1.86
42V8012 VBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC
43Y3317 SBB GWV HOMEBASIC 32 US ENG.
43Y5867 SBB 12.1WXGA+,2X3ULTCON.ANTUWB
42X6303 VBB 1GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ1DIMM
44C5216 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
43Y5869 SBB TRACKPOINT+FINGERPRINTREAD
43Y5878 SBB 160 GB HDD, 5400RPM
44C5184 VBB SD CARD READER
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
42X5669 SBB INTEL WIMAX+3X3WIFI
44C5195 SBB THINKPADX200SER.4CELLSLIM
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
43Y5887 SBB L.PACK US ENG

 

The screen size is great for mobile and lap use. It also provides more real estate than most other options (see more of a spreadsheet, have two docs side by side, etc.).

If you're concerned about text size while working on a paper at a desk, I recommend that you buy an external LCD. You should be able to find a 20-22" LCD with either a 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 resolution for <$200. The x200s can easily drive this with the VGA port and provide extra real estate for research and content creation.

 

jonlumpkin,

What's the weight of your X200 tablet?

I just looked over Lenovo's website, and there are two upgrade options:

12.1" WideView SuperBright LED backlit WXGA panel

or

12.1" WideView MultiTouch + MultiView LED backlit WXGA panel

Do you mean the first option on yours?

Thanks for your help.

 

Yes, i do use the monitor even on my T400.

Poor eyesight.

 

I have the first option (LED backlit, without touch).

My x200 Tablet comes in at a shade under 4.0 lbs with an 8 cell battery, SSD, Bluetooth, WWAN, 4GB RAM, 8GB SDHC card, and the pen in the silo. A hard drive would weigh more (about 2 ounces in my experience) and the 4 cell battery would weigh less.