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    Lenovo ThinkPad L420 Review Discussion

    Discussion in 'Notebook News and Reviews' started by Charles P. Jefferies, Jun 2, 2011.

  1. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2015
    Charles P. Jefferies, Jun 2, 2011
    #1
  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    It's interesting to compare this with my Thinkpad T420s. The big difference is highlighted by the side views. The L420 looks almost obese. However, one benefit of that thickness is that it most likely has a larger fan with the benefit of less obtrusive fan noise when under load.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jun 2, 2011
    #2
  3. coldmack

    coldmack Notebook Virtuoso

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    Is L420 the same thickness as the T420?
     
    coldmack, Jun 2, 2011
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  4. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    I've always thought the SL/L-series were "unnecessarily thick"... the plus side is, most users have reported that the systems run very cool and quiet. With the SL-series, there were some concerns of flexing--glad it seems the L-series has rectified that.

    Nice review as always, Charles!

    No, not even close. In fact, the maximum thickness of the T420 (at the rear) is thinner than the thinest part of the L420 (at the front) :p

    T420: 1.18"-1.20"
    L420: 1.26"-1.42"
     
    MidnightSun, Jun 2, 2011
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  5. coldmack

    coldmack Notebook Virtuoso

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    Wow that is thick
     
    coldmack, Jun 2, 2011
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  6. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    On the whole I enjoyed reviewing this laptop, but the screen res and battery life prevents me from getting too excited about it.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Jun 2, 2011
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  7. Pylon757

    Pylon757 Notebook Evangelist

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    The thickness might have to do with the plastic construction - in order to retain rigidity with an all plastic frame they probably had to make things thicker.
     
    Pylon757, Jun 2, 2011
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  8. Ahbeyvuhgehduh

    Ahbeyvuhgehduh Lost in contemplation....

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    Hmm ... battery life kinda killed it for me too ... but it is nice to see the build quality and keyboard as good as reported! Also liked the cool temps too.
     
    Ahbeyvuhgehduh, Jun 7, 2011
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  9. Fomrats

    Fomrats Newbie

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    Ask about ThinkPad L420?

    Battery life, notebook size, quiet work, procesor speed are perfect, but software and originally installed RAM make a horrow story for me.

    When I work on my L420 I remember the 90s on my Pentium I with 133 MHz or *486. The reason is 2 Gb RAM that is default for this model is CRITICALLY to low, especially for legitime Win7 that was preinstalled on this PC.

    All the time notebook work average with 80% physical memory usage without any software running except Internet explorer or legitime MS Word. Besides there aren`t any software installed except MS Office I mention before. There aren`t any viruses or any other &^*$.

    Originally installed Synaptics touchpad software is another horrow story because it eat about 1/3 of RAM and is not responding 3 to 5 times per week.

    Why I must waste my time to search for additional 2Gb RAM for the new notebook? Where is the voice of quality of ThinkPad as trustful business notebook?

    Next time I will choose Mac!
     
    Fomrats, Nov 21, 2011
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  10. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    Fomrats, what I suggest doing is wiping the hard drive and re-installing Windows. Then only install the essential things (drivers). Notebook manufacturers like to pre-load their notebooks with an excessive amount of software. ThinkPads are no exception ... most of the management tools are not used by regular users (and even business users).

    2GB of RAM is more than enough for casual usage of Windows 7. I ran that combo with my old notebook and it was fine. You can easily add more memory ... 4GB sticks aren't expensive, you can add one to the empty RAM slot on your notebook for a total of 6GB.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Nov 21, 2011
    #10