Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 Review

by Jerry Jackson

The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is the latest addition to the ThinkPad family and promises to offer features and performance at a fraction of the cost of other ThinkPads. Lenovo's new IdeaPad line of notebooks might give consumers plenty of attractive options, but The new SL series is the first line of small business notebooks designed with ThinkPad styling at an affordable price. Is there more here than just traditional ThinkPad shape and a low price? Our full review of the SL400 shows why this laptop might (or might not) be perfect for you.

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Our ThinkPad SL400 has the following specifications:

• Processor: 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS 256MB
• Screen: 14.1" WXGA, Anti-glare (1280x800, 200nit)
• Memory: 2GB(up to 4GB configurable)
• Storage: 160GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)
• Optical Drive: Dual layer CD/DVD recordable drive
• Wireless and Communications: Intel 4965AGN (802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi), BlueTooth 2.0 EDR
• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion
• Dimensions: 13.2" x 9.7" x 1.3"-1.5&quot
• Weight: 5.5lbs with battery
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
• Warranty: 1-year

The pricing on the SL400 starts at around $799. As configured, the price of our review unit of the ThinkPad SL400 is $1,119. While that puts it above the range of most "budget" laptops, this configuration does offer a new Intel "Montevina" processor, and dedicated graphics card at a reasonable price. Needless to say, this is one of the more budget-friendly ThinkPads on the market. More to the point, Lenovo has gone out of its way to give you multiple reasons to consider the SL series over the competition.

Build and Design

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The ThinkPad SL400 is quite solid in terms of build quality, though the plastics used in the chassis construction do give in to some case flex when squeezed. The entire chassis exterior is plastic and while the appearance is nice, the "feel" of the notebook is a little less rugged than we've come to expect from ThinkPads. Unlike with the other ThinkPads, you don't get a double latch mechanism with button release to make sure the screen is held down when it is closed and being carried. Instead, the SL400 uses hinge tension to hold the screen in place.

Speaking of the tension hinge, the hinge on our review unit didn't provide nearly as much tension/resistance as we would have liked. Specifically, if you pick up the base of the SL400 and lightly shake the base of the notebook forward and back the screen will "flap" forward and back as you shake the notebook.

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The glossy black plastic display cover is probably the most interesting design element on the SL400. Lenovo also decided to modify the traditional ThinkPad logo by adding a small red LED to the dot above the "i" in ThinkPad. I suppose someone still thinks "bling is the thing" in the world of small business. In any case, this certainly isn't a boring ThinkPad.

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Expandability and expansion are pretty simple with this chassis design. The two access panels on the bottom of the notebook provide access to the wireless cards, RAM, processor and graphics. The side panel on the opposite side of the optical drives allows you to swap out the hard drive for a replacement drive.

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Input and Output Ports

The number of ports the SL400 has is fairly good and certainly much better than the average budget notebook designed for small business. Here's a run down of the ports:

• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• Firewire
• ExpressCard slot
• Gigabit Ethernet and modem
• 5-in-1 multi-card reader
• Audio out, microphone in
• VGA monitor out
• HDMI (video and audio)
• Kensington lock slot

About the only thing you might consider "missing" on this notebook is an eSATA port. Since eSATA is rapidly becoming a new standard for external data storage, it would have been nice to see an eSATA port on the side of the SL400. On the other hand, it may only be a matter of time before we see USB 3.0 ports that surpass the performance of eSATA.

There's also no option for a docking station, you have to go with a USB-based port replicator (or ExpressCard/34) to get the additional ports you would want at a desk. Obviously engineers had to make design trade offs and you can't have it all on a notebook in this price range. Personally, I feel like the SL400 provides an excellent balance of ports for its size and cost.

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Performance and Benchmarks

Although it's nice that Lenovo is bringing a small business solution to the market for less than $800, the price wouldn't matter if the SL400 can't provide great performance for your dollar.

The Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor in our review unit provided ample processing power and never presented any problems when running applications or encoding video and audio files. The synthetic benchmarks below suggest the P8400 processor is one of the more capable processors from Intel and should satisfy the needs of any business professional.

Likewise, the NVIDIA 9300M GS dedicated graphics card with 256MB of RAM allows you to play most average games at a reasonable frame rate. This certainly isn't the laptop designed to play Crysis, but you'll have enough power to handle 1080p Blu-ray movies and some games (during non-work hours, of course).

Let's take a look at a few basic benchmarks so you can get an idea of how the SL400 stacks up.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, this processor benchmark program is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, it measures the amount of time to run a set amount of calculations.

wPrime comparison results (lower scores means better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.628s
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	40.759s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240s
Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	42.385s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
Alienware M5750 (Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz)	38.327s
HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s

PCMark05 is a benchmark that measures the overall system performance, so it considers the processor, hard drive, memory and OS as part of the mix. The ThinkPad SL400 once again fairs pretty well with this benchmark:

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	5,173 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	2,211 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	1,599 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	545 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv6500z (2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, NVIDIA 8400m GS)	1,551 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	4,332 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

HDTune storage drive performance results:

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Screen

The 14.1" WXGA, Anti-glare (1280 x 800) is nice and reasonably bright at 200nit brightness, color, contrast, and viewing angles are all good. More importantly, the display on our review unit uses a anti-glare matte finish ... something important to many business professionals and something we're glad to see.

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Like most budget laptop displays, the screen on the SL400 does suffer from some minor color inversion at the lower vertical viewing angles ... but this is rarely a problem unless your laptop is resting on a desk and you're looking at the screen from down on the floor.

Keyboard and Touchpad

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The keyboard on the ThinkPad SL400 has zero flex and excellent key travel with quiet presses. The keyboard is remarkably similar to the keyboards on the older ThinkPad R-series notebooks. There's little to complain about here from a functional standpoint. Sure, it's not the most attractive keyboard on the market ... but it works great. Of course, the SL400 wouldn't dream of calling itself a ThinkPad if it didn't include the iconic red Trackpoint pointing stick in addition to the standard touchpad.

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The palm rest area is pretty plain: it has a matte black finish so it both feels and looks nice. It's very smooth and the touchpad is nicely textured with a responsive surface. Lenovo also decided to include the standard fingerprint reader for those businesses concerned with security.

Speakers and Audio

The built-in speakers are ... well ... average built-in speakers. In short, the speakers are small, underpowered, and produce tiny sound with plenty of highs and acceptable mid range but almost no bass. This is similar to what we've seen from other laptops in this class such as the Dell Vostro 1510 and Toshiba Satellite Pro L300. In other words, this ThinkPad is designed for small business and consumers who want a laptop that isn't flashy. Don't expect amazing speakers in this type of notebook.

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On the bright side, the headphone jack produced distortion-free audio and works perfectly for earphones or external speakers.

Heat and Noise

The ThinkPad SL400 does a good job keeping heat under control. Even when the system was under stress during the performance benchmarking tests the SL400 remained relatively cool. Most users certainly won't have any trouble using this as a "laptop" since the these low heat levels won't cause any discomfort to your lap. Below are the external temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

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Noise was never an issue with the SL400, and this is one of the quietest notebooks we've seen (or rather heard) in this class. The system fan is extremely quiet, the hard drive rarely makes a peep even when it's actively writing data, and the DVD drive is fairly quiet (though not as quiet as some tray-loading DVD drives we've seen. In other words, the ThinkPad SL400 won't disturb your coworkers or the person seated next to you on a long flight.

Battery Life

With the notebook power settings in "balanced" mode, wireless on and the screen brightness set to 50 percent, the SL400 drained it's full battery after 3 hours and 13 minutes. Interestingly, Lenovo's proprietary Power Manager software accurately monitored the power consumption during the course of the battery test as the estimated battery time remaining changed depending on the level of activity. The battery life estimate jumped between a little more than four hours (when the notebook was left idle) to a little less than two hours when I was typing Word document and opening several applications at the same time.

While road warriors will cerrtainly want more battery life than what the SL400 has to offer, the notebook does a reasonable job in terms of travel power and provides battery life similar to the competition in this class.

Conclusion

Overall, there is a lot we can say in favor of the ThinkPad SL400. Lenovo is offering a solid budget ThinkPad for only $799 and also offering pre-configured models with better performance and features for $1,249 or less. That said, like most notebooks in the small business class, the SL400 suffers from cheap plastics used in the chassis construction, weak built-in speakers, and an overall build that is slightly thicker and heaver than needed.

As it stands now, there are a number of reasons you might want to pick up an SL400 rather than a similar notebook from the Dell Vostro lineup or Toshiba Satellite Pro line. That said, diehard ThinkPad owners might criticize the glossy lid, lack of lid latch, and the type of plastics used in some places. The performance of our test configuration suggests the SL400 packs enough raw power to satisfy most small business owners, but it's clear that the new SL series isn't the same ThinkPad we've seen before.

Pros:

• Affordable price

• ThinkPad quality keyboard and trackpoint

• Good screen (matte option is great)

• Solid performance

• Nice pre-configured options

• Stays cool and quiet
  

Cons:

• Thick and boxy overall

• Weak speakers

• Glossy lid is a magnet for fingerprints and dirt

• Plastics are thin and weak in some places

• Weak hinge tension on display lid

 

Nice review!

But I don't get the thinkpad feel from the SL's. Which is a bit sad. Though I would go for this over a vostro, especially one of the new ones (1510/1710).

 

HAHAA they resign from screen lath ! LOL .... now they are selling really bad and cheap stuff (and it is not about Price). Now - if You are serious user - Dell and HP are only options. Jeeez just don't glorify (overpriced) Mac's after my comment.

 

Or you buy a proper T or X series Thinkpad.

 

thanks for the review!

 

Meh, this ThinkPad just doesn't do it for me.

The screen hinge redesign reminds me of the design the old, OLD Compaqs had.

I'm glad that's only on this model, 'cause as a T61 owner, I'd be a bit saddened to see such a change to the ThinkPad line like that.

Keep this the "budget" ThinkPad design and I'll be happy. Keep it away from the other, higher-end ThinkPads...

 

looks pretty bad..

 

Actually, I think there's a lot to complain about from a functional standpoint. It's a 6-row keyboard layout instead of the standard 7-rows that have been on ThinkPads for years. Back to hunting and pecking.

 

Yeah, I noticed that as well.

I'm so used to my 7-row keyboard on my ThinkPad that when I use virtually any other keyboard, it takes me at least an hour to adjust.

I don't know why Lenovo insists on changing the ThinkPad in such odd ways. Yes, we know change is nice, however, the ThinkPad is a line that's know for consistency. It's a business system. Corporations don't look for change in such things.

 

Nice timely review!

I still do not understand why lenovo is taking the risk of introducing so many design changes into the Thinkpad line. This laptop is a mixed bag. One gripe about this notebook is that the build quality is not as good as the higher end Thinkpads (chasis flex and hinge), and I personally wouldn't care about the glossy back cover or that lighted dot on the "i". I do like the inclusion of HDMI and 4 USB ports instead of the 3 found on the T61, as well as the performance.

 

To gain more market share? Come on, it's clear that R/T/W/X can't compete with a dell vostro when dealing with the small business or even individuals who seek a business level treatment on their laptop.

They are not changing the thinkpad (if they really want to change then they will change the T series too). They want to make more money, and it's normal.

So, who cares if corporations wont buy this and will buy a Tx00 instead? This laptop is not build with corporation in mind. And if lenovo finds out that the SL series doesn't really sell on the small business market, they will just discontinue it.

Once again, does the R/T/W/X changed? Not really. So they don't take any risk. They are trying to expand their market share.

If you don't care about its features, then it's not for you. Don't buy it? However, there are people who will buy it. If not dell vostro wont exist.

 

And this warrants the keyboard change? And glossy look? And redesigned hinges, which look about 10 years old?

I don't happen to think so.

 

Does thinkpad R/T/X changed? No. So should we care? No.

 

The SL-series seems to cut corners from the R, T, and X series ThinkPads, and yet its price is no bargain. Search, and you will find T61's in the same price range as the tested SL400.

As with others, I don't really understand Lenovo's marketing strategy. It looks as if they want to be in every competitive market segment. For example, their R61-series is now very close to the T61 except for the case material. The R61-series now has the rubberized top as well. I recently purchased an R61i from Newegg for only $649, and that's with some pretty nice specs and a Core 2 Duo.

 

1: Sure you can find a T61 at the same price as a SL400. I can also find a T43 at the price of a dell inspiron. Very bad comparaison.

2: Of course. How can you gain market share if you are not everywhere?

 

I really don't understand #1. Bad comparison . . . why? Buying a superior T61 at the same price or less than a pedestrian SL400, it seems to me that anyone, especially those who are informed, would opt for the T61 anytime. Frankly, it's a no brainer. Why spend $1,100+ on an SL-series when you can get the real thing for less or equal to?

And, #2 . . . IBM, and initially Lenovo, never were concerned with market share per se. They were only interested in manufacturing the finest laptop available. Not anymore - they want to be everything to everybody. Perhaps, this is simply the reality in today's world.

 

1: Because in a few weeks, T61 will be replaced by T400 and T500. So you are comparing an outdated model to a fresh model. SL400 is a montevina laptop while T61 is a santa rosa laptop.

If you really want to compare, compare SL400 to T400 (when it will be released).

2: "never were concerned with market share per se"
Lol.
By definition, there is no enterprise around the world who don't care about money. More market share=more money.

 

I think you are all overlooking the fact when you mention "overpriced" that all new montevina laptops are around this price "or more" , also, isnt this the mainstreem series?

 

Any word on when the new T series will be released?

Looks like the SL400 just barely falls short.

Thanks for the review

 

Man...I can't stand that stupid tension hinge design. And that LED i light, why Lenovo? I can tolerate the glossy lid, plastic material, and possibly the new keyboard layout, but I'm definitely skipping over this model.

With that said, thanks for the thorough review, Jerry.

 

nice detailed review! funny that some people say that they don't like the look of it when visually it looks identical to the same old design which is loved by many...

 

Regardless, it seems not many other share your view.

In short, they didn't have to make said design change.

 

Who knows? Can you predict the future?

Time and money will decide if lenovo was right or wrong. If they are right, then the design change is justified. If they are wrong, then they will purge the SL series.

Complainers are always a vocal minorities.

And do I really care if I'm alone? Copernicus was pretty much alone too.

 

Not really... if you compare with the T60, the SL400
1. is a lot thicker
2. has glossy lid
3. has a trapezoidal profile

One of the design elements that I really like about the T60 is the rectangular profile (Macbook and Macbook Pro also share this feature). I just find it more aesthetically pleasing.

 

You guys are idiots. It's not a T-series thinkpad. Why cry?

 

Hey ... let's be nice and avoid posts that might be considered trolling or just plain rude. ThinkPad is a very iconic brand and there are plenty of ThinkPad loyalists. (Sometimes I'll jokingly refer to them as "ThinkPad fanboys" but it's with the understanding that EVERY manufacturer has their own "fanboys" ... even the Everex Cloudbook.)

Back to my point ... I think people are upset because Lenovo took "some" of the elements of the iconic ThinkPad design and merged it with a cheap consumer laptop to create something for small business users that will compete directly with the Dell Vostro line and Toshiba Satellite Pro line.

It was one thing for Lenovo to take some risks in terms of design with the 3000 series or the IdeaPads, but if you mess with the ThinkPad design you have to be VERY careful unless you want to upset those loyal ThinkPad fans.

This notebook certainly isn't horrible if you look at it compared to the new Vostros or Satellite Pros. More to the point, I'd "personally" buy this before I'd buy a Dell Vosto. However, putting the name "ThinkPad" on the notebook changes the customer expectations and this notebook runs into trouble when you compare it side-by-side with the other ThinkPads.

 

Pretty true. As a ThinkPad fanboy-neophyte (or maybe fanperson? - JerryJ?) I think the X series is the only genuine ThinkPad and all those other T-R-Z-W ones are only the compromises imposed by market

 

Nevertheless, and no, I'm not done stressing this, the changes aren't needed.

Cost to them is basically the same. So why not keep the design? It can easily compete with a Vostro or a Satellite Pro without having to implement a design that looks as if it was from the early 2000s.

Don't take the ThinkPad name and slap it on a "prosumer" system.

 

Well, now, I must agree.

They should have used a T or R chasis/design without the rollcage, to make it cheaper.

But apart from the chasis/design, the keyboard actually did it. Maybe it would have been more acceptable if it's the same keyboard layout.

 

Let's not forget, Lenovo tried once before to target the small business market that the Dell Vostro is in - anyone here remember the Lenovo 3000 Series?
...anyone want to?

 

Why are you guys complaining so much ? . If you don't like it, don't buy it. There are the T/R/W/X down the road....

 

Maybe they are simply afraid that once Lenovo "has spoilt" one ThinkPad, it won't stop...

 

Because some people can't stand the standard thinkpad design?

edit: in fact, my biggest fear is that the SL400 does not have enough changes, because there is the possibility that some people still dislike it because of the blue used on the enter key(maybe they should have used something like azure, but I'm just guessing).

 

I'm not going to buy it but from my standpoint the stuff lenovo has been doing lately isn't impressive.

 

Say: "Lenovo, don't be so square!" :wink:

 

Apart from its cheap build quality, do you think the performance/price ratio is good compared to the other notebooks available on the market?

Seemed to be it did pretty good, but I'm not the expert here

 

Thanks for the review.

Why is this called a Thinkpad?! This looks like almost the same as the worst Vostro models from Dell. This is so ugly. Who would buy this kind of laptop? Price is not competetive, design doesn't look sturdy, they shouldn't name this as a Thinkpad. Should name it plain Lenovo SL400.

I think Dell's and Acers are much better for performance/price ratio.


BTW, I own a thinkpad x61 tablet for a year now.

 

I agree that there doesn't seem to be a good reason to invest in an SL400 or SL500, definitely not as long as the R61 is still available. (I just picked up one of those $650 R61is from Newegg and although I'm new to Thinkpadism, I definitely vastly prefer the R61 to the SL400 on the hinge design alone.)

However, I suspect the SL300 is going to be the raison d'etre for the SL series, at least for a time, and this is the one to watch, particularly if Lenovo gets the battery life up a little and holds to their guns on a (usable) $899 retail base config. There aren't very many respectable machines in the sub-5-pound range for under a grand. It's basically this and, what, the Vostro 1300? I would much rather have a Thinkpad-caliber keyboard and keep my PC Card Type II slot.

I keep hoping that, just as $4+ gas has made car manufacturers suddenly realize that maybe a few Americans might be interested in a small hatchback, the netbook craze will finally result in the availability of reasonably priced machines that are actually legitimately mobile. The SL300 isn't as much a step in that direction as I would like to see, but it does appear to have at least some promise.

 

Hi! For us Canadians at least, the SL series is actually a pretty damn good deal compared to Dell IF you want performance. To get the same performance, the Dell Vostro 1510 is priced at $800 while this thing is priced at $620 (go to Canadian bargain websites to find the deals). For example, the upgrade from a Celeron M to a C2D T5670 is $100 for the Vostro. The extended battery upgrade to 9-cell is $150 for the Vostro while it's only $45 for the SL series. Dell's problem (in Canada at least) is that only their base models are cheaper. If you want extended battery, CPU or hard drive upgrades, they quickly explode in price.

While this thing doesn't have the build quality of other Thinkpads, the review does make it seem that it's at least decent compared to other consumer notebooks. As a non-hardcore notebook user, this will probably be my next purchase. If they didn't come out with this, I would've probably gotten the Vostro just because Dell seems to be the only other company that produce notebooks with matte screens these days.

And yes, I am the kind of user that likes a little gloss on their laptop. I'm kind of user that doesn't want a rectangular-box laptop that looks like the design came from 15 years ago. I guess I don't fit the regular demographic of this site haha

 

my gripe is with the lack of hinge. Having the cover flap back and forth is not acceptable in my opinion. That just shows the poor, cheap, (lol chinese), quality Thinkpads have taken. I mean the light at the dot of the i? That is just a marketing gimmick that I would expect from a chinese made toy. However the performance for the price is quite nice. I was actually thinking about buying this over the D630 (good idea). I decided with Dell in the end in part because I do not trust Lenovo completely yet.

 

What battery did you have when you got the 3:30 battery life?

 

Anyone know if its possible to use both the HDMI and VGA outputs at the same time? How about Notebook screen, VGA, and HDMI??

 

tltee19, I understand your frustration with the SL series, but is there really a need to insult all the Chinese products? Mind you, the cheap Chinese products are only being sold outside of China b/c there is a demand for it. After all, it was Lenovo who bought IBM and not the other way around. In any case, if you associate anything "poor & cheap" with "Chinese" I'm afraid you have a real problem with stereotype my friend.

P.S. what toy manufacturer doesn't use "gimmicks" in its marketing strategy?

 

Where does your Dell come from ?? Isn't the same place? Who needs the cheap products? who saves a lot of money from "Made in China" so have extra money spend on houses, cars, foods........ but left all the pollution there?

 

jus got this sl400....it was given free to me by my ISP for signing up for a more expensive plan.

so far its still alrite....my brother is the one using it...but during the times i meddled with it (i did a fresh install of vista for my bro), i din really like the way the battery slots in. also, the Fn and Ctrl button shld exchange place..

other than that, i dun really have much to say abt this laptop.

 

nice review
the "i" LED sure interesting one

 

hi, guys, my friend have to the same trouble, but not he solve, i advise to get a new Lenovo Thinkpad SL400 SL400C Laptop LCD Screen Hinges,

of couse , i find a store, you can get it at
Lenovo Thinkpad SL400 SL400C Laptop LCD Screen Hinges [Lenovo Thinkpad SL400 SL400C] - $38.20 : Dell-laptop-battery Dot Com, Your Professional Dell Laptop Battery Online Store
Onle sale: $38.20

Good luck