Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Review

Excellent review. Any comments on the ability to record audio in stereo? I seem to remember a lot of people were upset because there was no option to record in stereo in the previous generation of Thinkpads. Have you tested this or do you know if the put the feature back in? Also, do you know when they will add the LED backlit feature for the T-500 line? Thank you for your time.

 

One more thing, any problems about running XP on this laptop? Has anyone tried? It seems you can still get it as a feature on the Lenovo site.

 

At the time of writing, the Canadian lenovo website list T400 with discrete graphics as having the ATI 3640 256MB. What is that?? Is that a canadian version of the 3450? Or is that a typo to mean 3650?

 

It's a typo. It's meant to be the 3470.

 

Great review! That is a typo.....it's actually 3470

 

Kevin - Any chance you could record a snippet of video from the webcam so we can see the quality?

 

Unfortunately USB 3.0 is not available yet. And the T400 is available now. It is not like when USB 3.0 will be a simple firmware upgrade for t400.

Anyway as long as Sata drives are available - eSata will be relevant even if it has less speed than USB 3.0. The drives speed will be the limiting factor.

So if one has to buy a t400 now - the only way to connect it to external drive - will be USB 2.0 (withput buying a separate esata card). This is one area where other laptops like dell e6400 will be better than the t400.

Lack of esata may be a deal breaker for many.

 

I dont have anything on the notebook but Skype to use the webcam. Any suggestions besides having people call me (although...)

 

I don't. They used to cost too much. And they failed.

 

The only real shame is the keyboard. It's a good decision to move to widescreen as it is much better suited for multimedia and opening more multiple documents.

WXGA+ is already more than enough for a 14' screen. FYI, only the default resolution for a 22" monitor is 1680x1050.

The GPU is weaker than t500, but obviously Lenovo has to make that distinction between the t400 and t400. People who are upgrading from the t61p should be looking at the t500. Comparing the t400 to the t61p is akin to comparing apple to oranges.

Is it just me or do you just sound like a case of sour grapes?

 

Wow wow a fanboy from Dell/ HP.

You are telling me that Dell has "good:" quality when it has been ranked like shvt in consumer reports? Have you even used the latest HP laptop?
My company has a few HP business laptops (new model) and the area around the track pad is fvking burning.
You call that good workmanship?

 

Hey folks, I think I might pull the trigger on the T400 since its specs and price point totally blow away the LG P300 and Sony Vaio SR.
I'm going to use it for general office work, photoshop and video editing on the go.
So, my question to you guys, is a p8400 processor and 2 GB DDR3 on the T400 enough for my tasks?

 

I think Dell's inspiron lines - with support based outside USA - gets bad reviews in general. Dell latitudes are usually quite solid machines.

 

If it's a typo, then it also is a typo on my order confirmation e-mail which says 3640.

 

Quite honestly I found my inspiron e1705 (my first laptop ever) solid enough, so if the T400/500 are more solid than it, I would be a happy camper.

 

You would probably be better off selecting the T9400 for a little more money. Twice the L2 cache and higher clock speed for your multimedia apps with only a tiny sacrifice in power consumption.

 

Kevin,
In your conclusion you said it had a T9400 and I thought this used a T9600 was the T9400 reference just a typo?
I wish they gave the choice of the P9500 as it is a 2.53 Gz using only 25 W.

Roy

 

more than enough. I am looking at the same config to become my new main pc as in no desktop.

 

crazysword. Yes I had HP HP Compaq 6510b in hands (it is 14.1" with sturdy outer-lid). As to Dell's ... I was speaking about Dell Lattitude (D620 - D630 and newer serie) ... I'm not consumer-oriented , rather business products.

Someone earlier refered to T43p and problems with mainboards, well it is true but those problem were from overheating and ATI GPU that was loosing connection with bga points on MoBo. It was not only cause of flex which I by the way dont see in my old T40 ?! ... AND I'm not a fanboy, I just prefere solid design (no plastic) .... Panasonic is also a good example for this.

 

Yes, the order confirmation presumably gets the incorrect data from the site .. hence also a typo.

Interested to know which models exactly are these new HPs at your company? I've been looking at the 6930p and 8530p. Thanks.

 

thank you so much for your review, as I have been waiting for it one day, you said you would post on this Monday, you did a great job!

 

a little worried about the keyboard light, is that still useful?

 

I wonder if the light can be disabled?

 

I indeed have a real reason to be upset about the lacking of powerful GPU on the 14" models. I travel constantly and even if I don't I have to carry the laptop in my backpack and walk between my apartment and my office 4miles a day (hard to find a parking lot close to the office, Europe sucks!), so 15" is not an option, that's why both my T60 and my T61p are 4:3 14" models. I used the backup 15" T61p in office once and it was just too painful to carry with.
Plus, I admit wide screen is good for multimedia, but it also means you have to constantly scroll up/down when reading some PDF file, which I do very often. After all the T-series has always been considered as a business model so I think Lenovo should at least consider the fact that there are some business users like me who do need the 4:3 screen.

 

You have to consider the "thermal budget" of such a small laptop. A 14.1 laptop could just not handle the heat of a high-end video card.

 

A quick question. All t400 come with an LED display right? Cauz at my local sellers site it only says "14.1'' 1440x900 WXGA+ " no word of LED. Just a typo I hope.

 

Most likely it isn't LED. It is available at lenovo's site though.

 

No, the T400 is configurable with non-LED screens.

Are you two referring to the ThinkLight? That has always been turned on by using the Fn+PgUp keys. Not sure why you would want it disabled unless you regularly hit this key combination by accident... (I read the review and realize it 'blinded' the reviewer when it was on)

 

Well I mailed the retailer and they said that all T400 models come with LED backlight displays. shop.lenovo.com seems to say otherwise

Display type

14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight, Camera [add $30.00 $22.50]
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight [add $30.00 $22.50]
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight, Camera [add $60.00 $45.00]
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight [add $80.00 $60.00]
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight, Camera [add $110.00 $82.50]

So the CCFL Backlight is what? It help when working in sunlight?

 

Thanks for the review.

Can you take a picture into the Ultrabay? I really want to know if the new Ultrabay supports the serial / parallel adapter...

 

probably the ThinkLight in T400 does not work as well as T43 or T61.
some inconvenience for night working

 

The weight of the laptop in the review is incorrect.

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf (T400 7417) says its 5lbs w/ a 6 cell battery. 9 cell battery is 0.5lbs extra.

Is it possible that the PDF document is wrong ? I like the weight in Kevin's review better

 

Its the 8510p, a business laptop that has apparently received good reviews.
Please note that all the laptops of that model had the same issue, so it is a design flaw not a qualify defect with the specific unit.

 

Well I am a business user (consulting) and the softwares that I primarily use are Excel and word.
Excel is much easier to work with when you are using a wide screen, but I can see how viewing longer pdf can be an issue.

You have to realize due to economies of scale, LCD makers will have to stop production on the 4:3 screen so it's highly unlikely that you will get them on new laptops.

 

I too would be interested to know whether others have been blinded by the ThinkLight and whether it is unusable.

Very good review thank-you for it. It seems though that it might be another year's wait to see what Lenovo can come up with. My personal sticking points from reading reviews are these.

No red and blue etchings on the ultranav trackpad, the blinding ThinkLight, LED backlight being very hard to find and less common than the CCFL displays, only having an HD 3470 and not the HD 3650 which given the good thermals would have perhaps been able to squeeze it in, I don't see the keyboard being too much of a problem though. Also the camera's very rare to find on models, especially in conjunction with the LED backlight.

 

Kevin, thanks for the effort.

For just a brief moment I owned a t61 15,4 inch but I turned it back for two reasons:
1. 15,4 was too big/heavy.
2. A good amount of battery wiggle which is unacceptable.

I was a bit alarmed reading this particalur part of your review leaving me with the conclusion that this battery wiggle is obviously a characteristic of the Thinkpads instead of an disability. Since I am going to pick up my Thinkpad t61 14,1 wxga+ tomorrow I fear I will discover a similar wiggle?

Are there thorough no Thinkpad copies without battery wiggle?

About the mild flex near the card slots and the additional strange flex right from the keyboard: is that also to be found on the T61 14,1?

 

The wiggle has been a trait of thinkpads for as long as I can remember. I think it was the T42 or T43 that people used a match or lighter to melt a latch to make it hold snugger on the Sony made batteries.

Oh and from one of my older reviews

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2777



lol

 

Quite disturbing isn't it?

So it seems like though (IBM)Lenovo has a reputation building solid thinkpads, they don't seem to be able to repair minor but very anoying flaws. That's a pitty.

 

Nice review. But overall i conclude that this laptop is:

- too big (way to big asymetrical bezel around the screen, plus huge footprint, plus 6cell battery sticking out)

- too underpowered in terms of graphics (the old quadro 570m, 128mb from the t61p was faster)

basically a downgrade from t61p 14"

 

Is it just me, or are the viewing angles on the T61 waaaay better than the LED-lit T400 in the review...??? If the ones on the left are the T61 at least, it looks like the colors are warmer and more vibrant, and viewing angles are much better.

 

That is precisely my point, by moving the format from 4:3 to 16:10, the inner space of the machine actually becomes smaller. That is precisely the reason that they had to choose a weaker GPU for the 14" model.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185848

According to this thread, the 3dmark 2k6 score is only 2.5-2.6k which is very comparable to the 3470. Coupled with the issues with the Nvidia chipsets, the ATI card is probably superior.

 

yeah, I think you're right. The 16:10 format usually is smaller in terms of area for the same diagonal length so they are cheaper to produce. It is more and more difficult to get a regular 4:3 screen laptops these days.

 

As far as I know, that's a T60 with an IPS panel. So that comparison is of little use to T61 users.

 

that's true, but the t61p is more than ONE year old. The new version doesn't have better graphics, and is bigger and chunkier at the same time.

I mean look at the SIZE of this thing: It's HUGE! It's almost the size of a macbook pro 15.4". (only 0.8 inch shorter), but its between 25% and 47% more fat.

And it still has an inferior graphics card. (the 3470 compared to 8600 GT)

WHAT were they thinking??

 

The t400 with 4 cell has better battery life than the t61 with a 6 cell
so just get the 4cell if that is an issue.

As for the video card, they probably had no choice but to use the 3470 since I am postulating that there are issues of hybrid graphics with the nvidia gpus.

the biggest flaw I think is the lack of hdmi/displayport
vga just doesnt cut it for 1080p output
some tvs dont even have that too

 

Well the Macbookpro has a 6 cell battery, and a much smaller volume. The mac book pro has a decent video output too. As for the graphics i guess they could have put in the 3650.

It's ironic that in the world of choices that the PC market has to offer, not ONE single laptop matches the Mac book pro.

I have yet to find a thin and light PC laptop with a decent graphics card....

 

So go buy a MBP. This is a lenovo review last I checked.

 

IPS...???

 

Dont get me wrong, i think the thinkpads are some of the coolest laptops out there, thats why i'm here to check them out. But i guess we are expecting the thinkpads to be state of the art among laptops. For that reason i brought the macbook pro into comparisson to show that they are maybe not.

This is a discussion with pros and cons after all