Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Review

by Kevin O'Brien

It seems a common trend at Lenovo right now is making super thin and lightweight ThinkPads. First the X300 hit the market, offering a super thin and lightweight chassis with the ruggedness we have come to expect from a ThinkPad. Now Lenovo has done it again with the T400, bringing a newer, lighter, redesigned T400s to the table. In this official review we show you what's changed on this new 14" ThinkPad, which even includes the legendary keyboard.

Our ThinkPad T400s specifications:

• OS: Windows Vista Business (SP1)
• Screen: 1440 x 900 WXGA+ LED Backlit (Matte finish)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• Memory: 2GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 1)
• Storage: 128GB Samsung SSD
• Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
• Wireless: 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0
• Graphics: Intel X4500M Integrated
• Built-in web camera
• Battery: 6-cell 11.1 44Wh
• Dimensions: (LxWxH) 13.27 x 9.49 x 0.83"
• Weight: 3lbs 14.3oz
• Starting Price: $1,599

Build and Design
The new ThinkPad T400s looks completely revamped and polished compared to the regular T400. The chassis has slimmed down significantly, and the weight of the notebook has also dropped by almost a pound. The exterior is still wrapped in Lenovo's much-loved rubberized black paint, but the design just looks cleaner and less busy than previous ThinkPad models.

Looking inside, the main changes start to become obvious. Besides the new keyboard and touchpad that we will go over shortly, Lenovo changed the shape of the palmrest around the touchpad, with the touchpad resting flush with the palmrest instead of being slightly recessed. The screen bezel is smooth all around the perimeter of the display, unlike the T400 which shows rough plastic grids near the built-in antennas and cutouts near the light and webcam. Even when compared to the ThinkPad X301, the new T400s looks more refined. The speaker grills are larger and look better suited to the design. Even the fingerprint reader manages to blend in better, with an all-black design instead of gold and silver like past models.

Build quality is still fantastic, with barely a hint of chassis flex even as it has decreased in thickness. The screen has some minor side-to-side flex when open, but no more than previous models. Protection for the screen, even with the super thin cover is surprisingly good, showing only small amounts of screen distortion when you are squeezing the back of the display. The new chassis feels quite rugged.

With the thinner design Lenovo completely reworked the chassis for the T400s, and it looks completely different than the T400 once you start opening it up. The hard drive is now accessed through a panel under the left side of the palmrest, which is now 1.8" instead of the 2.5" found in the T400. System memory and wireless cards are found under a single access panel on the bottom of the notebook. Compared to removing the palmrest on previous models, you now just loosen one screw and pop off a single panel to upgrade memory. With most of the slots changing location to the underside of the notebook, removing the keyboard is now only required to replace a broken one, or to get access to a half-sized mini-PCIe slot used for Wireless USB on some models. I really hope future ThinkPads follow a similar design to the T400s, since it is so much easier to upgrade components now.

<object width='512' height='288' classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000' codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> <param name="id" value="flashObj" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="flashVars" value="@videoPlayer=27139454001&amp;playerID=23187984001&amp;domain=embed&amp;" /> <param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /> <param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /> <param name="src" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/23187984001?isVid=1&amp;publisherID=1367663370" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/23187984001?isVid=1&amp;publisherID=1367663370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width='512' height='288' flashvars="@videoPlayer=27139454001&amp;playerID=23187984001&amp;domain=embed&amp;"></embed> </object>

Screen and Speakers
The LED-backlit WXGA+ (1440 x 900) display on the T400s rates above average, with good color reproduction and very good peak backlight brightness levels. The display part number is LTN141BT08001, which may indicate that it has a Samsung panel. Colors appear bright and vibrant for a matte-finish display, and it has very nice contrast when the backlight isn't at the brightest setting. At 95-100% brightness the screen starts to look slightly washed out, which is pretty normal for higher brightness displays. My comfortable viewing brightness range for this notebook is between 50-60%, giving great black-levels and no hint of backlight bleed. Viewing angles are average for a TN-panel LCD, with colors quickly inverting or washing out as you tilt the screen forward or back. With the matte finish and higher backlight power the screen is readable outdoors and quite visible in your car on a bright day.

Speaker performance was lackluster, but that is common on most business notebooks. They work well for streaming audio or having a VOIP chat, but for movies and entertainment the headphone jack is a much better alternative.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Yes, Lenovo significantly changed the look, feel, and layout of the keyboard on the T400s. After you pick yourself up off the floor from fainting, you will quickly see most of the changes are for the better. The feel of the keys remains mostly untouched from past models ... outside of the fact that the spacebar seems to click loudly if you press it on the edges. The biggest change comes with a redesigned function key section, offering larger "escape" and "delete" keys. Through in-depth research Lenovo found that those two keys were used more than other function keys. As a result they doubled the height, and moved the position of the insert key and F1 key.

I think the coolest difference is the new media buttons and power button. The power switch and mute keys light up when activated, so instead of the power icon showing up on the bottom edge of your screen, the button itself is the indicator. The caps lock button now features a translucent window with an LED that lights up to indicate the caps lock is turned on. One thing that is missing is an AC and battery indicator light facing you with the screen open, as they are now external only.

The T400s offers one feature I have yet to see on any other notebook to date: a speaker AND microphone mute button. While I am not sure how often I personally need to turn off my microphone, if you videoconference or use Skype frequently then a quickly accessed mute button would come in handy. Another minor change is the key tolerances have decreased, meaning there is less room for crumbs or dust to fall in-between keys.

The new touchpad is different, but I am having a hard time figuring out if that is a good or bad thing. The old design used a slightly rough matte plastic finish, which gave some traction and made it easy to move your finger around even if sweaty. The new design has a raised dimple finish with a softer texture that feels strange. I found myself increasing the sensitivity in the Synaptics control panel to make movement feel more fluid, but then found it too sensitive. It seems that you need to apply consistent pressure when moving over the new touchpad, where before it was easy to flick your finger across. I think if the bumpy surface was glossy or more slick I might enjoy it more.

Another change is the shape and size of the trackpad buttons. The buttons have a radius contour that goes through the buttons to the edges where they meet the palmrest. From a design standpoint they flow better with the notebook than previous attempts, and it is even easier to access them from the touchpad now.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the T400s has been greatly improved over the T400 model. New to the back of the T400s is an eSATA port for storage expansion and DisplayPort out, giving you digital video from the notebook itself. Just like the T400 it has three USB ports, one through a combo USB/eSATA port. Lenovo has kept the VGA port for legacy connections, since it is still used frequently for projectors. With the decrease in thickness the T400s lost its dual card slots, only keeping an ExpressCard/34 slot. The T400s offers a docking station connector on the bottom, but it is a new design that is incompatible with older models. The last big change came with the T60, and I can just hope that this docking station format stays the same for a few notebook generations to come.

Internal features include integrated 3G WWAN and a handy GPS receiver. While 3G is pretty common these days GPS seems to always be passed over. Lenovo includes software for initializing the GPS receiver, and translating the NMEA data through a virtual COM port for applications. Since I am fond of Garmin GPS receivers, I installed a trial version of Garmin Mobile PC. Installation was simple and the software will automatically find the virtual COM port for communication with the GPS unit. The T400s was quick to acquire our location with a six satellite lock inside our office. So if you don't own an automotive GPS receiver yet, this $60 piece of software might come in handy paired with the T400s.

Performance
With an Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 and 128GB Samsung SSD the T400s was no slouch ... despite the Intel X4500 integrated graphics. The T400s was extremely fast to boot, and was quietly waiting at the desktop idle much sooner than other notebooks we have reviewed. The T400s handles day-to-day uses, such as typing a paper, watching Hulu while the boss isn't watching, or enjoying an HD movie all with ease. Gaming presented a problem with the X4500 integrated graphics, so instead of playing Left 4 Dead you might have to compromise with Peggle. 720p and 1080p HD video decoded with no problems at all thanks to the fast processor, although outputting it to a home stereo might be tough without digital audio out through the DisplayPort. One original concern we had with system performance was the speed of the 1.8" drive, but as we found out the 128GB Samsung SSD included with our T400s blew the socks off most 2.5" drives. The only downside to this is the SSD is fairly expensive and the small size has few aftermarket options, whereas the 2.5" market is loaded with affordable alternatives.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

HP Pavilion dv4t (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	26.972 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	27.410 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad T400s (Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 @ 2.53GHz)	30.328 seconds
Dell Latitude E6400 (Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ 2.53GHz)	30.497 seconds
Toshiba Satellite E105 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	33.961 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.628 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s (2.53GHz Intel SP9600, Intel X4500)	7,590 PCMarks
Lenovo T400 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3470 256MB GDDR3)	6,589 PCMarks
Dell Latitude E6400 (2.53GHz Intel P9500, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	5,780 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256MB)	5,463 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	5,173 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite E105 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD)	4,836 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Lenovo T400 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3470 256MB GDDR3)	2,575 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	2,211 3DMarks
Dell Latitude E6400 (2.53GHz Intel P9500, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	1,818 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256MB)	1,741 3DMarks
Toshiba Satellite E105 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD)	1,030 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T400s (2.53GHz Intel SP9600, Intel X4500)	996 3DMarks

*All 3DMark06 benchmark tests are set at 1280 x 800 screen resolution.

HDTune storage drive performance results:

Heat and Noise
The T400s managed heat and noise very well during our tests, keeping external temperatures low with minimal noise from the cooling fan. After continuously stressing the notebook over a period of 30 minutes the fan never went above a whisper level. You had to put your ear to the vent to hear it above normal ambient noise. Under light activity the case barely warmed up above room temperature. Under heavier loads such as watching an HD movie or playing a quick game the temperatures increased slightly, but overall stayed very lap-friendly. External temperatures listed below are shown in degrees Fahreheit.

Battery Life
Time on battery with the T400s was good, but not as impressive as the 10 hours experienced on the T400. Currently the only battery size offered is a 6-cell battery with a reported size of 45Wh. Compare this to the 9-cell on the T400 with a capacity of 84Wh, almost twice the size. Even with the smaller battery the T400s managed 5 hours and 48 minutes with the screen brightness set to 70%, Vista set to the Balanced profile, and wireless active. During the test power consumption varied between 6.5W and 8W depending on load. Compared to the T400 the power consumption drop most likely comes from the 1.8" SSD and integrated graphics chipset. Lenovo doesn't have plans to offer a larger main battery for extended battery life, similar to the 4-cell, 6-cell, and 9-cell options on the T400. What they will offer though is an ultra-bay battery to run in place of the optical drive, which should extend battery life by up to an additional three hours.

Conclusion
Overall I think Lenovo put a lot of time into thinking through the changes they made with the T400s so they wouldn't offend too many ThinkPad customers. The keyboard change is significant, but for all intents and purposes they stuck with the tried-and-true design. The keys feel the same, the core layout is the same, the only thing that changed were the function and media keys. Even though the keys look weird at first it takes about 3 seconds to adapt to the new layout. I think the super slim and lightweight design is excellent, moving to a layout that is easier to service by the end-user. The inclusion of eSATA and DisplayPort is something that should have come sooner, considering that the T400 doesn't offer a digital video output without a docking station.

The only complaint I have is with the price, starting well above the standard T400, and the costly drive upgrade options since it is limited to 1.8" models instead of the cheaper and more widely available 2.5" size. If you are in the market for a new ThinkPad and don't mind spending a bit extra for something thin and lightweight, the T400s is a great choice.

Pros:

• Excellent build quality
• Good keyboard changes
• Nice polished design
• eSATA and DisplayPort ... finally
• Very fast even with integrated graphics

Cons:

• Limited battery options
• 1.8" storage drive
• Different docking connector

Related Articles:

• Updated Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Review
• Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Review

 

Thanks for the review.
I find that doesn't matter what material is used, if it's too thin it can only hold up to so much strength. I was disappointed to see the ripples caused by my fingers on the T400 and T500. My R50 is a lot stronger than that. If this one is thinner, I really don't expect it to be tougher.
It's sad to see Lenovo trying to compete with Apple? For what? The macbook is just for those hypocrites who only take their laptops to starbucks. This is a business-grade laptop, make it strong!

 

Well part of what changed was the screen structure going from the T/R60 to the T/R61 and above. Old models used a plastic or alloy shell with an air gap in between the cover and LCD. Great for ripple tests, not so good in spreading out the weight for a large impact. New models went with a plate in between the cover and screen that helps spread the load, but create some pressure points under moderate pressure. Some ripples are seen, but under higher loads the older design causes a cracked screen where the newer design can hold up to the stress.

Somewhere is an R61 video I believe with a dirt bike driving over the screen lid to showoff its strength.

For the second comment, I dont believe the T400s will replace the fullsize T400. It is just a smaller brother for people who want something smaller to fit in a backpack with less weight on their shoulders. It drops a good 1.5lbs over the T400.

 

Now for the ultimate question, Will it Blend?

 

So...starting price is $1599. You didn't review the base model, I'm assuming. Any idea on a price as tested?

 

I swear I will hunt down anyone that blends this ThinkPad.... it just isnt right

 

Maybe, but if it's too thin, the force just penetrates through and causes damage to the screen. The inner magnesium plate and the lid is made of materials with some degree of elasticity, so while there won't be any damage to the bezel, the screen can break under a reasonable pressure.
And if you put a high load, it's required to be place around the edge, not close to the center (which still causes more pressure at one point), and it's required not just the screen but the whole chassis. Remember gravity only goes down. Doesn't matter what size and what shape, the center of gravity of whatever causes the impact will be most likely at the center of the screen.
But that's still not the case in reality. In a business environment, the laptop most likely gets impact at one point, not the entire screen.

 

True, all I can say is the newer design works. My sister has yet to crack the screen on her T61, even after cracking the bezel, ruining the keyboard, breaking the keyboard trim, and dropping it god knows how many times.

 

Is the optical drive a 9.5mm unit? If so, then can do a SSD+HDD setup via an ultrabay adapter. So 1.8" bay being well suited to Samsung or Intel X18-M SSD.

 

At first glace it looked the same, tomorrow I will be swapping around drives to verify if they work.

 

Try that on a T400, I doubt the result will be the same. Since the T61 is somewhat thicker and it feels more rugged.
Anyhow, I'm still not buying the thinness. It's just not appeal to me, personally.
I hope they don't do the same thing with the newer thinkpads though, especially the successor of the W700.

 

I am a bit obsessed with screen quality on notebooks, so here are some crazy questions.

What are the specs of the panel used on t400s? Did they provide those with the computer? Also is it the same panel FRU as the regular 42t0405 used on vanilla T400 LED WXGA+?

And finally, any chance you could take a picture of this screen next to an already existing thinkpad, preferably your IPS T60 (like on the review of high nit t400) for some reference point on quality?

 

Are my eyes deceiving me, or did Lenovo actually manage to make a laptop with a centered screen?

Thinner and lighter is always better, but the battery life is a tad disappointing. DisplayPort is long overdue, but no digital audio

Seems more evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and I'm still happy with my old z61t, and nothing new really tempts me. Still waiting for fuel cells I guess

 

Thanks for the review Kevin. Any comment on the new thinklight? Is it still like the old T400 (a mess rather than a useful feature)?

 

Yup, tomorrow night I plan on adding shots of the T400s against my T60 with the tried and true Ferrari picture. From first glance the screen part number closely resembles the Samsung panels found in the T400. Until the parts guide comes out or I see more google hits for that part number it will be hard to tell.

Yup screen is centered, was waiting to see who was the first to notice that

 

Works great, no more blinding.

 

I'm still liking the new macbook pro 13" over this.

 

Thanks for the nice review, Kevin.

PS: There is a typo in it. The processor is an SP9600 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache).

 

Thanks Kevin! We can never go wrong with your reviews

I'm also waiting to hear your results with swapping the DVD for a 2.5" HD

And by the way, any news on the release date?

 

Today

.........

 

Well I guess by "immediately" they actually mean "really soon"

I don't see it yet on lenovo.com, but I logged into the Friends' EPP page for Lenovo Canada and it comes up with the low-voltage SL9300/9400, starting at $2000... that can't be good I hope they add the SP series shortly... And that it actually brings the price down!

 

Thanks for the great review!

I was afraid that this would make me want to sell my T400...and I was right. The T400s addresses every single issue I have with the T400. The only con in my eyes is the lack of an extended battery. I think I can hold out until the new chipsets, at least.

 

Of course .

Kevin, any word on keyboard flex? thx!

 

Heh. I must have hit the Lenovo site just minutes before the update.

Answer: $1994 (15% coupon not valid)

Still, I'm impressed that the reviewed system comes in (just) under $2k.

 

I think the perfect notebook would be T400s features inside the body of a T400. Give me digital video out native on the body, eSATA, and everything is peachy. Just dont take away the extended battery option. If you need something thin the T400s fits the bill, but it falls short with battery life by making that compromise.

 

Could we get more comments about the screen, specifically compared to something like the rgb led screens of the dell precisions, the sony xbrite screen on the vaio Z, and the macbook pro screens?

I had an x301 and it was fine except for the screen. I like to watch videos, and the quality of the screen was horrible to me b/c of the contrast ratio. The brightness and even the colors I could live with, but not that contrast ratio. I had the T400 LG screen and the contrast ratio was horrible. I could not find a sweet spot, esp in a dark scene, everything was inverting. The difference is night and day between a macbook pro screen, and both are TN panels.

It appears that you are saying that the panel is basically equivalent to the 14" LED screen that was kind of panned thoroughly by picky people (although not by at all by the general public).

 

Other than that minor typo, great review! I was really waiting for this. Glad to see that Lenovo didn't sacrifice cool-running temperatures for thinness. Now I can't wait to see the next generation T410 and T510 Thinkpads

 

If it is anything like Samsung Panel on vanilla T400, then you will not be happy with contrast ratios. I've used both LG and Samsung panels and both had similar problems with extremely poor quality in dark scenes. I dont think such thing as high quality 14.1" panel exists, while there are a ton of good panels in 13.3" and 15.4" sizes. If this really is same panel as in regular T400, then i will probably end up picking up a 13" Macbook pro or T500 (which supposed to have good contast) just for videos and such.

 

Hmm. One of the reasons I just ordered my work laptop (below) was that I heard good things about its display (contrast and brightness, not necesarily res, which is good old wxga). You got me wondering. I know what I'll be checking first thing when it arrives next week.

 

If the T400s had existed a year ago I probably would have bought it instead of the x200 (I didn't feel the regular T400 was a worthy successor to my beloved T40, but the T400s DOES look worthy). However, I am VERY happy with what I have so I'm not going to switch.

I'm most interested in the ability of using the optical drive for a 2.5" HDD. The combo of a fast/small SSD and a large/cheap HDD seems to be the best combo.

Based on your benchmarked speeds for the SSD it appears that Lenovo has now switched to the second generation of Samsung MLC SSDs (MMCRE28G8MXP). They were previously using a model rated at 90MB/s reads and 70MB/s writes (my SLC SSD is 100/80). The new model is rated at 220/200, but you only benched it at 170/?. Still very good, just not quite as good as I'd hoped.

Great Review.

 

Keep the comments and questions coming guys. This is my last round for the night before I get some sleep though

It has about the same level of compression that we saw in the updated T400. Perhaps not completely hard-cover-book-rock-solid, but still very well supported. At a certain point you start squeezing the entire notebook if you put enough weight on it.

It is hard to rate matte finish panels against glossy panels. Glossy panels will almost always look much nicer. That said you probably arent going to see the same level of color saturation or black levels on this screen as you might on the MacBook Pro. Business notebooks still rate visibility in high glare situations above overall multimedia capabilities.

The HDTune benchmarks we run on notebooks are running while the drive is being used for notebook operation. If you had this drive hooked up by itself without anything tasking it you might see higher speeds. Another difference could be what program you use to test it. Atto generally gives higher results on average. If the power connector on the 1.8" SSD wasnt so small I would pop it into my desktop and run some additional tests on it

 

now the question is, is this or the x301 the better choice?

 

I had a Sony Z series laptop to play with this past weekend and I thought it stuck a perfect balance between usability outside and image quality. While it was a bit glossier than T400, it was not a really glossy panel and I had absolutely no issues using it outside. Contrast and colors were excellent as well. So it is possible to have both low glare and good contrast/colors. Unfortunately the Z series is a bit out of my budget right now and I prefer Lenovo's other features and durability.

 

I am dissappointed the T400s has a 1.8" bay for a SSD or regular hard drive, since 2.5" SSDs are fast approaching what I would consider affordable.

Glad to see Kevin, the review author, pointed this out.

 

do people upgrade their computers often though? Maybe just not my style, but once I buy a computer, I may upgrade it in the beginning but down the road thats it. I wait till it kicks the can and I get a new one. I pretty much never upgrade. So personally I wouldnt care if its 1.8 inches HDD or 2.5 inches, as long as it works, I will use it till I get a new notebook down the road.

 

What do you guys think about the larger and now symmetrical metallic screen pivot? I like this more than the thinner and asymetrical one.

 

Thankfully, Lenovo isn't gouging customers for SSDs. a 64GB SSD costs $40. Then stick a 2.5" hdd for media/data in the modular bay. Or just go with the 128GB SSD (240 retail, 197 education).

 

For some unknown reason, only the 14.1" R61/R400 share the "Top Cover Roll Cage" with the T-series. The 15.4" R61/R500 don't have the Top Cover Roll Cage behind the display and is made primarily from PC/ABS plastic. The 14.1" R and the T-series in 14.1" and 15.4" sizes are constructed from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic for maximum durability and to minimize weight.

 

You are in the OVERWHELMING majority of notebook users if you don't upgrade your laptop or only upgrade it immediately after purchasing it.

That said, many ThinkPad owners tend to be the hardcore tech enthusiasts or IT managers who upgrade their notebooks (or their companies' notebooks) over the course of the product lives until they replace the notebooks.

Understanding the upgrade options/limitations is important to a fair number of the target audience for this notebook.

For example, it's VERY easy to access the hard drive on the T400s (even though it's a 1.8" model) compared to most consumer netbooks with 1.8" drives, but we don't really complain about that sort of thing with netbooks ... because the percentage of people who will mess with the hard drive in a netbook is even smaller.

 

Is the touchpad multitouch (as on the updated x301)?

Also interested to see if there's a HDD drive caddy that will fit in the ultrabay. I didn't see it as an available accessory on lenovo.com, but then again their store isn't known for its amazing accuracy.

 

Does the T400s have the same Ultrabay Slim optical drive bay as the T400? If so, does that mean it can accomodate a 2nd hard drive in the Ultrabay media bay, like the T400?

 

I doubt it. It appears to be different.

 

slim but ugly lol

 

Did they add a BIOS option to swap Fn and Ctrl?

 

Thanks for the nice review. Now my question is about it's LCD refresh rate: 50hz or 60hz?

 

Yes, it can, there was some discussion on this yesterday.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4990194&postcount=173

 

SWEET! I think I'll put off buying a new car for a while and get one of these in the meantime!

 

Yes, fully multitouch

Hey now, I think that describes most ThinkPads

That is a good question. The Intel display drivers seem to always default back to 50Hz, and viewing through our camcorder the screen has a bit of flash to it. The settings allow you to change it to 60hz, but that doesnt change anything when viewed through the camcorder.

Just swapped the UltraBay around between the T400s and the T400 and everything fits and works just fine. Only difference is the release mechanism on the two notebooks, connectors are identical.

Oddly enough, all of our benchmarking software is reading the processor as the P9600, but underclocked. Guessing that at the hardware level the chips must be the same but with different settings.

 

Thanks for the clarification on the Ultrabay Kevin!

And by the way, I looked on the Lenovo Canada web site and they only have the T400s available with the SL9400 (1.86Ghz), and the SL9600 (2.13Ghz) as a $125 upgrade. I guess this is good for those who want extra battery life, but it makes the laptop a lot more expensive.. $2000 Canadian. Any idea on whether this is permanent, or if they will offer the SP series also?

 

if i remember correctly, the s just indicates that this is the small form factor version which uses less area for pins and methinks it has to be soldered. intel originally designed this on demand for apple for the macbook air and later became available to other vendors as well. so this should indeed be a p9600, just a smaller housing.