Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Review

[BetaTron]

Yep this will be my next lappy... T41 you've served very well but it's time we move on.

My kid will inherit my 41p.

[tman1523]

lol how rude my question to kevin was never responded to what gives i want to know which is the better purchase in terms of graphics, the 256 mbp or the t400 he did both review s what a shame,
lol I have one rep NICE how did this happen?
Did people decide to vote me a rep point?
???...

[Lew]

Got my T400 yesterday. Couple comments.

Thinklight -- mine is fine, shroud is okay. It lights up the keyboard but doesn't blind me. I can see how what Kevin experienced it could happen though.

Keyboard -- if I really push down on it, yep the keyboard flexes some. Big Fat Deal. It still has a great typing feel and I don't anticipate making any changes. I experience no noticeable keyboard flex in normal usage.

IMHO this is a non-issue in terms of real world usage unless you type like a gorilla.

While it's been a while, I've owned true IBM Thinkpads - 750CD, 755cx, and up until a year ago a 390e I kept around for messing around with.

Hard disk -- for what it's worth, the 250GB 5400rpm drive in mine was a Seagate Momentus 5400.4 -- I ordered with the intention of swapping in a 250/7200 WD Scorpio Black and using the 250/5400 as a backup drive. I burnt the recovery media from the original drive and used it to build the new drive -- worked great, recreated factory state with Q: and S: partitions. I saw no way to customize what gets loaded; if there was something I missed it.

Weight -- also in the for what its worth category, weight of the system without battery is 4lb 8.7oz and my 6cell battery is 11.5oz. System: T400 P8600, discrete, 250GB/7200rpm, 3GB ram, WXGA+ LED/Cam, DVD-burner.

[tman1523]

your right, thank you I have a better decision on what my next purchase will be thanks to your comments; still a draw MBP / T400

[tman1523]

Weight -- also in the for what its worth category, weight of the system without battery is 4lb 8.7oz and my 6cell battery is 11.5oz. System: T400 P8600, discrete, 250GB/7200rpm, 3GB ram, WXGA+ LED/Cam, DVD-burner.[/QUOTE]

Does the battery wiggle, how long does the 6 cell last with gaming use and non gaming use without switching it off?

[Lew]

If I push on it I can make the battery wiggle, but it doesn't flop around. Also in the "non-issue" category in my opinion. If there were no room for any "give" at all you risk cracks in the plastics. Choose your poison.

Can't tell you about battery life -- UPS delivered it at 6pm last night and the evening was spent on AC power burning recovery media, changing to new HDD, restoring system on new HDD, and starting to install all my software. Won't get back to it until tomorrow and won't have much time to mess with it through the weekend.

[RDO CA]

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....

I just took a look at the Mac Pro and they use old slow processors w/(800mz FSB)and old slow memory (ddr2 667mz) and Nvidia Gpu's that are causing alot of problems and Nvidia took a 200 mil. charge this quarter to fix them all but won't be enough. The price is about $1800 more than the current Lenovo sale a for a comparable configuration as I just ordered a T400 and I priced out a Mac Pro. The Mac pro only has 1440x900 res --the same as the T400 and the T500 has 1680x1050. So I hope you love your Mac

Roy

[BinkNR]

I just took a look at the Mac Pro and they use old slow processors w/(800mz FSB)and old slow memory (ddr2 667mz) and Nvidia Gpu's that are causing alot of problems and Nvidia took a 200 mil. charge this quarter to fix them all but won't be enough.

If you don’t like choice, go with a Mac. But in defense of Apple, who does make a nice product, I think they’ll announce a refresh of the Mac line soon/within the next few months.

[trueman_uk]

A poor keyboard that you've never typed on I'm sure. If you don't want one, don't buy one. Statements like this are not constructive to this thread, or helpful to potential buyers with questions about this computer.

I am using T60P at the moment with 1600*1200 screen, very dissapointed, there are 3 suqre of bad pixel on the screen, each with at least 100 bad ones. always got blud screen, and suddenly complete down once, cost my one month time to fix it. the customer support of Lenovo is terrible, I will never choose it again

[i5aac]

Is anyone else disconcerted by the lack of reviews available for the T400? It's the same with the T500 and W500: NBR has pretty much the only review available.

The only other reviews I've been able to find seem to fall into three categories:
1. Previews masquerading as reviews
2. People who have taken elements of Kevin's review and re-posted them (his comparison of the T61 and T400 displays seems to be very popular)
3. Pages for reviews that are 'coming soon' (CNET)

What's going on? I can understand a delay if people are unable to get their hands on the machine, but why don't places like CNET have reviews? Surely they aren't having problems acquiring one!?