Lenovo ThinkPad T430 Review: The Best Just Got Worse Discussion

[Pseudorandom]

Unless you are hooking up to a consumer HDTV, HDMI is an even more useless port than mDP. Full sized DP (like on the T420) would have been best imho.

[invisible]

...and I don't think lenovo realizes how many sales they're going to lose from this.

I would say all of their corporate orders would beg to differ.

[J.R. Nelson]

I like the keyboard. The screen, on the other hand, is inexcusable.

[actionjksn]

OK They ruined the best keyboard in the business. I'm not even crazy about the chiclet style keyboard, but the layout is a disaster. It looks really nice and clean and you can tell that's all they were thinking about. I have a T410 and I use those two back and forward keys all the time, and also the nice little group of keys in the top right that they also jettisoned. What were they thinking? Seriously I would probably buy a T420 for the Sandy Bridge upgrade but I would rather keep using my older system just to keep the REAL ThinkPad keyboard. than use this T430. All Lenovo needed to do was take a T420 put a high rez screen in it and an Ivy Bridge plus whatever they did on the battery upgrade and USB3.0. This mini DP sucks too I use my full size DP all the time. They really ruined what could have been the best ThinkPad ever. At least you can order it with higher resolution but you're stuck with the keyboard lay out.

[kishorfarm]

As a T520 (i7 1600x900) happy owner don't see any issues with the T430 keyboard layout, in fact I would prefer it to the t520's (never use the back / forward keys). On the other hand, the 1366x768 screen is a murder, 1600x900 is a must, be 14'' or 15''.

[Charles P. Jefferies]

On any other notebook I'd not have mentioned the keyboard layout issues; I only mentioned it because Lenovo had it better and then they switched. I think the T430's new chiclet style keyboard actually feels more solid than the older traditional keyboard.

All the 14" 1366x768 and 15.6" 1366x768 screens I've tested have been identical. Poor color reproduction (dull colors), mediocre contrast (Command Prompt window doesn't look black enough), and terrible viewing angles. It's almost like everyone is buying the cheapest screens from the same place ... hmm.

[user_tj_87]

I think I want this laptop, instead of getting a used t420 off of ebay. that battery life has me on the fence, so so bad. I wonder if the 6 cell battery will get 7-8 hours of battery???

[richard451]

Why is there no detail on the heat of the unit?

[invisible]

Why is there no detail on the heat of the unit?

Charles does his reviews with a little different style than the admins. Plus I know for a fact that they have a heat sensor and a photometer sensor, because they usually include temps and brightness/contrast on the screens.
But Charles did say;

Heat and Noise

The small fan on the left side of the notebook takes care of generated heat quietly and efficiently. It stays off the majority of the time; I only saw it come on when I was doing something more resource-intensive such as watching a flash video. It doesn't develop a whine. The fan is not silent at full speed but can be ignored or dismissed as background noise.

It works for me.

[Markio]

I'm curious how the 1600x900 screen compares to the 1366x768 in screen quality. If it's comparable than I won't even consider a T430 anymore.
I am used to my T42's Flexview after all these years (I have turned into a screen snob).