My T540p Review

Hello there,

As some might know I have been given a T540p with 3k display for testing. And that's exactly what I did. After days of writing, it feels like I have completed my life's work. I reviewed the T440s back in August, but did so in German, thus limiting the amount of readers. "Not this time" I told myself. So just for you guys I actually wrote my review in 2 languages. German and English. That's right, bilingual. Double the amount of work. No more complaining now.

Now go and read my review while I get some well deserved rest.

T540p ThinkPad T540p Review [CAUTION! Pictures + Videos!]!

English comments can be posted in this thread.

 

So the build quality of the t440s is far superior, right? Maybe you could link the t440s you reviewed some time ago.

Thank you for the review!

 

So, is it even worth buying over a gaming laptop?

 

Yes, the T440s is a much higher quality machine. For those who understand German, this is my T440s review: T440s ThinkPad T440s Review + Vergleich mit X1 Carbon! [ACHTUNG BILDER + VIDEOS!]!

There are definitely aspects that make the T540p more interesting than a gaming laptop. (like the docking port for example)

 

I was not able to find your "original English" review with the link you included above. My Chrome browser said this:

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I don't wanna read no stinkin' Google translation.

 

Disable automatic translation. Since my review is written in 2 languages at the same time, German and English, your browser still detects the German and tries to translate.

But I'm guessing you already knew that.

 

That's a hell of a review.

This is my first ThinkPad so I have no real comparison to make as far as build quality but I am also disappointed in the trackpad and keyboard. Expected much better. I miss the dedicated buttons of my current Dell Studio 1537 (which I am typing this on right now). I also find my Dell keyboard to be preferable but that may be due to its familiarity due to use over the past approximately 4 years. The trackpad and certain keys (particularly my TAB and nearby keys) are extremely "clacky". I use a mouse 90+% of the time though so not a major issue in my case. I also don't like the left offset keyboard but that seems to be the trend these days and it's not too big of a deal.

I got the 3k display solely for the fact that it is IPS and on the recommendation of forum user kevrock (spelling?) I'm running it at non-native 1920x1080 resolution as I don't want to deal with Windows' poor scaling. That has been working excellently for me.

I'm still not 100% sure I will be keeping this machine but I'm leaning more toward yes than no.

 

Great review and pictures, well done (and extra props for the English translation)! Good to see that the T540p has a very robust and quiet cooling system; that's probably one of my favorite parts of my T500. Disappointing that the chassis doesn't have the same solid feel as before, though. Also a bit off-putting that the body (minus the screen) is actually thicker than the T500's.

Regarding the lid arching, are you talking about the entire screen cover? If so, you can see that the lid of the T500 arches as well (peaks at the center of the screen), to provide greater load-bearing resistance. I doubt that any arching would be due to heat from the screen; it'd take a lot more heat to deform the plastic like that.

 

I'm just talking about the bottom center part. I was unsure of how to translate "wölben". I'm sure you know those metal sheets that people often use to build houses in poorer countries? That's what I meant. It's formed like waves. I have a T500 myself and you are correct, the bezel does point inward a bit, but that was designed that way. The T540p like I said has irregular waves which I used to have on my X220 as well. The latter had known problems with deforming bezels, even melting in direct sunlight. Comparing the T540p to my old X220, the symptoms look very similar.

 

600X thanks for your superb review. It is sad to see, that even with T540p I can't update from my T500. There are too many drawbacks across the whole laptop.

1. Absence of LED under screen, yet the bezel is bigger
2. Integration of volume keys to function keys
3. Poor audio (Lenovo next "best" feature after TN screens?)
4. Same thickness as 5 year old laptop? Yeah 4-Core Intel, but if you want 15" screen and reasonable performance? Couldn’t this be just case of W540?
5. GT730M in laptop with 3K display? Again one of the weakest option on the market
6. Battery making the body even thicker
7. USB 2.0 on Haswell laptop for 2000 Euro.
8. …

Overall I don't understand, what it is going on Lenovo ThinkPad division. On one hand they create some new nice features like Power Bridge or add IPS panel option, on the other hand they destroy most of the features, which made ThinkPads different from the rest of the market.
Hopefully T550 will be better…