Why I returned my T420 after 1 week

Cons.....

(1) Right from the get go, my system was not snappy. Programs (All of them) started up slowly including IE8/9, Battery Extend program/Toolbox, Word, etc that I had to wait and wait for it to open. With the i5-2540 and 6 GB of memory one would think it would open quickly. Watched a few reviews on YouTube and what I saw was some fairly fast load up times for programs, but not mine.

(2) Screen ? Goodness, I gave it a chance. At first I did not mind the lousy small viewing angle, but over time it did bother me, since I use the notebook on my lap in a chair or plane. I had to make sure the angle of the screen was just right, and could not move my head or legs one bit or it would go off the ideal viewing angle and had to keep adjusting. Not good and this is what turned me against the system the most. It was bright, but only if one cranked up the brightness but that took a power drain hit. 13 would be the least setting for me. I like it bright.

(3) Some have reported fast boot up times, but not (55 seconds up to 1 min 5 seconds) for me, even after uninstalling some programs and stopping some process from "Service" which also included a few Start Up programs as well. With the 7200 rpm 320Gb HDD I had and Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0, one would think the system would boot up faster. Maybe it would have if I opted for the SSD instead. Unknown, but a disappointment just the same. 10 second boot up that had been anounced by Lenovo was not what I experienced or close to it. Maybe I did something wrong ?

The Shut down time was about 9 seconds, which was the best part, no complaints.

(4) Had trouble with burning the rescue and recovery CD/DVD, but finally got it made. Unknown if it would work or not when needed. Last disk towards the end gave me a disk error, and this happen twice. Finally the third try it went thru. This was not a real complaint, but a concern.

(5) Battery Power program could be better. Too many settings one can opt for and confused me at first and took time playing with it to find the best power setting for my taste.

(6) Price Match. Nothing to do with the system, but I called twice and one email asking for a price match, and was told it would take 48 hours. 7 days later and still Lenovo did not give me the price match and the tech I spoke to could not understand this either. Too late since I returned the system and it is now 8 days and still no price match. Disappointed. It would have given me $166.00 off the original price. Also too bad that I had to pay the 15% re-stocking fee, but its my money.

Pluses...

(1) Quick shut down time.
(2) Solid construction.
(3) Great keyboard to work with.
(4) Good support. Used it once only, so unknown if that would be constant.
(5) Not too heavy, but wish it was a tad lighter. At home, no big deal. On the road it could go either way.
(6) FingerPrint reader was a joy to use since I dislike typing in passwords.
(7) Integrated video was just fine for me watching some movies/YouTube. No games played.
(8) Speakers were good, not great. Did not expect better for a notebook, but the sound for movies was more than enough for me.

Others may gloss over some of my complaints and reason for the return. But when you have to view the system and work with it on a daily basis, the system has to be right for the individual.

Hearing more of the X220 IPS screen, I think that one would be best for my 65 yr old eyes. Just hope after some more reviews from users with this X220, I can pull the trigger and get it. No hurries at this time, which I should have listened to myself early on for the T420.

 

The screen issue is a valid one and lets face it these crappy screens ruin everything. With a decent screen the T420 would be my first choice.

You may also want to check the E420 which has some kind of new vibrant view screen which is supposed to be somewhat better. Trouble is I haven't seen one in person.

I am leaning toward the x220, but something is telling me to wait. Mostly my wife.

 

About the lagging when opening programs etc., did you consider clean installing the OS? Maybe that would have helped. I recently bought a X201 (as in the sig) and it came with all the ususal stuff including the EE 2.0. I swept it all out. Re-installed the OS and my programs. But I do use some of the ThinkVantage software (like System Update and Power Manager), which I also installed. But after doing this, things were just fine - programs opened quickly, startup and shutdown times were snappy and everything - as far as I can see - works perfectly.

But in the context of your other comments/ observations, I can see why you sent back the T420. Hope you have a good experience with the X220 when you decide to buy it.

Cheers!

 

dosent win 7 get faster after a week or so? i've certainly noticed large improvements with boot time etc after a week as it learns your usage patterns etc.

 

Yeah...sorry, I should have mentioned that. I have heard that too. But since I prefer the clean install, I do it anyway.

 

btw i've been rather impressed by the lenovo software, other than the popup bug that i managed to solve, its been very frugal with resources, certainly light years ahead of anything i've seen on dell's and acers, not too sure about HP.

 

The screen issue(s) are going to hurt Lenovo and the other OEMs. I don't understand why they are making or buying the screens they are today. Every time I fire up the T61p and look at the 15.4" 1680x1050 screen I wonder why they would want to change that.

 

what laptops have you used in the past? were there any that you find acceptable?

 

also maybe you should check your power settings, some of the profiles are geared towards power saving. even the maximum performance profile on my x201 had some settings that were lower than max, check that.

but i agree, i could not live with a screen that crappy....its shocking really.

 

Don't think so... With a forum filled with topics about sub par screen quality and even more topics about how much people hate the new 16:9 screens and X220 1366x768 res, people still seem to line up to get a T420(s) or X220.