ThinkPad T400s Announced
I am somewhat surprised that the T400s stayed a secret as long as it did. Based on past launches, I expected to see information flooding the Internet about six months ago. As a commenter presciently declared, yes, I was alluding to the T400s several months ago when I mentioned that I was switching from my T61 to the X301.
I hated my time with the X301. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine box — for someone else. I’m a T series user through and through. The X301’s screen was too small, the processor too slow, and the battery was too anemic.
About a week ago, I switched over to this machine as my full-time, production system. To make things more interesting, I switched over to the 64 bit version of Windows 7 too. Luckily, a beta version of our customer preload for Win 7 was ready, and I was able to use that as a base. Most, but not all of the hardware drivers were there as well as a few of our ThinkVantage Technologies (Rescue & Recovery, Client Security Software, Access Connections, and Power Manager).
Win 7 RC 1+ Lenovo Beta Preload = double beta or beta beta. Not everything works perfectly.
- I suspect that while Power Manager loads, it’s not really doing anything other than take up CPU cycles and act erratically. My battery life is poor right now — nowhere close to the 5.5 hours we’re advertising. For fun, I might uninstall it and see what Windows 7 can do on its own.
- I’ve given up on Access Connections. Corporate users will want to continue to use it, but as an individual, it no longer makes sense for me. Windows 7’s Wi-Fi/Connectivity manager is really that much better and faster.
- I have not yet tried Rescue & Recovery. I’m sure it works fine. I’ll continue to use it as it has many features over and above what 7 offers.
- Most importantly, our Client Security Software Password Manager works. I have become so dependent on that piece of code that I would continue to use XP if it hadn’t been ready yet.
My biggest hassle has been Lotus Sametime, our instant messaging client. We’ve been using that bloated piece of garbage for years (I’m being kind), and though it will launch and chat under Win 7, half of its options are not available and it crashes unexpectedly 4 or 5 times per day. I tried the usual tricks like installing as an administrator or running it in XP emulation mode, but today I just gave up. I am now an ecstatic Pidgin user. I’m sure our corporate IT team won’t like it, but hey, our Beijing colleagues have been using MSN messenger for years. Companies need to provide the IT that their employees need to do their jobs, and most have their heads stuck in the sand. (But that’s probably another blog post for another day.)
In addition, I downloaded and installed the XP virtual machine. It works as advertised. Our expense tool didn’t play well under Windows 7 but runs perfectly in the XP virtual machine. I think Microsoft will find that this will be quite a popular feature with corporations. It does what it says.
I didn’t mean for it to do so, but this T400s post actually turned into a Win 7 post. That said, after you’ve read the extensive press coverage today, I’m sure you may have some additional questions that weren’t answered on the T400s. Feel free to ask them, and I will try to answer them. (I may later regret offering this, but it’s worth a try.)
I will ignore any questions that ask about future product offerings or strategy. If you want to know what the fourth BIOS interrupt on the second register does, I don’t know.
Finally, for those who have a lot invested in this issue, I don’t know if the DisplayPort passes audio, but I’m trying to find out.
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
June 23rd, 2009 9:44 pm
Will the ultrabay accept the same hdd caddy and bay battery parts as the T400? I don’t see either listed among the accessories during the order process.
This is the first ThinkPad I’ve been really excited about in a long time. I liked the X301 but wanted more power. This will be the year my trusty T42 gets demoted at last.
June 23rd, 2009 10:05 pm
Starting with the T400, we switched to the SATA Ultrabay connectors which is why we broke commonality with the T61 generation which had PATA connectors.
These did not change electrically from the T400 to the T400s. Both systems have a 9.5″ Ultrabay.
What DID change is the bezel, though it was cosmetic only. If you use the T400 battery in the T400s, it will not match exactly, though it is close. This is due to the different radius of the curve of the bottom cover.
Our Options Compatibility Matrix should be updated within a few days.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....ACCS-GUIDE
June 23rd, 2009 10:31 pm
Matt – I presume that with the new docking station (Series 3 – full size), it will be possible to use the T400s’s screen plus two external display devices (such as 1 DVI + 1 DisplayPort or 2 x DisplayPort)?
June 23rd, 2009 10:50 pm
Is there a way to swap Fn/Ctrl in BIOS? (I do a lot of coding, and switching from a desktop keyboard to the thinkpad keyboard where “ctrl” isn’t in the corner drives me nuts…)
Also, does the trackpad support 3- and 4- finger gestures like macbooks? (Not sure if that’s a hardware question or a Windows 7 question, but I thought I’d ask anyway.)
And finally, is the screen readable outdoors? I’m hoping that my next laptop will allow me to enjoy North Carolina weather while I work!
June 23rd, 2009 11:22 pm
Wow Matt, you certainly tell it like it is! Any chance that you could allude to or drop a hint about a T500s coming in the pipeline?
June 23rd, 2009 11:31 pm
I’m in love with the new T400s. Out of curiosity, what does the change in battery style mean for extended-life batteries? I’m completely enamored with my X61’s ability to squeeze 7-hours out of its 8-cell.
June 23rd, 2009 11:46 pm
I NEED… a W500s..
.
June 24th, 2009 12:44 am
T400s is really impressive… Look forward to upgrade my Thinkpad
Question
Does the T400s really use 1.8 inch 5400rpm HDD?
If yes, how is the performance compare with 2.5 inch 5400rpm HDD?
Base on my past experience.. 1.8 inch HDD is quite slow (guess maybe they are not 5400rpm)
Suggestions…
Why don’t Thinkpad team design a universal Ultrabay that can suit X-series/T-series/T400s/?
After using Thinkpad for the last 10 years… now I have 5 different ultrabay….
Base on my understanding there is only Blue-ray burner + Combo…which is super expensive… why don’t Thinkpad produce BD-ROM+Combo ? should be much cheaper
June 24th, 2009 12:48 am
Matt, can you please talk more about the side of T400s that we do/may not know from the reviews and elsewhere.Espescially, does it have the Thinklight?
Also, pardon my ignorance, but what is the reason behind all notebook manufacturers choosing not to divulge their products’ roadmap ? Is that because they think it’ll be detrimental for the sales of the current product line?
June 24th, 2009 1:20 am
[...] See original here: ThinkPad T400s Announced [...]
June 24th, 2009 1:43 am
Will the T400s accept an additional harddisk in the Ultrabay. If yes, 1.8 or 2.5 inch?
June 24th, 2009 2:30 am
I’ve looked over the various reviews for the T400s and it’s quite an impressive machine and a great alternative for a user that wants a mid-high level CPU, integrated graphics, and a decent sized display. I imagine you will get a fair amount of flack for choosing a 1.8″ main drive, but I think this was the right choice (there are plenty of great 1.8″ SSDs and this keeps size/weight down).
I’ve been running the Windows 7 64-Bit RC on my x200 Tablet for a little over a month now. It generally works quite well but there are a few driver irregularities. I too gave up on Access Connections as I feel that Windows has finally matured enough in this category to make Access Connections obsolete for individual users.
Power manager is mildly erratic as well, but it generally performs pretty well. For some reason I am unable to turn the brightness all the way down in Windows 7 (I suspect the Intel x4500 driver) and Windows sometimes overrides the brightness settings I have in my power manager profile. However, the charge thresholds work and that is what I care the most about.
Is the Client Security Software Password Manager available online for download or is it only in your “double Beta” preload. I miss the ability to tie my passwords to the TPM and fingerprint reader (especially important because I have a tablet and sometimes work in a mode where a keyboard is unavailable).
You’re definitely telling it like it is with Lotus. I haven’t had to use that product in a while, but it was always painful.
June 24th, 2009 2:43 am
That’s great news, regarding the ultrabay, I may need to grab a bluray burner for my T400 at some point in time.
One thing I noticed with the T400 docks was that none of them seemed to have expansion in it in the way or slots and ultrabays, did I miss something, or is that maybe coming? Also, how long until the rest of the ThinkPads have the same docking connector, and is there a possibility that this new docking connector will be the same on the next genration of T/W/R series as the next generation of X series, as it was in the 20/30/40/50 series.
Also,
June 24th, 2009 3:14 am
Thanks Matt for your very honest and interesting articles. I’ve been using X series since they were introduced, and 600E before that. Lightness has always been important to me, not so much the screen size nor other options.
That’s why T series never appealed to me. I once tried T42 but it was huge compared to X40 at that time. I was seriously considering X301 as my new work machine, but without a docking port it simply wasn’t an option.
Now I’m ordering a loaded T400s as I feel it has hit the sweet spot in size, weight and performance. OK – I could live without an optical drive and see that space used for something else but as long as I can put an another battery there I’m fine.
I really wish Lenovo had more – any – brick and mortar shops where people could touch and feel new models. I live in Finland, and here Lenovo’s web site is horrendous. It’s simply a miserable list of available models with broken links to detailed info, no possibility to configure models, no nothing. I really miss the years when I lived in Boston and was able to use your excellent USA site. Country organizations may be independent, but if the corporation could give a slight nudge to the country managers, I’d be more than happy =)
Since Lenovo doesn’t have many retail locations here, and your local sales people are slackers, I have to rely solely on the reviews and writings on the net. I do blindly believe that you guys create the best business laptops there are, and I will buy the T400s without seeing it in person. However, there are a few questions I have and I hope you could shed some light to those:
- does T400s have the same satin smooth (rubbery) finish as X300/X301?
- is the palm rest normal plastic or soft coated?
- which option do I have to select for the GPS module? If it’s bundled with a certain WWAN card, which one will it be in Europe?
- I can’t see T400s models in any European stores yet. Any word on the availability?
- what’s the height of the 1.8″ drive bay? Does Intel’s X18-M fit in? Any particular restrictions in size/connectors when choosing a 3rd party SSD?
- is the 5-in-1 card reader a card that can be removed (so that there is still the ExpressCard slot available for other accessories), or fixed to the chassis?
- what is the “video controller” in the mini dock plus 3?
June 24th, 2009 3:15 am
Any news about new tablet comming up next year ?
Will all new thinkpads have new keyboard layout design ?
Thanks
June 24th, 2009 3:39 am
yet another question on the 1.8 inch drive… How is the performance compared to 2.5 inch?
Is ther a particular reason why the machine is so deep? I mean there is quite a lot of bezzle below and above the screen.
I found it a bit surprising that this machine has a significant bigger footprint than the t42 14-inch series, while having a smaler screen ( a 16:9 is smaller than a 4:3 with same diagonal) and a smaller harddrive. Is this a decision to kepp the temperature down?
June 24th, 2009 5:38 am
I was worried about battery capacity and it seems those concerns were valid – a 44WHr battery is too small. This is only marginally larger than even the one in the MacBook Air, and Apple’s 13″ MacBook Pro offers a substantially larger battery than this. Even with the bay battery in place, the notebook won’t hold anywhere near the charge of the lighter 9-cell X200s. Also it seems like the only reason whatsoever to go with a T400s over a X200 now is larger display.
Perhaps introduce battery slice panels that go under the notebook like HP do, or just start building them into the chassis like Apple.
June 24th, 2009 5:57 am
Questions maybe you can answer:
1. Does the t400s have 3×3 UltraConnect?
2. Currently Lenovo doesn’t offer warranty upgrades, will it be available later?
3. Lenovo used to offer a battery option for the x300/x301 fixed bay devices, why did they take it off and will they put back? Is this option available through phone orders? Those are for the t400s as well.
Questions you probably won’t answer:
1. Currently the Canadian lenovo.com offers SL9400/9600 CPU option, will it be offer for the US later?
June 24th, 2009 7:46 am
Great news!
But HP is out with a “serious netbook”
http://www.engadget.com/2009/0.....-netbooks/
…catch up Lenovo and do even better than them!
June 24th, 2009 7:58 am
sorry. I was wrong about the footprint, the size of the t42 and t400s footprint is virtually identically.
leaves the questions:
How happy are you with the 1.8 HDD?
Are there other battery options?
Will there be LV/ULV options ( less power, longer battery live)?
June 24th, 2009 8:01 am
Hi Matt,
Thank you so much for all the info about the T400s + Windows 7.
I have only one question.
Do you know if in the future the T400s will have a better graphics card?
I’m really in for buying one or even two T400s.
Cheers,
António.
June 24th, 2009 8:22 am
A T400p would be nice… just give me a nice graphics card. I’m a road warrior and actually do occasionally play games while stuck in my hotel room.
As far as Sametime goes, if you’re using a version older than 8.x, there is your problem. Get 8.0.2.. bada bing, it’s sweet.
June 24th, 2009 9:04 am
You all certainly don’t waste any time… (brief question summary in parentheses)
Jared / (dock + 2 external displays) – I don’t know for sure yet, but I doubt it.
The DisplayPort on the system/Series 3 Docking set is certainly capable of driving
lots of pixels from a physical layer standpoint. Where we run into problems is with
the graphics card. The Intel integrated graphics is only capable of pumping so many
bits at a time. Traditionally I think integrated graphics has only supported 2
displays at the chipset level. If someone can point out differently on another
competitor, please do so. I’m not aware of any. You may want to give this a try as
well. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....72682.html We have six
displays running off a W700 in the Customer Center here and the quality is pretty
good.
Jonathan (T500s) – Sorry, but as I said above, possible future products are off
limits.
Michael – (Change in battery/extended life battery implications) – It’s interesting
to me the switch back to battery packs that fit within the system footprint.
Personally, I never minded batteries hanging off of the back of the system, but a lot
of people did and criticized us for it. For right now, to get any extra battery
life, the answer is to use the swappable bay battery. The options team is assessing
a “slice” battery that would fit underneath.
CrazyWalker – (1.8″ HDD) – We used a 1.8″ HDD to save some space. The new generation
of 1.8″ HDDs performs better than the previous generation 1.8″ drives. That said, if
it were up to me, I’d ban all spinning 1.8″ drives from ever being used in PCs. The
new drive is faster @5400 rpm, but the laws of physics are inviolate. A 1.8″ 5400
rpm will always lag a 2.5″ 5400rpm. I did the math once and I think I calculated a
50% performance difference just based on angular rotation velocity. I’m sure I did
something wrong, but in the end, if you want the best performance for a normal volt
processor, you should not starve it by using a paltry 1.8″ spinning drive. SSDs are
dropping in price all of the time.BD reader/combo — from a business standpoint,
there is no justification to produce this. The only reason (today) to have a BD
reader is to watch movies. Our business customers don’t want their end users
watching movies. The justification for Blu-Ray burners is for data backup. (The
disks are just so stinkin’ expensive though)
Karthik (more than just reviews side of T400s / roadmap) – Yes it has a ThinkLight.
A nice bright one too. If we release our roadmap, it allows our competitors to copy
us and we lose a competitive advantage. It also stalls sales. I’ll comment more on
T400s behind the scenes in a future post depending on feedback.
Jonlumpkin (TVTs available for download) – We don’t have the newest CSS version or
the other TVTs available for download yet, but based on past history, we will likely
make them available in beta form after Windows 7 has gone gold. I don’t know that
for sure, but a lot of our customers want to kick the tires. You’ll likely see a
link off our beta Win 7 drivers page. http://www-
307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-BETA.html
Cory W (Docks/expansion) – The T400s is the first generation to use the new docking
connector. Future ThinkPads will switch to the new connector as they are announced.
Most people wanted a full dock to add a graphics card (now solved with USB/DVI
dongles) and sometimes a bay. There really aren’t enough people demanding bay
devices in their docking to justify continuing that route. On another note, the new
docks DO support “rip and go” as this was a big customer feedback point.
Antti (multiple) – It’s not quite the same finish as the X301. You’ll find it is
closer to the current generation T400 systems. Palm rest is not rubber coated. WWAN
cards/models – I’m going to have to defer to the local country team on that one. I
don’t know which models we will be announcing in Finland. General availability for
the system should be within the next couple of weeks at most. We’re shipping them
today in the US. In Western Europe it lags a bit, but not by much. The 1.8″ bay is
an industry standard 1.8″ bay. The Intel X18-M is one of the drives we offer for
sale, so yes it will fit. I do not know of any restrictions that would prevent you
from using a 3rd party SSD. Again, the 1.8″ bay is pretty much to standard. The 5
in 1 reader is fixed, so it is configure at the factory. (Yes, I am disappointed
with this as well). The video controller in the mini dock Series 3 — I do not know.
I have not seen one yet to know for sure. Sorry.
Charles (tablet/keyboard layout) — Future products off limits.
Ralf (1.8″ HDD / depth of system) – See above for my comments on the 1.8″ HDD. As
far as depth, we wanted a few things: our full sized keyboard, ISO compliant palm
rest, and a 27% bigger touch pad. Adding all of these meant that the system had to
be a certain size. It does not feel big at all. Temperature does not have anything
to do with it, but the reviews have already confirmed what I’ve been saying all
along. These are the coolest and quietest running systems on the market.
Gaurav (battery capacity concerns) – I share your concerns. Our development team is
looking at both things that you suggest.
Snakebite (multiple) – CPU choices and model choices are entirely driven by the
countries. They pick models that they think are appropriate for their market. We do
offer a bay battery for sale and will continue to do so. Warranty upgrades will most
definitely be available. 3×3 UltraConnect – I am pretty sure the answer is yes. I
will check and if I find out differently, I will post back.
Ralf – (1.8″HDD /battery options/ULV) – The T400s was designed for a normal volt
processor. If you want ULV technology, our recommendation is to use the X301 series
or X200s series. Battery options are limited to the bay battery at this point. The
primary battery is 6 cells only. As far as 1.8″ HDDs, see above.
Antonio – (discrete graphics) – future product discussion.
Jim (sametime) – I tried version 8. It’s even MORE of a bloated pig that hogs CPU
cycles like they’re going out of style. No way, no how. If I could find an open
source replacement for Lotus Notes, I’d do that too.
June 24th, 2009 9:09 am
Why was the display resolution limited to 1440. Why could it not have been made higher and also have dedicated graphics?
June 24th, 2009 9:44 am
I really like the lighter and thinner design while still keeping the components powerful (e.g. compared to a X301), but there’s two things I don’t like at all:
1. the changed keyboard layout, especially the changed positions of the insert and delete keys. The layout up to now was perfect as it was basically identical to the layout of a desktop keyboard and therefore allowed switching between them very quickly and easily.
2. the battery, which is not at the back of the laptop anymore and does not allow a replacement with an extented battery that extends over the end of the laptop. This (old) design allowed extending the battery capacity and runtime very easily without forcing compromises for the position of the laptop itself if it sits on its battery and thus changes the tilt of keyboard and laptop.
June 24th, 2009 11:57 am
Is the T400 bay battery the same for T400s? Is it possible to buy a configuration with a battery instead of a optical drive over the phone? I think the bay battery will be used more than an optical drive. How many user you know frequently uses a optical drive? Unless it’s his job to back things up, I can’t imagine regular user using the drive more 2 time a month. Carrying a flash drive is better than carrying CDs/Dvds, don’t you agree?
June 24th, 2009 1:34 pm
hey Matt, how come you skipped aj’s question on post #4? it seems people always ask about the Fn/Ctrl keys, not that I use these two keys often.
June 24th, 2009 4:14 pm
If you are wiping you install anyway, could you spend few hours and test Fedora Linux 11 on this nice machine? What battery life would it achieve?
June 24th, 2009 6:47 pm
I think you’re right on with the state of Thinkvantage software.
Access connections has terrible configurability for the less common network protocols – I had to turn it off because I couldn’t get it to work with the Thawte certificates on my campus network.
Power Manager eats up a lot of uneccessary CPU power when it’s running in the background.
And wtf was the hard drive active protection system preloaded and activated on my system with SSD?
Although I find it strange that you complain about the battery capacity on the X300 series when the new battery on the T400s is only marginally bigger (45 WHr vs 43 WHr).
Also, the screen on the T400s is the same reolution as the X300, so you don’t gain any working space.
I do think the T400s is a fantastic machine, though, and if it had been available when I bought my X300, I would definitely have gone for the T400s.
June 24th, 2009 7:15 pm
I’m jealous, I want one!
Matt, thanks for the honest view points! It reminds me of what I think about at the end of ‘certain’ days at work!
Can any one explain to me why chat/IM clients seems to be memory hogs? Yahoo, AOL, Live/MSN messenger, even Trillion all seem to want to grab 150+megs of ram. They’re only network clients for a chat service?!?!
WIN 7 RC is doing very nicely on my T43, despite the age, the frustration was some missing drivers or thinkpad apps, so many thanks for the link to the win 7 beta page. Much appreciated.
June 24th, 2009 8:22 pm
The 400s sounds very nice, particularly in screen selection, and including eSata. I am also pleased to see a 7200 RPM 320 GB drive being offered. I am one of your Thinkpad customers who are waiting for the W500s. Screen options have been my biggest disappointment with previous models. The selection of LED screens and brighter screens for outdoor use has me very hopeful there will be a premium screen option for the W series Thinkpads. 512MB and 1 GB GPU options to choose from would round it out for me. I am not sure what to make of the 1.8 vs 2.5 HD debate, just hope regarding the W500 you spec it with the highest performing options.
Here is an article regarding whether or not audio is included in Apple’s Mini Display Port and also the PC Display Port standard. It sounds like this may be dependent on tying the audio into the GPU card from which the Display Port connection originates from.
http://lowendmac.com/ed/fox/09.....audio.html
You know another thing I would really appreciate is some clear cut information on performance capabilities and differences in GPU support for Adobe Photoshop. In particular the extent to which Fire GL and Nvidia Quodro have any benefits when running Photoshop. There is all this talk about CUDA and Apple’s Open CL. I would welcome hearing how PC/Windows and in particular Thinkpad’s address Photoshop performance in addition to CAD 3D. To the best of my knowledge Photoshop enables GPU acceleration via Open GL. So if a GPU supports Open GL 2.0 for example, all other things being equal will performance be the same? I think this would be of great interest to many of us, and make a great Blog article if one of you could do it.
Keep it up Thinkpad team. You have kept me waiting far longer than I would have liked, but good things take time, and I can’t wait to see what is coming out next. Also I very much appreciate the openness and freedom of discussion that this blog provides, as well as the participation and support from others on some of the Forums. It matters a great deal, and sets Lenovo apart from the rest.
June 24th, 2009 11:37 pm
I’m also curious about the usefulness of Active Protection on SSD configs…
June 24th, 2009 11:55 pm
Hey Matt,
The T400s looks really good and functional.
However, for a piece of new Lenovo product that I’ve learnt about on the internet – the O-phone – its hardware functionality look superb, and it’s based on Android.
BUT – it’s icons and interface look really cheap and crap.
Please ask the phone software team to take a look at HTC’s Hero announced today which is also based on Android.
June 25th, 2009 5:06 am
Matt,
The X200(s) keyboard is supposed to be a standard sized “T” keyboard. Will the new T400s keyboard fit in the X200(s)?
Also, I think the X200s is far superior to the T400s. It is has the same specs in terms of screen (WXGA+ 1440×900)
It is far lighter starting at 2.5 lbs. My 8 cell is 3 lbs.
It is smaller and more convenient to carry around.
Battery life is around 9-10 hours with Win 7 on the 8-cell, far exceeding the T400s battery life.
Running with SSD or even hard drive I can’t see any reason to have a faster processor than the 1.86 GHz (6 MB cache) processor of the X200s for most standard tasks.
Has the more standard 2.5 hard drive bay.
The only advantage the T400s has that I can see is the touchpad for those that want it and larger characters for those who need it. Of course there is the optical drive in the T400s that is not in the X200s but I almost never need it because I can use Daemon tools to read CD/DVD images that are on my hard drive. I do have a $60 small portable USB drive when I need it. Honestly, with the use of netbooks, people are finding out they really don’t need the optical drive except on rare occasion.
So why really would anyone prefer a T400s over an X200s unless they have a difficult time reading the smaller characters, “must have” a touchpad?
Also, Matt, could you please explain why the SSD upgrade options for 64, 128 is $40, $240 for the T400s and $250 and $450 for the X200s? This is really annoying…
Also, there are frequent Lenovo coupons listed on http://www.logicbuy.com for anyone thinking of purchasing a laptop.
June 25th, 2009 5:20 am
Matt,
Thanks so much for your response to our questions, and your frank and honest candor in your posts. I think the T400s is a really exciting machine. I cheered when I heard of two finger scrolling support on the touch pad (something I grew fond of while interning at Apple last summer, despite me using the trackpoint primarily), and the two independent external displays in addition to thinkpad display is sweet.
June 25th, 2009 7:57 am
I don’t see the point of T400s as long as the only available display resolution is similar to X300 series. WXGA+ on 14″ display is too low resolution. Yes, I know we will lose more vertical resolution in the future
Someone has already mentioned here the new HP 10.1″ 1366×768 – that’s the right way to go.
June 25th, 2009 12:09 pm
Congratulations to Lenovo this is how T series Thinkpad should look like not thick, plastickey and portless! meanwhile a bigger battery should be available as an option 6 cell is nothing! i don’t know how you will do that since the battery is beneath the machine anyhow the T400s is on the top of my shopping list my X301 needs a bigger brother
June 25th, 2009 12:37 pm
Sumeeth (display resolution) – A lot of people have asked for dedicated graphics.
Our team is looking at that. In this day and age of darn good integrated graphics,
why do you want/need discrete graphics with its battery life hit? Display resolution
is a big personal preference. Had we gone higher, many people would have complained
that their fonts were too small. That said, I agree a choice of low or high res
would be ideal.
Lipsia (keyboard & battery) – My carefully learned “reach without look” has changed
dramatically. For example, the F4 key (Alt F4 to kill programs) is in a vastly
different position than before and I’m constantly hitting the wrong key. It’s a
darned if you do, darned if you don’t situation. If we don’t change to update with
the times, we get criticism. If we do change, we get criticism. The battery — I
agree 100%. I’d be very willing to add an extra pound worth of battery to my system
in order to get to 8 hours or more in real-world battery life.
Snakebite (bay battery) – The bay battery from the T400 will work in the T400s. The
bezels are slightly different, but it doesn’t affect functionality, just looks. I
disagree with the optical. I use it regularly. I most often need one when I don’t
have one. Unlike some of our competitors who have gone to all fixed bays in order to
cut costs, we at least still have the swappable bays to give choice.
Yang (Fn key placement) – I honestly overlooked this question. Again, it’s a darned
if you do, darned if you don’t situation. We have lots of people who are used to the
current layout and like things the way they are. Just look at how much fuss there
was over the red and blue stripes. I personally found that whole debate rather
pointless, but regardless, it does show how the loyalists like things the way they
are and ANY change is going to upset them. I do think an acceptable compromise would
be to make the Fn and CTRL keys the same physical size so that our customers could
swap them to their hearts content and then use software to remap them.
Tomasz (test Fedora) – I’m not personally interested in testing that, but I’m sure
the community will happily oblige.
Vldenuit (TVT software) – I disagree completely with you on Power Manager. Since it
is written by us for our hardware, it is able to control things at the hardware level
that Windows will never be able to. Windows has to be generic as to work on all
vendors’ platforms. Power Manager is written specifically for ThinkPads and it will
ALWAYS do a better job. You still want the APS driver loaded in case you put a second
hard drive in the bay. That way you still get protection. Plus, this way you get to
play games…
Peter (IM clients) – I think you said it nicely. Chat should be unobtrusive and
light weight.
FJ (Photoshop performance/OpenGL/CL) – Photoshop CS4 has these enablements. Previous
versions do not, at least not in any meaningful way. What test suite or benchmark
would you recommend as being the most meaningful to judge PS performance?
K3davis (APS and SSD) – See above.
Nicolo (HTC) – will do.
David (X200 keyboard on different machines. X200s superior, pricing) – I don’t know,
but somehow I doubt it, not from a functionality standpoint, but from a slightly
different shape of the tray standpoint. Also, since the T400s now has three drain
holes, you’d give up that protection too. Besides, you’d be giving up mic mute,
lighted power buttons, etc. I disagree with your assertion that the X200s is
superior, as screen size is very important to me. That said, if it were up to me,
we’d only sell T series and kill the rest. But people are different with different
preferences. As far as pricing goes, that is up to each indivdual country. I do not
have visibility as to why things are priced the way they are.
Saket (multi touch) – Someone told me once that Lenovo has the multi touch patent for
touch pads and that Apple has been licensing from us all along. I’d love to be able
to confirm or deny that once and for all. Does anyone out there have knowledge of
how to easily search the US Patent database to find out?
June 25th, 2009 12:58 pm
I would LOVE to see a T500 17″ version.
The W-series has a 17 inch and that’s great, however I like how the T is a little more conservative on the battery power.
As a photographer the W would be great for the horsepower, but I’m also looking for slimline and less expensive than a w700.
PS: You know where to find me if you have a t500 17″ pre-release. I’d buy one tomorrow.
June 25th, 2009 1:11 pm
> how to easily search the US Patent database
http://www.google.com/patents
Best if you know the patent number. (It may be printed in an Apple user manual.) Otherwise there are several search criteria, including keyword, e.g.
http://www.google.com/patents/.....ulti+touch
Failing that, call Lenovo’s legal department and ask them
June 25th, 2009 8:49 pm
Matt,
My Photoshop/GPU question is directed at whether or not a Quadro or Fire GL card offers greater performance than a standard game oriented GPU in Photoshop. Macbook Pros use Nvidia Geforce cards which are a game type of card, but I assume Apple has a proprietary driver that may or may not offer different performance than the same card on a PC. My sense is if a card supports Open GL 2.0 and has 256MB of memory or more (preferably 512MB or 1GB) then it will handle the CS4 functions that are GPU enabled at the same performance level as an equaly specced “professional” CAD/3D card. The point being if you are configuring your Thinkpad for Photoshop use, would people be better served getting a high performance game card with 1GB of video ram rather than getting an equaly specced and more expensive “professional” card like the Quadro? Specifically I think a GeForce 260M might be a better choice than a Quadro 2700 or possibly even a Quadro 3700 for accelerating Photoshop.
ATI Mobile GPU’s:
http://www.amd.com/us/products.....-4000.aspx
NVidia Mobile GPU’s:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebooks.html
Regarding ATI Mobile GPU’s I guess the Fire GL is a Radeon.
I assume far more Thinkpad users will be using Photoshop than Maya. So although it is important to offer the CAD/3D cards, for those of us whose criteria regarding GPU performance is what can it do for me in CS4 and more importantly CS5 will the option to choose a high performance mobile game card (that supports Open GL 2.0) be an equal or better performer and the better value? I am assuming more applications are going to be able to take advantage of the GPU and would like to make the right choice in configuring my system with that capabillity. Also for those who are trying to decide whether or not to get a Thinkpad + Windows 7 + Photoshop or a Macbook Pro + Open CL + Snow Leopard + Photoshop it wouldn’t hurt to be able to explain why a Thinkpad is the better choice. The W700 is just what photographers are looking for, its just that it would be great to have it in a smaller package with much longer battery life.
As far as testing here is an article that speaks to my point and lists the features that currently take advantage of GPU acceleration.
http://www.maximumpc.com/artic....._photoshop
Also very interested in hearing what the deal is with Display Port and Audio. Thanks…
June 25th, 2009 9:10 pm
Thank you for answering our questions. Compared to Apple’s super secretiveness, and all the other brands’ out sourced design process, Thinkpad team is great in communicating with users, and keep us updated.
Here’s my question, will future Thinkpads have backlit keyboards? Don’t get me wrong, I love Thinklight, I actually use it for all kinds of purposes. However, I just can’t stop dreaming about black classic thinkpad key broads with white backlit.
June 25th, 2009 9:17 pm
You know it is NVidia that confuses this issues with their “Game” and “Pro” cards. ATI I think more closely names/differentiates their cards based on straight performance. Here is a good site with comparisons, detailed descriptions, and reviews of GPU’s for those who are interested.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/M.....844.0.html
June 25th, 2009 9:41 pm
I have another question about batteries. Does the t400s uses the same 6cells as the T400 models? I wanna know if I can buy a spare. The t400s has new headphone port. Will it fit a regular 3.5mm headphone jack?
June 26th, 2009 9:53 am
[...] T400s information, a couple of Lenovo’s own published some blog posts about the new machine. Matt Kohut over at Inside the Box admits he hated the ThinkPad X301 he had switched to, after not being able [...]
June 26th, 2009 10:47 am
Regarding the resolution, I’m yet to hear anybody complain about 1440×900 on a 12″ x200s , on the other a lot of people are asking for a non-low resolution on a T series.
June 26th, 2009 12:01 pm
All is opinion only, but…
I feel that the calls for ever increasing resolution are getting a bit too ridiculous lately. Now I’m learning that apparently, 1440×900 (WXGA+) is too low for 14″ widescreens. The next thing is someone will accuse Lenovo of “lagging behind times” for not offering a higher resolution on the T400s (even though, to the best of my knowledge, there does not exist a single notebook with higher than WXGA+ on 14″ wide.
WXGA+ is not low for 14″, no matter what you think. Most of the laptops in the world use WXGA (1280×800 or 1366×768) for this size. Probably >90%, although of course I don’t have accurate statistics.
People crave more and more screen space, and that is understandable, but they seem to forget that this real estate needs to be usable. And when the PPI is too high, you end up either having to increase fonts to compensate (losing the advantage gained by extra resolution to begin with) or squint, compensating for the constant eye fatigue by telling yourself how cool it is that you have a high-res screen.
I have good eyesight. I can deal with pixel densities of up to 120-130PPI just fine (working every day on a 14″ SXGA+ T60), but I wouldn’t want to go higher than that. I don’t want to squint all day long struggling to see those tiny objects on my screen.
Gar, the reason you are “yet to hear” anybody complaining about 1440×900 on X200s, is because the majority of people, before complaining, will do one of two things: (1) Increase DPI / font sizes if they are tech-savvy enough to know how it is done, or (2) lower resolution to 1280×800, and live with the blurriness of text. Many of the people at my workplace, with their high-res T-series models (spanning multiple generations from T43 to T400), are not running native resolution, to spare their eyes.
And I assure you that you will find MUCH MUCH more people for whom it will be absolutely impossible to work with WSXGA+ on 14″, than people who would find WXGA+ (or, heck, even WXGA) too low.
June 26th, 2009 2:28 pm
dr_st,
What calls for ever increasing resolution are you talking about ? When has it ever increased ? I think the PPI is giving you a wrong impression about the usable working area.
IBM has ALWAYS offered UXGA for 15″ and SXGA+ for 14″ as a high end option, at least for as long as remember, classics aside. The direct comparison of those on wide screen is WUXGA for 15″ and WSXGA+ for 14″, there is no question about it. That is all that is asked. Does that sound ever increasing to you ?
If people at your work are having problem with small fonts they can always buy a laptop with lower resolution or increase dpi, what’s a problem with that? These are all available, they have an option.
And I don’t care what resolution most other laptops have. It is all about the option that we always had before.
June 26th, 2009 3:01 pm
Quoting: “IBM has ALWAYS offered UXGA for 15″ and SXGA+ for 14″ as a high end option, at least for as long as remember, classics aside. The direct comparison of those on wide screen is WUXGA for 15″ and WSXGA+ for 14″, there is no question about it.”
No, you are wrong. There __is__ a question about it.
Because the 14″ widescreen is wider and shorter than the 14″ standard screen, it makes sense that the horizontal resolution would be higher and the vertical would be lower. Hence, as far as total screen space (number of pixels), and PPI SXGA+ should be compared to WXGA+, and UXGA to WSXGA+. You will find that these also keep the PPI roughly on the same level.
Lots of manufacturers offered SXGA+ on 14″ standard. IBM/Lenovo was one of them. NO manufacturer has EVER offered WSXGA+ on 14″ wide. So to claim that we “always had this option before” is downright __false__.
June 26th, 2009 4:00 pm
This is just silly, you operate sizes like it’s the one and only absolute measure of screen area. It is not. WXGA+ vs SXGA+ we gain 3% horizontally and loose 14% vertically. Does that sound comparable to you? You don’t even have to go this far dr_st, the answer is in the question:
UXGA -> Wide UXGA , 15″ == 15″
SXGA+ -> Wide SXGA+ 14″ == 14″
Right?
I do agree though I haven’t seen 14″ WSXGA+ screens, but how does that make my claim of always having an option of SXGA+ and UXGA false ? Please don’t reinterpret what I say in your responses. Either way, according to Matt the reason we didn’t get higher resolution screens is because “Had we gone higher, many people would have complained that their fonts were too small.” not because it was not offered before.
June 26th, 2009 9:47 pm
The difference between SXGA+ and WXGA+ is 13.4%. The difference between WSXGA+ and SXGA+ is 20%.
The difference between UXGA and WSXGA+ is 8.8%. The difference between WUXGA and UXGA is, again, 20%.
Thus, when I say that in terms of overall screen space, SXGA+ is more comparable to WXGA+, and UXGA to WSXGA+, I am right, no matter how silly you think it is. It’s just really straightforward calculations.
Your claim that SXGA+ and UXGA were always option is 100% true. No one argues with that.
But what you don’t seem to understand is that when you expect WSXGA+ on 14″ wide, you are not expecting “the option you always had”, because you never had this option (of WSXGA+ on 14″). You are actually asking for more than what was offered before. Not that it’s bad to ask for advancements. But they should not be taken for granted.
And I tend to agree with Matt 100% – too many people
June 26th, 2009 9:48 pm
would find WSXGA+ very uncomfortable on 14″. In fact, only a very small minority of people would find it comfortable enough without increasing fonts. And once you increase the fonts, and the DPI, what is the gain of the ultra-high resolution exactly?
June 27th, 2009 7:57 am
Is it really so hard to comprehend. If I was comfortable with UXGA on 15″ I’d be comfortable with WUXGA on 15″ wide, SXGA+ on 14″ then I’d be comfortable on WSXGA+ on 14″ wide. For this same reason when I expect WSXGA+ on 14″ I do expect an option I always had.
People who used to buy 15″ UXGA don’t move to WSXGA+ , they buy laptops with WUXGA screens, and that is the same exact resolution they are used to even though PPI went up from 132 to 147. Can you see how numbers are not all there is to measuring screen ?
Those people that you’re talking about do not have to buy what they think is a high res screen, they can buy WXGA or WXGA+ or whatever else they like, these options are available.
June 27th, 2009 8:35 am
The T400s is certainly a model that I would look at getting. I’m very happy with my T400. One big plus of my T400 is switchable graphics, the choice of having the power or the battery life (and something that will hopefully become more efficient with time).
I applaud your inclusion of the dual-purpose USB/eSATA and DisplayPort. I hope the speakers are a bit louder than the T400, but these in turn were much louder than my T61’s.
Keep this forward looking but with the classical Thinkpad look, feel and reliability.
Good job.
June 27th, 2009 8:54 am
I think we are broadcasting on somewhat different wavelengths, but I will try to converge a bit.
QUOTE: “If I was comfortable with UXGA on 15″ I’d be comfortable with WUXGA on 15″ wide, SXGA+ on 14″ then I’d be comfortable on WSXGA+ on 14″ wide.”
You are __very__ wrong to automatically make such assumptions. Because the PPI is __much__ higher, and you will suddenly find yourself straining your eyes __much__ more.
Now maybe your eyes are so much better than normal and you don’t experience discomfort, or maybe you just oblivious to the damage you are causing to them by this strain. After all, there are enough people taking this insanity to the next level, installing 15″ QXGA screens (PPI of 170), consciously going for real estate over comfort.
But the claim that WSXGA+ is the natural transition from SXGA+ given the same screen diagonal (similarly for WUXGA from UXGA) is wrong. I might as well claim that if I was comfortable on 14″ XGA, then I will automatically be comfortable on 15.4″ WQUXGA whatever. This claim is no more detached from reality, than your claim.
Have you ever had a chance to use WUXGA on 15.4″? Ever compared it side-by-side to 15″ UXGA? You really are equally comfortable with both, when it comes to prolonged work with text-based applications?
QUOTE: “Can you see how numbers are not all there is to measuring screen?”
I disagree. The only way I know to measure something or to describe something quantitatively is with numbers. You on the other hand, seem to be confused too much by names, and think that if something is called WUXGA, than it is the equivalent of UXGA, only for wide screens (hence the W). These names don’t mean anything, they are just there for convenience.
QUOTE: “People who used to buy 15″ UXGA don’t move to WSXGA+ , they buy laptops with WUXGA screens, and that is the same exact resolution they are used to even though PPI went up from 132 to 147.”
Many of the people who moved from 15″ UXGA to 15.4″ WUXGA do it automatically, either because 1) they are used to always go for the highest resolution, because “higher is always better”, or 2) they just always buy the highest-end laptops, and WUXGA happens to be what is usually offered on them.
But if you look at the recent 15.4″ workstation models released by Lenovo (T61p, and W500), you’ll see that they have quite a few models with WSXGA+. The reason is that Lenovo realized that __not__ everyone who was comfortable with 15″ UXGA will be comfortable with 15.4″ WUXGA, and offered them an option, which is easier on the eyes, at the cost of losing some screen space. These options wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t demand.
I think that perhaps when you say “comfortable”, you mean “happy with what fits on the screen”. And since in many applications, it is the vertical resolution that limits how much can fit, it is only natural that people get upset whenever they lose vertical resolution as screens get wider and shorter. I completely understand this point of view.
Unfortunately, the only way not to lose it, is by cramming the same amount of pixels into smaller space, which makes the PPI (and the eye strain that comes with it) ever increasing. Which is why so many people have been mourning the loss of 4:3 format and I expect will continue to do so, for a while. It seems to me that your argument, implicitly, is also more about 4:3 vs 8:5/16:9 than about actual resolutions.
QUOTE: “Those people that you’re talking about do not have to buy what they think is a high res screen, they can buy WXGA or WXGA+ or whatever else they like, these options are available.”
I totally agree. In the ideal world, all options would be available, and everyone would choose exactly what they want. From 1024×768 to 3840×2400, even on a 12″ screen, for all I care.
However, making all options available is economically infeasible, and so manufacturers have to find some common denominator. And this is where I get a bit irked by people screaming for ever higher resolutions, ignoring the fact that for 90% or more of the folks, these would be impractical and totally unnecessary. If there is to be only one resolution on 14″ wide – I’d prefer that it be WXGA+ and not WSXGA+. If there are to be only two (as things are now), I’d prefer it WXGA and WXGA+, not WSXGA+ and WUXGA. Because this is what most people would find optimal, all things considered.
And if we as consumers were to push towards advancements being made in the area of laptop screens, given the reality that resources are limited, and you cannot advance in all directions at once, I would __much__ rather see the return of high quality IPS/VA screens, than ever increasing resolutions.
But that is already a topic for a different discussion.
June 27th, 2009 9:36 am
Again, you’re somehow implying that people who ask for a higher resolution screen don’t know what they want and the names don’t mean anything. How do you know what majority wants ? If people at your office find it hard to use sxga+ on 14″ screen that just means that people at your office find it hard to use sxga+ on 14″, nothing else. Equally, people at my office find it impossible to use XGA on 14″, yet, no one claims that it shouldn’t exist or it’s bad for you. We are reasonable
Regarding what I think I want, trust me I do. I have t43p UXGA and t61p WUXGA, which I find equal as far as resolution goes. I also have x61t with SXGA+ screen which I find comfortable as far as screen goes. I have also used t400 with WXGA+ and I hated the resolution on that. My current general work laptop is x301 with WXGA+, which I find OK, but prefer other laptops for things other than writing this post for example.
You haven’t even used wide screens as far as I can tell and still claim you know better because you have numbers while I somehow am lost in the names, well I’m not, I’m just telling you what my experience is.
Regarding the eye strain, again these are things you heard presented as facts. I don’t get eye strain, I do care about my eyes, I do work some VERY long hours in front of a computer and I know exactly what I need. I do not ask for something impossible, merely for what was offered before.
I can see your point that many people prefer low resolution screens and myself and everybody else is FINE with that as I keep telling you AGAIN. You, however, do not see how myself and the likes have different needs and trying to prove you know better with numbers. I hope my point is clear as I don’t intend to argues over this anymore, clearly a waste of time.
June 27th, 2009 11:10 am
Gar,
I am not trying to claim that people asking for high resolutions don’t know what they are asking for. I am sure they have good reasons why they need high resolutions, which stem from their usage patterns.
You saying that you consider WUXGA T61p and UXGA T43p equal tells me two things: 1) You seem to only (or mostly) care about vertical resolution, and 2) Your eyes are not fatigued by small fonts, or maybe your usage patterns compensate somehow for the font size. But in any case, I was not trying to make a point about you being right or wrong in your usage patterns. There is no right or wrong here, it is all personal preference, and all acceptable.
The points I were trying to make are as follows (I will try to summarize them in a concise manner this time, because I fear my previous posts may have been too long and drawn out, so my claims were lost among the words).
1) When you say you’re asking for something that was offered before: If you mean SXGA+ on 14″ 4:3, then by all means, let them bring it back. If you mean WSXGA+ on 14″ wide, then – no – it was never offered before, and please stop claiming that it was. Because 14″ wide is not the same as 14″ standard, and WSXGA+ is not the same as SXGA+.
2) I would love to see all options be made available, but since it is infeasible, we have to find the golden mean somewhere, and stick to it. And if it means compromises have to be made, they are better made in a way that will keep the majority happy, which brings me to the next point:
3) I do not claim to have conducted any surveys to know what the majority wants. But I do work at a very large corporation, developing computer hardware, where all employees use laptops (90% Thinkpads) as their main computers. In addition to that I volunteer as a moderator on a large forum discussing laptops, aimed at the general population. Thus I feel that I do have _some_ idea of what people prefer, both in the business and consumer worlds, and I can tell you that, at least as far as my sampling goes, the number of people who find WXGA+ insufficient on 14″ is far smaller than the number of those who would actually _prefer_ the lower WXGA resolution for their everyday tasks.
4) Nonetheless, I would applaud the first manufacturer who would offer WSXGA+ on 14″. Even though I personally wouldn’t buy this kind of laptop. Just as I would applaud the first manufacturer to introduce any new cool feature, even if that feature is not interesting to me.
June 27th, 2009 1:59 pm
4) I would say re-introduce
The whole point of this discussion is that notebook displays quality and resolution options are going worse every year. No improvements or introducing *better* products at all. In the good old times you could select 15″ notebook display with 1024×768, 1400×1050, 1600×1200 or even 2048×1536 resolution, don’t mention exceptional quality of last three options. Today you have two options at the best and 10% of original quality. Don’t mention that X200s with WXGA+ resolution configuration is not available here (.cz) at all. What has improved ?
As for those mega-pixel-size resolutions like 14″ WXGA+ I think we are missing the point of a new way of notebook usage. Sometimes I would call it a “deskbook” instead of “notebook”. It is the case that the person uses an external keyboard/mouse in front of the notebook. The display distance becomes similar to desktop monitor and that’s why they prefer very low resolutions. But I’m just old-fashioned person who uses notebooks the “old way”. BTW my desktop monitor has pixel size 0.255 mm and I’m refusing to use anything with lower resolution (0.27 mm is annoying).
June 27th, 2009 4:02 pm
Well, this discussion actually goes to a few interesting directions now.
QUOTE:
“In the good old times you could select 15″ notebook display with 1024×768, 1400×1050, 1600×1200 or even 2048×1536 resolution, don’t mention exceptional quality of last three options. Today you have two options at the best and 10% of original quality.”
Well, in the 15″ department, you are actually a bit inaccurate.
15.4″ widescreens actually come in WXGA, WXGA+, WSXGA+ and WUXGA, which, resolution-wise, is actually better than the non-widescreen offers were, considering the fact that the QXGA was never a standard offering (i.e., as far as I know, you could only mount it as an aftermarket solution).
When it comes to quality, of course, Flexview beat current non-Flexview screens to a bloody pulp, hands down.
I think I may be one of these people that sits quite far from their screens. My current one is an UXGA 2007FP (0.255 pixel pitch, as you say), and I am sitting at least 70cm away from it. When I work with my laptop, it is typically at least 40cm away.
June 27th, 2009 6:32 pm
did not have the time to read through all questions. Just my own:
Why no high quality screen as an option? At least high resolution…
Pretty sad about that.
WHy no rubber coated palm rests?
Does anyone have tried some Linux on it?
Overall i’m hoping, that the ’s will disappear soon, as all Thinkpads should be as small and light as possible.
cheers
Hecke
June 27th, 2009 10:52 pm
Matt:
A couple of multitouch patents:
http://www.google.com/patents?.....xy_is=2009
http://www.google.com/patents?.....f+delaware
Google can search the USPO database, though I don’t know how thorough the online database is.
June 28th, 2009 1:34 am
Matt,
I love the new keyboard and I think the two seperate mute buttons as well as the enlarged Del and Esc keys are strokes of genius. However, I can’t swallow the starting price, and from what I understand it uses a 1.8 height drive, vs a 2.5.
My question is, Is there any plans on the horizon to roll out these new keyboard features to the normal T400 line or even better still the rest of the Thinkpad line?
I have swapped out my keyboard manytimes my self and I know how easy it is. Maybe this could become a user replacible option and just sell a upgradeible keyboard and let users swap them out themselves if they want. What do you think???
Thanks
Doug
June 28th, 2009 7:27 pm
I noticed these ATI cards (Mobillity Radeon HD 4830, 4860, & 4870) have “Dual audio over DisplayPort™” :
“The Mobility Radeon HD 4870 includes the Avivo HD called video technology including an onboard soundchip for 7.1 sound output over HDMI or DisplayPort “
http://www.amd.com/us/products.....-4860.aspx
Here is something regarding a version of the nVidia 9600 and how this specific card addresses audio and Display Port.
“The Palit 9600GT Sonic stands out for one other reason – an optical SP/DIF jack at the rear. There is a digital 2-pin audio header at the top of the 9600GT, right next to the nVidia SLI connector too. Either of these audio inputs is used to bring an audio signal into the Palit 9600GT so it can output audio over the HDMI or DP cable….. “
http://www.pcstats.com/article.....amp;page=3
One last thing on Photoshop, a fast HD (+ RAID), CPU, and 4GB + of RAM currently provide the key to optimum performance, except for a very limited number of tasks where GPU acceleration matters. I am assuming the GPU is going to have a much greater contribution to Photoshop performance in the next version. The inclusion of eSata, always good selection of CPU’s and RAM to choose from, and hopefully larger capacity 7200 RPM and SSD drives, included in Thinkpads all provide the foundation for an excellent Photoshop mobile system. Add in the convenience of color calibration and CF card slot on a W500 and you start to have something special. That just leaves the all important screen. You guys know what a good screen is because Thinkpad’s have had some of the best. It seems to me there are some good choices out there, and I hope we see them in the new T/W500.
June 29th, 2009 8:00 am
FJ,
Regarding Audio over Displayport, I am certainly aware of video cards that are capable of outputting it, but I have yet to see a single monitor that can actually accept Audio over DP. The 24″/30″ monitors of DELL and Apple cannot do it.
June 29th, 2009 5:20 pm
And if we as consumers were to push towards advancements being made in the area of laptop screens, given the reality that resources are limited, and you cannot advance in all directions at once, I would __much__ rather see the return of high quality IPS/VA screens, than ever increasing resolutions.
—–
Well, they do all these modifications, but ignore display quality. I’d hope they’re at least aware of E-IPS and how it’s gotten to lower sized screens (where TN has been rampant). Just don’t call it Flexview if it’s being implemented – it’d cheapen that marketed name.
June 29th, 2009 5:27 pm
“I’m a T series user through and through. The X301’s screen was too small, the processor too slow, and the battery was too anemic.”
——-
Same here, except that they split the high-performing T series off into a W series and threw out a lot of what made the T**p models any good.
June 30th, 2009 8:05 am
I think the appeal of audio over displayport is being able to use it with an HDMI adapter to watch high-def content on their large screen TVs.
June 30th, 2009 12:14 pm
We think this is the most important ThinkPad model since Lenovo took over the brand. There have been several superb releases including the X300 Series and the W Series which has shown Lenovo’s continued commitment to quality and innovation.
This has been overshadowed however by the T Series keyboard issue and the IBM/Lenovo quality ‘perception’.
Most of this has been just that, nothing more than ‘perception’ and opinion rather than fact.
We were privileged to be on a ThinkPad T400s pre release Technical Briefing with Francisco Carias, Worldwide ThinkPad Marketing Product Manager and David Critchley, Worldwide Segment Marketing Manager for the ThinkPad T Series and we were staggered by the amount of thought that has gone into this notebook and the attention to detail in the design.
The T400s puts the ThinkPad brand firmly back on top. If anybody is interested in our take on the T400s our full review is here.
http://www.thinkpadtoday.com/f.....-video.htm
Ian Orford – Editor, ThinkPadToday
July 1st, 2009 5:35 am
did Lenovo publish the API to use the power-on-swipe with Linux?
would be great.
July 1st, 2009 6:16 am
oh, and could you do a more realistic ruggedness test? Not that the Video is irrelevant, but most Thinkpads will neither be used in rain, nor run over by a Truck.
I’m would be interested in what happens to the T400s in the following scenarios:
Pour an entire cup of coffee all over it, not just slowly in the middle of the keyboard, but rather the likely: place the cup next to the machine and wipe the cup onto it with your elbow;-) If you dislike replacing the keyboard afterwards, just take boiling water.
Place the open TP onto a table and throw it down on a hard floor by firmly pulling the power cord sidewards, such that the machine gets some good spin to simulate a person falling over the misplaced power cord.
Oh, and what happens to the display, if you place a candle under the back-tilted lid?
All of these accidents have already happened to our Thinkpads. But no Truck so far…
cheers
Hecke
July 1st, 2009 9:24 am
To add to Hecke’s list of reasonable accidents above, also one thing that interests me – what happens to the laptop after a prolonged regular carrying in a tight backpack? My 14″ T60 has a permanent mark on the screen from where the soft rim trackpoint cap touches it.
July 1st, 2009 4:29 pm
Doug — (retrofit keyboard) The T400s has a design change underneath in that it now has three drainage holes. The keyboard frame itself is changed to allow drainage from the third hole. Thus retrofits wouldn’t provide the full functionality.
Adam – h(T500 17″ pre release) — if such an animal were to exist, it would be called the T700. Our first number now indicates screen size.
Yang (backlit keyboards) – We’ve so far avoided these because we’ve found that making backlit material allows spills to more easily seep in, plus the available materials for see through plus the LEDs to light the keyboard affect our touch and feed.
Snakebite (batteries & headphone jack) – Your T400 batteries will not work. The battery is most similar to (but not compatible with) the X301 series batteries. It has different lithium polymer cells. Different size, different electrical characteristics. As far as the headphone jack, it’s the industry standard allowing mic + stereo sound.
Jon (speakers) — they are much louder than previous.
July 1st, 2009 7:25 pm
Hecke – I lost two Thinkpads before spill resistant keyboards existed to minor splashes, ie. drops of water and fruit juice, so I always consider this issue when looking at notebooks. I also once lit the Sunday New York Times on fire in a restaurant when I accidentally held it over one of those silly decorator candles while reading the front page. I threw my glass of water at it, which extinguished it for about two seconds, and then the entire paper engulfed in flames again, leaving me no other option but to snuff it out with my hands. Thankfully that worked, my hair did not catch fire, and my hands were not burned, but the wall next to my table was black with soot and I had ashes all over my table. It was quite a spectacle! The hilarious thing was this happened right when the owner of the restaurant walked up and asked me if I was enjoying my dinner. I did not have a chance to answer her, as I almost burned down her restaurant.
Anyway I have confidence that current Thinkpads can withstand the expected and unexpected freak accidents better than any other notebook out there, accept for maybe some of the toughbook type models. Having said that I also would never want to see a cup of any kind of liquid cover my notebook, nor would I want it exposed to flame. I suppose a metal case might be preferable in such a scenario, but at some point you have to recognize this is a portable computer not an Abrams tank. I think Accidental Coverage would be an ideal option for you (I like it).
July 2nd, 2009 5:13 am
Wow! reasonably sized notebook from ibm with weight less than 2.5 kg? unbelievable! better later than never
… what about discrete graphics nvidia/ati?
July 2nd, 2009 5:28 pm
FJ, yes i agree, if a (not-toughbook) notebook survives typical accidents, it’s a Thinkpad, for sure.
Btw: The burned TP got a new lid-top. The display showed just a shadow around the specific site.
I do not need accidental coverage as in my institute there are enough notebooks that it is cheaper to just replace the accident victims.
Attention Matt, these notebooks become more and more apples. Today the person in charge complained that he does not get to buy new Thinkpads, as everyone prefers the fruity ones these days. Not me, particularly after the appearance of the T400s, but it’s not my turn for a new one:-( Perhaps some well arranged accident will help:-)
Also to Matt: A review described the speakers primarily as louder but in no way of better sound quality. Why?
Another one: I hope you specified an API for the multitouch features. You didn’t, right?
I would also support the question of dr_st. All TPs i know got marks not only from the Trackpoint but also from the middle rows of keys. Is this better with the new roll cage? Even with my T60p for which i always use some cloth in between screen and keyboard (quite annoying though) the marks come up. At least it took three years.
Nick, why unbelievable? Check out most older 14″ T-series. The T21 was about 2.1kg, the T41 as well as i remember. What was hard to understand for me is that it took Lenovo four years to regain the ability to produce lightweight high performance notebooks.
have fun
Hecke
July 2nd, 2009 7:13 pm
Well, the T4x 14″ was more around 2.2-2.3. The T2x was even heavier/
Up until the T400s, the lightest 14″ Thinkpad was the Z61t, around 2.1kg, and it was made in Lenovo times.
But 1.8kg is quite a bit less than 2.1kg, so I’d say “regain the ability” does not apply here, because the T400s clearly takes this ability to a new level.
July 3rd, 2009 12:46 am
dr_st
you are right, 2.1 was the top weight when removing the bay drive. Additional fault: it was a T20 i had those days.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....JSQHH.html
Actually i switched from that machine directly to the T60p and was expecting something that tops the lightest T4*, the T41. Which is at 2.22 kg even with drive.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....MIGR-58183
I was not satisfied by what was delivered then. All Lenovo Thinkpads i saw from that on got bulkier and heavier.
The z-series was out of my attention as i hated widescreens from the very beginning.
And again you are right: I was not fair with the word regain. From the view that Lenovo does a lot to improve Thinkpads, i was upset that physical size and weight did not seem to be fields of interest for the development team. With the appearance of T*00 and W*00 i was about to lose interest in Thinkpads
I was expecting Lenovo to come up with something similar to the T400s right from the start. So i can’t really shout hurray, but rather sigh in relief, that finally an interesting notebook appeared. I would have been fine with 2.0 kgs as well, so the T400s tops my expectations, it’s more that the drought in between killed my enthusiasm for Thinkpads.
…but it’s coming back.
July 3rd, 2009 5:01 pm
Could one download Win7 RC preload – I also went with x64 7 with my X61t and not all ThinkVantage stuff works.
July 8th, 2009 7:56 am
Hecke,
I find that your feelings are very similar to mine, with perhaps one small exception with regards to the T60. Indeed it seems a tad thicker and heavier than the T4x models (I measured it to be 2.35kg for 14″ with 6-cell battery, and 2.65kg for 15″ with 6-cell battery), but I overall I find this is a somewhat small price to pay for improved workmanship (the addition of the rollcage which reduces motherboard flex-related failures, and probably is the primary contribution to the extra weight). The T60 is still a very pretty-looking laptop.
But like you, everything that came out between the T60 and the T400s, left me somewhat disappointed. The ugly assymetric T/R/W models, the unnecessarily thick bezel on the X200 series, which makes it just as tall as the previous compact X series, but also wider. Even the X300 with its nice set of features, had some unforgivable blunders – lack of docking support and poor expansion options (no PCMCIA/ExpressCard). Like you, I was this close to losing interest.
But now I’m hoping that the T400s will be the beginning of a new line, that will bring my interest back.
July 8th, 2009 9:28 am
dr_st, the comparison between T60p and T20 was just subjectively, according to your weighing, there should not be a difference, but i felt like moving a brick after exchanging them. Perhaps just imaginary.
And yes, i like the T60p still more than the brandnew 13.3″ MacBook(pro, nowadays) i am forced to use right now.
July 8th, 2009 8:29 pm
Just got my two t400s laptops in the mail! I am so glad to be moving aways from my big heavy t60p and it definitely IMHO is better than my macbook pro (which has no docking so not really in the same league).
Only thing I have noticed is the screen moves when it is open side to side (when you grab it from the top … flimsy isnt the right word … its just not very rigid …)
Is this by design?
A big congrats to the whole thinkpad team. Up high, down low, too slow … the machine would never quit … (a T2 reference for those slow people out there)
Only design suggestion would be to … magical infinite battery … wait … no … I’m happy … how about estatic. If you put your face real close to the keyboard, you can get a full whiff of that newly formed plastic smell … yeah the toxic fumes we all love.
Off to wipe the drive and put windows 7 on it (which I ordered the notebook on the 24th and the 7 coupon is for after the 26th … I’m working the sales guy over on the phone to get to a solution … I could just use our eopen licenses but its the principal). Then its off to wait for the new intel SSDs or samsung for that matter to come out hopefully in a month or so.
July 9th, 2009 1:56 am
bunk,
can you describe the non-rigidness of the display further, i did not quite get it. It’s not the play the friction units in the hinges of the T60 have, that lets the display wiggle about 1cm in the open-close-direction?
Also i would be interested in your subjective comparison between the performance of your T60p and the T400s, as this would be my change as well (including the intermediate MacBook, what a coincidence:-) )
July 9th, 2009 4:33 am
I’ll be upgrading from my T60 soon, and it’ll be to the T400s. Two questions:
- I want a model with the 3G option. Does this have proper enabling/disabling management, so that I don’t risk connecting through 3G when what I really wanted was WLAN? On my current phone, I am incurring quite some unnecessary cost since there is no good 3G/WLAN switching management
- Pass this on to your webmaster on lenovo.com. Trying to find the configuration that I want is a daunting task. For my country, there are currently about 25 configs of the T400s listed. I may compare them two at a time. You should really improve comparison and filtering capabilities to your website!
Cheers Thorbjorn
July 9th, 2009 2:13 pm
Nice, UK resellers now have T400s in stock, very good price as well, only $2,915.56 for the model that costs $1,699.00 in US. Sounds like a good deal, only about twice as expensive.
July 9th, 2009 3:35 pm
gar : where are you seeing those prices in the UK? I can’t even see it yet on the UK Lenovo website *sighs* – why does it take them so long to add it? They already have the link and sales blurb on the T400S.
July 13th, 2009 6:45 am
Normy, the usual resellers have it now, try to search for t400s in froogle.co.uk
July 13th, 2009 8:56 pm
Hecke-
The screen is flexible when you touch the top to two corners to close it. On my t60p, the screen is very rigid (i.e. if you grab one corner to close it, the opposite corner moves at the same time without any flexing) it appears this was done to reduce the thickness of the screen.
I like the t400s compared to the t60p … it doesn’t run hot, it is faster, lighter and has better battery life …. BUT …
I am very sad however as I have been forced to return the two laptops. While charging, the laptop makes weird noises. It sounds like a small electric whine/buzzing which I suspect is coming from the power supply. I had a similar issue when I ordered the very first mac book pro. Apple ended up having to replace a huge number of power supplies (mine included) and I just don’t want to go through that.
In any case, it is my primary machine and is plugged into my docking station at work & the one at home almost 14 hours a day … most of which I’m right by. Its been giving me a headache so I guess its goodbye t400s. I’m about to call support and make them take back both (the other t400s I hadn’t even opened yet but I’m sure they will complain about this one).
Almost brings tears to my eyes
July 14th, 2009 1:05 am
just to clarify … I mean the internal power supply …
July 14th, 2009 2:36 am
bunk, thanks a lot for the description. I would guess that this flex is unavoidable with such a thin lid. Sad to hear you no longer have these machines:-(
So, Matt, can you please comment on the two issues:
Does the flex in the lid do any harm to the display itself? Say, when i open and close the T400s always by grabbing just one corner, how long do you think the display would keep it’s initial quality?
Do you know about the noise? If not, please try to find out, at least the machine returned by bunk should have an entry in some Lenovo database:-) No matter what causes it, is it by construction and thus present in all T400s or is it rare, such that returning the machine once or twice should lead to a silent one?
best
Hecke
July 14th, 2009 3:22 am
Hecke-
Trust me … if it is common (say 10%) then it will widely talked about … thats what happened with Apple. Its loud enough and annoying enough that people will be calling in. I’m going to call customer support tomorrow so we will see what they say. I hope they let me just return it. All in all though, I keep finding new things about the computer that I really like … I was actually going to order a third for my father but then this noise popped up. Its amazing how much time, detail and effort go into a product and all it takes is a little thing to trip it up. Hopefully, (esp since I love my thinkpads) this is just that random bad component that someone gets once in a while.
Here is the sound I recorded on my iphone:
http://www.zshare.net/download/62640929ffa3eb57/
its an m4a file so its needs quicktime/itunes to play correctly
(try to ignore the fan in the background)
btw … I am almost positive its the internal power supply because when I vary the power settings, it gets louder as the computer consumes more power (not the fan mind you, the noise)
July 14th, 2009 4:58 pm
So just got off the phone … of course they are going to call me back …
Get this … I call support and give them the type (2801) and its not even in the support system or on their support webpage for that matter. How crazy is that?
Its like on the order page when you click on some of the available options and there are no explanations what they are. After a little more investigation … its because I am using IE8 so some of the help me decide buttons dont show up (windows 7 x64, ie8). So I switch to firefox 3.5. The help me decide buttons show up but when I click on them, the window that pops up is emtpy except for a lenovo header image. Awesome. Well it must be windows 7 right? Switch to vista business … same issues. Double awesome. It feels like they don’t want you to buy the computer.
Sorry for the rant … I’m just annoyed because I believe in striving for perfection
I mean come on lenovo QC … learn a thing from dell (even they could use some work), apple, (not hp … their website is terrible too) etc. What ever happened to striving to be the best? I would be slitting my wrist out of embarrassment if I’m the lenovo webmaster. Firefox 3.5 alpha 1 was released in july of 08 and beta 1 in october … not enough time for you?
July 16th, 2009 10:33 am
Hi, is the ship with the T400s for Europe boarded by pirates?
July 17th, 2009 8:38 am
thanks, bunk, for the effort of recording the noise. Let’s hope, that this issue will be resolved before i can convince my admin that i need a new machine;-)
unrelated: i will examine the Thinkpad to Apple ratio once again on a conference next week. I chose my T60p over the MacBook as it runs a proper Linux, that i need for presentation preparation. Take the hint, Matt?
I found on the Lenovo-Pages an “enhanced” T400s:
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILib.....EBB87059AC
(sorry for the lengthy link…)
Matt, tell me: It’s the same machine with just one Gig RAM extra? Why is this enhanced? This is already an option for the original T400s…
have a nice one
Heecke
July 22nd, 2009 4:30 am
What is the make and model of the SSD option on the T400s?
In Australia they are offering the 128GB SSD for AU$399 which is actually a decent price compared to buying one… depending on what make and model it is!
July 27th, 2009 3:57 am
Hi, just a post-conference comment:
Matt, it seems more and more that Lenovo loses the race in equipping scientists with good Notebooks. All tornado effords aside, last week the attendees had:
60% Apples, thereof 80% newest models
25% Thinkpads, thereof 70% older models (T61 and before)
10% (shudder) Dell
5% unidentifiable
Also i should mention that quite some of the Thinkpads came from my (former) Thinkpad loyal institute, where (i quote my sysad once more) “no one wants Thinkpads any longer”, including me before the appearance of the T400s.
I enjoyed the reunion with my T60p, Linux is more my world than the shiny and incofigurable MacOS. As long as my boss allows, i will let the MacBook aside, but i’m very onto trading it for a T400s.
Or would it be better to wait for the fall round of new notebook processors from intel? Oops, yes, you won’t answer this, Matt, but perhaps it drives you to tell me so, and once you are posting, you will again address some of the open questions in this thread;-)
best
Hecke
August 4th, 2009 3:20 pm
I am in the UK, and wanted to spec out and buy a T400S. I really did. But Lenovo make it too hard – they have repeatedly added it to their sales pages in the UK, then removed it, then added it again. At the moment it has gone again. Why would they do this? To ensure the resellers get a good first run at charging the highest price for the few who are forced to buy from them? Maybe incompetence? If a company cannot even keep a consistent website of their products stable, what warning bells does it ring when I need to call them for service/support?
Overall, it has led to a loss of sale for Lenovo, and that is the real shame — I wanted the thinkpad, but will not settle for the Dell or Apple- because I can go to their sites, and order without all the games that seem to be played out on Lenovo’s UK site.
August 7th, 2009 7:15 pm
I’m a long time fan of Thinkpads and used everything from 600x (still have it), T23, T42 (still have it), T60 (still have it), and now got T400s. T400s is a PERFECT machine; love everything about it EXCEPT for a HORRIBLE display screen. How can you put so much effort into a new design to make it one of the best machines on the market and put the worst possible TN screen in there where you get awful contrast (black colors are grey) and extremely narrow vertical angle where a slight up/down movement of your heard results in washed out colors. Sure, you want to keep your cost down and use the cheapest screen, but why not offer an alternative with a better display for a premium price? True, IPS/FlexView is a thing of the past (those were the best displays – contrast and viewing angle, although dark), but there are so many other superior technologies to TN. SHAME on your Lenovo for not thinking about your loyal customers and letting us down with such piece of crap display…
Other than that, you need to get ultra-bay adapter III if you want to use 2.5″ storage hdd in ultra-bay. Adapter II is for T400 and bezel will not quiet match. That’s what I got for my T400s, 128GB SSD Samsung (Lenovo option) and 320GB 7200rpm Scorpio in ultra-bay.
August 7th, 2009 7:35 pm
Nice laptop, if it wasn’t for the screen.
August 8th, 2009 10:13 am
Matt, you mentioned that the new docks have “rip and go”. I have an external drive attached to the Series 3 plus dock through USB. Is rip and go suppose to allow you remove the T400s from the dock without going through the “Safely Remove Hardware” routine? If so, how does that work? Thanks
August 8th, 2009 11:07 am
A good point by Bob about Lenovo’s UK site. It really needs someone to take charge of it. Just try buying a T400s or a S10-2…
August 10th, 2009 1:31 am
I just received my T400S today.
I can confirm, what I consider to be, a serious problem with the buzzing noise as commented on by “bunk” above.
First off I have a 2801-CTO with Samsung SSD. Even on lowest power settings, running from battery there is a buzzing/whine if you put your ear to the rear top left corner. This noise is quiet enough that its not noticeable FROM the front, but if you face the underside its noticeable from a metre or even more. The noise IS NOT THE FAN.
The REAL problem though is the buzzing that comes when you switch to “High performance” mode in the power settings. The buzz is exactly the same in terms of character but much louder, such that I can hear it now as I type (over the typing). This would definately get annoying if there was no work around.
The work around is to switch back to lower power modes.
What is very intersting is the noise exhibits some sort of hysteresis, in that when you move the lenovo power slider back to “longer battery life” the noise does not go away until you get to back to about 50%. The noise comes back when you reach about 90% on the slider.
I can tell you 100% this noise is power related. What component I don’t know. I have seen this problem in lots of other computer components, and it *IS* avoidable (otherwise all computers would buzz).
Can I suggest that lenovo get their engineers to look at this ASAP? There is little point having a lovely laptop if one small part makes a high pitch whine under common usage scenarios.
Please don’t make me send this back.
August 10th, 2009 10:20 am
George — if you rip and go and the drive is in the middle of writing something, yes you will lose data. Rip and go means that you can remove the system without Windows crashing — even if you don’t stop all devices before doing so. Older designs had that risk.
No one has figured out how to save people from their own stupidity yet. If you yank the plug, ain’t nothin’ gonna help you. (Bad grammar for emphasis).
August 10th, 2009 4:37 pm
@Jack: To be honest, this noise doesn’t bother me that much. I have high performance setting on both AC and battery in Power Manager. Also fan speed set to Maximize Performance. Don’t remember if I did any tweaking in BIOS where you can fine-tune that as well. True, it’s present but not at such high pitch and intensity. Maybe you do need to send it for replacement? If anything, such noise can ONLY be contributed to the fan. How about the screen, what do you think about T400s display?
@Matt: I know you are always very straight forward with your answers, and not afraid to give negative feedback if you don’t agree with Lenovo. So, what do you honestly think about T400s screen? And, is there any hope for an improvement down the road?
August 10th, 2009 10:40 pm
Personally I find the display to be average at best. When its on good brightness and you look directly on, the display is nice. But the viewing angles are bad (no worse than other TN panels) and really I expect more from a screen on a high end laptop. Basically unless you look directly on I do not find the screen pleasing. Even directly on you can see variation on the screen simple due to the few degrees in your angle of vision.
The buzzing is definitely not the fan. This type of buzzing is caused by high frequency digital electronics and their associated power systems e.g. capacitors.
I still like the T400S, and if it wasn’t for the buzzing I would be happy with it inspite of the ordinary screen.
The only other niggles are the placement of the power connector – this is a laptop but if you put it on your lap in bed the power cord will go right into your knee. Bad design in my opinion. Also the power cable in generally tacking and not of the high standard of the actual PC.
Keyboard is great, but I take issue with things like placement of back/forward keys. How often are they used compared to PgUp/Down? Hardly ever. PgUp/Down should be next to the cursor keys, not forward/back.
The Fn key is annoying no doubt. But not so much with Ctrl confusion. Just the basic premise is stupid. Has to be in the corner so you can find it easily to active think light? Come on. That design problem could be solved in many better ways (e.g. button for Think light). Fn would be better placed closer to the centre line so you can reach the F keys with a single hand. With the current Fn placement everything has to be done with two hands which is silly. Also its so far away from frequently used combo of brightness control… very very silly design.
Lastly the final annoyance from the Fn key is that it cannot be used in combination with other keys!! THIS MEANS ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THE WINDOWS + BREAK shortcut to view system properties (because to access Break you need to use Fn, which stops Windows key being registered.). I can tell the people who designed the keyboard are not hardcore Windows users, if they dont know that essential shortcut. Again a silly design mistake. Should be easy to fix… if not them shame on the engineers
/rant
August 11th, 2009 2:29 am
Ok, I have discovered what the buzzing noise is:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/.....hp?t=40260
Basically its the piezoelectric effect :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
If you check out that link you can hear youtube videos of many laptops that are making exactly the same noise my T400S makes. Thankfully mine is not as loud as those, and sometimes it goes away.
BUT I am assuming that not every laptop in the world has this buzz… thus I deduce superior egineering can remove or minimize it.
Can we get a comment from Lenovo about the piezoelectric buzz on the T400S, and if they plan to do anything about it?
Thanks,
Jack
August 11th, 2009 4:26 pm
Hi,
I had a quick question I hope that one of the T400s owners can answer before I buy – in the BIOS, are you able to choose to turn the VT-x on and off? The processor options do seem to indicate the hardware is capable of virtualisation, but does the BIOS allow the user to opt to turn it on, and gain performance benefits when running virtualisation software? There seem to be conflicting reports about various different thinkpad models out there, and so am really keen to have this verified before laying down the cash.
Thanks,
Jim
August 12th, 2009 3:28 pm
Jack said:
“Lastly the final annoyance from the Fn key is that it cannot be used in combination with other keys!! THIS MEANS ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THE WINDOWS + BREAK shortcut to view system properties (because to access Break you need to use Fn, which stops Windows key being registered.)”
Actually, I am not aware of any Windows+Break shortcut. The shortcut to view system properties is and always has been Windows+Pause. And it works for me on every Thinkpad.
August 15th, 2009 11:26 am
Yes VT can be turned on and off in the BIOS. It also has IO virtualization for even better performance.
Regarding Windows + Break, it turns out that Windows + Pause works too, but Windows + Break was the original (see http://support.microsoft.com/d.....kb/839573)
August 16th, 2009 6:21 am
Well…
It’s more the case of it being Windows+Pause from the very beginning, but people (including MS’s official documentation) referred to it as Windows+Break by mistake, because they assumed the two keys will always be the same.
I have a Compaq Evo N610c, where there are no individual Pause/Break buttons. Instead they are accessed by Fn+Pgup and Fn+Pgdn respectively. After some trial and error I noticed that Fn+Win+Pgdn does not work, but Fn+Win+Pgup does.
So I can definitely understand the source of the confusion.
August 16th, 2009 10:09 am
I bought a T400s last week too…
My impression:
+ Good build quality
+ Keyboard
+/- Silent but medium buzzing noise
– Bad shopping experience: only 2 fix models are available in Germany, no configuration possible (Lenovo, you want to sell more laptops?)
– Bad display: never saw a display with such bad contrast (besides it had one pixel defect)
– Defect: After 3 days the internal speaker was defect
Thinkpads are more expensive in Europe than e.g. in the U.S. (why?) Nevertheless, the price performance ratio would be OK, IF the display would be better.
… so I had to return the Thinkpad
August 17th, 2009 1:29 am
No comment from Lenovo on the display or the buzzing so far…
August 17th, 2009 6:13 am
Yes, the display quality ruins all new ThinkPad models. I don’t understand why Lenovo DOES NOT LISTEN. Having display with 150:1 contrast ratio in top T or X model is simply not acceptable.
August 18th, 2009 11:19 am
I do wonder if something has gone wrong with the LCD that shipped with the batch of T400s I got. According to this article
“The 14.1-inch LED-backlit screen is bright and delivers a vibrant image and an extremely wide viewing angle in Windows applications.” – http://computershopper.com/lap.....kpad-t400s
Either this reviewer never actually used the laptop, or he got a different screen to me. The viewing angles on mine are so bad that a *1 degree* vertical change can turn black to grey, or grey to white.
Have lenovo switched screens on the T400s? Shall I send mine back for a replacement?
August 18th, 2009 6:24 pm
I am very disappointed about the LED display in the the T400s too. Why Lenovo fail at an essential thing like the displays of a laptop for 2000-2500 EUR? The concept of the T400s is good but valueless with that display. It’s a pity.
August 24th, 2009 2:19 pm
Echoing the two comments above, I’m very happy with my new T400s, and a bit shocked at the display. The vertical viewing angle is so narrow that it’s actually impossible to simultaneously see proper blacks at the bottom of the screen and not have blacks/whites invert at the top of the screen. This is most striking when watching a movie, the bottom black bar is far lighter than the top one, and if the viewing angle shifts even a few degrees, the screen washes out or inverts. I’m curious whether Lenovo intends to try to fix this in future models, and, more importantly for my purposes, whether it might offer some kind of retrofit for current models.
August 25th, 2009 10:33 am
Unfortunately, new T400s is not behaving itself. I’m having a problem and could use help. When I try to go into stand by, either manually via the Start menu or by closing the lid, the computer hangs on the stand by screen, and stays that way until a hard restart is done with the power button. This happens almost every time, with a few exceptions. My BIOS is up to date, my drivers also, my Windows XP needed tons of updates but having downloaded and installed them all (and restarted), the problem is still there. I ran the Lenovo hardware check utility, everything got a clean bill of health. The Lenovo site suggests physically removing all hardware, e.g. hard drive, RAM, etc. and putting it back in, but I don’t think a loose connection is the issue, and am not all that keen to dismantle my computer. And tech support seems less than well informed. Any insights? Much appreciated!
August 25th, 2009 3:28 pm
Hopefully the same great amount of thinking and engineering is applied to the upcoming ThinkPad X210s which will be released next year.
It would be a shame if it were not released with _both_ a hi-res 1440×900 screen and WWAN in one configuration. This is the only fact that keeps me from buying the current X200s.
August 25th, 2009 9:43 pm
just want to confirm……in the earlier posts Matt mentions that the Ultra-Bay Adapter II will work even though it will not fit exactly. Twister, in a more recent, post indicates that Adapter III is required for the 2nd HDD. will the Adapter II work on the T400s even though it may not fit exactly??
September 16th, 2009 1:17 pm
I hope that the X210 series will come out supporting DisplayPort as well.
September 25th, 2009 12:22 pm
Can Lenovo be serious offering such product like T400s having display which is *much* worse than those you will find in cheapest netbook on the market ? This review http://www.notebookcheck.com/T.....960.0.html measured contrast ratio 98:1 only ! This is absolutely unaccepatable for notebook of this class.
October 8th, 2009 8:47 am
Matt, first of all many thanks for this weath of impartial information shared with us!
I haven’t bought myself a t400s yet but that’s what I am thinking about at the moment. One of the questions I haven’t found any answer for is about the capacity of the Adapter III/Adapter II (will both work?), i.e. would it accommodate a slightly thicker (higher) 2.5″ drive. The standard 2.5″ hdd’s is 9.5mm but I have recently discovered that WD makes a large capacity 750GB and 1TB 5400rpm 2.5mm drives. The hdd’s come in height of 12.5mm and I seriously doubt whether I would be able to accommodate them in any of the adapters. Could you please confirm or deny my initial thoughts?
October 9th, 2009 7:05 am
OK, I’ve found the answer to my question. The dimensions of the Adapter III are 133mm x 10.5mm x 128mm so it won’t be capable of accommodating the 12.5mm drive.
Here are the full specs: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILib.....5867D31462
Besides, I have decided that I would probably buy the t400s with the 250GB hdd and then transfer the system to my WD Scorpio Black 320GB, leaving the 250GB hdd for the Adapter III. Following a post at http://forum.notebookreview.co.....amp;page=5 I have made my decision against 250GB ssd as it is, although not bad compared to SATA 7200rpm hdd’s, of quite inferior IO speed. Maybe sometime I buy a better ssd but the WD Scorpio Black should be just excellent for the time being, should it not?
October 17th, 2009 6:25 pm
This has been a really informative read. In fact the comments, although very ling, were more informative than the article itself.
Sum total is I will give this T400s a pass unfortunately. It seems more or less perfect for me but for the screen quality – or lack thereof. I was willing to pony up $1600 dollars for this thing but not with a $2 screen. That’s just pointless.
October 17th, 2009 7:38 pm
Would it kill you to put a reasonable screen in a premium laptop? Do you not realize that doing the right thing will always help you in the long run? You are hurting your reputation for a quick cost-savings. With such a huge economy of scale, you could buy quality screens at a cheap price. Don’t you realize that more and more people are watching video on their laptops, and more and more people know Lenovo screens uniformly stink?
If your laptops were cheap $500 machines, we would not complain. But you are charging MORE than Apple and Sony in some cases, for a $500 sale of the week, el-cheapo screen. Don’t justify it. You can’t. Your competitors don’t do that b/c they don’t price their stuff as high.
Penny-wise, pound foolish. Have you not learned anything from tainted overseas products? In the end, you lose. Either lower the price–drastically–or put in a screen deserving of the price.
October 18th, 2009 1:28 pm
T400s really seemed a great product, but the screen.. I wont be buying such an expensive laptop with such contrast ratio.
Is Lenovo about to do anything with this issue?
October 18th, 2009 7:37 pm
Remember when IBM used to offer high quality, top-of-the-line displays in their T-series notebooks? Remember when ThinkPads had a reputation for being made from the best components available?
I miss those days.
October 19th, 2009 1:37 pm
Actually I dont remember those “quality screens” no. I do remember having one back in 1998, issued by my job – the screen was so dim AND had such poor contrast that it hurt my eyes.
But I am just wondering how a laptop that retails for this price can have a worse screen than say the MacBook 13″ that costs about 1200 bucks or an Acer that is under a thousand.
Its really hard to fathom.
October 22nd, 2009 3:38 pm
Echoing sentiments above, I recently returned a new T400s. Lenovo allowed the return because the case was warped, and they finally got tired of me complaining about it, but my motivation for returning it was, in descending order, the appalling screen quality, the warped case, and the high-pitched noise it emits.
The screen really is as bad as the comments here and elsewhere suggest. Low contrast, *zero* viewing angle (i.e. no head position allows anything approaching black at both the top and bottom, you either get inversion at the top or gray at the bottom, and a few degrees of head movement make it even worse), the comparison with my old T42 Flexview is sadly rather dramatically in the latter’s favor. What I’m really intrigued about is what the reviewers who gave this screen good marks were looking at?
The warped case, such that only three of the four feet touch a flat surface, is apparently also fairly widespread. It may be a function of trying to make a plastic laptop so thin, but I’m surprised Lenovo engineers considered this an acceptable thing to send out the door.
The high-pitched noise, with seems not to be hard drive or fan related, is only evident in very quiet rooms.
I’ve been a big Thinkpad fan for a while, but my T400s experience is definitely giving me second thoughts.
October 23rd, 2009 7:44 pm
I have been waiting for a W500s for the last months, too, and I am still waiting, ready to buy when it comes out, hopefully with a nice WUXGA LED backlit screen, or even a LED 15″ WUXGA+ (2048×1280). New nvidia mobile quadro fx chips (3800, 2800, 1800, 780) are released these days and hoping that one of the mid range, not too power intensive chips is included (planning to do computations on the GPU).
Also, conducive to the flat design, intel recently released 25W TDP processors P9700, P9600 that would fit nicely in such a machine.
I am waiting; money is ready to be spent.
December 9th, 2009 7:43 am
Just acquired a T400s. Antti hei, kuule the 5-in-1 card reader is *not* fixed! The reader has an ExpressCard interface, and when you remove it, what remains is a fully functional ExpressCard slot, into which you can insert any sort of ExpressCard you like. We tried it with a 3rd party ExpressCard (which happened to be a 3G modem, but could be anything else) and it worked allright (Vista recognised it fine and wanted to install drivers for it etc).
What *is* fixed in the factory though is a screw fixing the 5-in-1 reader into the chassis. This small screw you have to remove indeed in order that you could take it the card reader out. The procedure is very well documented in the manual, and you can even find a good video at lenovo’s website how to do it.
Having removed the screw do remove&reinstall the card reader a few times by pushing it out from the inside. (At this moment the keyboard is out, of course, but you’d better not disconnect it, just put it aside a little.) After inserting back the keyboard etc leaves you with the slight problem how to actually pull out the card reader (with no handle whatsoever) not held anymore by anything than friction, but with some care exercised it is feasible. Onnea vain.