Thinkpads Forum

I am going to give my T420s to a friend and am wanting to upgrade a bit. What would be a good replacement with some definite performance and DISPLAY improvements. I am talking about a used machine that represents a very good value now.

You may want to start looking into a different direction or adjust some of your requirements because...

a) The *40 series - where a much better LCD is available - will bring you the "new and improved" Trackpoint/Touchpad combo along with the 6-row keyboard layout. All of this may or may not bother you, but testing one in person before purchasing is a must in my book.

b) If you want to stay with the T420s format, there are really no good screens offered by ay other manufacturers either. Dell and HP had some nice IPS panels, but all of them were on 15.6" and 17.3" models.

c) The upcoming *50 series - which brings back the conventional TrackPoint/touchpad combo - is yet to be released, and it will be quite some time before the prices drop down to anywhere near current T420/s generation...as in years.

My $0.02 only...

I am open to any of the other models, the screen is really my only beef with the 420 so I guess something with similar performance (i7) and a bigger hard drive and a much improved screen would suffice. Just want to move up a bit and get something a bit newer if I am going to get a replacement

Dell Precision 4700 and HP EliteBook 8570W, both are 15.6" BUT you have to verify that the particular example has an IPS LCD, only available in FHD (1920x1080).

Do bear in mind that not all of the FHD panels on these machines are IPS.

I don't know what you're looking to spend, but the Dell Latitude E7440 might be worth a look. They're quite expensive new, but can be had in the Dell Outlet dirt cheap with coupons found via the Dell Outlet Twitter account. I paid $600 shipped for mine, so even if Lenovo releases the T450s with trackpoint buttons, I can't imagine I'd be able to get a new one at that price for the foreseeable future. The E7440 does have a trackpoint with buttons, though it's not as good as a ThinkPad, but I'm getting better with time. The FHD LCD on the E7440 is IPS, which will be a big improvement over your T420. Other nice things about the E7440 are it can do a mSATA SSD + hard drive for speed and space, and it offers a three year NBD warranty standard. It's tough to beat from a value perspective.

ZaZ wrote: It's tough to beat from a value perspective.

No argument from me on that one. For $600 - given the specs and NBD - that's a dream machine or pretty darn close to it.

I've only played with one of these and the keyboard felt...shallow, for a lack of better word. What's your take on that aspect?

ajkula66 wrote:What's your take on that aspect?

I never took typing in school, so on a good day I'm about 35WPM, which means I'm not particularly picky about my keyboards. I can say it's not as good as the classic ThinkPad. Shallow is a good word and it's not as firm. The backlight is nice since it lacks any other light source, but my needs are pretty modest and I don't use my notebook a ton, so I may not be the best person to ask for a comparison.