Help needed...Which T to purhase?

[mladencucak]

Dear thinkpad lovers,

I am trying to get a new(used) machine for me, please criticise!:)
I need something for everyday use and for a bit of mobility - I will be caring it almost every day. I would like to give a chance to refurbished thinkpad with warranty over some much more expensive plastic mid range new laptop. I've had one like that now for three years and it is duying on me. I am counting that thisone will work fine next few years.
So my choices are used laptops that I can buy from one company in Norway and get VAT return. I am also wandering if this is realistic price for them? I am person without to many demands, basically using laptop for M. Office and web browsing, maybe some photoshoping, I dont play games or something like that. I am wandering about this display since I am transferring from glossy 15,6 to this one... and I am reading a lot and using computer every day. Is it realistic to think that this newer models are probably less used - judged by date of release? Also there is option with 430i, which is suposed to be less build quality. Ia have been reading so much these past few days that I am totaly lost now....just wana decide by monday and order something.

http://greentech.no/PC-and-Workstation/ ... 0000077168
http://greentech.no/PC-and-Workstation/ ... 0000087319
http://greentech.no/PC-and-Workstation/ ... 0000085584

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

The machines # 1 (T420s) and # 3 (T430s) would be my preference depending on what type of warranty they carry, and how much you're willing to spend overall.

As for the prices...you'd have to wait for a forum member from that part of the world to chime in, since I have no clue how the prices in Norway - or any part of Scandinavia for that fact - are.

Happy shopping.

[mladencucak]

I wish you were a bit more easy on words!
They all have one year warranty. It is expendable to 2/ years - 45€ or 90€.But I am here for nex hald a year and then moving on. Although I will come here from time to time. The machine it self is close to 340 euros..now would it be worth a while do give some more on warranty since the configs seem more then decent for my needs and I have external HD.

[ajkula66]

I wish you were a bit more easy on words!

I apologize, my good man, but I don't think that I quite understand what you mean...

They all have one year warranty. It is expendable to 2/ years - 45€ or 90€.But I am here for nex hald a year and then moving on. Although I will come here from time to time. The machine it self is close to 340 euros..now would it be worth a while do give some more on warranty since the configs seem more then decent for my needs and I have external HD.

Is the warranty provided by the shop that is selling these ThinkPads? If that's the case, I'd go with T430s and stick with the warranty that is included with the machine to begin with.

[Norway Pad]

Hi and welcome to the forum

The price for the T420s isn't that bad when you can exclude the VAT. With the VAT, maybe a tad bit on the expensive side.. I subscribe on the search "Thinkpad" on Finn.no, and I have seen regular T420 from around 2400 NKR and up to well over 3000 NKR. I don't know about the price range for the 430 machines, as I haven't seen too many of them for sale yet.

Greentech seems to have specialized in off lease machines, and I bought my first T60 from them. I know it came with warranty, but the T60 never gave any problems, so I never needed it.

Good luck with your purchase.

[mladencucak]

@ ajkula66

wanted to say that I would appreciate some in deep explanations and insights - so you can open up a bit more!

Warranty is provided from the company I am purchasing from. But as I understand thinkads have 3 year warranty and on 430s is not yet expired since it June 2012 model, but this is something I will have to check with them.

@Bjorn

It is good to hear from someone from here. I also think that price of 420s is fine, and that is one of reasons I have written here to see if it is worth a while going for the more expensive version? what do you think the difference the one gets? When it comes to hardware as I can see only difference is cosmetics, I don't mind keyboard differences and those little things.
I have checked finn, but I somehow dont trust in buying computer on it, I would rather go with some reputable company. My other choice was to go with some Mac and there is quite a few of them but i didnt dare...

[RealBlackStuff]

If you buy direct from Lenovo, you can buy it with 3 year Lenovo warranty.
Lenovo warranty is valid worldwide.
If you ask that shop to give you the full model and Serial Number of those machines, you can check if they still have any Lenovo warranty left: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/warrant ... e=Warranty
And if there is still original Lenovo warranty left, you can then extend that Lenovo warranty by 1 year, or maybe 2 years.

However, if the warranty comes from Greentech (like you say), then the warranty is only valid locally by Greentech.
Personally I would not pay a penny for such a warranty, let alone buy warranty for 2 years...

[Norway Pad]

Hi

If the price difference between the T420s and the T430s justifies the extra you get is hard for me to say. You get a machine that's newer and has a newer hardware platform. But if that makes any difference in daily use is debatable. It will probably make a bigger difference years from now, when the units are nearing the end of their useful life and every little ounce of extra resources count. T420s is also said to handle 16GB RAM, even though not officially supported.

I have never used a T430, but my wife has a work-issued T430s. It's subject to almost 24/7 use, both private and work, and it's been holding up good for the 1.5 years she's had it. Be aware that the screen of both these machines are bright, but with slightly washed out colors and poorer viewing angles than what you might be used to. Depending on what machine/screen you have now.

I have actually bought lots of machines on Finn, both for keeps and resale, and newer had any problems. You soon get a feeling for whether a seller is worth dealing with. Ask for good pictures, and a description. If a unit this new looks ok, and the seller seems to make sense, there is not much that can go wrong.

[mladencucak]

Thank you guys for useful insights. I shall check out for the warranty sine the company has quite friendly guys online.
Why you dont think that warranty is not worth a while? If you accuse you must justify!

I have glossy screen, but its a peace of crap old laptop (400€ for newone 3,5 years ago). I am expecting that I will need some time to get used to matte screen.

I might go with some finn option, you've encouraged me a little bit.

[AIX]

I see that T430i and T430s are HD only (1366x768), I'd stay away, please, do yourself a favor and don't buy them. Go for HD+ (1600x900), Lenovo doesn't have great HD+ screens, at least not on T420/s/T430/s models, but the HD displays are even worse.

[Frobe70]

I recently bought a better specced T520 (only missing SSD) for only NOK 2400 on Finn including freight. No warranty, but Office was installed.
Most manufacture defects appears during the first year (except T4x and T61 GPUs), and it is easy to get cheap replacement parts from eBay if anything breaks.

This particular T420S from Greentech is missing DVD-drive (has a extra battery instead), but a new optical drive can be purchased cheap from China.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Lenovo ... 339c864dd1

I second the warning about low resolution LCD (unless you are old but don't want to use glasses).
My T61 Frankenpad with QXGA is still my favorite, and the W500 and T520 are spare computers.

[mladencucak]

Thank you everyone... I actually love the fact that it have extra battery since I dont actualy remember when I last used optical drive.
Officially now my only concern is quality of screen. Even resolution is not that bad, since 1600 is a biiit to big for me.

[AIX]

If you are very picky, don't buy it, the screen is mediocre; you'll cry if you'll put it next to a retina MacBook. Even I said that, it's good enough for me, luminosity is fine, brightness distribution is good. And I see it has a WWAN card, which is handy.

[sktn77a]

If you can afford the T430 and its still under the original 1 yr factory warranty, you can extend the Lenovo warranty to 3 years. I've had Thinkpads for over 15 years and, while they are very reliable, they are also very expensive to repair out of warranty (usually involves replacing the motherboard which is, essentially, the entire computer)!