First Impression - T500

[freakwave]

Hi all,

very similar to the T400 random impressions, here it is for the T500 I received 2 days ago.
Old Thinkpad: T60p, CPU 2.3GHz, 4Gig Memory, UXGA IPS display
Model: NK13AGE, CPU 2.8GHz, 8Gig Memory, WSXGA+ display, Harddrive 7K100

- display: I am used to the really good IPS display in the T60p. Side by side, the new display is pretty good. It is brighter and the colors are more my taste. The IPS is kind of yellowish, the new one more blueish. The new display has a much nicer white. The IPS has this crystal and dirt effect which the new one does not have.
On the bad side the new one sucks in the viewing angles, and the intensity of the backlight is not even. Overall it is brighter. I definitely can live with it since I am working on external displays 95% of all time anyways.

- overall build: best thinkpad so far I think. Very solid, finish is perfect. Also the components fit perfectly. E.g. very little tolerance on the battery bay. Hinges feel even better than the T60p and are a bit wider as well. The notebook is also feels lighter than T60p

- keyboard: I had deep worries about this one and planned to exchange my T60p keyboard. But I have to say that I really do not know what people are talking about here. At least my keyboard is rock solid. There is no bending at all. Just perfect. I opened the palm rest and a problem for others could be that the frame of the keyboard does not fit properly on the supporting frame below. Then the keyboard would bend. But again, this one has no gaps at all. Just sits evenly on the supporting frame. No squeaking on the palm rest at all. The trackpoint also feels softer, but that could be because it is just new.

- mini dock: I just plugged it in my old minidock with 2 monitors attached. One Eizo 24 inch (1900x1200) on DVI and one Polycom video device monitor (1600x1200) on VGA. Was quite tricky since you have to adjust everything in the catalyst center with the open lid. It did not recognize anything automatically, so the monitors did not receive any signal, then it worked. (Running on the ATI card). All other devices (LAN, USB keyboard) worked right away

- OS: It came with Vista Business32. I installed a vista 64 on it with vLite. I have to say that vLite is awesome. On my XP server I installed vLite and all needed Microsoft sources. In vLite you can take e.g. vista Ultimate and then remove/add enable disable, configure whatever you want (e.g. remove that stupid access control feature). Once done, you burn a installation CD. I installed from this CD and it worked perfectly. Then just installed the Lenvo Software Installer and installed my selected drivers/packages from Lenovo.

- Memory Support: Once installation was done, I took out the memory and inserted the 2x4Gigabytes crucial so dimms ))))
All 8Gig visible under vista64.

- Applications: Was quite worried about all the application support under Vista64. But so far it looks good. Even Lotus Notes Client 6.5.4 was not a problem. Officially they do not support it. Cisco VPN is a problem, that stupid software does not run on Vista64. But you can use NCP or Cisco VPN over SSL if you have in the company.


My next step is to copy the harddrive to the SSD (Memoright GT) and insert it. I can just say that once you are used to a fast SSD on the system drive, it is such a pain to work with a normal harddrive.

I will measure the boot times with harddrive and SSD once I copied the image to the SSD.

So far I am really happy with this machine.

Wolfgang

[wswartzendruber]

very similar to the T400 random impressions, here it is for the T500 I received 2 days ago.

It's good to see that they worked out the issues. My T400 has flex on the bezel above the ultrabay drive. I removed the bezel and pushed the magnesium frame down somewhat easily. My T60 has zero flex there. I think that's the frame's only weakness compared to the T60. Everything else seems as good or better.

So out of curiosity, do you have flex on the border above the ultrabay slot?

[Shelby Griggs]

Just got my T400 yesterday (ordered 26-Sep, received 08-Oct), yes I can flex the right side of the top case over the UltraBay drive, BUT so can I on the T43 I am replacing, I would say the T400 is no worse than the older T43.

Probably the worse fitting part on the T400 is the "slop" in the cover latch when closed, not all that solid, the latch doesn't hold the cover tightly closed.

I have the LED display, no bad pixels that I could find. Of course my T43 has an IPS display (currently with a dead backlight tube), and while a good display, I don't see that the new T400 is all that much worse. The horizontal viewing angles are quite good, vertical less so.

I do notice that the T400 screen seems to have uneven backlighting, seems much brighter at the bottom???

Keyboard. It is not a T43 keyboard! I don't see what all the fuss is about the flex, don't really notice that, however the keyboard "feels" cheap, not classic "ThinkPad". I also own an IdeaPad Y 510, the T400 feels more like that "cheap" consumer keyboard is the best way to describe it.

I wanted the T500, BUT got tired of waiting for the LED display to materialize, in the end the T400 is closer in size to my old T43, same width, just a shorter height. I am portable a lot and use the laptop in my truck as much as the office, so the smaller size and bright LED screen won out.

All in all the T400 is unmistakably a "ThinkPad", I think I will be happy, do wished the keyboard felt a little more like my old T43, otherwise the T400 looks to be a nice machine.