Thinkpads Forum

As the title says.....

Anyone here know, hear of, or think that an LED backlit screen will be available on the T500? (higher resolution screen of course).

Its the only thing making me lean to the T400 but I have only owned 15.4" Laptops...

Thanks in advance!

Currently, the only 15.4" LED backlit screen available for the T500 is a WXGA (1280x800). This seems vaguely ridiculous to me, but apparently not to Lenovo. I'll let the insiders, if any, comment on the future plans of the company.

If this is of interest, I've recently seen a WXGA+ (1440x900) T400 next to a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) T500 and I can confirm that the native size of things on the screen is pretty much the same, maybe a tad larger on the 14". So the look of the active window is virtually unchanged between the two screens, but there is simply 15% less of it in the 14". That feels like too much scrolling to me, but your opinion may vary.

Thanks for the input.

The only laptops ive used have been 15.4" or larger so I'm a bit biased. The 14.1" may work well for me but I'm still not completely convinced. Its good to hear that the native size of things is pretty much the same.

I wish I could figure out if this LED backlight was good enough to move down to a 14.1"

Giacomo- That's a good tip. Thanks for sharing!

I'd not leave 15,4" just for a better backlight but it's just my personal opinion (I've been using laptops with various screen sizes for many years and I wouldn't buy and notebook with screen different than 15,4").

If I were buying laptop in this moment I would also consider Dell E6500 with 1449x900 WXGA+ and LED backlight ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Del ... 958.0.html ) - seems to be nice laptop too.
I almost hate Dells but ... I see that E6500 and M4400 are quite nice.

I guess I'm in just about the same situation as the rest of you guys. I'd also much prefer the T500, had it been possible to get it with decent LED-backlit screen (and no, IMO under 100dpi is really not what I'd call a "decent screen").

I've also tried to find something about the two DELLs (E6500 and M4400) and so far my feelings are a bit mixed. The good news there is definitely the screen and keyboard (both probably better than any Lenovo). The bad news is just about anything else starting from battery life, design (don't like the overall shape and ergonomics), performance (lower in both GPU, CPU and RAM - DDR2 vs. DDR3 at Lenovo) and extensibility (AFAIK they don't offer anything like Ultrabay options - spare battery, HDD, etc).

For me, another issue in play will be availability. I'll be purchasing in Czech Republic and the whole market here is simply crazy. Leaving aside the pricing (not all that much of an issue once you really know what you want), it seems that there's only about 2-3 models of each T400 and T500 available for wide market and exactly NONE has LED screen (in whatever resolution). Only after an email conversation with both Lenovo and their dealer the Lenovo representative gave me an "unofficial" list of models, available on demand (so far OK - I'm not all that much in a hurry), but only through a dealer (who so far keeps saying, that there's nothing else available - I'm now trying to persuade them about the opposite ;o).

Summed up - I gave up waiting for an ideal (T500 with LED). I already know I WILL have to sacrifice something. My first choice would be T400 with LED (sacrificing the screen size) - but only if I'll be able to get it (which so far is quite a pain). Dell on the other hand, however a tad bit more expensive and probably a bit worse, has an complete model configurator available everywhere (including Czech) - a definite deal breaker as soon as I loose my patience with Lenovo distribution network.

Pilgrim wrote:For me, another issue in play will be availability. I'll be purchasing in Czech Republic and the whole market here is simply crazy. Leaving aside the pricing (not all that much of an issue once you really know what you want), it seems that there's only about 2-3 models of each T400 and T500 available for wide market and exactly NONE has LED screen (in whatever resolution). Only after an email conversation with both Lenovo and their dealer the Lenovo representative gave me an "unofficial" list of models, available on demand (so far OK - I'm not all that much in a hurry), but only through a dealer (who so far keeps saying, that there's nothing else available - I'm now trying to persuade them about the opposite ;o).
Summed up - I gave up waiting for an ideal (T500 with LED). I already know I WILL have to sacrifice something. My first choice would be T400 with LED (sacrificing the screen size) - but only if I'll be able to get it (which so far is quite a pain). Dell on the other hand, however a tad bit more expensive and probably a bit worse, has an complete model configurator available everywhere (including Czech) - a definite deal breaker as soon as I loose my patience with Lenovo distribution network.

Hi!
I'm not sure if you're french or czech, but if it's the second option - maybe you understand polish a bit?
If so - you could try buying T400 on www.allegro.pl ( http://www.allegro.pl/search.php?string ... egory=4174 ).
For example : http://www.allegro.pl/item469980751_thi ... ed_bt.html - you have to wait about 25 days to receive it, but you can choose exact configuration that you want (this guy imports laptops from USA and you can use Lenovo's configurator to get T400 from your dreams ). The price is not so bad ( T9400, Vista Business, WXGA+ LED, 2 GB DDR3 in two dimms, 160 GB HDD 5400, WiFi Link 5100, one year of warranty respected in Poland and probably in Czech Republic and France too - it costs 30 450 korons, 1208 euros).
You have a map below showing places where you could receive it - it's not so far from Czech Republic (Wroclaw, Oswiecim, ...).
There are many stores in Poland that sell preconfigured T400 and T500 - you can find'em on www.nokaut.pl , www.ceneo.pl , www.skapiec.pl

Hi Wojtek,
thanks for a reply (or "dziekujem bardzo" - hell, my Polish kind of sucks when I'm supposed to write ;o)

I'm Czech, but at the moment living in Paris - so up to certain extent I do understand Polish. Thanks for the links, it is interesting (mostly in terms of price ;o), but I am already aware of options to import a laptop from the US. But the reason for me to look for one in Czech Republic (otherwise not a good electronics-shopping country at all) is mostly for tax return reasons. The final decision will indeed be bit more complex than just the plain Lenovo vs. Dell - even my tax-based motivations have their limits.