My Humble Opinion of the t400

[albo]

Yeah, lenovo just ain't high-end anymore - I think you're right. Has anyone taken their place, or is there no best-of-breed laptop anymore? Perhaps there is, but it just doesn't run windows - it runs OSX.

I'll bet there's a market - albeit a small one - for professionally modding thinkpads. I'd pay for a company to put better speakers in my machine, etc. It'd be much better if the modding company had a deal with lenovo so it didn't void the warranty.

That wouldn't solve many of the problems, but it'd solve replaceable-part problems like speakers, etc.

[uux]

Interesting - I would attribute that to manufacturing quality more than design. I assumed that manufacturing would stay relatively constant in the lenovo/ibm shift than the design would. But I also suppose that design and manufacturing have to work closely together in order to produce quality products as well. So perhaps its not just the design team that is going down the tubes, but they may be bringing manufacturing down with them. The caveat here of course is that this is based off of one complaint, which isn't fair, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a general feeling.

Well, I suppose I could attribute it to manufacturing quality. However, if there were screws along the front bottom rather than just loosely fitting knobs, that light plastic would be tight against the rollcage with very little play and feel much more solid. Just two screws, one in each corner, would do. It would make up for any variation in manufacturing.

As far as aesthetics go, I'm generally happy with the widescreen T61. It's the same black box I'm used to. A symmetric screen would be more appealing, but it's hardly noticeable when in use. I don't buy the reasons behind the offset screen either. I'm actually a fan of the speakers on top. I tend to use it on my lap. With the T4x series (or X3x/X4x) the bottom based speakers would just end up being muffled. I don't care for the audio jacks in the front. Using them when it's on your lap can be uncomfortable depending on the audio connector and how you're sitting. The vertical USB ports don't seem to be a hinderance for any of the peripherals I use, though I can see how they could be an issue. The actual 14.1" WXGA+ LCD (LG in this model) seems to be better in both contrast and brightness than any 14.1" T4x SXGA+ LCD that I've compared it to. The keyboard is rock solid with no flex. With the exception of how the plastic fits over the rollcage giving it a perceived cheap, plastic feel, I think Lenovo did an otherwise good job. I would choose it over the T4x series anyday. The T400 appears to only have improved things.

[albo]

Would you choose it over the t4x if the t4x had all the technological improvements of the t400? (i.e. screen brightness and contrast, CPU speed, etc)?

[uux]

Would you choose it over the t4x if the t4x had all the technological improvements of the t400? (i.e. screen brightness and contrast, CPU speed, etc)?

That's a tough call. The T4x wasn't without it's flaws. The non-widescreen T60 and T61 are probably the closest thing to that in reality, and I did not choose them.

[albo]

Screen size is not due to Lenovo, it is standard. Everyone makes 14.1" screens, so this is what you get. Lenovo cannot just decide - hey, we want a 14.3" (or 14.7") screen.

I just took a tape measure to the t400 lid. A 15.4-inch screen would just fit in the lid, where lenovo decided instead to place a 14.1-incher. Getting a 15.4 in there would be a challenge, to be sure. But, hey, widen the thing by a few millimeters, make it thinner, and get rid of that stupid bezel.

Or make the whole thing smaller, to actually fit the 14.1-inch screen.

[dr_st]

We are going in circles here.

It has been explained thoroughly in this thread why the bezel is so thick (hint: combination of LCD rollcage introduced in the T61/R61 series and the new approach to antenna placement). Now, whether it was a correct design/engineering decision is what this debate is all about. But it is kinda pointless to say that Lenovo could have done it differently. Sure, they could have. They've done so in the past (hint: T4x/T60/Z6x). They chose not to.

[Marin85]

We are not discussing the hardware or the reliability of Lenovo ThinkPads, which are outstanding and should be expected due to technology progress! It´s about the design (exterior if you want), the way they look, and it is in fact partly conditioned by the way Lenovo implements the new technologies.

EDIT: Ignore this as it was a reply to wswartzendruber, whose post has gone while I have been writing my reply.

[T400plus]

Well, They have cut down on the screws required. But the Lazy designers dont have the numbers and the screw diagrams at the bottom of the
nearly(!) black box. Those diagrams and numbers used to help us open the laptops for fun and screw them back to claim warranty damage!
the keyboard doesnot have the feel of the T4* thinkpads. And, I feel I wont be able to scaratch the cover as often as I used to scratch and wipe my T41.

[phr]

I have a widescreen T61 at work. I've used it 10+ hours a day for about 6 months. I never noticed the screen placement in the lid was off center til reading this thread. It's just a non-event in my opinion. The wide screen bothers me a lot more. I like my old A22p UXGA 4:3 screen a lot better. The T61 and apparently T400/500 series also apparently limit the hard disk speed to SATA-1 with no NCQ which means that they lag seriously behind recent SSD's (Intel X25-E and M). The T61 also doesn't run my Acer WUXGA monitor without a lot of analog noise through the external VGA port. That's unlike my co-worker's Lenovo 3100, hmm, maybe I'll try on her monitor.

I was sort of thinking of getting an X200 as a travel machine but happened to glance here in the T400/500 forum with the idea that the T400 might be a more capable alternative because of its ultrabay (i.e. put 32GB SSD in the primary drive bay and 500GB hard disk in the ultrabay, to have both speed AND capacity). I think though that I will wait for the next generation of thinkpads, that will hopefully support SATA-2 and maybe eSata built in.

[albo]

Again, I think the main thing isn't so much that the screen is so off-center (which is indeed an issue for me regardless). Rather, it's all the wasted space around the border in which they could almost have put a 15.4 inch screen instead of the 14.1.

[exTPfan]

"T400... is quite simply the best ThinkPad"

Well, that's what it says on Lenovo's website, but a 15 inch T4x is smaller (13.0x10.6 versus 13.2x106) and has a screen that is fully 21% larger (108in^2 versus 89in^2) and is 1.5 inches taller.

Also, T4x's were available with IPS screens up to 1600x1200 --- T400's don't come close.

Finally, T4x's have superb keyboards whereas the T400 keyboards are so bad that some people are replacing them with keyboards from T6x's.

For those of us who don't need two cores, the latest generation of "Thinkpads" is another step backwards.

[wswartzendruber]

"T400... is quite simply the best ThinkPad"

Well, that's what it says on Lenovo's website, but a 15 inch T4x is smaller (13.0x10.6 versus 13.2x106) and has a screen that is fully 21% larger (108in^2 versus 89in^2) and is 1.5 inches taller.

Also, T4x's were available with IPS screens up to 1600x1200 --- T400's don't come close.

Finally, T4x's have superb keyboards whereas the T400 keyboards are so bad that some people are replacing them with keyboards from T6x's.

For those of us who don't need two cores, the latest generation of "Thinkpads" is another step backwards.

Not completely. The T400 still has way less chassis flex. Well, that's not fair because the T40s never really had chassis to begin with. You probably see my point.