Thinkpads Forum

Hi all

I am looking for your expert advice - I have owned macs forever, but am making a career change (going to med school) and the school I am attending recommends a PC. I don't have any experience with thinkpads, but I am drawn to their tradition of reliability and tough construction. I intend to keep using macs for music and photos, but use the pc for school, presentations, looking at images (CT, xray, MRI, etc) and histological slides (i.e. a good monitor is key). People often recommend tablets for medical school but I have found this to be a non-starter - I hate tablets and never use their features (paper and pen is superior) and I do a lot of writing, so the good thinkpad keyboard is very important for me. I want to get the computer now because I have some big time writing to do soon and my 5 year old powerbook just gave up the ghost.

I need this PC to last for about 4 years, because I don't plan on buying any other PC's, but probably will buy Mac's for personal use. I have pretty much narrowed my search down to the T400 or T400s - my only problem is price.

I can max out the T400 with a WXGA+ LCD, the 9XXX series proc w/ 6MB L2, Windows 7 64 and 4 gigs ram, and a 6 or 9 cell battery for about $1000 w/ education discount. I can get a bare bones (albeit w/ better specs in some areas than the T400) T400s for about $1400, but then upgrade it slowly over the years with more RAM and SSD. I really don't want to spend more than $1000 on this PC, but I will stretch it if the difference is striking and the T400s seems like a better platform. From reviews I have read, the T400s sounds like a higher quality product - tighter tolerences, less flex, etc., and is lighter, but you can really max out the T400 for a low price, which is appealing to me.

Looking for some advice here if possible. Thank you!

dewhastme wrote:use the pc for school, presentations, looking at images (CT, xray, MRI, etc) and histological slides (i.e. a good monitor is key). People often recommend tablets for medical school but I have found this to be a non-starter - I hate tablets and never use their features (paper and pen is superior) and I do a lot of writing, so the good thinkpad keyboard is very important for me.

The tablets have higher quality screens, which would seem important given the usage. The T400s weighs less, which if you need mobility probably offers more value than the better specs of the T400. That's my 2¢ anyway.

I'd take both notebooks into my hand to see the difference in weight. Also if you are going to med school and carry your notebook most of the time with you, and don't mind using student backpacks, a very good one can make most weight nearly disappear: having the notebook directly on your back is best for weight balance.

400$ are a big difference I think. It's up to you which you choose. The T400s uses the more modern dock.

Regarding "good display is important": None of the T400 ( s ) have a good display. That means the very small 12 inch tablet displays are good - but too small maybe for you! The old T60 15 inch non-xga displayes called "Flexview" have rather good quality.

I disagree with the previous post. The T400s has an excellent 1440x900 LED display. Its a great machine. You'll be glad you switched.

"When my friend's t60 was compared against the x60s and t400s and the picture looked WAY better on the t60 even unplugged."
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8&p=534856

"Unfortunately the image quality of the internal display is even worser as I feared."
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 2&p=532700

"It looks like T400s is the winner of "the worst notebook display contrast ever" award by value 98:1"
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 3&p=531839

dewhastme wrote:Hi all

I am looking for your expert advice - I have owned macs forever, but am making a career change (going to med school) and the school I am attending recommends a PC. I don't have any experience with thinkpads, but I am drawn to their tradition of reliability and tough construction.

Why not just stick with Mac, get bootcamp or one of those PC emulation for the Mac, also get a large harddisk, lets say 500GB, split the partition into 2 and you can use one for the Window.

If you are looking for a lenovo, then a T400s is the way to go, trust me. Over 9 years I have T41,T43,X60,X60T.......x300 and now X301. NONE of these ever gave me problem except the X60T. For <$1000 I would go to ebay and get a second hand item and make sure it has around 2 to 3 years of warranty. That will work out great for you.

A X301 I got recently for $1000, but I guess for medical school you would need a slightly larger screen and a T400s fits just nice plus it's light weight (1.7kg or 3.9lbs vs my X301 at 1.5kg).

A Tablet like X60 have this pen problem where the screen would get scratch after prolong use because if you don't clean the screen frequently (like 2 or 3 times a day), dirt gets onto it and when you write on it, dirt accumulate on the tablet pen and then it hardens without one knowing (pressure and heat during writing harden the dirt). On one fine day it will scratch the screen. Anyway, after writing and drawing a few times on the digital notepad, you may feel the slowness of the window problem because people use battery mostly when using tablet unless you like dragging a power cord around, so everythinng slows down on battery. The latest win7 and X200T may solve this but well.....

If I am in your position, i will stick with the Mac and experiment with Bootcamp for a while before forking out for a Lenovo.

I carried a T42 for three years around law school no problem. The minor weight savings of the T400s is not worth it. I say get the T400 and get the high nit screen. This is what I just ordered based on this picture (LED WXGA+ on the left and high nit WXGA on the right).

pianoprodigy wrote:I carried a T42 for three years around law school no problem. The minor weight savings of the T400s is not worth it. I say get the T400 and get the high nit screen.

I actually have a completely opposite opinion. Over 0.5kg of weight savings is not minor. But the extra brightness? Bah. The screens are already plenty bright enough.

The only problem with T400s and X301 now is because of the 6 cells battery only giving 3 to 4 hours (vista) and now when upgraded to win7 (2.2 to 3 hours).

The T400 have at least 9 cells? giving around 5 hours (or 4.5 if win7).

The extra brightness on the T400 would drain battery faster