Thinkpads Forum

I am looking into getting my first Thinkpad. I am a rep in the bike industry, drag my laptop around to accounts 5 days a week. Looking at the 14" T400 with spec around $1000. I just saw some news on a new T410 coming out in January. Should I wait? Is this thing going to be in my 1k price range?

I decided to just go for it. Upgrading from a T42 that lasted almost 5 years until the backlight died.

czvekslak wrote:I am looking into getting my first Thinkpad. I am a rep in the bike industry, drag my laptop around to accounts 5 days a week. Looking at the 14" T400 with spec around $1000. I just saw some news on a new T410 coming out in January. Should I wait? Is this thing going to be in my 1k price range?

I'd buy now. The T400 will do everything you want and more, it's being sold at a price which I believe (just an educated guess) you will not be able to buy the T410 for.
I have a T400 and it's a great machine. I highly endorse it.

Cheers...

I second that. My T400 is rock solid, and I count myself as a very satisfied consumer.

I'm in this same position. I'm looking at a $990 T400 with discrete graphics using a $175 off coupon.

With the coupon, it's selling for $600 under full price. I wonder if Lenovo usually sells their new models at full price? If so that's a big plus for buying now.

My second reason to buy now is that issues like keyboard flex and graphics drivers are taken care of on the T400. What issues will there be on the T410?

My third factor is how much faster the T410 will be. We don't know if it will have Arrandale or not or what GPU it will have. If it is significantly faster, then, maybe it is worth 2 months of waiting and up to $600?

I just went through the same purchase decision as you. I have a functional laptop so I don't _need_ to upgrade right away; I'm just at the stage where it's time to start looking. I did a lot of research on the Calpella platform and I'm certain the new 410's are going to be very nice, but the HUGE discounts on the T400 won the day.

I was absolutely SHOCKED at how little a T400 can be gotten for right now (for comparison, I paid around $2500 for my last Thinkpad, a T60p ( I miss IPS)). You can be quite certain a T410 with discrete graphics is going to enter the market at a much higher price point than today's T400. The only way these prices are possible is if Lenovo is purging inventory in preparation for the new platform.

My recommendation is to jump on the current deals. You'll only be missing out on maybe a 20-30% performance bump, but spending around half the money.


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There's always that issue of when to buy, in between product release cycles. However as many have already pointed out above, the T400 can be had for a great price. I've seen so many bargains on sealed machines on ebay recently that just weren't there when I bought mine.

The second thing is that the T400 really is the best machine I've used out of T41p, T61 and now the T400. It's a very powerful machine (obviously depending on configuration) and the battery life is great, with switchable graphics it offers flexibility too. Very well built and cool.

I don't know how much credence to put into these images and specs of T410s but they look like a departure from the linear improvement we've seen so far.

I would wait unit the T410 is released because you'll probably see a price drop for the T400 if you choose to go that route. The T410 should be announced by end of January -- Capella is due around Jan 20th as I recall.