T410s Impressions and review

[Dm2703]

Review of Thinkpad T410s. 520M processor, 8gb ram, integrated graphics, 128 SSD, and everything else maxed out.

Battery life: with optical drive battery- 5.5 hours/with internet.

Microsoft 7 performance, base score of 4.5, Processor- 6.7, Memory- 6.7, Graphics- 4.5, Gaming Graphics- 5.2, Primary hard disk- 6.8

Weight: 3lb, probably less. Feels very light.

Lapable- I edited for 2 hours today while it sat on my lap- no heat. I would say it’s 4x as cool as a t42, and infinitely quieter.

Strength: can see screen effects if screen is pushed. Can bend. In keeping with properties of carbon fiber- does not feel nearly as substantial as T42p or T61p.

Promised double keyboard lights- not there. Only one.

Promised 2.53 speed- yeah, not so much. At least not yet.

Speakers- expansive, detailed, loud, clear, and the best I’ve ever heard from a laptop. Better than t61p

Camera- high quality, wide angle view. On par, I think, with macbook pros I’ve been using this week.

Power brick- very small, smaller than my mouse. I’m quite pleased. Still, I’m going to get the slim version for travel.

Wireless- I have not tried the wi max yet. As far as the antenna goes, I think it’s about average for a new computer. Today in class, with about 120 other computers in the room, it was having a difficult time fighting for a signal, so was everyone else.

Look- friend who knew my story said: “wait, it looks just like your old computer, that’s so anti-climatic.”- and that is the best compliment you can ever give a thinkpad.

Promised switchable graphics- Lenovo abandoned it, for now, and called me to inform me of the change.

Keyboard review: like a new Hyundai Sonata. The old one was a 2001 Camry or Accord. Like a 2010 family sedan it feels like you’re not fully in control anymore, like the electronics have taken over to make it a more competent, if less exciting, experience.

Trackpad- finally a trackpad worth using. Unfortunately it is large enough to cause errors when my hand rests on the keyboard while typing and using the trackpoint. I’ll have to shut off the trackpad as a result.

Fingerprint reader- friendlier and more advanced than the one that came out with the T42.
Photoshop- so far seems unbelievably fast compared to T42.

Problems: 1) many items came without installed drivers- I had to install the drivers for the optical drive and USB ports. 2) did not come with extra pointers- and the factory installed one sucks. 3) Windows 7 is at least tolerable compared to vista, but it’s not as friendly to people who know something about computers as windows XP was. 4) there are less USB drives than I was expecting. 5) All the crap associated with new computes. I’m too busy to spend my time exploring windows, I need a machine that can hit the ground running.

Shameless plug: I will post a real review on granodemostasa.com when I’m done with a more extensive review.

[ajsimeon]

Finally someone with a useful review. So you only got 5.5 hours with the ultrabay battery? Full brightness or what? If this thing had an all day battery like the 410 it would be so amazing. Still I can't wait to get mine. Looking forward to the full review and PICS!

[Dm2703]

I did a 9-5 today on the battery. lowering the performance level, I easily got 8 hours.

[prince_kassad14]

very useful review thanks but i have 2 questions please if you dont mind
1- did you get 8 hours with 6 cell battery + the ultrabay (3cell) ?
2- what is the 2 switchable graphics kind , intel and nvedia ?
thank you