New toy!

[at both ends]

My brand new T420i arrived today. There was (and still is) what looks like a price error on Intel SSD upgrades on the Canadian lenovo.com friends shopping site. I could not resist. 12 days from order through construction in China to delivery in rural B.C.

SSD is an Intel X25-M. A smoking hot upgrade for $72 ($85 less 15% FNDEPP coupon that day) more than the default 320GB 7200rpm.

Build feels very solid. No flex in the keyboard bezel, a problem on my T60.

The non-IPS 1600x900 screen may take some getting used to. If I can't, I may be swapping the SSD over to my 4 year old T60 and flogging the T420 with the T60's spinner.

Next up: installing the 2x4GB SODIMMs that arrived six days ago.

Next next: seeing if Ubuntu 10.04 will work out of the box.

[blackomegax]

I recommend ubuntu 11.04, if you want better out-of-the-box support.

[ThinkRob]

I recommend ubuntu 11.04, if you want better out-of-the-box support.

I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu in general, but if you are going to use it, I'd recommend that you heed this advice and use a recent version, preferably with the addition of a 3.x kernel. Otherwise, you run the risk of poor GPU performance and, worse, hard lock-ups.

[sysiphus]

I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu in general, but if you are going to use it, I'd recommend that you heed this advice and use a recent version, preferably with the addition of a 3.x kernel. Otherwise, you run the risk of poor GPU performance and, worse, hard lock-ups.

Ubuntu is an ancient African word, meaning "I can't configure Debian"

[at both ends]

Thanks for all the advice. Even the last dig got a chuckle, mostly because I worry that it's true.

The Lucid Lynx video driver did not work, as I was warned above. The installation defaulted to 1024x768, smearing everything on the 1600x900 display. I considered an upgrade to Natty but wasn't impressed with Unity. (Maybe I'm just getting old.) Instead I added the backport PPA and upgraded the kernel to 2.6.38-12. Reboot and video is fine. Everything else works out of the box.

The wider screen takes some getting used to. There's already been some grief with spreadsheets and long documents. The need to get the angle just right is an aggravation. However, when I put the T420 beside the IPS T60, the IPS looks yellow, something I never noticed before.

Painless memory upgrade. 8GB might be overkill but the machine is just that little bit peppier. $50 well spent; once 2GB stock module sells off local craigslist, even cheaper. The SSD is about 10x times as fast as the T60's Seagate, which also makes a huge difference. Standard CPU benchmarks show the i3 is 1-10x as fast as the T60's T2500. Wakes up from suspend in a second; the T60 takes almost five, a delay which I never bothered to track down.

Other pluses: A pound lighter and runs much cooler than the T60, both of which are appreciated. Fan never spins over 2000 and is inaudible. Keyboard feels normal.

Other minuses: AC adapter cord is just a few inches shorter, which turns out to be a slight pain in the [censored]. Touchpad is way too sensitive. DVD pops open every once in a while; I'm probably touching it somewhere I shouldn't.

[ThinkRob]

I'd recommend you upgrade to a 3.x kernel ASAP. If you don't, you have a fun world of lock-ups and hard hangs awaiting you. (Unless Canonical's identified the bug and backported it to the stable kernels -- which I don't think they have.)