Thinkpads Forum

Yes, got my e420s today. The build quality seems really good to me. It feels light and solid all at the same time. The keyboard is great and it's pretty speedy. Not blow me away fast but it's an upgrade over my 3 year old HP for sure.

I gotta be honest though, the screens not that good. It's not sharp or eye-catching at all. I haven't had a chance to do a really solid battery life check on it yet, hoping to get to that tomorrow. After I spend a little more time with this thing I'll post back any additional comments.

sorry to hear about the display. I have a noisy 7 yr old toshiba laptop that has a same screen qualities (ie color saturation, minimal wash-out, viewing angles) as a macbook pro. Maybe the offerings for the T series with matte screen options will be better...

Just got my E420s. I will write a small follow up review later today or tomorrow (need some time to actually use it), but in the mean time I got some pictures from my cell phone!

http://pyther.net/e420s/cell/

For some reason I didn't think the screen was going to have that "glossy" look. I would have preferred a matte screen. Oh well!

Also, the battery is built into the actual machine (aka non-removable). I knew about this after making the order.
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-Ed ... a-p/405159

Enjoy and feel free to ask any questions.

EDIT: It has a vga port on the back, I thought it only had hdmi! Could have saved myself $60 on a DVI KVM

Hey Pyther, a couple of things I've noticed and wanted to see if you have the same problems. First, It's failing to keep my setting for my pointer. I like to use the pointer for scrolling only but no matter how many times I change the setting it seems to not want to stay that way. Also I've had two instances where I've left it on the charger for a long time but when I boot the computer it hasn't charged a bit. Other times it has charged just fine. Same outlet both times. Looking forward to your review.

@jhice...
I haven't used windows much so I can't comment on your issue. As for the charging I haven't noticed and problems.

---------------

Hardware:
Screen: Very reflective, like a glossy screen. Colors are a bit washed out though it seems like I'm getting use to it. Seem to be better when looking at the screen at an angle.

Mouse: Clickpad. The button are integrated as part of the touchpad. Different...

Keyboard: The space bar key has a delay in both Windows and Linux. None of the other keys have such a delay. Maybe a BIOS update will fix this. Fixed in 1.08
Edit: The keyboard is very nice to type on. I really like it!

Leds: Only one led. It is the dot above the i. It is solid when the machine is on, and blinks when the machine is in standby. There is a small green power led next to the power connector to indicate when the machine is plugged in. I hard drive LED would have been very useful IMO. No caps or scroll lock led.

BIOS: Uses Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and uses the traditional BIOS as a fallback. Super cool! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible ... _Interface

Video:
Has a HDMI output and VGA output. For someone I didn't think it had a vga output!

Linux
Trackpoint: There appears to be a bug in the kernel that prevents the trackpoint from being detected right away. Sometimes it is detected at boot, but other times it takes a while for the kernel to detect it and be usable. https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33292

Clickpad: No official driver upstream. Unofficial patch that works, but click and drag operations using the "buttons" do not work.

Overall I am satisfied with the laptop. Hopefully a BIOS update will fix the space bar key problem. I am sure the two Linux issues will become non-issues in a few months.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

@jhice I think I have experienced you battery issue. I had my laptop plugged in all night and it says I only have a 9% charge but 8 hours of runtime! I think the battery is charging, but it is not being reported correctly. I really should do a deep discharge.

@pyther, I went ahead and fully discharged my battery a couple times and it seems to be working fine now. On another note I really love this keyboard. It is a pleasure to type on.

That is good to know, I'll give it a try. Do you have a problem with the space bar (a delay)?

There is a little lag on the space bar. To tell you the truth I hadn't really noticed it until you pointed it out. And now I can't stop noticing it, thanks a lot man.

@jhice no problem!

I posted on the lenovo forums about the issue yesterday and the good news is that there is a BIOS update that was published on Saturday. (I checked on Friday!)
The readme states: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-77083

I will give it a try in a little while.

I was simply going to edit my post, but I feel this is important!

DO NOT UPGRADE FROM THE ISO FILE!!!

When I tried updating from the ISO I got the following error "Disk not ready/Write Protect." I called Technical Support and he told me to power of the machine and that it would not void the warranty. Luckily the machine was functional. The "tech" then had me boot into Windows and try to update the BIOS using the Windows utility, however it detected I had the latest BIOS and refused to proceed. The BIOS info screen showed that the UEFI BIOS was at 1.08, but the Embedded Controller was still at 1.06. The guy on the phone said I'd have to send the machine in to have the motherboard replaced! I sad screw that and downloaded the ISO for 1.06. I got the same error, but it knocked the BIOS version down to 1.06. This allowed me to run the Windows utility to upgrade the BIOS to 1.08.

TLDR; Update using the Windows tool NOT the ISO

Edit: The BIOS updated fixed the space bar issue and the issue where the Multimedia Next/Foward keys would also trigger the Mute key.

BIOS updates always scare me until they've been out for a while. I'll probably just wait a few more days on this one. Sorry about what happened to you, but glad you are smarter than the tech's on the phone.

@pyther, also I only have 4 Gigs of RAM on this. Are you planning on installing more RAM for yours? I'd be interested to know how much you think we'd gain from installing more.

Personally I am content with 4GB of ram. Heck I could get away with 2GB if I didn't use Virtual Machines. Down the road I might want to update 8GB of ram, but not any time soon. Also, there is no easy way to get at the RAM. You have to remove the keyboard which I don't want to do, just yet. The service manual seems to be fairly in-depth.

Unless you do a lot of Photo/Video Editing I doubt you'll notice any major performance increase. However, it all depends on your use case.

I am interested in buying an msata module, down the road, when the prices on those drop!

I ordered a e420s on 3/24/11. The only thing I customized was the RAM from 2 2GB sticks to 1 4GB stick. After checking today, they moved the shipping date back a THIRD time, now all the way until 5/07/11 - that's SIX weeks after I purchased the laptop, and I'm doubtful that it will ship by then.

Is anyone else in the same boat as me? I'm a student and the reliability in Lenovo's customer service has really let me down, especially because when I ordered it, they "guaranteed" the laptop would ship in 8 days. I'm trying to decide if I should just cancel my order since their services already screwed me over for finals. Any suggestions?

Yeah, you're better off ordering from somewhere else if you want this particular laptop. Provantage worked really well for me, not sure if they still have any left. Although at this point I'd definitely cancel the order through Lenovo.

@pyther, How did you use Windows to update the BIOS? The spacebar is really annoying me now.

@jhice
Haha! Sorry!

Simply download and run it. It will automatically update the BIOS for you. Make sure to close out of everything.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-77082

@shorty14d2
That really blows. I'm so glad I decided to buy from CDW. If you still want a E420s (I am loving mine) I would see if you could by one from Provantage or CDW.

Thanks for the responses -

It's a tough decision simply because those two websites offer the laptop for about $100 more than what I paid through Lenovo (due to a coupon code, I got mine for $630). I sent them an email though and said if it did not send by the new estimated shipping date, I would like my order cancelled, since $100 extra seems like it would still be a decent deal for the laptop.

For those who do have it, is the only complaint so far the screen resolution and glossiness?

My complaints:
*Screen is glossy/glassy (I really don't care to see a reflection)
*Battery is built in, not easily accessible
*Linux / BIOS bug in which trackpoint isn't always detected https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33292 (I am sure this will be fixed in a month or so; works just fine in Windows)
*Lack of LEDs. There is only one above the i in the Thinkpad logo (Power / Standby). A hard drive indicator LED would have been nice

Overall fairly minor complaints and I'm happy so far. I do find it uncomfortable to type on for a long periods of time, but that holds true for all laptops I've ever worked with.

Getit25 wrote:they now have all the options up on the e420s,
i7, 16x9 screen, nvidia card. Just placed ,my order

A 16x9 screen option! The screen resolution was the only thing holding me back from this machine! Do you mind posting the full specs of the machine you ordered, for drooling purposes? The e420s is back on the lenovo website now- but the discrete graphics, micro ssd and i7 options are not available. Rep supplied info posted on another forum suggests that those options will be available "by weeks end"

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... ost7391132

jhice wrote:@pyther, How did you use Windows to update the BIOS? The spacebar is really annoying me now.

Were you able to update it? Any issues going this route?

I ordered an i5 this past Tuesday and am waiting very very impatiently for it to get here!

Was able to update it fine from within Windows. So far I can't tell of any negative impact.

@pyther,

I was just wondering if you could comment on the display quality and also the battery life under normal internet/ microsoft office usage. Also what display brightness are you typically using when on battery.

Hopefully you are enjoying the new e420s.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

BenMar

Like I said earlier the colors appear to be washed out a bit and the display is fairly reflective. It seems to help, if you look at the display, at a bit of an angle. The display could be better, but it works. I'd probably give it a 3/5.

As for the battery life I've used it twice for Internet Browsing, Word Processing, and Email from about 9:15am-1:30pm nearly continuously. I'd say I could pull about 4.5-5 hours of from the battery, maybe a bit more if I dimmed the screen down. I haven't done any real tests though. Also, I am using Linux, so the results might be slightly better in Windows.

pyther wrote:Like I said earlier the colors appear to be washed out a bit and the display is fairly reflective. It seems to help, if you look at the display, at a bit of an angle. The display could be better, but it works. I'd probably give it a 3/5.

As for the battery life I've used it twice for Internet Browsing, Word Processing, and Email from about 9:15am-1:30pm nearly continuously. I'd say I could pull about 4.5-5 hours of from the battery, maybe a bit more if I dimmed the screen down. I haven't done any real tests though. Also, I am using Linux, so the results might be slightly better in Windows.

Thanks Pyther. I appreciate your comments. Will probably go with the e420s but am also considering its chubby brethren the e420.

BenMar

@Pyther,

Just a couple more questions...How is the heat during normal usage? and how quiet/loud is the fan?

Thanks in advance

BenMar

The laptop stays pretty cool. I don't really feel any heat. The fan makes a bit of noise, but it isn't too bad, pretty quite in my opinion.

I finally received my e420s woo!

However, I have a Corsair NOVA V128 SSD that I was attempting to replace this morning and discovered that the hard drive they use is a Seagate Momentus Thin - it seems the SSD I had purchased for this is too thick for this.

I don't want to dive too deep into taking the laptop apart to make the change without really knowing what I'm getting myself into. Is there a thinner SSD that would simply slide in? Do I have to remove the bottom entirely to replace the hard drive? Or is there no possible way to replace this with an SSD?

shorty14d2 wrote:I finally received my e420s woo!

However, I have a Corsair NOVA V128 SSD that I was attempting to replace this morning and discovered that the hard drive they use is a Seagate Momentus Thin - it seems the SSD I had purchased for this is too thick for this.

I don't want to dive too deep into taking the laptop apart to make the change without really knowing what I'm getting myself into. Is there a thinner SSD that would simply slide in? Do I have to remove the bottom entirely to replace the hard drive? Or is there no possible way to replace this with an SSD?

That is disappointing! From my understanding, if you don't have the WWAN card, you can use a msata drive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Both however, are pricer than normal 2.5 SSDs