Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone have a T430s? I am thinking about getting one and would like to hear what people who have bought one think. How is the new chiclet keyboard? Any quality issues? Is the screen bright? I want one with an SSD. Having trouble deciding between this and the X1, which is still an unknown quantity. Lenovo hasn't even released any specs.

I've tried the X230 and T430. I think the keyboard is excellent from a typing perspective, but if you're used to the old keyboard, you might not like the new one as some of the keys have been moved around. I believe the HD screens on the T430s are rated at 200 nits while the HD+ screens are 250 nits. I wouldn't expect anything special in terms of the screen quality if the T430 is any guide. I don't think the X1 is much of a mystery. It'll have an ULV CPU with a SSD for storage. Unlike most ultrabooks, it looks like the battery is swappable. You might get access to the memory and hard drive too. You'll get a few USB ports, probably a displayport and card reader too. Probably the biggest question is how good is the screen. No one knows for sure and we probably won't find out until some review units are released or they start selling it.

Yeah i have one.

Keyboard is great, takes a bit time to get use to it though as it seems like it's too easy to type now.

screen quality is okay. NOT great, but okay.

Just ordered a new T430s. 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, HD+ screen... Looking forward to getting it. I'm hoping there will be no issues with Windows 8 because that's the first thing I'm going to install. I was waffling about waiting for an X1, but the more I looked at Ultrabooks, the more I decided that the weight savings of about a pound wasn't really all that important to me. (Going to get a Surface when they are released so that is my ultra portable.) The DVD drive and the extra ports (especially VGA for presentations) will come in handy so I decided to go for the T430s, which is still svelte compared to a lot of business laptops. A bit worried about the new chiclet keyboard, but I guess I'll find out soon.

BTW, the Lenovo sales drone I chatted with assured me that the T430s screen is IPS. I cant find it in the specs, but I am doubtful.

Art Vandelay wrote:BTW, the Lenovo sales drone I chatted with assured me that the T430s screen is IPS. I cant find it in the specs, but I am doubtful.

No, it is typical Lenovo constrast-less (~100:1) horrible TN panel. I assume it is the same garbage as used in T420s - 154:1 only http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 967.0.html

[/quote]No, it is typical Lenovo constrast-less (~100:1) horrible TN panel. I assume it is the same garbage as used in T420s - 154:1 only http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 967.0.html[/quote]

I didn't think it was an IPS display. I have a T420s right now and while the display isn't the best I've ever seen, its far from the worst. Have you seen some of the crap on the shelves Best Buy? Granted there is a difference between a ThinkPad and a $500 computer, but the ThinkPad display is still reasonably good quality. Lenovo could certainly improve the displays on the ThinkPad line, but it isn't a dealbreaker, at least for me.

You have to understand notebooks like the T430 etc. are designed for large institution buyers, who buy them by the 1,000s to hand them out to their workers. They don't give a lick about screen quality and until they do, you're probably not going to see better screen. Look at the similar notebooks from Dell and HP, they're no better. I would not describe them as garbage. They're fine for the Office and Internet usage they'll mostly see. There's a big enough sweet spot on the T430 so that it looks fine if you don't move too much. You wouldn't want to watch movies or edit photos on it, but it's not really designed for those types of tasks.

Agreed. There is a big difference between ThinkPads and consumer notebooks. I recently considered a Vizio ultrabook from the Microsoft Store. The screen was IPS, matte, and gorgeous. Problem was that the trackpad and keyboard were absolute crap. The build quality was about on par with an Apple MacBook, which is above average for consumer laptops. All of the other stuff in the Microsoft Store was unacceptable to me. So I was faced with the choice of sacrificing some screen quality for a better keyboard (even the chiclet must be better) and just a generally better built computer.

ZaZ wrote:You have to understand notebooks like the T430 etc. are designed for large institution buyers, who buy them by the 1,000s to hand them out to their workers. They don't give a lick about screen quality and until they do, you're probably not going to see better screen. Look at the similar notebooks from Dell and HP, they're no better. I would not describe them as garbage. They're fine for the Office and Internet usage they'll mostly see. There's a big enough sweet spot on the T430 so that it looks fine if you don't move too much. You wouldn't want to watch movies or edit photos on it, but it's not really designed for those types of tasks.

I find it funny that they're making 16:9 screens, an apect ratio that's useful for movies only, and then they make them with such poor contrast and viewing angles that you can't even watch movies on them...

ZaZ wrote:You have to understand notebooks like the T430 etc. are designed for large institution buyers, who buy them by the 1,000s to hand them out to their workers. They don't give a lick about screen quality and until they do, you're probably not going to see better screen. Look at the similar notebooks from Dell and HP, they're no better.

IMO, just because certain other brands have equally crappy screens doesn't make these screens acceptable. None of them are acceptable, whether they are Thinkpads, or Elitebooks, or Latitudes, or Toughbooks. I have a love-hate relationship with the Dell Latitude E4200 I am typing this post on. It is still the lightest business laptop ever made, it's quite sturdy, and it has good looks. But it has an absolutely horrible screen that I hate, and the fact that most other business-class laptops have equally bad screens doesn't make me hate this one less. And BTW, if crappy TN screens are "perfectly fine for office work", then why did you get an X220 with IPS and swear by it about four times a week?

yak wrote:I find it funny that they're making 16:9 screens, an apect ratio that's useful for movies only, and then they make them with such poor contrast and viewing angles that you can't even watch movies on them...

LOL! That's an excellent observation! Ironically, even though people on this forum like to refer to Macbooks as consumer laptops, these are the only laptops in the market that still use an aspect ratio (16:10) that's suitable for office work.

This is the main reason why, sad to say, I use a dock at home and at work and have my T420 / W520 connected to an HP S-IPS 24 inch display (1920x1200) at home and a Dell 24 inch IPS (1920x1080) at work - and use this set up 90% percent of the time.

pianowizard wrote:swear by it about four times a week?

Four? I think that's a little low. I think this is a case where if Lenovo raises prices to offer something better, it'll cost them sales. The large institutional buyers who really drive the design, mostly don't care about better screens and why you're stuck with such a crappy screen on your Dell. They're not dumb over there. If they could find a way to make to offer a better screen and make a buck on it, I'd presume they'd do it. The fact that they have done it on the X220/X230 is surprising. I think it's the iPad effect myself. I've been hopeful that once they figure out how to do it on the X220/X230, they'd at least offer a better option on the 14" T series. I'd really be interested in 14" T430 with a good screen, though the 7mm bay is a bit lame. Unfortunately, so far, it hasn't happened.

T430s arrived earlier today. I wiped the drive and installed Windows 8. Windows 8 runs flawlessly and doesn't require any additional Lenovo drivers. I have a 128GB SSD drive; is there any point in installing the active protection system? Does the active protection system actually protect anything if the computer doesn't have a spinning hard drive?

The build quality is excellent. I am getting used to the new keyboard. It is much better than the chiclet keyboards on Apple's iToys or on the junk at Best Buy, but I still think I prefer the classic ThinkPad keyboard. But it isn't bad.

Art Vandelay wrote:I have a 128GB SSD drive; is there any point in installing the active protection system? Does the active protection system actually protect anything if the computer doesn't have a spinning hard drive?

No and no.

Hello,

I have a T430 and there is a major problem with the fan noise. Please check the lenovo blog here under.

I believe that T430's could be even more noisy while it is a thin line. The T420's were well know for being very noisy. Some people even try to start a petition about that.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... ight/false

I've heard that the T420 and T430 make a constant, loud fan noise. Can anyone tell me if this also the case with the T430s? Also, are you using the integrated graphics or discrete? Thanks in advance.

The T430 I have isn't noisy.

etherealtml wrote:I've heard that the T420 and T430 make a constant, loud fan noise. Can anyone tell me if this also the case with the T430s? Also, are you using the integrated graphics or discrete? Thanks in advance.

My T430s is virtually silent.

etherealtml wrote:I've heard that the T420 and T430 make a constant, loud fan noise.

You have heard incorrectly. My T420 does have the fan on all the time, but that's the case for pretty much every ThinkPad I've owned (well... the ones with a fan...) The T420's fan is quiet compared to many other models though; when it's idling at about 2000 RPM or so I can't hear it unless the room is dead silent (and I mean *dead* silent.)

etherealtml wrote:I've heard that the T420 and T430 make a constant, loud fan noise. Can anyone tell me if this also the case with the T430s? Also, are you using the integrated graphics or discrete? Thanks in advance.

My T420 (see sig below) does not make a constant, loud fan noise.

etherealtml wrote:I've heard that the T420 and T430 make a constant, loud fan noise.

It depends a lot on what the user does with the computer, what kind of environment the laptop is used in, and the sensitivity of the person's hearing. Seems to me that for the typical user, these Thinkpads aren't loud.

In general, it's always wise to take isolated complaints like this with a grain of salt. The T43 and T43p did have a serious fan noise problem and so we did see countless complaints about that. But if a certain problem has been brought up just a couple times, I would just ignore it.

My integrated-graphics-only T430s is silent in normal use, except for the hard disk of course. However the fan will blow loudly and continuously if you activate the Intel Turbo Boost (or something) setting in the Lenovo Power Manager.

The screen is not "crappy". While not as good as the X220's, it's perfectly usable. You can (or at least I do) watch a movie on it. The keyboard is very good too, I don't mind the less cluttered design.

ellipse wrote:My integrated-graphics-only T430s is silent in normal use, except for the hard disk of course. However the fan will blow loudly and continuously if you activate the Intel Turbo Boost (or something) setting in the Lenovo Power Manager.

In other words, like pretty much laptops, putting the CPU under heavy load for an extended period of time will cause the cooling system to ramp up the fans.