Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone,

First off I parden myself for my English sinc it is not my native language. (I hope that I did put this topic in the right section. )

I am a litle undecided about (mybe) buying a new thinkpad. I now own a Z61p 3GB RAM (year 2007) and it is starting to show its age. I was thinking about Asus zenbook, Sony and Lenovo. I hate that Lenovo screens are not so good (quality) with poor resolution but out of the three brands I would choose Lenovo.

I dont want a 15-inch notebook since it gets really heavy if you have to carry it arround, so I am in the market for either a 14-inch or a 12.5-inch notebook. I would like to have a sufficient battery life – my Z61p dies after 2h with brightness to minimum, but than the screen is so dark you can bearly see anything. So it should in everyday use stay alive at least 5h.

So there you have it, it baiscally comes down to deciding about these three factors:
- Screen size
- Screen resolution
- Battery life
Since I am a student and do not have the extra cash, I was looking at thinkpads at Lenovo campus Austria (https://lenovocampus.at/produkte.php).
I have narrowed my selection down to these T430, T430s and X230 all for a litle less than 1200€ (specs are at the end of this post).

The T430 is a mainstream thinkpad and it is in this selection becaus it has the battery life and the screen resolution. Here I am affraid that it will be to heavy.
The T430s is here because it is lighter than the T430 and has the same screen but dosnt have the same battery life. Here I amm affraid that the battery life wont be sufficient.
The X230 is here because I really like the idea of a small and portable laptop with a good battery life an IPS screen but hate that it has a 1366x786 resolution. Here I am affraid that the resolution is to small and that the screen is (mybe) to small.

So in short:
T430:
+ Battery
+ Screen resolution
- Weight

T430s:
- Battery
+ Screen resolution
+ Weight

X230
+ Battery
- Screen resolution
+ Weight

Since I cannot deside I would wery much appriciate all your opinions and your expiriences (if you have them) with these notebooks. I have seen the 14-inch screen models but I have not seen the 12.5-inch model in real life. Thank you all for your opinions in advance.
PS. I think the specs are a little funny, X230 with i7-3720QM?

T430
- Intel® Core™ i5- 3320M Prozessor (2.60 GHz)
- 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) RAM
- 500 GB Hard Disk Drive (7200 rpm)
- Intel® HD Grafik 4000
- 14.0" 16:9 HD+ (1600 x 900, LED Backlight)
- MultiBurner
- Bluetooth, Fingerprint, Kamera
- Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

T430s
- Intel® Core™ i5- 3320M Prozessor (2.60 GHz)
- 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) RAM
- 500 GB Hard Disk Drive (7200 rpm)
- Intel® HD Grafik 4000
- 14.0" 16:9 HD+ (1600 x 900, LED Backlight)
- MultiBurner
- Bluetooth, Fingerprint, Kamera
- Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

X230
- Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM Prozessor (2.90 GHz)
- 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) RAM
- 500 GB Hard Disk Drive (7200 rpm)
- Intel HD Grafik 4000
- 12.5" 16:9 FHD (1366 x 768, LED Backlight, IPS-Display)
- Bluetooth, Fingerprint, Kamera
- DOS

My choice would be T430s with UltraBay battery. http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... D=PD024289

You could replace that spinning 500GB HDD with a SSD to further help battery life.

As screens have become more squat, I don't think bumping the resolution is as advantageous. On a typical internet page getting a HD+ screen will net you roughly an addition three lines of text. If you do a lot of side by side viewing of documents, the higher resolution will help, but I think for me the better quality the X230 offers will be more noticeable. For that reason, I vote for the X230.

Althou I lean twards the X230, I am a litle scared of the "litle" screen - I will be using the laptop without an external monitor for about 5 months.
Yesterday I was in a local shop and was looking at the Samsung ultrabook 13.3" (1600x900) and the Asus ZenBook with 1080p resolution. I was pretty amazed and felt a litle bad that Lenovo doesnt offer such resolutions.

BTW, still cant decide. I am leaning twards the X230 for its compactness.

Maybe the X240, T440 and T440s will?

I have cancelled my order x230 for small screen size before shipping. I am leaning on T430. Did you make a decision, you were asking the same question I had in my mind.

In my opinion, 900 vertical resolution (HD+ 1600X900) is the minimum you should get in any laptop these days. Especially if you intended to use the laptop for working. Below that you have to use many scrolling up and down when viewing documents, spreadsheets etc.

If you want to use your laptop mainly for entertainment purposes (watching movies, browsing, etc) then X230 with IPS will do a good job. But for working its not. HD (1366X768) resolution is really bad for reviewing documents.

X230 with i7 quad core?? I think there is something wrong with that spec there.

Hi zokna,

I also have this question too (excluding T430 - I can't tolerate its weight). May I know what did you pick in the end?