Thinkpads Forum

pianowizard wrote:As I have said numerous times, FHD is perfect for 14.* inch screens, and I was really excited about this T440s, until I saw the weight: "starting at 3.6 lbs". Sigh, my next laptop is still going to be the Sony Vaio Pro 13.

Wow, 14" FHD laptops are starting to get common. HP has this T440s equivalent: http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHO ... 0NITvOwTWQ

As for the T440s and other models, you might check the run time of the models, the T440s internal battery lasts for maybe around 3 hours which would reduce the weight to around 1,3 kg. Using a M.2 sized SSD and removing some other parts like external battery, card reader, you might reduce the weight to 1,2 kg - 2.7 lbs - while having a very sturdy 14 inch IPS notebook. This is my review about the T440s:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=111758

ssd_thinkpad wrote:the T440s internal battery lasts for maybe around 3 hours which would reduce the weight to around 1,3 kg.

Would you weigh your T440s with the external battery removed? I suspect the "starting weight" of 3.6 lbs assumes that the external battery is already gone. This term typically refers to a configuration with the lightest internal storage (i.e. an SSD), the lightest LCD panel (i.e. a TN panel with the lowest resolution), the smallest battery, the minimum number of RAM modules, either no wireless cards or with just the most basic Wi-Fi card, and the optical drive replaced with a travel bezel.

I have weighted the T440s without the external 3-cell battery, the 3-cell weights ~150gr. Without it, the T440s weights 1.44 kg / 3.17 lbs.

Has anybody heard anything new from Lenovo reps recently on availability?

S

I believe that we should see the T440x models up on their site on November 1.

Placed an order for mine Nov 1. Still no ship date available.

Finally a worldwide support of 4G/LTE for ThinkPads, Sierra Wireless EM7345 http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/Newsro ... blets.aspx

I don't see info on how to purchase.

Check out this thread:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... -p/1353531

They definitely lowered the current model's quality.

kony wrote:They definitely lowered the current model's quality.

I didn't look through that thread, but have a general comment. These days, many manufacturers are trying very hard to make some of their laptops as light as possible, and the T440s is an example. These are more likely to have cooling problems, flexes in the chassis or display lid, various compromises (e.g. ultra shallow keys, weaker speakers, fewer USB ports), etc. Such issues arise not necessarily because the designers intentionally lower these laptops' quality, but because they need to cut lots of corners to make them super light. For users who want the lightest laptops they can buy, these sacrifices are worthwhile. For those who don't want these sacrifices, they should stick with heavier (but sturdier and feature-rich) laptops. They may also end up saving money, since many ultra lightlaptops are pricey.

As an example, I have a 2.33-lb Sony Pro13 that's probably one of the three lightest 13.3" laptops in the world, and definitely the lightest 13-incher available in North America. Some users complain about flexes in the bottom chassis. I agree that there are flexes, but think it's unrealistic to expect this extremely light laptop to be as solid as something twice as thick and heavy.

pianowizard wrote:These days, many manufacturers are trying very hard to make some of their laptops as light as possible, and the T440s is an example. These are more likely to have cooling problems, flexes in the chassis or display lid, various compromises (e.g. ultra shallow keys, weaker speakers, fewer USB ports), etc. Such issues arise not necessarily because the designers intentionally lower these laptops' quality, but because they need to cut lots of corners to make them super light.

Well, these are all points that does not fit to the T440s: It still has 3 USB ports (as many as the T430s), it is the quietest ThinkPad I ever had, the chassis is solid (especially the Base Unit), the key travel is perfectly fine and the speakers are also better than the speakers of a T420 for example.

The issues from the thread kony has linked appeared to be some problems in production, but they were fixed in December. Sadly, it seems that it is normal that products are not perfect when they come to the market, Tx30 and Tx10 were no different (Tx20 not really, since they were mostly the same as Tx10, with the exception of the X220).

Seems to me, that ThinkPads with Haswell are really bad, look on all the forums ... just angry customers giving their laptops back (no matter if T/X/W series).
I hope Lenovo will improve the quality till the next generation