Hesitating to buy a t440p, does this offer worth it?

[z3bu]

Hello,

On a local french website (original and pictures on the link) somebody shared me this bargain (470€ ~ 515$) for us european (it cost 1000€ brand new)

The description is as follow:

Laptop PC Lenovo T440p BRAND NEW

Never unboxed, still plastic sealed in its box.
Warranty = About 2 years,

CPU Intel Core i5-4300M 2,6Ghz,
(cache 3 MB, up to 3,1 GHz),
Windows 7 Professionnal 64 bits,
Support for upgrade to Windows 8 Professionnal 64 bits,
Screen LED 14" HD (1600 X 900),
antenna for 3G,
Graphic card Intel HD 4600,
4GB of memory DDR3 + 4 for more GB to install,
(total 8GB RAM DDR3),
Keyboard: french azerty,
Webcam HD 720p,
HDD 500 Go, 7200 tr/min,
DVD burner,
Batterie lithium-ion 6 cells 56,16 Wh,
Power adaptor 65 W,
WiFi ThinkPad card (2x2 antennas for BGN wireless),
Bluetooth,
Module 3G/HSPA+ (Ericsson N5321),
no sim card,
USB 3.0,

First contact by mail

I had a long discussion with somebody that already bought the pc to the seller, he gave me these informations, and after a discussion it seems ok:

The box seems conform, the hardware works without problem (battery's life correspond to online articles)
There is a serial number: a label on the box but not on the product itself
(but it is in the bios). The product seems to come from china. The serial number gives a three years warranty on lenovo website.
The seller certified me that if it was stolen, lenovo would show it in red letters if we want to print the warranty. I gave the serial number on the website and it tells me that the warranty works til 2018.
The seller works at Lenovo. he buys laptops that are sold for exportation. Some companies order laptops but don't withdraw the products afterwards, so they are sold but come back to Lenovo stocks. So the seller get them a half price. I have his name, his phone number, his car number.

Today I am really tempted to buy it, so I hoped to get some advices here, what do you think about the story of the serial number? Is the seller story fair enough? I saw on the thinkpad forum that low priced thinkpads aren't that rare, am I wrong?

Here is a little extra: a lspci output from the debian that installed my friend on the laptop.

Code: Select all

    00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
    00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
    00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
    00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
    00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
    00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
    00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
    00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
    00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
    00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4)
    00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev d4)
    00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
    00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM87 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
    00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] ( rev 04)
    00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
    02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5227 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
    03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 83)

[jdrou]

No comment on the story but some questions about the laptop.

Have you investigated this model and sure it's what you want? In particular, have you looked at the touchpad that has no buttons? It's the one thing I really dislike on mine.
Also this is a pretty weak example of a T440p, missing the things that make it better than a non-'p' model: no FHD IPS/AHVA screen, no quad-core CPU (or even an i7 dual-core), no discrete GPU. Might be better off looking for a T440 or T440s.