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T430s: How's the water resistance? [WARNING: PICTURE]

T430-T490, T530-T590 Series
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connect5
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Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:11 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada

T430s: How's the water resistance? [WARNING: PICTURE]

#1 Post by connect5 » Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:54 pm

How's the water resistance on the T430s? I was using it and randomly, from my ceiling, a few drops of water fell right on the top-edge of my keyboard. I turned it off within a minute and turned it over a few times (which I now learn was a mistake but I doubt it'd matter with so little water) and after 10 mins I took the keyboard out. Under the area of the spill it seemed a bit damp on the motherboard and the metal part but it could just've been my imagination. Are the edges, specifically the top edge, water resistant on this model? I can see that there's a hole at the top near the left-middle of the edge that goes straight to the motherboard (no clue why that's there) but is the rest of the top edge, around above the power button, waterproof? It appears to have a ridge, supposedly to guide the water to the sides for it to roll down into the reservoir, but is this what it's actually for? I find a huge lack of T430 and T430s spill tests online, and with any of them I can find below the T440, they just pour the water directly on the center, nowhere near any of the edges, much less the top edge. This is my first thinkpad so I'm kind of paranoid about it. Here's a picture of around the area it fell, it fell around just above the power button.:
Image
Last edited by dr_st on Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added picture warning

mikemex
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Re: T430s: How's the water resistance? [WARNING: PICTURE]

#2 Post by mikemex » Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:42 pm

1) OCD?

2) They changed a lot of things with the island keyboard and not everything was positive. The obvious is, of course, they layout / reduced functionality but water resistance was also affected. As you've noticed, the new keyboard doesn't really have a tray like the old one so in certain areas (such as the edges) spilled liquids will probably just be trapped and sucked in by capillarity. Truth is, the drainage system was designed with the old keyboard in mind and the new one was just a cheap hack.

None, old or new, provides perfect protection, so it pays off to be extra careful when around liquids. You know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But thing is, it's not the end of the world if something actually happens to it: at this point you're simply out of $150 or so. Really, it's nothing to obsess about. In this life nothing lasts forever. Just keep your backups up to date.
X301: SU9600 | 8GB | 1TB | WXGA+
X1C5: 7600U | 16GB | 1TB | FHD
X1C9: 1145G7 | 16GB | 1TB | WUXGA | WWAN
X1Y8: 1365U | 32GB | 1TB | WUXGA
P14s G1 AMD: 4750U | 32GB | 1TB | PG FHD Touch
T14 G2: 1145G7 | 32GB | 1TB | FHD

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