My ThinkPad T540p review

[600X]

Hey there,

I wrote up a little review on the T540p over at the German forum, perhaps those of you interested in that machine might want to check it out. If you have any comments or questions you can post them here.

http://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/169275 ... res-Videos!

[Brad]

Great job.

Thanks for the time and effort.

Brad

[JosephB]

Aurora,

..... I read your review and I may have missed it, but can you answer the below questions for me ?
..... Still hoping there's still something left that is acceptable to me about the new T540P, before jumping to another brand.

Questions:
1. Some where i read that the T540P, T440, etc, also No longer have a Caps Lock, Hard Driver Indicator Lights on the Laptop LCD Bezel or the Laptop's keyboard bezel or front edge ... Is this true ?

... A) If yes, is there at least a Caps Lock and Hard Drive Indicator Icon that shows up on the Windows Desktop or System Tray OR at least on the Caps Lock Button to indicate that you have the Caps Lock On and/or Hard Drive Activity ?

... B) If yes, how do you activate the On-Screen Display of the Caps Lock or Hard Disk Activity Indicators ?
... Caps Lock being the most important for me to know the state of.

[600X]

Yes, you read correctly, there are no more physical indicator LED's apart from the sleep indicator. However, a notification (icon) does appear on screen when pressing the caps lock or numpad key. There is no HDD activity icon anywhere. You can use the task manager to check HDD activity though.

All you need to enable the on screen display is the hotkey integration features driver which installs the on screen display.

[JosephB]

However, a notification (icon) does appear on screen when pressing the caps lock or numpad key.

Aurora,

1. It sounds like this Caps Lock Indicator would be annoying as it would block the part of the screen where you working, typing, when your have the Caps Lock on. .... Do you find that to be true ?
.... Why could they have not put an led in the Caps Lock key, sound like poor design.

there is no HDD activity icon anywhere.

2 ... Good grief, unbelievable !

[600X]

1. It sounds like this Caps Lock Indicator would be annoying as it would block the part of the screen where you working, typing, when your have the Caps Lock on. .... Do you find that to be true ?
.... Why could they have not put an led in the Caps Lock key, sound like poor design.

Well let's put it this way. I have the T540p with 3k screen, and the on screen display is not scaled. So basically the icon is very small thanks to that. It appears in the lower right corner. I'd say it CAN get in the way and be annoying, but it didn't annoy me on the 3k screen.

I agree, lenovo used to have an LED in the caps lock key itself, removing that led is just another way to save some $$$.

[Ibthink]

I agree, lenovo used to have an LED in the caps lock key itself, removing that led is just another way to save some $$$.

Since the CapsLock key will be removed with the next ThinkPad redesign, the removal of the LED seems to be just the first step in this direction.

[600X]

I agree, lenovo used to have an LED in the caps lock key itself, removing that led is just another way to save some $$$.

Since the CapsLock key will be removed with the next ThinkPad redesign, the removal of the LED seems to be just the first step in this direction.

The new models will have a new keyboard anyway right? They should have kept the LED in this generation to provide the best user experience.

[JosephB]

Aurora,

Well based on your extensive review, your answers to my questions and the other thread by users describing/confirming the difficulty of using the new TrackPad (clickpad) in conjunction with the TrackPoint (I am a heavy trackpoint user, for its accuracy), I will *not* be satisfied with the new thinkpad T540P.

Lenovo has made some unwise design changes, in my opinion, in the thinkpad and it is no longer to my suiting. Thanks to everyone''s info, I will *not* be wasting my time nor my expense on a new thinkpad that I will not like. Therefore, I have decided to buy a dell laptop instead.

I wonder if there is a Lenovo email address or blog where I can voice my disapproval of their design changes ? When I checked their design blog, there was no longer an area to supply comments. I don't think they want to hear about any comments.

[emeraldgirl08]

Thanks for that review Aurora!

I am not interested in the T540p however I could not help but take notice of the snapshots of my T500's sibling in a far off land (Deutschland)

Thorough review and great pictures as well! Thanks for sharing

[dtashley]

Hi Aurora,

Just a quick question ...

Some time ago, I reviewed the T540p Hardware Maintenance Manual (published by Lenovo). I could have easily missed something, but on a first read it looked like they had done away with the magnesium frame and gone with a polymer frame (perhaps fiber-reinforced).

Since the hardware maintenance manual has drawings and not photos, I could have misinterpreted the drawings.

In your review, you mentioned the "magnesium rollcage", I think.

Are you confident that the T540p still has a magnesium frame?

Thanks, dtashley

P.S.--I also agree with the other poster that Lenovo has definitely headed off the cliff on the T-series, especially with the pointing device. I am happy with my T420, and I want something that looks like my T420 but just is faster, and has more memory and the most modern I/O devices and ports.

Downsizing the thickness of the hard drive bay from the T420 to the T430 was IMHO a mistake by Lenovo.

Doing away with the screen catch was possibly a mistake (the hooks have been referred to as "sweater catchers" ... so maybe I can live with this).

But lack of a hard disk activity light was a BIG mistake, and the new pointing device is also a BIG mistake. I can live with it because I use these machines mostly docked and use a wireless mouse when I don't, but still ... not cool.

[600X]

Indeed I am sure that it still has a magnesium rollcage.



I know magnesium when I feel and see it.

[dtashley]

Thanks.

Do you know if the other models in the series have magnesium frames (440, 440p, 540)?

Also, do you know the hard drive bay heights for each model?

The T420 is great because it has a 9.5mm bay, so I put in a 1TB drive (now a 2TB drive from Western Digital is available in that same form factor).

I noticed that the 440p has up to a 500G drive available from Lenovo, while the 540p has up to a 1TB drive available from Lenovo.

This suggests to me that the 440p bay is probably 7mm and the 540p bay is probably 9.5mm???

For each size of hard drive available from Lenovo, you can double it by buying a different drive. But you can't go above 1TB for a 7mm and 2TB for a 9.5mm bay (as best I know).

I would buy the 540p over the 440p if it has the 9.5mm bay, because a 2TB means I could download as many movies from Amazon as I'd like ...

[Ibthink]

All new ThinkPad T-Series models have Magnesium frames and all new ThinkPads can accept 7mm or 9.5mm HDDs or SSDs.

[dtashley]

Why does Lenovo not offer 1TB drives on all of them then?

Ps -- spaet in Deutschland ich meine. Ich wuensche Ihnen ein tolles neu Jahr ... Ich muss 5 stunden laenger hier warten ...

[ThinkRob]

Since the CapsLock key will be removed with the next ThinkPad redesign, the removal of the LED seems to be just the first step in this direction.

We can only hope. Actually, on second thought, as useless as Caps Lock is, having a nice large key which can be remapped to the correct key for that location (Control) is kinda handy...

[dtashley]

Here is the reply I received from Lenovo via chat. I do believe they are mistaken. I have a T420, works fine with a 1T drive.

Please wait while we connect with you with a Lenovo Chat Representative.
You have been connected to ^XXXXX.
^XXXXX : Thank you for contacting Lenovo Sales Chat. My name is XXXXX and my Rep ID is XXXXX. Happy to help you today. , ,
YYYYY : What is the hard drive bay height on the T440p? 7mm or 9.5mm?
^XXXXX : Its a 9.5 mm one YYYYY
YYYYY : That is great. Why does it only ship with a 500G drive when a 1T will fit?
YYYYY : Why can't I order a 1T?
YYYYY : But for the T540p I can, I think ... ???
YYYYY : Why the difference?
^XXXXX : We do not have the 1 TB option in stock YYYYY
^XXXXX : Hence we are not offering it at the moment
YYYYY : But why is it available for the 540p but not the 440p if they have the same size bay?
^XXXXX : Only selected models have that option David
^XXXXX : Okay its the T440p
^XXXXX : That model has the max capacity of 500 GB only
^XXXXX : Its got such a motherboard that it does not support the 1 TB options
^XXXXX : 500GB is the max
YYYYY : Thanks.
^XXXXX : You are welcome
^XXXXX : Are you purchasing it now?
YYYYY : It wouldn't be a good fit if I can't equip it with a 1T drive.
^XXXXX : That is right
^XXXXX : In all probability there will be a system crash

[kaamil1984]

Thank you for a review.

I really like review wrote by someone who owned older ThinkPads before.

Everytime I read something like this - I'm more convinced that I don't want new ThinkPad.

I think I'm gonna just buy Dell Precision, because Lenovo ThinkPad is not high quality and top ergonomy I used to with IBM ThinkPads

It is also sad, that Lenovo is not answering on youtube comments. There are so many complains about new ThinkPad design and they just don't care.

[kaamil1984]

Since the CapsLock key will be removed with the next ThinkPad redesign, the removal of the LED seems to be just the first step in this direction.

What? CapsLock key will be removed? Where you read that?

[600X]

Since the CapsLock key will be removed with the next ThinkPad redesign, the removal of the LED seems to be just the first step in this direction.

What? CapsLock key will be removed? Where you read that?

This was old information which is not accurate anymore and based on the assumption that the X1C 2014 keyboard would be adopted in other models. Lenovo is instead going in the opposite direction, as evidenced by the return of the trackpoint buttons and standard keyboard on their X1C 2015. There was even some talk about returning to classical keyboard on ThinkPads. Thus far, it's just a rumor though.