T440s or T440p

[Shelby Griggs]

Time for some new hardware in the office, T400, T410 and an A61 tower currently, newest is the 410 at a little over four years. This will be a 2014 purchase for business tax reasons so I have narrowed my choices to the T440s and T440p, likely will replace ALL three old machines with just two new laptops.

I have been wrestling with the decision longer than I should, jeez it isn't a house or car, just a couple of PC's I have read more reviews that I can recall, most are starting to be dated now, looking for any fresh information.

Yesterday I ordered a T400s to replace the tower and the old 400 as the person that uses those isn't usually as hard core user and one PC can replace both of these older PC's, was going to do the same for the 410 replacement, BUT am having second thoughts, especially after watching a video of opening the case on the 400s! Since you can't get a Tb SSD from lenovo, that will be upgraded on the second PC right out of the gate.

Is the touchpad the same between models? I have heard the 440s might have better feel? Glass vs. mylar?

Not sure I need the optical drive, I will have to order an external anyway for the 440s I have on order and so can share that in the office if needed...

I travel a lot, but not sure a pound and maybe an hour less battery life are major factors?

Case quality may be better on the 440s vs the 440p?

OK, so I can get a better processor, graphics and more memory as the major differences and a case you can actually open without fearing for breakage, but only once or twice in the life of a laptop does that happen for me.

Not sure I need the better processor in the 440p vs the 440s, hey anything is probably better than all the old hardware I have, although I do crunch a lot of processor and hard drive intensive data (everything new will have SSD). No gaming, rare CAD so I don't even know if the discrete graphics would get used much. On the memory, I don't know that the difference between 8Gb, 12Gb and 16Gb will be earth shattering?

I would hold out and hope for something better in 2015 (since the 440 line is already 2013 models), BUT at four years old and needing some 2014 write offs for the business I am afraid time isn't with me, so I already have one T440s on order, do I get another one or the T440p for my more intensive use? It seems the T440s is a bit fresher, the T440p a bit older design (except keyboard and pointing devices).

Decisions, decisions! As one review/rant put it, no matter what has happened to our beloved Thinkpads, whatever Lenovo is selling today is still as close as you can come to getting a Thinkpad, so changing brands isn't an option for me at least yet...

Any thoughts to help in my decision would be appreciated, especially from those who have touched both models.

SHG

[ZaZ]

It probably boils down to weather you need performance or portability. The T440p with 16GB of memory and quad core CPU option, will offer quite a bit more oomph while the T440s is a pound and half lighter, making more suited to travel.

[Shelby Griggs]

Ordered a T440p along with the previously mentioned T440s, almost went with T440s for the second one when I found out the 10% off coupon only applies to the "s": model, but sucked it up and splurged!

Ordered with a 500Gb HDD and 4 Gb ram, and will upgrade those to a Samsung SSD 1Tb and Crucial 16Gb of ram upon arrival, both already ordered. Much cheaper to add those on than order it loaded up, and you can only go to 500Gb SSD from the factory anyway.

SHG

[jskang]

Ordered a T440p along with the previously mentioned T440s, almost went with T440s for the second one when I found out the 10% off coupon only applies to the "s": model, but sucked it up and splurged!

Ordered with a 500Gb HDD and 4 Gb ram, and will upgrade those to a Samsung SSD 1Tb and Crucial 16Gb of ram upon arrival, both already ordered. Much cheaper to add those on than order it loaded up, and you can only go to 500Gb SSD from the factory anyway.

SHG

For the T440s make sure you have some tools to pry the case open. When I ordered my 440s, I ordered the base amount of RAM because I intended to add additional RAM myself. Not as easy with the 440s. You'll need plastic pry tools to get into the case to add RAM and possibly the HDD as well. The bottom of the chassis is held on by a few screws and a series of plastic tabs. Use metal tools and there's a good chance you'll gouge and dent the chassis along the seam.

I am definitely not a fan of the new TouchPad on the 440s.

[Shelby Griggs]

I shouldn't have to open the 440s, I do intend to open the 440p and upgrade to 16gb and swap the HDD for a 1tb SSD, those are much easier I hear, should have both in hand late this week I hope.

SHG

[jdrou]

I shouldn't have to open the 440s, I do intend to open the 440p and upgrade to 16gb and swap the HDD for a 1tb SSD, those are much easier I hear, should have both in hand late this week I hope.

SHG

Yes, the p is trivial to open. Two screws and the whole bottom panel can be removed.