About to purchase a T470 - what does 'manufactorer drop ship' really mean?

[mj0]

After serious considerations I have decided to replace my aging X220 with a brand-new T470, and I have found a TopSeller model that I want: 20HD000XUS with Core i5-7300U, 8GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, FHD-Display, backlit keyboard, fingerprint reader, and 3 years warranty.

Unfortunately, this particular model doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere, and there are also no offers on eBay, Amazon, or Newegg. However, some stores here in the US (such as NextWareHouse or CompSource) have it listed as "manufacturer drop ship" or "Special Order - ships directly from manufacturer". Since I'm very cautious I'd like to know whether anyone here knows exactly what this means. Does it mean they literally order it from Lenovo and have Lenovo ship it to my house (which would cause a, say, one week delay that I could live with), or is it simply a fancy way of saying "out of stock, good luck"?

[RealBlackStuff]

You'll need to contact those "drop shippers" and have them swear under oath that they have it in stock.
"Special order" or "pre-order" does not apply IMHO, if Lenovo is already sold out.
They'll take your money, give you 15 business days delivery, then notify you of one delay after another and in the end want to sell you something else.

Keep checking the Outlet.

[mj0]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was afraid of. Once they have my money I'm pretty much out of options so I'd rather wait until the device shows up somewhere "in stock".

I'm hoping it won't be long because it seems like they have just started shipping the first T470 TopSeller models - 20HD000WUS, 20HD000VUS, and 20HD000RUS can already be found on eBay with new ones showing up every day. My guess is that it's only a matter of time until the 20HD000XUS becomes readily available or the VUS (same as the XUS but with a 512GB SSD instead of a 500GB HDD) gets more affordable. At roughly $300 more than the XUS it doesn't really offer anything that would justify the higher price for me, other than the 'me-want-know' factor.

[agarza]

Hi,

Just a thought, the panels used on the T470 don't have really good color reproduction and also do not cover a good amount of sRGB and Adobe RGB.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Th ... 130.0.html

Last year I bought a T460 with the Full HD screen thinking I would get a good panel (AU Optronics B140HAN series have very good color space coverage), but when it arrived I was dissapointed with the colors.
What I did was I installed AU Optronics B140HAN01.2 I had lying around, and now the screen is now a joy to use.

If you're not too picky about this go ahead, the other option would be to get the T470s with the WQHD panel which according to reviews is very good.