Thinkpad T400s ?

[eamonbriggs08]

Thanks for the link. Wow, release must be imminent if an official Lenovo country site is listing it already, even if it may be a slip.

Agreed. For anyone who is curious, the listed model (2.53 GHz option) costs SG$3,198.99. At current exchange rates, this is about US$2,200. I know that a variety of factors go into product pricing schemes, so the price won't translate this directly in reality. However, after looking at price differences for existing models between SG and US, I'd say that we are still looking at least US$1,900.

Darn pricey, but I just can't say no. As soon as it's available in the U.S., and Lenovo adopts a Windows 7 upgrade option, I am buying that machine.

[eamonbriggs08]

Lenovo Thailand:
2.53 GHz, 250 GB---> THB 79,000 = US$ 2,340
2.53 GHz, 128 GB (SSD)---> THB 84,400 = US$ 2,400
--------------------------
Lenovo Malaysia:
2.53 GHz, 250 GB---> MYR 7,399 = US$ 2,090
--------------------------
Lenovo Vietnam:
2.53 GHz, 250 GB---> US$ 2,248
--------------------------
Lenovo Philippines:
2.53 GHz, 250 GB---> US$ 2,402
--------------------------
Lenovo Indonesia:
2.53 GHz, 250 GB---> US$ 2,349

[khtse]

Someone was suggesting that the ThinkLight is gone. I don't think so, look at the Page Up key, the light icon is still there. What a relief, I use this feature a lot. I wouldn't change it for a backlighted keyboard as the ThinkLight illuminates much more than just the keycaps. It proved very useful on many occasions for me.

I saw the light icon on the Page Up key too... but I couldn't find the light anywhere near the screen or keyboard...

[YW-Slayer]

I have no intention of buying this as I have an X301 off the Lenovo Outlet, but I thought you guys would like to see this very good bit of viral marketing.

http://www.slashgear.com/lenovo-thinkpa ... k-1747299/

[archer6]

I'm disappointed that Lenovo has eliminated the UltraBay. The first thing I do with any new T - Series I buy is to install a second hard drive. And now as I have migrated to SSD's this bay will sorely be missed. While I'm as quick as anyone to embrace change, a requirement is that it make sense. In this case because Lenovo still offers the X series, I see no reason to eliminate the one clear advantage the UltraBay provided. With the optical drive being fixed, it's a step backwards from my perspective.
.
Cheers...

[yak]

I'm disappointed that Lenovo has eliminated the UltraBay. The first thing I do with any new T - Series I buy is to install a second hard drive. And now as I have migrated to SSD's this bay will sorely be missed. While I'm as quick as anyone to embrace change, a requirement is that it make sense. In this case because Lenovo still offers the X series, I see no reason to eliminate the one clear advantage the UltraBay provided. With the optical drive being fixed, it's a step backwards from my perspective.

Yes, from what I have seen so far this is a very nice ThinkPad except for the missing UltraBay. I wonder why they did this. Was there no space for it? How high is the base?

[akeskira]

Yes, from what I have seen so far this is a very nice ThinkPad except for the missing UltraBay. I wonder why they did this. Was there no space for it? How high is the base?

I think the reason is the same as with X300: ultrabay would have made the machine thicker (2-3 mm or so), and they are likely using the same 7 mm thick optical drive as with X300. Since 2.5" disks are ~9.5 mm thick, they wouldn't have fit in any case.

A fixed optical drive also makes the chassis more rigid which must have been one of their design goals.

Personally I don't need the optical drive, and would have preferred a 2nd SSD or battery bay.

[dr_st]

Is it really fixed? You cannot replace it for an extra battery like you can in the X300?

[ssd_thinkpad]

I bet the x300 series and the x400s series use the same optical drive and maybe the bay batteries are interchangeable, too.

[eamonbriggs08]

I just spoke to a Lenovo sales rep today about the T400s.

When asked about the T400s release date in the U.S., he said that he could not confirm the T400s would be released in America :-/

When asked if there was any possibility the T400s would support discrete graphics, he said that he couldn't confirm the T400s even exists, so talking about graphics would not be possible.

When asked if he was aware that the Lenovo Americas Director already publicly confirmed the T400s was coming out "toward the end of June," the sales rep said that he had no comment on that either.

Surprisingly though, when I asked what day Lenovo would start a Windows 7 upgrade program, he said that they would start it on June 26th.

[fuscob]

Is it really fixed? You cannot replace it for an extra battery like you can in the X300?

From this photo, it does seem that there's a lock switch and eject button for the optical drive. Also, this view definitely looks like the optical drive is a separate component that might be removable.

[eamonbriggs08]

T400s Release Date:

The link below contains an article posted this morning claiming Lenovo will "officially announce" the T400s next Tuesday, June 23rd. I assume the word "announce" is intended to be synonymous with the word "release" in this context?

http://justplaintech.com/blog/2009/06/1 ... t-tuesday/

[archer6]

From this photo, it does seem that there's a lock switch and eject button for the optical drive. Also, this view definitely looks like the optical drive is a separate component that might be removable.

Good call, it does appear that way. We should know shortly if they actually release it on the 23rd.

Cheers...

[khtse]

It hasn't been "officially announced" yet, but the T400s is on a number of official Lenovo blogs now...

http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/?p=1489

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=247

[eamonbriggs08]

Posted this afternoon on Facebook's "official lenovo fan site":

Ian Orford (moderator): Just had absolute confirmation that the ThinkPad T400s wil be going on the Lenovo site at 00.01 EDT on Tuesday 23rd. We will be able to lift the embargo and give you the full review at the same time at http://www.thinkpadtoday.com This is a superb notebook.

The 'embargo' refers to an earlier post where he talks about getting a sneak peak at the official specs, courtesy of lenovo, but not being allowed to discuss them publicly until after the official launch date.

[eamonbriggs08]

also:
http://www.thinkpadtoday.com/thinkpad-t ... s-ever.htm

[khtse]

Review is already posted on notebookreview.com

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5097

[khtse]

Web cam and ThinkLight... only one of the two?

Go to lenovo.com -> T-series-> Gallery, there you can find official pictures of the T400s. Look at the right most picture on the second column. That picture is showcasing the ThinkLight... it's funny because that picture is supposed to showcase the webcam. Anyway, on those leaked photos earlier, and in the review on notebookreview.com, it is clear that T400s equipped with a webcam looks different in that part (http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/pi ... sp?f=44513).

[dr_st]

Great review on NBR.

The more I think about, the more I am convinced that the stupidest thing Lenovo did with this laptop was calling it the T400s. It should have been called X400.

There really is absolutely nothing in common between it and the T400 series, and now we are stuck with a stupidly long name that is bound to create heaps of confusion down the road between this and the regular T400 series, since not a single accessory is compatible between the two.

Not that there are many compatible things between this and the other X series, but the X200 and X300 are already sufficiently different, and the slim form factor is much closer to that of the X series than the T series.

Overall, I like this laptop much much more than any current Lenovo offering, and if I needed a new general purpose laptop for carrying around, this would be my first choice. When it's time to replace my corporate-issued T60 14" SXGA+, I hope there is something like this around to move to.

[khtse]

Not mentioned in the review is that the touch pad now supports multi-touch (see the description on lenovo.com). It is limited to two-finger gestures though, and I really like many of the three- and four-finger gestures on the latest macbooks.

[akeskira]

The notebookreview.com's review mentions that T400s has a built-in GPS receiver. I wonder if it is a standard feature or comes with one of the WWAN cards (Ericsson if I remember correctly).

The reviewer didn't specify which WWAN card his machine was configured with.

[akeskira]

Here is a good review for the T400s:
http://www.thinkpadtoday.com/full-launc ... m#more-697

[BillMorrow]

and we have an even better review here at home:
http://www.thinkpads.com/
along with a discount for ordering:
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/Coupon-Le ... 13194.aspx

[ssd_thinkpad]

The T400s seems to be an engineering masterpiece. I wonder if it has the same display panel from the T400. Put a non-TN display panel inside and I'd be happy to pay 500 $ more.

[Dead1nside]

So does this mean that the T400s introduces a new Ultrabary form factor, as it appears to be removable?

I'm very pleased at the introduction of a USB/eSATA port and I preference a DisplayPort over an HDMI one any day, despite the lack of availability of monitors for it at the moment, it will gain ubiquity soon.

Some of the smaller touches are very nice, I just don't see why they couldn't have done some of these things with the T400?

I don't think it should be called a T Series because of the lack of graphical power, this is something that I have always related to my T Series laptops and something I wish to keep.

Lets hope they can reach a good compromise with the new T401 whenever that comes out, introducing some of these new features and standardising some of the optional features like webcams and GPS; there's no point in reviews harping on about them if they're only on the top-spec model!

[eamonbriggs08]

Anyone else having trouble locating the warranty options for the T400s? If they are up, they are not in the same place as the other models, under "services and software."

Normally, I'd assume the problem was on my end, but I can find warranty packages just fine on the other T-models.

[dr_st]

I preference a DisplayPort over an HDMI one any day, despite the lack of availability of monitors for it at the moment, it will gain ubiquity soon.

I seriously doubt it. With all consumer laptops (and even some business models, like HP's or Lenovo SL) pushing HDMI, and with HDMI being standard on widescreen televisions, I think the battle for DisplayPort is already lost. It may become a standard in desktop monitors (replacing the huge cumbersome DVI), but even that will take time, since such a large amount of DVI-oriented hardware (desktop graphics cards, laptop docking stations) currently exists.

I don't think it should be called a T Series because of the lack of graphical power, this is something that I have always related to my T Series laptops and something I wish to keep.

The main reason why it shouldn't be called T-series is because it shares nothing in common. It is also not designed to replace the T-series (for various reasons, including the graphical power you mentioned). If you look at Lenovo's roadmap posted on these forums, you see that both the original T400 series, and the poorly named T400s are expected to get revised for the new Calpella platform. Neither of them is going to go away.

[eamonbriggs08]

Just spoke to a Lenovo sales rep, they are having problems with the T400s ordering process. For anyone else out there trying to order a T400s, but can't find the warranty/software options, everything should be fixed by this evening.

[ssd_thinkpad]

According to a news I read today lenovo is thinking about a T500s, so the new Txxs line can be the replacement of the Txx series.

According to the official T400s lenovo video, the preloaded software and optical drive are compatible to the T400 / T500 notebooks.

I highly doubt lenovos roadmap presented on http://www.thinkpad.com is correct: It shows the customer that nothing new is planned so when you plan to buy a new thinkpad you should buy today and not wait for new models for a long time. Great idea of marketing.

[zenit]

The T400s seems to be an engineering masterpiece. I wonder if it has the same display panel from the T400. Put a non-TN display panel inside and I'd be happy to pay 500 $ more.

NRB reported the panel to be LTN141BT08001. LTN141BT (dont remember numbers after BT) is the hated/loved Samsung WXGA+ LED on vanilla T400. Highly likely it is the same panel or if you are lucky its a newer revision of the same thing. So far from various pictures the contrast ratios look terrible.