My T400 Impressions

[Chiana]

I've had my ThinkPad T400 for a few weeks now and thought I would give my impressions. Keep in mind that the last ThinkPad I used constantly was an R40 and a T30.

Specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9600 (2.8GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Display type: 14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight
System graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
Total memory: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
Hard drive: 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & 7-1 Media Card Reader
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN
Wireless card: Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology
Mobile Broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery

Screen:
I don't know why everyone hates the screens. I have no issue with it. Contrast is fine, brightness is more than sufficient and teh colors are vibrant. The LED back light is particularly bright at max setting. I'm not completely sold on the widescreen in 14.1" though. Would like a 15" screen, but to me that would have made the machine too bulky for a portable.

Keyboard:
There is some flex in the upper left, but its not noticeable while typing. I only know its there because I actually went looking for it. Aside from the small bit of flex the keyboard is as good as any other ThinkPad keyboard I have used.

Performance:
Its very fast. Even opening Adobe CS4 applications it is a lot faster than anticipated. Windows 7 is nice and snappy even running Aero. Boot up, shut down, hibernate and sleep could be faster though, but I haven't 100% optimized what is running yet. One thing that does bother me is memory usage after boot. Its at 1.3gb or so. I have disabled most Windows Services I don't need and only run what ThinkPad utilities and background apps that I need. Maybe its just because its 64 bit W7? Also, I'm glad I went with Windows & 64 bit over XP. A lot more features, better interface, and it just feels right to have an new OS on a new machine. I only have one piece of software that I need to run in XP mode and that is just because it uses DAO 3.5.

Battery life with the 9 cell is ridiculous. I haven't actually used it enough in a day to actually drain it. However I also haven't constantly used it. With the screen at a readable level (about 2 bars from the lowest setting), integrated graphics, and power setting on Maximize battery I get anywhere from 8-9 hours under medium use.

Overall build and quality:
It feels very solid. Mostly nothing is loose nor feels cheap, with the exception of the battery. The battery is horrible, as it seems like it came from some cheap parts bit. It doesn't fit very tight, has too much play and looks completely different from the rest of the machine. Two other issues I have found as well: there is a bulge in the screen lid, just about center as well as where the screen cable goes though the top of the chassis (behind the keyboard, below the screen). The power, volume up, down, and mute buttons are also just out of place. Like the battery they appear to have come from a cheap parts bin as well. They don't look the part and they don't feel the part. The steel hinges are a nice touch and feel very solid.

Other:
Who's idea was it to put the audio and 1349 ports on the front of the machine? That is probably the single worse location for any port. Bad idea. Especially considering the head phone jack is probably the most used port.

The single latch release is a nice idea. Makes opening a bit simpler than using both. However, it adds no security as if that one is accidentally opened both latches are released.

I'm liking the fingerprint reader. However, I am still learning to use is and perhaps haven't taught it correctly as it sometimes takes two or more swipes to log in.

Overall I like the machine very much. There are a few issues, but nothing that would make it a deal breaker. I would have gone with a T400s, but it was out of my price range. But I am more happy with my T400.

[Eudoxus]

Thanks! Nice post.
I tend to agree about the placement phone jack. USB prot placement is far from perfect. I think that T60 and T61 (14"1 4:3 LCD screens) had it better.
I do not think that you should not bother about the memory usage. Windows 7 (and Vista) has a special way how memory is used. As soon as your machine's performance is good there is no reason for worries.

[Chiana]

That is what I am figuring about the memory. I have 4gb, and right now it is using 1.3gb, and I haven't seen it maxed out. I just think its the 64 bit + w7 + aero that is using all the ram to start, but it doesn't drag down the system.

Edit: I forgot to mention how cool and quiet it is. Unless you are listening for it or in a completely silent room you can't hear it. Its so quiet that you don't really know its on. And it isn't a pants pressed as far as heat is concerned as compared to the T30 and R40.

[Colonel O'Neill]

1.3GB sounds a bit high, considering mine hovers around 1GB, but it depends on how much stuff is installed on the system.

My 6-cell has a bit of wobble but not as much as the 4 cell in my parents 14" T60, which I agree has better USB port placement. Headphone jack on the front doesn't really bother me; my connector bends 90 degrees anyway.

I'm fine my WXGA+ LED (which is a Samsung and not an LG); I don't see significant problems with it, but the color red absolutely fails to be well produced. The widescreen issue only seems to be getting worse; Lenovo's new W510 uses 16:9 instead of the current 16:10 QQ.

Hope you're enjoying your new T400!
Don't scrape off the paint on the lid now

[Eudoxus]

My system (see signature) uses about 1.06 GB of RAM at the moment. I have couple of word documents opened, couple of Adobe Reader, Chrome browser and some bits of other small apps.

[Chiana]

I'm fine my WXGA+ LED (which is a Samsung and not an LG);

How do I tell which screen I have with out taking it apart?

Hope you're enjoying your new T400!
Don't scrape off the paint on the lid now

Oh, I am definitely enjoying it. Not too concerned about the lid as I work in a sign shop.. If it gets scratched up enough I'll put some vinyl on it.. maybe even a custom wrap.

[asiafish]

I've had my T400 for about a year now and still love it. Keyboard is shiny now, but other than that it has held up extremely well (like-new otherwise).

With Windows 7 Ultimate 64 and 4 GB RAM on a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive the machine absolutely flies.

9 cell is ugly but powerful. 4 cell is light and trim. I also have the bay battery which I use for trans-Pacific flights. I love the versatility of all of the power options.

[Colonel O'Neill]

There's a few monitor tools out there that will grab the model number.

I used http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm
and it told me that my monitor is LEN4036 and LTN141BT04002, which apparently means Samsung.

[Chiana]

The screen a LP141WP2-TLB1, which is the LG panel.

[emeraldgirl08]

I also have the LG screen on mine. First time using something with more resolution than plain old XGA (W in this case also). It took a little time getting used to the tiny rendering of things. I adjusted and now when I switch back to my XGA screens things are just huge

Regardless I still like it

[speedbump]

Bought a T400 (2.66 GHz, 4G ram, Win 7 Pro, 160G HD 7200 RPM) yesterday for our son in University... After searching options here I opted for the high nit screen, Intel 5300 wifi, and the 9 cell... otherwise a pretty standard box. My thoughts re these upgrades are:

-The high nit (14.1" WXGA TFT HN w/LED BL)... I haven't personally seen it, however the pix on this are a good sales pitch... Hopefully this will prove out in reality.

-The Intel 5300: He is a basement dweller, and the wifi signal is weak there... From what I've read the 5300 is a better wifi card for catching and holding low signals...

-9 cell, all day performance versus a slight weight increase.

Any thoughts on these choices appreciated? I'm a Thinkpad devote, and this will be our 3rd purchase along side a T60P, and T60 which are still chugging after 3 yrs of trouble free service.

SB...

[Chiana]

The 5300 wireless card picks up signals exceptionally well. Better than most portables I have compared it to.

The 9 cell battery is a good choice as it has a long life.

I'd like to see the high nit screen in person.

[jasonth]

I think you'll find that the card isn't the primary reason you're getting good reception... these laptops have a very nice array of antennae in the screen which make for very friendly wifi use (and better power savings because they don't have to pump up the transmission output to compensate for a cheap wireless antenna).

I agree 100% with the audio and firewire ports... wth?

I also despise the thinklight... it shines directly in my eyes. Another wth? Easily fixed with a snippet of electrical tape - but seriously, why didn't someone snag that during development?

[speedbump]

I'd like to see the high nit screen in person.

Me too, however these pictures with the HN screen at 40% brightness against the T60 IPS at 100% clenched the deal... Hopefully it will pan out in real life.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpos ... stcount=49 You'll have to register (free)

also: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=74128

SB...

[Chiana]

I think you'll find that the card isn't the primary reason you're getting good reception... these laptops have a very nice array of antennae in the screen which make for very friendly wifi use (and better power savings because they don't have to pump up the transmission output to compensate for a cheap wireless antenna).

I've also read that the base Lenovo card only uses two antennas where the Intels use 3. IIRC.

I also despise the thinklight... it shines directly in my eyes. Another wth? Easily fixed with a snippet of electrical tape - but seriously, why didn't someone snag that during development?

I like it, but I believe the one on my old R40 was a bit better. Seemed brighter with a better beam pattern and a bit more shielded. The one on the T400 doesn't blind me but I do catch some glare off it as it could be shielded from the front better.

[Guz]

I have darn near the same configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8700 (2.53GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 6412
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight
ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)8
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
No Bluetooth
ThinkPad WiFi (BGN)
Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
4 cell Li-Ion Battery

I have to completely agree on your summary. I absolutely LOVE it. I've been running Autodesk Inventor 2010 (trying to learn), and it cruses along nicely. I don't use the battery very much so I can't really comment on it. It says I should get 2+ hours on integrated graphics.

As for the WiFi - great reception. I was at a park today with some friends. I was able to leech off an open AP, while everyone else couldn't find any AP's. Go figure.

My main gripe is that I have ONE bad pixel (stuck red) just left and low from center screen. Rather irritating when watching movies with dark scenes. I can only hope that 3 more pixels go bad before I can get it replaced under warranty

[Dead1nside]

The jump in efficiency from T61 to T400 is amazing. I'm only using the 4-cell battery and on Linux even I can get beyond 3 hours.

I've got the 1280x800 LG panel, it's alright, better than the LG panel on my T61 but that's probably an age thing. I would've definitely gone with the 1440x900 LED-backlit high-nit if I could have.

I'd say get the 9-cell, extra weight is always worth the battery life increase in my opinion.

[jrcade]

Chiana, you mentioned that boot up, shut down, etc. could be faster. I am in the market for a new laptop and have a T43p that is five years old. If there is one thing that drives me nuts, it's the boot up, sleep and shut down times I endure now.

Reading data on Lenovo's site about the T400, they brag quite a bit about the Windows 7 Enhanced Experience that is exclusive to their products. They even have a video on there about how they worked with Microsoft directly to optimize those very things.

Do you not feel that is the case?

[asiafish]

Chiana, you mentioned that boot up, shut down, etc. could be faster. I am in the market for a new laptop and have a T43p that is five years old. If there is one thing that drives me nuts, it's the boot up, sleep and shut down times I endure now.

Reading data on Lenovo's site about the T400, they brag quite a bit about the Windows 7 Enhanced Experience that is exclusive to their products. They even have a video on there about how they worked with Microsoft directly to optimize those very things.

Do you not feel that is the case?

Not every T400 has this. To my knowledge, this only comes wtih the 32-bit versions of Win7.

That said, boot time in Win7 64-bit on my T400 is about a minute, shutdown, if nothing lags, is about 40 seconds.

[Chiana]

I'll have to time the start up, shut down, sleep and hibernate some time. Now that I have been using it more and disabled more windows services and the like it seems to have improved some.

My original keyboard's space bar was sticking up more than I like some people may so I called Lenovo for a replacement on Thursday around 1:30pm. It probably wouldn't bother most people and they might not even notice, but it would bug me, and its under warranty so might as well fix anything that bugs me. Anyhow this morning UPS dropped the new keyboard off, which was a lot faster than I was expecting. I take the keyboard out of the box. Before I started the install I noticed that the back of the new keyboard is solid, where when I previously took the original out it had the perforated back. Looks like they sent me the better version of the keyboard. I installed the new keyboard and not only is the space bar fixed, but there is no flex now. Woot! The original's FRU is 42T4002, and the new FRU is 42T3209

[asiafish]

Sounds like you got the T61 keyboard, NMB no less. My T400 has the same and it is excellent.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Heh, I originally had a lightened Chicony (which wasn't too bad except for flexing in the QWE area) but Lenovo sent out what appears to be an ALPS with the complete backplate, which fixes the flex problems, but is still nowhere as nice as the NMB on my parents' T60.

I dunno if I should complain again and demand a NMB...

[Guz]

Not every T400 has this. To my knowledge, this only comes wtih the 32-bit versions of Win7.

That said, boot time in Win7 64-bit on my T400 is about a minute, shutdown, if nothing lags, is about 40 seconds.

Weird, when I called Lenovo about their Win EE stuff, they said it was on ALL their systems now. 32 or 64 bit. But I do admit my T400 W7-64 has the roughly the same start/shutdown times as yours.

[dkpw]

Chiana, you mentioned that boot up, shut down, etc. could be faster. I am in the market for a new laptop and have a T43p that is five years old. If there is one thing that drives me nuts, it's the boot up, sleep and shut down times I endure now.

You could always try Ubuntu on your T43p. Mine takes about 20 seconds to boot to login, and a whole 8 seconds to power down.

[ThinkRob]

You could always try Ubuntu on your T43p. Mine takes about 20 seconds to boot to login, and a whole 8 seconds to power down.

Nice. On my primary machine I used to run Debian Lenny w/ an Intel SSD. 15 seconds from pressing the power button to GDM login prompt. And that includes the time it took for me to type in a 30+ character disk encryption passphrase.

[Chiana]

Chiana, you mentioned that boot up, shut down, etc. could be faster. I am in the market for a new laptop and have a T43p that is five years old. If there is one thing that drives me nuts, it's the boot up, sleep and shut down times I endure now.

Reading data on Lenovo's site about the T400, they brag quite a bit about the Windows 7 Enhanced Experience that is exclusive to their products. They even have a video on there about how they worked with Microsoft directly to optimize those very things.

Do you not feel that is the case?

Power button push to finger swipe prompt: 11s
Finger swipe to usable desktop: 1m
Shut down: 10s
Hibernate: 31s
Resume from hibernate: 22s (+ boot to fingerprint prompt).
Sleep: 7s
Resume from sleep:17 seconds (includes swipe)

When I say usable desktop it is when the screen goes from dim to bright, which is immediately after Avira, Xirrrus gadget and CPU/ Ran status gadget load. Also, I have a password on the system and hard drive which the finger print swipe covers, but it still has to check them. Probably an extra 5-7 seconds.

As far as the EE, I don't see it doing anything for boot times or Ram usage. Everything does work with out issue and performance is as expected for a machine of these specs. All the power saving and other features work fine on the machine as they should.

[jqrd]

Resume from hibernate: 22s (+ boot to fingerprint prompt).
Resume from sleep:17 seconds (includes swipe).

I guess that the new "enhanced experience" thinkpads are really "we fixed the crap out of our drivers" thinkpads.... don't know if I should laugh or cry

EDIT: forgot to thank for the measurements: thanks a lot Chiana!