Lenovo ThinkPad T400s hands-on and impressions
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 23rd 2009 11:00AM
posted June 23rd 2009 11:00AM
Other nice tweaks include a revised keyboard layout with larger escape and delete keys and tighter spacing, louder speakers and a mute button to make VOIP calls easier, a powered USB port for device charging on the road, and our favorite, a new texturized multitouch trackpad that's one of the best we've ever used. Seriously. In contrast to the hyper-smooth glass pads found on the MacBook Pro, the T400s's pad is covered in tiny nubs, which feel amazing under your fingers and make gestures like pinch-to-zoom feel more precise, even if they actually contribute nothing. It's pretty great -- we wish all trackpads were like this.
The only real problem we see with the T400s is the price tag. Starting sticker is $1,599, meaning size and weight have to be your foremost priorities if you're picking this guy over the straight T400, which opens at $750 and arrives almost fully kitted out for $1,500. On paper it's a no-brainer, but side by side the clean lines and trimmed-down looks of the T400s make it a much harder decision. We just wish we could get one with a real graphics card.
I will stick with my T400 with integrated WIMAX!
Offered in any color, as long as it's Black
Henry Ford would be proud of Lenovo
That's what she said!
some things never change...
And then some other things should never changed much. Thinkpad line is one of them.
BTW, engadget's take on Thinkpad is that its all for business? Wow! Very insightful coming from a technology site!
ThinkPads are the best! I'm glad they exist, even the pricey ones
Remap the FN and CTRL key and it's a very nice laptop.
I agree. I've had a Thinkpad for almost two years now and I've NEVER gotten used to the Fn placement.
The Fn key placement is awesome because it's easy to find for stuff like turning on the ThinkLight (you just press on opposite corners of the keyboard) and I never had any problems with the Ctrl key placement on my T61.
@Lando Calrissian, your brain is obviously not wired to believe the bottom left is always the ctrl key. lol.
Plus pinky on ctrl + shift commands are easier. Just an opinion and looking online shows a lot of people switch them.
yeah, that's the *only* thing I don't like about my t61p. Drives me crazy to this day, and now I'm always in a weird muscle memory limbo when I switch to my desktop computer at home which has the correct layout. At least let people override the key in software, on the t61p's its handled directly by the BIOS and you can't even change it in software... sigh.
I've never had much problem with the placement of the keys
You all must be just stupid....
Why can't they make a 14.1" machine with a high res screen? I used to have a Dell Latitude back in like 2002 that had a 14.1" 1600x1200 screen, it was AWESOME. 1440x900 sucks balls.
Also, why can't we get away from "WSXGA+" and all that BS and just say "1440x900"
Lenovo surely make the ugliest laptops in the world?
After using thinkpads at work the past few years, I've completely come around on the looks. I love the industrial design... beats macbooks and dells any day of the week as far as I'm concerned.
@AlexsApples
Lenovos aren't ugly laptops. They have a Porsche-like elegance.
@aeth, perfectly said.
Higher res screens need better graphics performance. This is especially true now that pretty much every OS comes with compositing on by default. I think that is one reason older laptops have higher res; for example, the Thinkpad R50 with a 15 inch screen had 2048 x 1536 resolution.
Also 14 inch wide is smaller than 14 inch standard, so the same res would make things smaller on a wide screen.
1600x1200 is 4:3
I'm guessing this notebook has a 16:10 screen.
Compositing isn't the real story.
It's the fact that OSes STILL aren't resolution independent, so high DPI screens end up just having smaller text, rather than the same size text at higher quality. Myself, I like that, but for the most part, high DPI screens flopped in the market. (The cost didn't help, either. IIRC, the QXGA panel was a $1400 option on the R50p. Of course, the market is flooded with NOS (that's New Old Stock, not Nitrous Oxide Systems,) panels - you can get a new one for $115, and a refurbished one for $59, now. Toss that into a T60p, and you've got yourself a quite decent system - and mine will end up under $500 by the time I've got the stock LCD sold.)
For that matter, they flopped even in Japan, where a very high DPI screen makes sense for normal use, to display Kanji. (That panel was first marketed in 2002 in a NEC machine.)
Please post something about the screens. Lenovo Thinkpads have some of the worst TN panels produced today. I love the quality of Thinkpads, but their screens are atrocious.
uh no they dont. i own a T400 and the screen is great.
I had a bad dream last night that my ThinkPad had developed a glossy screen and chicklet keyboard, but fortunately everything was still okay when I woke up.
Actually, I have to agree. I got a 15" T61 about a year and a half ago with the 1680x1050 screen. I love the resolution of it, but it sucks. The backlight is horribly uneven, and most of the time it never evens out even after a few hours of use. I'm probably going to get it replaced because I can't stand to use the thing anymore.
My T42 had a dark screen with uneven backlighting, but my x200's LED screen is great. Make sure to go for the LED option.
@LondonConsultant
This comment made me lol! I have a macbook pro and I still think this is hilarious the way you described it XD so true.
No graphics card takes it from lust to an instant no-sale.
Even business users need graphics cards for some things.
Uh, it's not like it has *no* video card, it just doesn't have a whiz-bang one... even the GMA950 isn't *that* bad for almost all non-3D tasks.
agreed i can't see why they didn't add an ati graphics card as they do in all of there other notebook. even the mac book air has a graphics card (Nvidia) and it's thinner than this think pad. the graphics card is the only thing keeping me from buying this.
Nate,
My point is that even some business users need graphics cards. 3D tasks are not limited to games. I wouldn't be able to work without a discrete graphics card.
Most the Thinkpads have a model for Integrated and Non-Integrated graphics.
@jay jay
The Macbook Air doesn't have a graphics card. It still uses integrated, just a better performing integrated solution.
Designing this, I'm sure Lenovo only has business users in mind. By business, I mean office-workers. People who don't need any sort of advanced graphics power. If people want a multimedia Lenovo, there's always the Ideapad line.
I love Thinkpads. Their design withstands the test of time, and they are reliable. Really, that is all I need in a notebook. Granted, I have a flashy HP now, but it's good to reminisce...
I had issues with my Lenovo screens as well (dead pixels and dark spots)... Most recently my "new" T500 Lenovo screen got noticeably darker in less than 5 months.
Most laptop screens get darker over time.
@aeth It seems as though ThinkPad screens seem to darken much faster. Mine is noticeably darker after a year and a half, although it's very close to just not being usable anymore. I can almost see the left backlight flicker anymore, it's horribly uneven as I said above. I'm not satisfied with the screen and never have been.
Totally agree. Its good that mine was still under warranty and they swapped it.. Although it was a painful one month of phone calls and shipping...
I was wondering if anyone else has noticed that Lenovo's plastic is not as the old IBM's plastic.. not as sturdy..? Whenever I squeeze mine on the side it gives a little and it feels like it is going to break.
Does the T400s give on the side?
"tiny nubs, which feel amazing under your fingers"
I don't know why I think this line is funny?
It's funny because the entire sentence is made up of funny words...save for "which" and "your".
+1 - It sounds quite funny.
I'm probably just weird then.
Damn I just read this article and they claim the trackpad is better than Apples.
OMG SOMEBODY TRUMPED AN APPLE DESIGN
STOP THE PRESSES
I didnt mean it as a fanboy statement, just that Ive always been envious of the Apple trackpads, mainly because of their size.
If Lenovos managed to best or equal an Apple trackpad than I'm impressed.
Having used the unibody MBP for the past few months, I have to say the trackpad is simply the worst piece of hardware on that machine, glossy screen included. It's good for two things: size, and the two finger scroll. Everything else you have to do with it is not pleasant, especially the "the-entire-pad-is-a-button" piece of crap feature. This machine is unusable without an external mouse.
/rant.
I think the MBP trackpad is darn good. We have both MBPs and T400s in our office. In general I find myself preferring the MBP as there's no "clicking" involved. If you enable the tap clicking option, you will never have to "press" on the trackpad area ever again. Tap clicking is also absolutely silent, which is great when you're working in close quarters.
Will there a discrete graphics version as well?
no, if you need discrete graphics you can buy the T400.
the T400s is a thinner, sleaker version of the T400 so it wont support a discrete option; the thing has to stay Thinkpad cool and quiet.