Lenovo ThinkPad T400 - mini review
I have two of Lenovo’s latest and greatest machines sitting here side by side. If I were forced to choose between the two of them, it would be a hard choice. Since I already did a short review of the ThinkPad W500, let’s focus on the T400 for this article. The ThinkPad T400 I have is model 2767-R9U. Click the picture for a high resolution image.
Video
The T400 I received has the “switchable graphics.” What this really means is that is contains two video chipsets and you can switch back and forth between them. The T400 I tested has the ATI™ Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470 and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD video chipsets. The Intel chipset is used for battery consumption. The ATI chipset is used for high performance graphics.
Screen
The T400 screen is a beautiful 14.1" WXGA+ (1440x900) color, anti-glare, LED backlight, 250 nits, 16:10 aspect ratio, 300:1 contrast ratio screen. This screen is much brighter than the W500 I have. I also like the clarity, color and contrast much better. It is very similar in quality to the T61p screens I have. Probably better. Like I mentioned in the W500 article, picking a screen is a really subjective decision but I can tell you this screen and the 1680x1050 T61p screens I have are much better than the 1920x1200.
Memory
The T400 came configured with 2GB of DDR3 memory. It uses PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3 204 pin memory sticks. You can see from the Windows Vista WinSAT results those memory sticks are fast.
In fact, you can see the ThinkPad T400 puts up some impressive performance numbers. For comparison purposes, take a look at the numbers for my T61p. The T400 whips the T61p handily on the CPU and memory scores. That means it’s going to be faster at encoding video and other CPU intensive chores. The speedy memory is going to help ship those bits around the express bus.
As with the W500, finding 4GB memory sticks is going to be a bit of a challenge. We’re at the beginning of the technology curve for DDR3 laptop memory so you’ll have a tough time finding sticks from any supplier at the moment. Kingston and I traded email on the subject today so see the update at the bottom.
Ports
If you look closely at the high resolution picture (click the thumbnail above) of the ThinkPad T400, you’ll see two vertical USB ports on the left side of the machine. You’ll also notice there is no DisplayPort connector like the W500 has. The VGA, ethernet and modem ports are also on the left side. The model I received also has the 7in1 media card reader on the left instead of a smartcard or PCMCIA slot. Some people I know would prefer a smartcard slot. Other folks would like a PCMCIA slot. Those are all options from Lenovo.
On the front of the machine you’ll notice the IEEE 1394 firewire port and plugs for headphones and a microphone. On the right side of the machine (not in the picture) is another vertical USB port. I wish Lenovo had engineered the W500 in the same manner considering this is my preferred location to plug in a mouse. Keep in mind all of the USB ports are in a vertical configuration so if you are using USB connected cell devices for internet connections, make sure to carry a USB extension cable.
CPU
Back to the meat of the machine. The machine I received has the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9600 1066MHz system bus 6MB L2 cache processor. In short, it’s fast. Much faster than my lowly T61p T7500. Plenty of horsepower for just about anything you plan to throw at it. In fact, the model T400 I am using has the same proc as the W500 sitting next to it.
Case, Keyboard and Power
The T400 case construction is rock solid like the T61p and W500. The keyboard rocks. I have seen some complaints on the internet about the T400 keyboard but the one I received seems identical in every way to the other ThinkPad keyboards I have. Therefore I am not sure what is going on with the complaints. I certainly don’t have one.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on green computing with this machine and there are all sorts of power management profiles and “battery stretch” capabilities. This machine advertises up to 9.8 hours of battery life with the 9cell battery. I am going to test that this weekend and see how close I get to that number.
Which brings me to my first complaint about the T400, or rather, the battery. The 9cell battery is big and sort of ugly. Since I don’t use battery power very often, I would rather order this machine with the flush 4cell battery and maybe keep a 9cell around for long trips.
See http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T400_series_ThinkPads&message.id=393&query.id=70292#M393 for a deeper discussion of the batteries that are available, weight, what they look like, etc. See the full specifications on the Lenovo.com website or in the tabook.pdf for the other models available from Lenovo, their specs and available options.
OS Checks
As expected, the machine arrived with Windows Vista Business x86. I created the factory disk set and tested that the disks would put the machine back to factory shipped specs. You should be aware that the factory config will partition your drive into three partitions for recovery and rollback purposes.
I flattened the machine and tested that Windows Server 2008 x64 would install and run Hyper-V. It runs Hyper-V very nicely. I also flattened it again and installed Windows Vista Enterprise x64 and all of the drivers to make sure everything that was needed was present on Lenovo’s download area. There’s only one device I haven’t figured out yet (simple communications driver). I see some posts on the Lenovo forums that indicate I am not alone.
I am going to do a completely separate post(s) on the OS installations for Vista x64, Windows Server 2008 x64, and possibly SUSE Linux. So check back on my blog for those in a few days.
Things Not tested
There were a couple of things I would have liked to test that didn’t make it into his review. First of all, I would have preferred to receive both the T400 and W500 with 8GB of PC-8500 memory. I know several employees in Microsoft will want to run this way. But that wasn’t in the cards for this go around. I’m sure I’ll hear plenty if there are any issues. If there are, I’ll update this blog post with that information.
I also have not received the Ultrabay Hard Drive Adaptor II that is supposed to allow for full SATA II 3.0GB throughput from a second hard drive. Hopefully it will arrive before they need the machine back. If it does, I plan to do some I/O tests to see how big a difference it really makes.
Summary
If you are looking for a new machine and were worried about the replacement for the T61p, there’s no need to worry. As expected the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 is a rock solid machine. It’s a smaller slightly less powerful (video card) version of the W500 and for those of you that travel a lot, this machine should be on your short list. Considering it is every bit as powerful as my ThinkPad T61p, I’m sure you are going to be happy running whatever operating system you choose. The backlit LED screen is awesome. 1440x900 is the perfect resolution for the 14.1” widescreen and it is bright and clear.
Have fun trying to pick between the T400 and the W500. I prefer the wider 15.4” screen and the 1680x1050 resolution. But that means a slightly bigger and heavier machine. I think if most people could play with them side-by-side, the T400 would win it’s share of the sales. Enjoy either.
[10/20 Update] FYI, I received some email from Kingston (Jason Grubb). He is trying to get some 4GB sticks over to me as soon as he can but I don’t know if I’ll get them before I have to send these machines back. When I have public information on parts and pricing I’ll share it at the bottom of this post or another post.
[10/20 Update] I just completed a couple of interesting battery tests. On the first test, I set the T400 in battery stretch mode then made a few tweaks like not allowing the machine to sleep, turned of indexing, defrag, etc. It ran for 13.5 hours at idle. I then recharged the battery and did a sustained DVD playback test using the extended Lord of the Rings DVD set. The T400 played for nearly 5 hours. Right at 4 hours 45 minutes. That puts you well into the Two Towers. Not bad. Won’t get you from Dallas to Honolulu, but certainly well into your backlog of email.
