Otaku Gadgets

The Lenovo Thinkpad T400s is the new version of older ThinkPad T400. ThinkPads have always been a bit on the bulkier side but they are still iconic. At the time when IBM launched them for the first time, ThinkPads were revolutionary business machines. Till date, they carry that legacy behind them and the new T400s comes with a host of features that the business users will really like.

The first change that you will notice if you compare it to the older T400 is the new slim look. The notebook is much thinner in person than in the pictures. It is a welcome change from the usually uninspired designs that ThinkPads have. Thankfully, this slimming has no affected the overall feature set and the laptop still has a fully powered Intel Core 2 Duo processor. So it is nothing like the slim X301 from Lenovo that uses an Ultra Low-Voltage (ULV) version of the processor.

The T400s is very tough and it feels so when you hold it. Lenovo has been circulating marketing videos all around, claiming that the T400s can withstand a truck running over it. Well, of course no one has put that to the test but everyone is happy about the way it feels tough and durable overall when it is being used and carried around.

Apparently, the new carbon fiber roll casing is what does the trick. Whatever Lenovo has done, it has allowed them to build the entire thing without losing out on anything and still keeping it under an inch thick. The T400s is 0.83 inch thick, which I think is fantastic for a 14 inch laptop that has every standard feature. It even includes a DVD burner drive. There is also an option to upgrade it to a Blu Ray drive but it will cost you $560 extra.

The best part is that this 14.1-inch laptop is also very light. For a laptop its size, it sure is quite light at only 4 pounds. This makes it much easier to carry around and work with. If you place it on your lap while working it will feel very comfortable and not overweight like some of the other laptops.

The T400s has a 14.1-inch TFT-LCD backlit screen that displays 14,400 x 900 pixels, which is only to be expected from a high-end laptop with this screen size. Other cheaper, consumer oriented laptops usually have a display of 1280 x 800 – just to put things in to perspective. This resolution increases the amount of space that you have on the screen.

The screen itself is of a very good quality and the display is bright and sharp. Text is very well rendered and video looks good on it as well. One very welcome feature is the matte finish of the screen that makes reading off the screen much easier under direct light. It is something that we would all like to see in other laptops. Glares from laptop screens are the worst and they make life hell for those who work on their laptops regularly.

Coming down to the keyboard, Lenovo has always known how to make laptop keyboards that are just right. So the keys are of a proper size and they have just the right feel to them. The right amount of feedback and comfort makes using the keyboard a very nice experience. The escape and the delete keys at the top of the keyboard are oversized, which is a really thoughtful touch.

The touch pad on the T400s is one of the best touch pads that can be found in laptops. It has a matte textured finish to it and is very accurate. It makes multi-touch and gesture features much easier to use. T400s also features a pointing stick, which is a very rare thing to have in a laptop these days. It is probably to make older business users feel more familiar. The rubberized nub sits in between the G and H keys and sometimes gets in the way while typing.

The T400s also pays attention to the VoIP experience of the user. The dual microphones are quite better at ambient noise cancellation than the older models. There’s a light up mic mute button and also a dedicated function key for camera/mic adjustment.

This notebook has all the usual ports but not too many of them. It has 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB/eSATA combo port. It allows one USB port to be always on for charging during stand-by. There is an Ethernet port as well. It carries no FireWire port but has an ExpressCard/34 (which is usually ExpressCard/54). Weirdly enough, it does not have a card reader but has the option of putting in a one instead of the ExpressCard/32 for $10 extra.

There’s also a biometric fingerprint reader and a one touch Think Vantage button that brings up the menu of the proprietary software suite from Lenovo.

On the connectivity front, there’s the Ethernet as already mentioned. There is also Wi-Fi with 802.11b/g/n compatibility. In addition to all this, there is also WWAN and WiMAX3 support. Lenovo has really gone on to make sure that nothing is missing in this connectivity package.

As with other ThinkPads, the T400 is a business oriented machine and not meant for the mass market. It is hence focused on the CPU power and not the graphics. It has a powerful 2.53GHz P9600 Core 2 Duo running under the hood and it being a Penryn processor means that the chip consumes less power. It has an integrated Intel graphic chip. The Ram is also lower than the usual in this segment at only 2GB.

However, the T400s comes with a host of software and hardware level security features that make the laptop attractive to business users. The lack of these special features is usually the reason why business users do not go for consumer laptops. The Think Vantage suite is a real gain for business people.

It is priced at $1500 for the basic specifications, which are quite enough for most business applications. The extra premium is probably due to the special build, design and the special software suite that comes along with the laptop. As a comparison – you can get a 13” Apple MacBook Pro for $1,113 and it has more powerful graphics.