Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)My machine has slightly different specs than this item!!!! Consider this as you read my review!!
My machine is spec'd with:
4 gigs of ram
switchable graphics
Centrino Wireless BT / BGN (no 3g)
128 gig SSD
WIN 7 64
$1764 shipped direct from LenovoShort:
A great mix of performance, screen size, resolution, light weight, size and usablility.
Long:
Every notebook represents a compromize of the factors above. I shopped for about 6 weeks before landing myself on a machine. I used published specs to make physical comparisons to my wifes 13" macbook and her 15" dell from work. I built a spread sheet of all the laptops I would consider which included physcal dimensions, screen dimensions (derived), resolution, weight, hardware and price.
I like to use hardware for a minimum of 3 years and preferably 4 to 5 years, so I'm willing to spend a little money. Initially I considered machines with i3,i5 or i7 processors but eventually narrowed it down to only the i5. I also required an SSD and a sub 4 pound weight. Somewhere along the line I decided I wanted some type dedicated graphics which is probably a waste for what I do.
At the outset I was looking at small machines. I planned to buy the Asus u35jc based on AnandTech's 14" and smaller laptop roundup, in fact I ordered one but they weren't available yet and eventually I canceled the order. The toshiba R700 / R705 was interesting and reviewed well so I went to the local best buy to see if I could look at one. It was of course, not in stock but it was a useful trip because I got to look at a lot of different ~13.3" screens. I came to the conclusion that they suck. I guess the latest trend is to have a somewhat wide aspect ratio screen at the expense of vertical resolution. In a lightweight laptop this really doesn't make sense to me. The screen on a sub 4 pound laptop is going to be too small to open 2 windows side by side so why bother going wide? (1366 x 768) 768 is not much vertical resolution which means you have constantly scroll to see the bottom of your document or web page or whatever you're looking at on your crappy laptop. At this point I started looking at machines with resolutions of 1280 x 800, 1440 x 900 and 1600 x 1200.
This lead me to a pair fairly different machines: the Sony Vaio Z and Thinkpad t410s. Initially the sony was the winner in my mind. Its smaller, lighter, higher resolution and has a larger SSD. All reviews raved about this machine but a few sited quality issues and not perfect ergonomics due to its shallow palm rest.
The thinkpad's screen got panned for poor contrast color accuracy, which is pretty much the standard complaint about all notebook screens with few exceptions. I was not planning to edit photos on it so this is not a huge issue. Reviewers loved everything else about it. In the end it was a combination of factors that swung my choice to the t410s.
Screen size:
t410s: 11.95 wide x 7.4 high
vaio z: 11.6 wide x 6.52 high
The sony has more resolution but its crammed into a screen so small that it won't do you any good. 900 pixels of vertical resolution crammed into 6 1/2 inches is not that useful in the real world. I could be wrong.
Useablity: The thinkpad keyboard is better and I dig the track point thingie.
Reliability: The sony had generally more reports of reliability and quality problems.
Proprietary parts: The 256 gig SSD in the Sony is actually 2 PROPRIETARY 128gig drives in RAID 0. RAID 0 is lovely and fast but also twice as likely to fail and in the event of a failure you can't just order a new drive off Amazon, you have to turn to Sony. FAIL.
So thats how I made the decision. I bought the machine, I've played with it for about a week now. Surprisingly, I like some of the Lenovo utilities the machine comes with. The finger print scanner a cool way to log in and the wireless radio management tool is really slick. I'm comfortable that I made a good decision. I could have saved a bunch of money by opting for a standard hard drive and integrated graphics. I think I would miss the SSD. I doubt I would miss the switchable graphics.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Lenovo ThinkPad T410s Intel Core i5 520M 2.4GHz 2GB 250GB DVDRW WebCam Wi-Fi BT 14.1" Led Win 7 / Xp Pro 2901A3U
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