Laptop Lenovo ThinkPad T series Review

The T series from Lenovo sits right in the middle of the Thinkpad range. It offers a number of features and benefits, including good performance, value and portability.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T400 is a very popular business notebook that has recently had a revamp to improve the keyboard and screen display. The original release of this laptop was certainly a big success among users, but with further improvements in the updated version, does the ThinkPad T400 still sit as one of the best business notebooks on the market?

Compared to previous ThinkPad T400 does not have an all too different design. There are subtle changes, but nothing too noticeable if you aren't specifically looking for them. The overall style, like other ThinkPads, is rather boring. The keyboard and chassis are all black with hints of color from the slate blue markings on some keys, and bright red TrackPoint eraser.

The Lenovo T400 is pretty slim, measuring around 1.3 inches at its thickest point. The 9-cell extended battery does add a bit of weight to the laptop though, adding 9 pounds to the 4.7 pound 4-cell unit. However, the benefit of course is extra battery life, which will take priority over a little extra weight for most users.

The build quality of the ThinkPad T400 is much like previous generations such as the ThinkPad T61. The battery does shift about slightly, which can be more noticeable with the heavier 9 cell battery. The plastic LCD lid does leave a bit of a cheap feeling, though on the whole the finish of this laptop is good.

As a mobile laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 does have a number of ports that come in useful, but the overall selection is average. There are three USB ports but no digital video output, which may not be your biggest concern but does mean you have to rely on VGA if connecting to a HDTV. In addition, the T400 ThinkPad includes a modem jack, Ethernet port, Kensington lock, FireWire port, microphone/headphone jacks and an ExpressCard slot. Though not technically a port, this laptop computer also arrives equipped with fingerprint reader for increased security. One of the things missing from our unit which would be welcome is a memory card reader, which is a $10 additional option from Lenovo.

One concern noted on the T400 is the virtually ever-present ThinkLight that appears on most Lenovo ThinkPads. The intention of this is to light up the keyboard using a LED positioned above the screen. On this particular notebook, the light tends to shine at the user rather than at the keyboard.

As mentioned earlier, the introduction of a high brightness LED-backlit WXGA panel display should really enhance viewing, which it certainly does. In fact, you'll more than likely find that the brightness won't even need to be turned to its highest setting in order to benefit from the improved display.

We're glad to say that although the T400 makes use of a backlit display to improve brightness, there's no sacrifice in contrast or black levels in doing so. This is a problem found on many other models using similar backlit panels, but not on the Lenovo T400. At normal brightness settings the levels of black are really good, and only hint to start to grey at nearing the +80% brightness range. The viewing angles are also impressive on this notebook.

The latest ThinkPads from Lenovo have a thinner keyboard, which whilst a nice addition, did tend to lack the chassis support needed on the previous T400 release. Lenovo have added extra support under the keyboard on this newer version, which has almost eliminated the flexing experienced when pressing down on the keys.

Typing on the T400 keyboard is comfortable and receives good response and feedback from the keys. Lenovo have done a great job on this keyboard, and we can safely say it's one of the best found in the business laptop range. If you've owned a Lenovo laptop computer before, you'll more than likely recognize the inclusion of the liquid drains, designed to handle drink spills when in a flat position.

The T400 touchpad is also nice. It has wider buttons than previous models, the same texture, and good responsiveness and sensitivity. The touchpad buttons are reassuringly firm and have good support edge-to-edge.

Despite having a high brightness screen, the power consumption didn't seem to be overly effected. The 9 cell battery is capable of providing long battery life, upwards of 9 hours with appropriate display and laptop setting.

This notebook is more than capable of performing very well when typing documents, viewing movies or surfing the internet, thanks to the 3GB of RAM and 7200 rpm hard drive available on the Lenovo T400. The Intel X4500 integrated graphics card doesn't make the laptop ideal for gaming, but handles HD movies well.

On the whole, the ThinkPad T400 is a good option for business use. The high brightness display in the new T400 is an excellent addition which doesn't drain the battery as could be expected. We really like the keyboard on this Lenovo, and touchpad has no significant downfalls.