New T420s - First Impressions

I finally received my T420s this evening and would like to share my experiences here. There are too many images and text to fit/format in a post and so I am including a link here.



Dabble



Good

Speakers are very good

Keyboard feels more solid compared to T410s



Not so good



Griddy display

Dont like the wide aspect ratio

Display is almost the same as my old T410s

Hinges are too smooth (too easy to move the lid)

The fan turns on too soon (compared to T410s) and is noisier.



I ran the benchmarks but need to upload the images etc. Will update the above page tomorrow and would be happy to answer any questions (as many other members have helped me here).

Reply 1 : New T420s - First Impressions

new member here. I have few questions and requests if you don't mind



Qs

1. How is the fan and heat? I'm thinking of getting Vaio SB but fan and heat seem to be a problem for me, so I'm looking at t420s for now.

2. Battery life?



Requests

1. Pictures

2. Can you do side by side comparison for the height. The slim profile is really what I'm looking for.

3. Can you do a video review if possible.



Thank you!

Reply 2 : New T420s - First Impressions

Hi...



Thanks for the review. Could you please describe in a bit more detail the 'grainyness" that you reported on?



Cheers!

Reply 3 : New T420s - First Impressions

Thanks. Waiting for your updates.

When at all possible, could you look at the sceenshot request I posted here : forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/568081-my-t420-review-5.html#post7366634



TIA



P.S. When I choose to go for a T420s, I will also "doctor" a 9.5mm height SSD to 7mm.

Reply 4 : New T420s - First Impressions

@milo_basi :

1. Fan/Heat - It is interesting that you ask about this. When I was doing the initial installs, on AC, the fan was running continuously and it was noisier than the T410s that I have. Also during normal use (cold start), the fan seems to come on earlier than T410s. I just kept the two machines side-by-side and opened all programs.



2. Battery life - any suggestions on how to benchmark it? OR should I just let it run ?

3. Pictures on the way.



@ lineS of Sight:

The graininess issue is similar to the one described here:

Lenovo Thinkpad T420s review



It is almost as if you can see the grid lines in which the pixels are laid out. I am going to look at it again while the projector is connected to see if it looks OK or not.



@VectorX:

I am installing Visual Studio 2010 and will upload screenshots later today.





I also did benchmarks using Performance Test, Hyper PI and Crystal Disk for HDD and SSD and also have pictures of the internal mSATA and Windows Server 2008 R2 install information. Will post them tonight.

Reply 5 : New T420s - First Impressions

Are the HD+ screens on t420 and t420s different?

Reply 6 : New T420s - First Impressions

Its interesting you mention the fan noise, my T420 is almost always silent, I had to sick my head next to the vent to make sure the fan was working. Every now and then it kicks on for a couple seconds when watching movies.

Reply 7 : New T420s - First Impressions

Thank you for the input. Well, as long as the fan doesn't sounds too loud, I'm okay with it. It's better than the fan not moving at all haha



I'm not sure how to benchmark the battery life, but most reviews I read they let the laptop plays movie on loop.



And I'm also interested in seeing how many lines of code can you see in VS2010.

Reply 8 : New T420s - First Impressions

Quote:

Originally Posted by milo_basi Thank you for the input. Well, as long as the fan doesn't sounds too loud, I'm okay with it. It's better than the fan not moving at all haha I'm not sure how to benchmark the battery life, but most reviews I read they let the laptop plays movie on loop. And I'm also interested in seeing how many lines of code can you see in VS2010.

Or adjust the screen brightness to, say, 75% and do some web browsing and word processing.

Reply 9 : New T420s - First Impressions

You can hear the fan in the 's' model?

The non-s model I have is silent unless I turbo mode it when playing a game.