I was attempting to go back to PCs from Mac life, having straddled the fence for some time. I bought one of these T410S's from Lenovo directly (so, this is nothing at all to say negative about this seller, only about Thinkpad T410S). I have the SSD which I must say is blazingly fast. I also got 8MB of ram. The machine is so fast. Really, did I mention it's fast?The computer is also pretty light weight. It feels so much lighter than my 15inch MacBook.
The keyboard on these T410S's is marvelous, btw. This was always a strength for Thinkpads. This may be the best keyboard yet on a PC laptop(it is different than any others ones I've had on Thinkpads. Just overall better build quality and some nice, intelligent changes in a few keys and all. Track pad and pointing stick work great, too.).
But, the battery life has been just dismal. I have the main 6 cell battery (because of the configuration, you cannot put a larger main battery in these units). I also have the extra, ultra bay battery. I have been able to go about 2.5 hours doing regular work (some emails, word processing, spreadsheet stuff) and then it's out.
UPDATE: Turns out the main battery in the one that I had was defective. They sent me a new battery today and the machine is running with much less heat and battery life is at least twice what it was before. I would guess that with the two batteries that I might now get 4 hours or a bit more doing light work.
Screen. Not so hot. As some pro reviews on web note, not very good contrast. I am amazed that this screen is as poor quality as it is. It is, however, very bright. That's good. It's the brightest Thinkpad screen I've seen or had. But the screen is a weak spot in my view compared to something like what's on an Apple. It's also a little blotchy, so that there are some unevenly lighted sections along the bottom. I tried to get Lenovo to swap it out and they would not. I paid a great deal for this computer, and you'd think they might try to please a customer. They also made it very hard to return (I was going to just return the unit over the screen blotchiness but they were going to charge a few hundred in restocking fees.) Poor customer service experience. To buy what I think is their most expensive computer and not be happy, and not have them try very hard to make me happy about the screen problem is not impressive.
Heat. I had read a review online that suggested there was minimal heat on this unit. Not really true. It puts out quite a bit of heat when plugged in, from the fan/vent area. There is enough that if you are actually using this laptop on your lap (bizarre concept, I know), your left knee/thigh will get pretty toasty while the right is enduring nothing. This also I find annoying. How come Apple MacBooks can run with so much less heat with similar if not identical processors? PC maker just can't seem to get that down. Anyway, I find the heat not a deal breaker but it is quite annoying, none the less.
Overall. I give this model 3 stars. I'd give Lenovo and this model Thinkpad 4 stars if they would have replaced the screen for me.
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