Thinkpad T420 14" 320GB 4GB

I bought this laptop for school in late summer 2011. Specs are as follows: 14" Core i3 320GB HDD, 4GB Ram, no extras, the absolute basic model. Paid $640 w/shipping and taxes. I use both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04, both of which operate excellent (with a few minor tweaks in Ubuntu). This laptop boots fast, both operating systems can be booted in less than a minute, with Windows a bit faster. Holds a charge for 5+ hours while doing basic tasks like internet, word processing, Audacity, etc. Its nice to have a laptop that isn't tethered to the outlet all the time.

This laptop has a high quality build. The screen hinges feel very solid, no creaking in the body, and the keyboard is very tactile and comfortable. The keyboard also has the little red trackpoint in the middle and two extra mouse clickers so you can navigate with one hand (A great feature!). I would purchase again in a heartbeat, this laptop is light years better than my previous laptop, an HP Pavilion.

My only complaints are that the widescreen doesn't fill the front of the lid, giving a feeling of smallness, and there is no HDMI port.

I don't review products often, but I can honestly say I wouldn't want anyone to pay for a more expensive laptop with fewer features. If you are a student, professional, or an avid home user, do yourself a favor, and buy this laptop. I've used my girlfriend's Macbook Pro, and the Lenovo has as good if not better performance and build, and is about half the cost.

Pros:

Sturdy build withstands constant backpack travel. Love the rubberized matte finish it hides oily hand prints and feels nice while providing grip.

Good keyboard. Lenovo is pretty much the only option if chiclet keys aren't your thing. This one is not as good as a desktop keyboard, but comfortable to type on without making errors. Trackpoint works well although I usually use the touchpad. Some don't like the bumpy texture but I prefer it. Touchpad is responsive. Fingerprint scanner works well.

Good performance / power compromise. I opted for Core i3, HD3000, and upgraded to the 1600x900 display (the cost was reasonable to add some extra workspace). Without heavy gaming, the i7 didn't make much sense but if you can afford it then paying a little extra for an i5 might be worth it. Later upgraded to 8GB RAM and an Intel 80GB SSD for kicks.

Internet/office any recent machine should be fast with these, and the T420 is no exception.

Video playback Handles most HD files, but at very high bitrates will stutter for a moment. I suspect this has more to do with the integrated GPU than the i3.

Gaming It won't run Crysis on high settings but older titles I've tested Civilization IV, Unreal Tournament run fluently. Deus Ex 3 even runs... at about 3fps.

Battery life with wireless on is about 5 hours, almost as good as a 10 inch Atom netbook I used to own.

Easy expansion. Open a panel with one screw to install memory, mSATA or HDD. One mSATA and one memory slot come unoccupied.

Built-in speakers are actually not bad at all.

VERY fast shipping from Lenovo.

Cons:

Placement of optical drive button is problematic when using the laptop in certain positions (laying down). It will constantly be opened by accident and can become quite annoying. Fortunately I don't often use optical disks and swapped the drive with an aftermarket optical to SATA adapter.

Too much bezel particularly above/below the screen. Why not either make the screen fit the available area or reduce the size of the machine?

No HDMI? I know DisplayPort is better, but would it have been much trouble to include one HDMI port? VGA is available also.

No USB 3.0 not actually that important for now, but again, how much would it cost to do this for a machine that may see years of use?

Removed bay battery capability for T420 / T420i? This makes zero sense and I'm not paying hundreds more for the T420S.

Overall a fine choice for a student or business machine that is built to last.

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Shipping on this item was extremely fast. I received the laptop before a tracking number was even established online. So far so good on this little beauty. It's the perfect business workhorse. I mated it to a 22 inch LG LED monitor so that my wife could have a comfortable viewing experience since she uses this laptop to work from home. You cannot go wrong with a lenovo, especially one that sells for under $800. I just hope it performs in the long run.

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Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad laptop, and probably one of the better values for this price. However, if you expect the kind of quality thinkpads used to have, you will probably be as disappointed as I am (Hence the 2 stars--I just expected a no-hassle product).

It is no longer a tank-like structure, built to last forever. The keyboard feels flimsy: I have had problems with the space bar after a few weeks (I have to hit it right in the middle) and the arrow keys felt flimsy and cheap from day one, as do the mouse buttons. Hope they will last, but I am pessimistic. The volume buttons on top of the keyboard are also often on strike.

In addition, the computer is used as a marketing device: Every now and then notifications pop up urging the customer to buy more lenovo stuff. Annoying.

This is not so much a critique of Lenovo, as it is a critique of laptops in general: Over the last decade, the quality has declined spectacularly, and I was hoping Lenovo would resist this trend. Before this thinkpad, I owed the ideapad y430 (bought about 2 yrs ago), and, in terms of the keyboard, this feels like a downgrade, although it's a thinkpad.

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The shipment is quite fast. And the laptop is good to use. But I have to buy the mouse by myself.