Lenovo ThinkPad T400 – T500, a quick review
August 5, 2008
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ThinkPad T400 and T500 Specifications and Gallery
The IT world is buzzing with all the new ThinkPad models from Lenovo and the range that is creating the most excitement is the ThinkPad that for many epitomizes the ThinkPad and that’s the T Series.
The new T Series in the form of the ThinkPad T400 and ThinkPad T500 ushers in a new naming convention, which replaces the T60, T61 style system
Gossip abounds right now so we are going to tell you what we know and take a look at the images that we have managed to get hold of.
The new ThinkPad’s will feature 14.1″ and 15.4″ LED-backlight widescreen displays that will help lower power consumption and deliver brighter colors.
The notebooks also come equipped with a range of technology that includes Solid State Drives (SSDs) as an option, an integrated camera which is a first for the T Series, DDR3 memory modules, new DisplayPort technology, and a wider TouchPad for improved ergonomics.
Lenovo Goes Green
Lenovo is going all out to produce ‘green machines’ and the new T Series notebooks are no exception. Both the T400 and the T500 and meet EPEAT Gold qualifications.
• Industry’s first PC with Greenguard Air Quality certification
• Less power consumption with LED-Backlight displays compared to a standard LC D display
• Increased power efficiency with BatteryStretch feature
• Less power consumption with Solid State Storage Drives compared to standard hard drives
• Greater use of recycled plastics
• Mercury free LED Backlight displays
The new T400 and T500 models will be Wireless WAN (WANN) ready and will include a unified WWAN antenna design which provides superior performance and global roaming. All models feature superb connectivity options and support (WWAN and WiMAX which should be available in late ‘08. With Ultra Wide Band (UWB), we should see faster data transfer rates than the T61. and Bluetooth capability.
Also featured in the new design will be switchable graphics (integrated and discrete) which is a further power saving feature, GPS capability (on WWAN models), high performing DDR3 memory. Available on the T500 will be DisplayPort - the next generation VESA interface incorporating HD video.
This is a WPSimpleViewerGallery
Quick Specs for the ThinkPad T400 and T500
Choice of processors, Intel® Core™2 Duo processor P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB L 2, 1066MHz FSB, 25 watt) - Intel® Core™2 Duo processor P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L 2, 1066MHz FSB, 25 watt) -
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor P9500 (2. 53GHz, 3MB L 2, 1066MHz FSB, 25 watt) - Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB L 2, 1066MHz FSB, 35 watt) - Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T9600 (2.8GHz, 6MB L 2, 1066MHz FSB, 35 watt)
Hard Drive choice will include 80, 160, 250, 320GB / 5400 rpm - 160GB / 7200 rpm - 200GB / 7200 rpm with Full Disk Encryption (FDE) and of course a 64GB Solid State Drive as an option.
To be perfectly honest though we cannot see many people opting for an SSD drive on a a T400 or T500 until capacities increase
Memory - Up to 8GB of PC2-8500 1066MHz DDR3
Optical Drive – Options include DVD-ROM , C D-RW/DVD-ROM , DVD Burner, and Blu-ray
Graphics
Integrated Intel® X4500 with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 w/256MB Switchable Graphics in the T400 or in the T500 you get ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 w/256MB Switchable Graphics. Anybody for hotel night s with a movie? World of Warcraft or maybe even Halo?
Available Integrated Communication - Gigabit Ethernet -Integrated WWAN (with GPS) - Ultra Wide Band (UWB) (available later in 2008) - Bluetooth 2.1 and WiMAX (available later in 2008)
ThinkPad T400
Lenovo are quoting some great battery life figures and if the 9 cell battery plus additional bay battery option is anything to go by 13 + hours is really ground breaking stuff for a notebook of this size and power
Li-ion Battery Life (Windows Vista®)14
4-cell: starting at 4.3 hrs
6-cell: starting at 6.5 hrs
9-cell: starting at 9.8 hrs
9-cell + bay battery: starting at 13.0 hrs
Dimensions
13.2 x 9.4 x 1.1 - 1.3″ with the 4/6-cell battery
(335.3 x 238 x 27.6 x 31.9mm)
Weight
4-cell battery models starting at 2.13 kg/4.7 lbs
Display
WXGA - 1280×800, 98dpi
WXGA+ - 1440×900, 129dpi
WXGA+ W/LED Backlight - 1680×1050, 129dpi
Ports and Slots
Ports: 3 USB, I EEE 1394a, VGA, Microphone/line-in,
Headphone/line-out
Slots: Standard Express C ard 34/54 mm and optional choice
of either PC C ard, or 7-1 M edia C ard Reader
ThinkPad T500
Li-ion Battery Life
6-cell: starting at 4.3 hrs
9-cell: starting at 6.4 hrs
9-cell + bay battery: starting at 8.5 hrs
Dimensions
14.1 x 10.0 x 1.2 - 1.3″ with a 6-cell battery
(357.5 x 255 x 29.7 x 33.5mm)
Weight
6-cell battery models starting at 2.63 kg/5.8 lbs
Display
WXGA - 1280×800, 98dpi
WSXGA+ resolution - 1680×1050, 129dpi
WXGA w/LED Backlight - 1280×800, 98dpi
Ports and Slots
Ports: 3 USB, I EEE 1394a, VGA, Microphone/line-in,
Headphone/line-out, DisplayPort and optional DVI-D
monitor cable
Slots: Standard Express Card 34/54 mm, 7-1 Media Card
Reader and optional choice of either PC Card or SmartCard
Not totally accurate…
This notebook DOES NOT support DDR3… DDR3 will be featured in the Capella Platform which uses the mobile version of the Nehalem architecture (Q3 2009). The t400 uses the Montevina which supports DDR2 with higher FSB and memory clock.
Erich, you are of course perfectly correct. Thanks for pointing that out! Cheers, Ian
The new Thinkpads *do* in fact support DDR3. Straight from Lenovo’s US website for the T400:
1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
There is incorrect display spec in the article “WXGA+ W/LED Backlight - 1680×1050, 129dpi”. WXGA+ is 1440×900.
Erich, you are incorrect. The T400/T500/W500 definitely support DDR3 and you can buy them right now with DDR3.
Ha! Man, both the SL300 and the T400 look really great on paper. I am SUPER concerned that LENOVO doesn’t even have consistent information about these laptops in their own website.
The T400 says it comes with a Radeon 3640… yet apparently that would be “too good to be true”. I keep seeing conflicting stuff… some say 3470, some say 3640… I am not buying one of these until I see a verifiable review, from a trusted source. I like the price, and the 3470 is not a deal breaker, but this is beyond sketchy.
This is super annoying. I would like to buy a laptop with an LED laptop (this is my one must-have feature). These laptops are not hard-launched, these are paper launches… and worse than that, they are inconsistent paper launches without so much as a reliable review.
One more thing… DDR3 is not a feature in my book… it’s absurdly expensive and nothing more.
Lenovo is making me wait so long for a decent review, consistent information, and/or a decent ship date that I may as well wait for Apple to release their new MacBooks… not saying I’ll buy one, but I may as well wait a few more days to see how they stack up.
Shame on you Lenovo. Hire a few technical writers for the English version of the website. I wish I could buy an IBM ThinkPad… Lenovo is sketchy to the n-th degree.
Hi Gochichi, when we first received our specs from Lenovo we had it down as the 3470 for the T400 and the 3640 for the T500. Now if you buy the T400 you will see that the T400 has a ATI Mobility Radeon 3640 with 256MB.
I am not sure how you say DDR3 is not a feature? It makes a huge difference in the T400/T500 performance and its not hugely expensive.
Anyway Gochichi, go ahead and buy your T400. You wont be disappointed. If you want to talk about something being absurdly expensive, then go buy a Macbook!
Cheers, Ian - Editor
Ian, you’re perfectly right on that one… if you want something absurdly expensive, go get a Macbook!
Just bought one. It was worth every cent. When I started my mission to buy a notebook I was looking at bestbuy and Futureshop. I never thought I would pay what I did for a laptop. But after carefull research the T500 was so much more modern compared to the stuff at the BB stores. The build is much better. I am so happy with my unit. It does have DDR3.