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My Thinkpad T400s is falling apart for the second time in about a year, and its battery life is down to about an hour, so I think it's time for something new. My experience with it has been pretty underwhelming- build quality probably better than other brands but not where it should be, crap battery life, just about the worst screen I've seen on a laptop post-2000, and absolute garbage warranty support. I was ready to abandon Lenovo forever after my last warranty service experience, but I get the impression that other brands (except possibly Apple) are all even worse. So right now I'm pretty much looking at the T430 and X430. I think going with the T430 would solve my problems with build quality and battery life, but it still has that awful screen. It's really tough to tell from the website, but it looks like every model of the X430 has an IPS display? Can anyone who has one comment on build quality and real-world battery life? E: I'd also be switching to an SSD, does the X use some goofy small sized drive like my T400s does?
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Jun 26, 2013 01:34
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:41 |
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DrDork posted:The "goofy small sized drive" you're talking about is a 1.8" drive, but pretty much every laptop above 13" these days uses 2.5" drives or the absolutely tiny mSATA drives. Which isn't a problem because no one bothers making consumer 3.5" SSDs anymore to begin with. So which does the X230 use, 2.5 or mSATA? DrDork posted:The T430 is one of the best-built, most durable laptops you can buy under $1000, but the battery life on the standard battery still isn't amazing--about 3-4 hours. You can get an extended battery off Amazon for $70-$80 that'll go 6+ hours, though. The screen is, admittedly, mediocre at best and there's nothing you can do about it. Unless you need to replace your laptop NOW, you may be better off waiting for the Haswell refresh in a month or two and hoping that Lenovo bothers to pair the new T4xx with a monitor that doesn't suck. Weren't they claiming up to 30 hours or something silly like that when the T420 came out? What happened with that? Performance in terms of raw processing power really does not matter much to me. With my current Core 2 Duo, I don't think I've ever done anything that's been processor-limited. I have my doubts about Lenovo using a screen that doesn't suck, given their track record on such things. DrDork posted:I'm curious as to how your warranty experience has been poor. Every dealing I've had with IBM so far has been extremely easy and usually results in them sending whatever parts I ask for with only the most basic of questioning, most of which usually revolves around whether or not I want to pay for weekend shipping. Well, since you asked... My current laptop had a global next day onsite warranty package. In their own words, "This product is entitled to parts, labor and on-site repairservice (9x5 next business day) in approved locations." My first warranty claim was just a bit over a year ago, when the hinges came apart and broke through the screen bezel and the lcd back cover. They wouldn't honor the "onsite" part of the warranty service because it was physical damage, and I had to send it in. When I got it back, the indicator LEDs at the base of the screen weren't lined up properly (I think they left out the clear plastic bit that runs from the LEDs themselves to the holes in the case), my touchscreen wasn't re-connected, and the adhesive name badge strip fell off after about a day of using the computer. Since it was my only computer at the time, I re-connected the touch panel myself and just lived with the other problems. Second experience was when the mainboard and/or CPU fried themselves. The system overheated and shut down one day while watching a netflix video (while sitting on a table, vents weren't blocked or anything). I let it cool off, then gave it my best effort cleaning with compressed air. About a week later, this time while doing nothing special, it shuts down, and won't turn back on even after sitting for a couple hours. So I call Lenovo. I still have this all saved in a text file, so here's an overly detailed account of what happened: -Thursday afternoon: Called in, got a person with a thick foreign accent I couldn't understand, so I hung up and called back. Got a person who spoke clearly, told them my issue, and was told a tech would call me within 24 hours to set up a time to repair the computer. -Friday: no call. -Monday: no call. -Tuesday: no call. -Wednesday: I call back, and they give me a different phone number to try. I try this number, and of course wait on hold 20 minutes. They tell me they'll send out an urgent page, and a tech should be calling me within a few minutes. Two hours later, still no call from the tech. I call back, and they tell me someone should be calling me by the end of the day. I wait another two hours, by which point it's now 6 PM. I call in again, they "escalate it to Lenovo", and tell me I should be getting a call by noon Thursday. -Thursday: Guy actually calls me! Says he has the part from Lenovo, but won't be able to make it out to me til Friday. Ok, whatever, my laptop will be functional again the next day, right?! -Friday: Guy shows up at my door... holding a fan assembly. NOPE, that ain't gonna fix it. I tell him this; he insists on trying it anyway. NOPE, didn't fix it. He says he's gonna order a new CPU, and if that doesn't work, then a new mainboard. I tell him they should be the same piece, because the CPU is soldered in on the T400s. He insists this isn't true. He tries to look up the IBM part number for the CPU, and is puzzled when he can't find it listed. I tell him it's because it would be included with the mainboard. He again insists that this isn't true. Finally, he calls into IBM and asks for a new CPU for the computer. They tell him it's on backorder, and will be a couple days out. I've got no choice but to wait. -The next Tuesday: He calls and sets up a time to come over. Shows up with a new CPU/mainboard assembly; I was right, they're soldered together and considered a single assembly. Installs it without issue, and the drat thing is finally repaired. TL;DR: Next day onsite service took six calls to IBM and 12 days to get my laptop fixed.
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Jun 26, 2013 03:34
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DrDork posted:That's pretty bad--are you not in the US or something? IBM (US ThinkPad support) usually bends over backwards to make people happy, but Lenovo's support anywhere else is nothing special. You're right about your previous comment, though: experiences like that are par for the course from anyone else in the business except Apple, rather than the unusual case that it is for IBM. Columbus, Ohio. When I had a MacBook, I had a magsafe adapter go bad. Called Apple about it on a Sunday afternoon, and there was a replacement sitting on my doorstep when I got home from class at 11 AM Monday. I don't know how shipping that fast is even possible, but they made it happen. They also replaced my battery twice- once under warranty, and once a year and a half after my warranty expired (had the computer with me and was near an Apple store, and figured it couldn't hurt to stop in and ask). It's a shame I hate their current hardware designs so much. On the subject of screentalk, I very much prefer better viewing angles and black levels over higher resolution, and I think most people would probably agree with me. I'd personally rather have a 1366x768 IPS display than a 1080p TN display. I was hoping that actually using decent quality screens would be something that everyone would follow Apple's lead on, like horrible chiclet style keyboards and horrible buttonless trackpads, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.
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Jun 26, 2013 08:08
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