Ktulu

****Thread Updated September 17th, 2009 - Customer Survey Completed****


Hey!

I have had a few threads on here about my search for a laptop. I have purchased the Thinkpad T400 from the Lenovo Outlet.

So far service sucks from that place. I ordered the notebook last Saturday. I got an order confirmation on Monday and a promise of my shipment and order details in a few days. Despite being charged I have recieved nothing about my order. I sent the "Make me Happy Or Else" email today threatening to cancel the charges with my bank. I told them I want to know what is going on by Monday. I guess we will see.

I'll keep you posted. This thread will later have my review.

Ktulu

****UPDATED 09/17/2009****


September 10th, 2009
I received my laptop yesterday. I haven't got a chance to look at it yet but Ill post a review soon. The customer service wasn't really that great, but they did ship my computer when they charged me and I did FINALLY get an email back from them. They did what they were supposed to do so in the regard I give them a B-. This grade is mostly for the long shipping time, but not too big of a deal. As for responding to my concerns I give them a D. If they would have not responded at all I would say FAIL. This is Lenovo Outlet mind you, but it’s still Lenovo. I guess we will see what happens when I unbox it. You guys will be the first to know!

Lenovo Customer Survey September 15th, 2009:

"Let me first say I like my computer. For 700 bucks it is great. Buying it was easy. I like the setup of the Lenovo Outlet, but that is where the pleasures of computer shopping end.

Dealing with Lenovo Outlet customer support was horrible. There is only 2 ways to contact Lenovo Outlet. By “snail” mail and by email. Your email system is so flawed that I received no confirmation that my message was even received by anyone on your end like many major businesses do. Hoping for an actual response was wishful thinking. I doubt VERY much that spending even more time sending you a mailed letter would have yielded different results. I sent 3 messages asking what the status of my order was but I received nothing in return except after 9 days I received a screen capture of the package signature upon delivery with no explanation.

That was almost a slap in the face after I took the time to type 3 messages stating my concerns. I get this sloppy picture of some guy at Lenovo's computer desktop with my shipping manifest opened on his computer. It was signed and delivered yes, but after you were done with me and got my money you were basically saying our work is done here is your damn laptop with that impersonal message. I get it, I’m not stupid. I know what your message meant. It was rude and despite not signing for the package I found that the laptop was at my house on my own well before your 2nd email 11 days after I purchased the notebook.

The screenshot was rude and unnecessary and was too little too late. Type me a message next time when one of your costumers wants your help. I'll have you know that since you reminded me of my annoyance with your company with this insulting "We care so much about you" email that is sent automatically and is about as personable and caring as being carjacked, I am going to update my forum post on one of the largest computer enthusiast websites on the web with the message I am type to you now. Have a great day. I hope my carefully typed email finds you as well as your robotic and callus messages found me."


****UPDATED 09/17/2009****

Ktulu

Review for Lenovo ThinkPad T400

*Updated 14/09/09 Grammar edited, info added, pictures added

Specs for the machine.

Processor Intel® Core™2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz, 3MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic 32
Condition New
Display 14.1” WXGA (1280 X 800)
Total Memory 2GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory
Hard Drive 160GB, 7200RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Drive
Graphics AMD M82XT Switchable Graphics 256MB
Optical Device CD-RW/DVD-ROM 24X/24X/24X/8X Max Combo Ultrabay Slim (Serial SATA)
Wireless Intel WiFi Link 5100 (1x2 AGN)
Battery 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Limited Warranty 1 Year Standard

I ordered my ThinkPad from the Lenovo outlet. Despite a minor hiccup, the experience was worth while. I received no confirmation from Lenovo when my card was charged despite being told in the first "Order Received" email that I would receive another email confirming everything. That didn't happen, but I did receive the laptop 9 days after my credit card was charged and it was exactly as I ordered it accept for a minor bonus of an N draft network adapter despite only ordering a b/g draft network card.

The experience was all and all a good one. Considering that my laptop is brand new and comes with a 1 year warranty. It was about $200 cheaper to order the computer from Lenovo Outlet as opposed to getting it custom made which would most certainly have taken longer than 9 days with free shipping to arrive at my door and been a more time consuming process in general. On a side note, refurbished Thinkpads also come with a 1 year warranty. Most refurbished laptops only come with a warranty somewhere in between 30-90 days so that is another bonus of the Lenovo Outlet.


On to the Review!
So despite the unboxing offering little surprise I have some pics of it for your guys anyway. The standard fare is included, notebook, charger, battery, and a few manuals. The only surprise is the extra few TrackPoint nubs that come with the box. I also have some pics of the keyboard as requested by e_dogg.















First Impressions
The ThinkPads are very "professional." Nothing flashy, the rubberized surface on the top cover is about the only flash you get, unless you want to call a blue "enter" key flashy. There are subtle things that distinguish it as a ThinkPad however. The red TrackPoint, the blue keys and blue function icons on them and the general lack of anything "cheap" or trashy.

I love simplicity of the computer. It is all business, all function. Nothing is superfluous and everything is useful.

Despite being only 14.1" With the 6 cell battery the laptop has a bit of heft to be considered anything close to thin and light. However it is much more manageable and portable than anything larger than 15". The laptop is completely solid from the body up, however the plastic pieces on the keyboard portion of the laptop are a little cheap feeling and the paneling on it seems like the weakest part of the notebook. If the body body wasn't in some many pieces it would be great, but I assume this is done to save money. Whether or not the consumer sees any of these savings is beyond me because the prior ThinkPad generations do not have this problem.

Design
As I said before the Thinkpad is all business. There is no cheap extras like a useless 2" "sub-woofer" in some big laptops or silly keyboard shortcuts that never will be used.

The black and blue colors are a nice subtle touch. As silly as it sounds I was really hoping this keyboard would come with a blue "enter" key. Kinda like the cherry on top. You don't really need it, but you miss it if its gone.

Most of you know what a laptop is. ThinkPads may have set standards for design some time ago, but they have pretty much stuck to the safe and dependable feature that everyone would expect. There is no HDMI out, however there is a firewire port. AOL users will be thrilled with the phone-jack as well. Maybe if you still phreak it would be useful... Point being this is simple and has the things you can't live without.


Features
The TrackPoint works great. I have never used one before, but it is still more efficient than a trackpad. Your movement just feels natural using it. You have your hands closer to the keyboard anyway so you don't have to switch your hand placement back and forth. Think of it like baseball. The TrackPoint is like bunting without switching your stance and position back and forth.

The ThinkVantage button is a great piece of innovation. It is really a piece of what makes a ThinkPad so great. It is a seamless integration of functionality that is much more useful than any of the features it duplicates in windows, plus more. The thing is, its just a push of a button. To duplicate all the features of the ThinkVantage suite, not only would you have to download and install them, but using them each time would not be nearly as seamless as the ThinkVantage button. You can back up your drives with one click, You don't have to set folder destinations. You don't have to find the backup file. You don't have to set the compression rate and you don't have to even think about doing it each time because you can set the program to back up anytime. Also if your system craches your backups are accessible outside of Windows. They are integrated into 2 additional partitions that only take up a little over 10 gigs of your drive unlike some backup suites that literally split your HDD in half, leaving 50 percent of it for system backup and basically useless without a reformat.

There are so many other features of the ThinkVantage button, I will only name a few. You can integrate RSS into it so anytime you you hit the button you can check RSS just like any other program. You can find wireless connection quickly and keep them active even when you sleep your computer. You can also clean up system files and defragment your hard drives.

I realize you can do all of these things during Windows, but being able to access them all with one click is something you can't do easily. It involves setup. The ThinkVantage is right out of the box easy.

The ThinkLight works great. I was using it last night typing some of this review up and it illuminated the keyboard in complete dark and since I can't type very well and have to look at the keys when I do so, the ThinkLight works great

There are convenient keys to turn off wireless radio, lock your computer and harness the magnify feature of Windows Vista easily.

To get back to basics of the laptop, it has 3 USB, 1 firewire, VGA out, Audio Out, Audio In, CDRW drive and a interface on the bottom for a docking station.

Functionality
The ThinkPads are famous for their keyboards. I can't tell you anything about their undisputed glory of the past, but the keyboard as I type right now works great. The keyboard on the ThinkPad feels completely solid. There is a slight visible flex when I press hard down on the keys, but it is not realistic to think that anyone would normally exude that much force on to the keys regularly to actually consider the flex a detriment to their typing experience. The keys feel very snappy. They actually have a bounce to them. They have an excellent response and odd thing is a find myself typing more vigorously on the keys than on any other keyboard, laptop or not.

The battery makes this thing happen! Battery alone is nothing without functionality, but with the switchable graphics you can go 5 hours on powersaver and Intel GMA video or you can watch HD streaming videos or do some light gaming with AC. Of course this power can be utilized with the battery if you are ok with 2.5-3.5 hours for power instead of 5-6 for efficiency. There are many ways to extend the battery and the Lenovo suite of features help a lot to add to the battery management of Vista.

Final Thoughts
I really am enjoying this laptop. I looked far and wide for about a year for a laptop that was A. had a great keyboard B. Had excellent Battery Life C. Could play 720p movies and D. Was priced around $700 dollars. This thing does all of that, plus it has a alloy roll-cage, spill resistant keyboard, TrackPoint, business class reliability and the ThinkVantage suite of utilities. This laptop has what I need in spades and more.

Bottom Line, the ThinkPad works right out of the box. No fiddling, no configuring, nothing. Download a couple of programs, set yourself up but seriously there was no sighs of discontent like with some pieces of electronics that just jerk you around. If you are in your 50s and got one of these to show off at the board meetings, Vista and ThinkVantage gives you everything you need to dedicate more time for emailing your fellow captains of industry, increasing the wage gap and using your employee's 401K's to play online Texas Hold'em. You just can't go all in without a ThinkPad!

e_dogg

Any update to this? I'm interested to see what their service is like.

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newegg

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E5200 3.6GHZ********** E8600 4.4GHZ ***********Q9650 4GHZ
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E8400 3.8GHZ********** Q9550 3.8GHZ

mdogg

what!?!??! I'm so surprised that lenovo is acting like this. I have bought 5 thinkpads from them direct and I have never experienced anything like this. Definitely give them a call because their phone support is top notch.

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justarealguy

Call lenovo up and refuse to speak to tier 1 support. I had issues with my laptop shipping however after speaking to a customer service rep about waiting 2 months for a laptop that was supposed to ship out in ~4 weeks - It was shipped out the next day.

They told me that they don't bill you till they ship - And I can say this is truthful in my case...as for the outlet I have no idea.

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Ktulu

This: http://outlet.lenovo.com/laptops/276r8nl891.html



Well I still haven't heard anything from them. I have been pretty busy so I haven't called them yet, but I will take you advice "justarealguy" and give them a call. I have been billed for it so I guess it should get here this week if they don't bill until hey ship. Its ground shipping from back east and then the labor day so we will see.

killnine

Didn't order my T400 from outlet but I got great service. Called up and they were very cordial about my order. Keep us posted.

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Ktulu

I Updated the second post. I got the laptop yesterday. The review is in the making.