Lenovo ThinkPad T410s Review

At the top of Lenovo’s product heap is the ThinkPad line. The top of the ThinkPad line is the T-series. And the top of the T-series, even in Lenovo’s own estimation, is the T410s. Few laptops can be all things to all people, but the ThinkPad T410s comes dangerously close.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T410s has a 14" display with a resolution of 1440x900. This is higher than the standard resolution of 1366x768 found on most laptops between 11.6" and 15.6" and the extra pixels are nice to have. The display has a matte coating which, unlike the gloss coating found on most laptop displays, does not reflect light. This, combined with a bright backlight, makes the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s battery usable even in direct sunlight. The matte coating does have a negative impact on image quality, however. Movies and games have a washed-out appearance and dark scenes are difficult to view because of poor black levels.

In terms of ports, the T410s model has an ExpressCard 34 slot for expansion, eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, 2 dedicated USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, and a DisplayPort for an external monitor. It does lack a FireWire port, but that's a minor subtraction. If you're interested in a laptop that gives you every wireless connection option on the planet, this is the computer for you. It comes with built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, internal 3G for cellular connectivity, GPS and even WiMax 4G. The GPS and WiMax connectivity do not come standard, but rather as add-ons, but still great to have nonetheless.

Lenovo ThinkPad T410s Specs:

• Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-M520
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Storage: 250GB hard drive
• Optical Drive: DVD±RW
• Screen: 14.1 inches (1,440x900 native resolution)
• Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD
• Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Dimensions (HWD): 0.8x13.3x9.5 inches
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Lenovo recently celebrated the milestone of selling 60 million ThinkPad notebooks. That's a ThinkPad for every person in the United Kingdom, to put it in perspective. Moreover, the PC maker claims these things sell like electronic hotcakes, to the tune of 14 per minute. Lenovo doesn't reach these types of numbers by selling outdated hardware spruced up with brushed aluminum, and clever marketing. The company targets tech-savvy business consumers and home users who want light, durable notebooks that offer cutting edge technology. The notebook we're reviewing today is an improvement over the original T410 we took a look at earlier this year. This latest iteration offers consumers a feature that gives it an important advantage over the majority of other laptops on the market. The ThinkPad T410s battery is the first model from Lenovo to offer NVIDIA Optimus technology, which provides users with seamless switching between discrete GPU performance and the power saving benefits associated with integrated graphics.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T410s looks like your average T-series ThinkPad until you notice it was put on a diet. The body is much thinner--with a condensed port layout-and the screen cover is now almost half as thick. Compared to the launch of the T400s, bringing the new keyboard design to the T-series, not much has changed this time around inside the notebook. The T410 and T410s share the same newer keyboard design and textured touchpad and both models even have the same relocated indicator lights below the display. From a top view looking down the speaker design is identical on both models and the only significant difference being the fingerprint scanner which is under the direction keys on the T410s and right next to the touchpad on the T410. To the average user this notebook looks the same, just slightly smaller.

Alone due to the GMA HD graphics chip integrated into the processor, we would expect a not too good 3D graphics performance. The shading in Cinebench R10 only achieves 1457 points, and lies behind other systems with the same GMA HD graphics chip. Similar results are found using the 3DMark06 test, where the CPU score is clearly appropriate for the processor, but the total score is significantly lower than that of similar devices with the same graphics chip. The same applies to the 3DMark03 and 3DMark05 scored values of 4347 points and 2834 points respectively. A later test then brought significantly better results to light. All the tests were carried out with the profile set to "Maximum Performance". From these results it is obvious that the Lenovo T410s battery has relatively big variations in graphics performance.

Lenovo also found room above the function-key row for dedicated volume, mute, and microphone-mute buttons. (The latter is especially useful for those work-from-home Voice Over IP conferences when the kids come barging in.) And above the screen, activated by the key combination Function+PageUp, is the ThinkLight: a small white LED that sheds just enough light to show off the key tops in a dark room. The solution is old-school compared with the sleek backlit keyboards found on the likes of the HP EliteBook line, but if adding a backlight would mess with the feel of the ThinkPad keyboard, we’ll stick with the ThinkLight.

The ThinkPad T410s's Windows Experience Index (WEI) of 3.9 (out of 7.9) is slightly lower than we anticipated. The overall rating was brought down by the score for Graphics (desktop performance for Windows Aero), the lowest component score corresponding to the WEI. Other subsystems all scored much better: 5.0 for Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate); 5.2 for Gaming Graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance); 5.5 for RAM (Memory operations per second); and 6.5 for Processor (calculations per second).

Both the ThinkPad T410 and the T410s support up to 6 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 (4 GB 1333 MHz + 2 GB 1067 MHz), or up to 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR4 (4 GB 1333 MHz x 2) memory and Hard Drive options range from 80 to 128 GB SSD drives or 160 GB up to a 500 GB (7200 RPM) Hard Drive.

The T410s sports the same keyboard that we fell in love with on the T400s. It feature the strong tactile feel that made Lenovo famous, along with new, enlarged Esc and Delete keys.

Like most ThinkPads, the T410s features both a TrackPoint pointing stick and a touchpad. We're big fans of the TrackPoint because it's highly accurate and allows you to navigate the desktop without lifting your fingers from the home row. However, if you prefer touchpads, you'll appreciate the extremely accurate, textured surface on the touchpad. It also supports multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolls. Unlike some touchpads we've used, zooming in and out is smooth and accurate.

The Intel Core i5 processor drives the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s. You have two choices: the Intel Core i5-540M 2.53 GHz processor and the Intel Core i5-529M 2.4 GHz processor. Integrated in these processors is the Turbo Boost technology, which accelerates the i5 processors when it is needed. Supporting these powerful processors is a minimum of 6 GB of DDR3 read access memory. A user may load up to a maximum of 8 GB of DDR4 RAM in the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s. Therefore, the RAM/i5 processor combination promises seamless performance even when running heavy applications.

With its relatively small size, the battery pack for the ThinkPad T410s is also a smaller six-cell pack. In my DVD playback test, the system was able to run just short of three hours before going into standby mode. This isn't as high as the extremely thin but long last Apple MacBook Pro but it is better than average for a Lenovo ThinkPad T410s battery pack of this size. Expect more traditional usage to yield three and a half hours of running time.

To maximize battery life, notebook computer processors are often designed to save more energy and run cooler than desktop processors. The drawback is slower performance, but more memory can help, which it won't consume energy or radiate heat. Even better, up to 4GB of RAM can now be found in budget configurations. If you want more memory later, expansion is often a simple procedure.

The configuration we tested as configured is currently priced at $1779, though there are certainly a multitude of options to choose from or omit, which can offer a lower price point. Our model's price tag is relatively expensive as far as notebooks are concerned, but definitely in line with ultra mobile notebook models that feature similar high-end components. It's also worth mentioning that although we listed the standard warranty at 1 year, Lenovo offers up to 4 years of coverage at an additional cost.

With high performance and portability scores, the Lenovo ThinkPad T410s laptop battery sure sticks out like a nail among 14-inchers. One might as well get a hammer and drive it in to your cache of useful machines. The Lenovo ThinkPad T410s comes highly recommended despite its high price tag.