Lenovo Thinkpad T440s Notebook Pc - Intel Core I5 Review
Our Verdict
The Lenovo ThinkPad T440s is the business laptop to vanquish, offering long battery life, a slap-up keyboard and fast performance in a thin and light design.
For
- Vivid and colorful screen
- Best-in-form keyboard
- Strong operation
- Long bombardment life
- Hot swappable batteries
Against
- Bulky extended battery
- TrackPoint buttons are stiff
Laptop Mag Verdict
The Lenovo ThinkPad T440s is the business laptop to beat, offer long bombardment life, a great keyboard and fast operation in a thin and low-cal pattern.
Pros
- +
Bright and colorful screen
- +
Best-in-grade keyboard
- +
Stiff performance
- +
Long bombardment life
- +
Hot swappable batteries
Cons
- -
Bulky extended battery
- -
TrackPoint buttons are potent
Lenovo's ThinkPad T Series laptops have a legendary reputation amongst business users or anyone who needs to get serious piece of work done. The fourteen-inch ThinkPad T440s continues this rich tradition, offering long battery life, stiff performance, a best-in-class keyboard and an optional 1080p touch screen, all in a durable, 3.8-pound package. However, with a price of $1,514 ($999 to start), this productivity-axial laptop doesn't come cheap. Is the ThinkPad T440s worth the investment?
Pattern
The ThinkPad T440s has the same chassis every bit the ThinkPad T431s, which launched in bound 2013, and carries the same design linguistic communication as other ThinkPads. Y'all'll find a polish, raven black casing that features a carbon cobweb chapeau and magnesium chassis. Like the T431s, the T440s has a rather patently matte black lid instead of the luxurious soft-affect, rubberized lids Lenovo used on the older ThinkPad T430s and T420s. A ThinkPad logo on the lid provides a splash of color with a red light in the letter of the alphabet "I" that blinks when the organisation is asleep. The famous red TrackPoint and a couple of red lines on the touchpad add accents to the deck.
Like other ThinkPad T Series, the T440s is built to accept some punishment. An integrated roll cage helps the laptop survive drops and dings while solid hinges permit the screen to bend back 180 degrees, and a spill-resistant keyboard prevents a lilliputian water from destroying your system. Lenovo says that the T440s has passed several military machine standard, or MIL-SPEC, tests, including those for humidity, dust, extreme temperatures and vibrations.
At 13.03 x 8.89 x 0.fourscore inches and 3.8 pounds, the ThinkPad T440s isn't the virtually portable business concern Ultrabook on the block. Toshiba's Tecra Z40 (13.3 10 9.iii x 0.8 inches) is no thinner, but is significantly lighter at 3.2 pounds while the last-generation ThinkPad T431s weighs simply 3.4 pounds, despite having the same dimensions every bit the T440s. The ThinkPad T440's 14-inch bear on screen is one of the heaviest parts of the organisation, as it requires a fair amount of force to lift. The extended battery adds 0.4 pounds to the system and tilts it 0.iii inches off of your desk or lap. However, users tin can save some heft by purchasing the T440s without a touch screen as the digitizer adds between .ane and .two pounds.
Display
Our ThinkPad T440s' 1920 x 1080 bear on brandish offered vibrant colors and sharp images. When nosotros watched a 1080p trailer for "The Avengers," the blueish in Captain America's costume and the red in Thor'southward cape appeared particularly deep and lively. Though glossy, the panel did non reflect back much light and provided extremely wide viewing angles; colors did non even wash out at 90 degrees to the left or right.
Registering 294 lux on our light meter, the T440s is much brighter than the 210 lux sparse-and-lite laptop category boilerplate, the 169-lux Toshiba Tecra Z40 and the 202-lux T431s with 1600 10 900 brandish. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was a little brighter at 313 lux.
The 10-signal bear upon screen was extremely responsive to all of our gestures, fifty-fifty assuasive the states to draw with all fingers on both hands at one time in Windows Paint. The T440s is besides configurable with 1600 x 900 and 1920 x 1080 nontouch panels.
All-time FEATURES OF THE ThinkPad T440s
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Audio
While it's fine for conferencing and motion picture watching, the ThinkPad T440s offers unpleasant music playback. The laptop'south lesser-mounted speakers were loud enough to fill a pocket-size room, measuring 81 decibels on our sound test, which is fairly loud, but all the same a tad below the 84-dB category average. Playback also muffled a fleck when the arrangement was pressed against our legs.
When nosotros played Patrice Rushen's bass-laden "Forget Me Nots," playback was fairly accurate, though apartment. Judas Priest's guitar-heavy "Painkiller" sounded tinny. Enabled past default, the included Dolby v4 audio software made the sound quality more tolerable than it would have been without information technology . The audio became hollow and lifeless when we turned this feature off.
Keyboard
Lenovo ThinkPads have long set the aureate standard for typing comfort, and the T440s more than than lives upward to this tradition. The notebook offers a backlit keyboard with very potent tactile feedback, great key spacing and a slightly curved key shape that makes it easy to avoid next letter errors.
Different the T431s, which marred the typing experience with a hot palmrest, the T440s stayed cool beneath our wrists, assuasive united states of america to achieve a very stiff score of 92 words per minute on the X Thumbs Typing Tutor test, comfortably in a higher place our typical 86 wpm score. The keyboard'southward backlight has three settings: off, low and high, with the low setting more than bright plenty for a dark room and the high perhaps a fleck too bright.
TrackPoint and Touchpad
Like other ThinkPads, the T440s offers both a buttonless touchpad and a TrackPoint pointing stick. We adopt the ruddy TrackPoint because information technology offers more precise navigation around the desktop than whatsoever touchpad. Plus, this stick allows impact typists to move the pointer without moving their easily off of the home row. Though the pointing stick itself was extremely accurate and pleasant to employ, we wish Lenovo hadn't built its correct, left and curl buttons into the pinnacle of the touchpad. Pushing downwards on the top of the pad requires considerably more force than the touching the defended buttons on before ThinkPads. Unfortunately, Lenovo is building the TrackPoint buttons into the touchpads on all of its ThinkPads going forward.
The large, 3.9 10 2.75-inch buttonless touchpad provided accurate navigation around the desktop. Despite its smooth surface, we were able to move around without our finger slipping and without a hint of the jumpiness that nosotros've experienced on many other buttonless touchpads. Multitouch gestures, such as pinch-to-zoom, rotate, swipe in from right for charms, swipe in from left to switch apps and 4-finger swipe to minimize all apps, worked smoothly.
Ports and Webcam
The ThinkPad T440s' 0.8-inch thick chassis leaves room for several of import ports that many other Ultrabooks -- including Lenovo'south own X1 Carbon -- omit. On its right side, the ThinkPad T440s has a headphone jack, a SIM menu slot for optional mobile broadband, a four-in-ane memory menu reader, a Kensington lock slot, a USB 3.0 port and a VGA port that provides the best way to connect to older projectors and the large number of monitors that don't have DisplayPort. The left side houses a SmartCard reader, a DisplayPort and two more USB three.0 ports.
The Hard disk drive webcam is capable of capturing solid images fifty-fifty in a shadowy area of our office, but even pictures nosotros took of our face in a very bright briefing room suffered from a fleck of visual noise. Similar other ThinkPads, the T440s features dual-array microphones for better conferencing, while Lenovo's settings app allows y'all to set the mics to pick up a unmarried voice or many at in one case.
More: How to Upgrade the RAM on the ThinkPad T440s
Heat
Unlike the T431s, which had a warm right palmrest that fabricated typing uncomfortable, the ThinkPad T440s stayed pleasantly cool throughout our testing. After streaming a video for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured a cool 81 degrees, the keyboard a chilly 84 degrees and the underside a breezy 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Nosotros consider temperatures below xc degrees imperceptible and those under 95 degrees comfortable.
Performance
Thanks to its i.half-dozen-GHz Intel 4th-generation Core i5-4200U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB LITE-ON SSD, our configuration of the ThinkPad T440s offered very strong performance that was proficient enough for demanding productivity work. On PCMark 7, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the T440s scored an impressive 4,970, well to a higher place the 3,445 thin-and-light laptop category boilerplate, the Toshiba Tecra Z40'south mark of ii,524 and the T431s' 2,884 score.
With its speedy 256GB SSD, the T440s booted Windows eight in just fourteen seconds, half the 28.4-2d category boilerplate and a bit less than the ThinkPad T431s (xvi seconds). The bulldoze took simply 27 seconds to complete the LAPTOP File Transfer examination, which involves copying iv.97GB of mixed media files. That's a rate of 188.five MBps, more triple the 57.9 MBps category boilerplate and eight times the Tecra Z40 and its vii,200-rpm hard drive. The thirteen-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Brandish notched a more impressive 299.4 MBps performing the aforementioned exam in OS X Mavericks.
The ThinkPad T440s took simply 5 minutes and 14 seconds to complete the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, where we lucifer 20,000 names with their addresses. That time is more than a minute faster than the 6:21 category average, but almost 30 seconds slower than the Tecra Z40 and its i.9-GHz Core i5-4300U CPU.
Graphics
The T440s' integrated Intel HD 4400 graphics chip achieved a pocket-sized score of 930 on 3DMark11, a leading synthetic graphics benchmark. That's a little below the 962 category boilerplate, only well higher up the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (869) and ThinkPad T431s (530).
When we fired up "Globe of Warcraft" at the T440s' 1920 x 1080 native resolution, the system achieved a not-quite-playable frame rate of 29 fps, which dropped to just 15 fps when nosotros turned upwards the special effects. Both rates are well below the 66 and 29.nine fps category averages.
Battery Life
Lenovo sells the ThinkPad T440s with a choice of batteries, a three-jail cell, 23.2 watt hour unit and a six-cell, 72 watt hour high capacity battery that costs just $5 more. In addition to these removable batteries, the T440s has a nonremovable iii-jail cell internal battery that gets drained after the external pack is dead, so you tin alter batteries without shutting the system downward.
With the 3-cell 23.2 watt-hour bombardment, the T440s lasted 7 hours and 1 infinitesimal on the LAPTOP Bombardment Test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi on 40 percent brightness. That time is more than than 30 minutes longer than the 6:27 category average, but not as lengthy every bit the Tecra Z40's runtime of 9:28. (To be off-white, though, the Z40 has a much dimmer screen.)
With its loftier-chapters bombardment, the ThinkPad T440s lasted an epic xiv hours and 36 minutes, making it one of the longest-lasting laptops nosotros've ever tested, Though the the loftier-capacity pack costs just $5 more on Lenovo.com, information technology juts 0.5 inches out from the bottom of the laptop and adds 0.iv pounds.
Software and Warranty
Lenovo bundles the Windows viii version of the ThinkPad T440s with a few useful utilities. Lenovo settings gives you lot command over the webcam, microphone and power settings while assuasive you to turn your laptop into a mobile hotspot for other devices. Lenovo QuickCast promises to transfer data betwixt your ThinkPads, provided that they are all on the same network and running WIndows 8.
Lenovo QuickConnect lets you remote command your laptop from an Android phone, but when nosotros tried information technology, it only allowed us to utilize the phone every bit a touchpad and to alter display modes on the laptop, not to do an bodily remote control session. Lenovo Companion provides shortcuts to a diverseness of apps and services, including promotional videos that come up from the company'due south partnership with the NFL.
Interestingly, Lenovo does not preload the T440s with Windows 8.ane, though downloading the new Os is a gratis upgrade. A Lenovo rep said the company will not start selling the T440s with Windows 8.1 preloaded until sometime in 2014.
Lenovo backs the ThinkPad T440s with a standard i-year warranty on parts and labor. You can extend the warranty upwardly to 4 years and add together accidental damage protection or on-site service for prices ranging from $59 to $489.
Configurations
Our review unit of measurement of the ThinkPad T440s carries an MSRP of $ane,514. For that price, you lot become the Intel Core i5-4200U CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, Windows 8 Pro and the 1920 x 1080 bear upon screen. For the starting cost of $999, you get the same Cadre i5-4200U CPU, but merely 4GB of RAM, a 1600 x 900 nontouch screen, Windows eight and a 500GB hard bulldoze with 16GB flash cache.
When y'all buy through Lenovo.com, you can configure with a option of CPUs, screens, batteries, Wi-Fi cards, hard drive and RAM amounts. Y'all can also choose Windows seven Pro instead of 8 or viii Pro.
More: Lenovo Best and Worst Notebook Brands
To get the largest possible workspace, we highly recommend upgrading to a 1920 ten 1200 screen in either touch or nontouch configurations. Though the extended bombardment adds serious heft, the boosted 7 hours of endurance information technology adds is well worth the $5 premium.
Verdict
The ThinkPad T440s is a worthy successor to the ThinkPad T431s. With the performance and ability efficiency of Intel'southward quaternary-generation Core serial, long bombardment life, an industry-leading keyboard and an optional full Hard disk drive touch screen, the ThinkPad T440s is the new business organisation laptop to beat. Those looking for something that'due south more portable than this 3.8-pound system might want to consider Lenovo'due south 12.v-inch, 2.eight-pound ThinkPad X240. However, if you desire the best thin-and-light business system on the marketplace, the ThinkPad T440s should be your top pick.
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Lenovo ThinkPad T440s Specs
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth iv.0+HS |
| Make | Lenovo |
| CPU | two.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U |
| Card Slots | 4-1 menu reader |
| Company Website | world wide web.lenovo.com |
| Display Size | 14 |
| Graphics Card | Intel Hd Graphics 4400 |
| Hard Drive Size | 256GB |
| Hard Drive Speed | n/a |
| Hard Drive Type | SSD Bulldoze |
| Native Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Operating System | Windows viii Professional person |
| Ports (excluding USB) | USB 3.0, Kensington Lock, Ethernet, DisplayPort, VGA |
| RAM | 8GB |
| RAM Upgradable to | 12GB |
| Size | 13.03" x 8.89" ten 0.80" |
| Touchpad Size | 3.9 x ii.75 inches |
| USB Ports | 3 |
| Video Memory | Shared |
| Warranty/Support | 1 twelvemonth parts and labor |
| Weight | 3.8 pounds / 4.ii pounds (with extended bombardment) |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11 b/g/n/air conditioning |
| Wi-Fi Model | Intel Dual Band Wireless-Air conditioning 7260 |
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Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-t440s