Lenovo ThinkPad T410: Built for Business

Lenovo ThinkPad Classic: Business Defined

Having put the latest ThinkPad T410 through its paces, we're hardly surprised by most of the results. ThinkPad has always been renowned for their build quality and durability, and the T410 is no exception. It may not look as stylish as other laptops (depending on your definition of style), but no business user would ever feel bad about carrying around a modern ThinkPad. If you're in the market for a business notebook (or if you run an IT department), you'd be remiss to skip the ThinkPad without at least testing a unit.

The ThinkPad Classic is understated yet powerful, with useful utilities to help get the most out of your laptop. The fact that our test unit is able to run under full load with an i5-540M CPU and still keep noise levels at just 33 dB speaks volumes about the engineering. Unlike laptops where the fans will oscillate between low and high RPMs, the T410 has a fan that's quiet but effective at idle and doesn't change speed unless you run heavy load, at which point the noise output roughly "doubles" (a change from ~30 dB to 33 dB). Even with such a potent CPU, the T410 never got more than moderately warm; certainly it's not a laptop that we would be uncomfortable putting on our actual lap.

Besides the excellent build quality—the T410 feels like it could travel around a lot and never skip a beat—our favorite part of the laptop is the keyboard. The feel of the keys is great, and after writing most of this review on the keyboard I can say without a doubt that it's the best laptop keyboard I've used in some time. I did notice that it tended to miss letters occasionally when I was typing fast, as it requires a bit more "force" for clicks to register (basically, you have to make sure to press the keys down far enough). After a few minutes I became more used to the keyboard and didn't have as many missing letters, and 4000 words later I can only wish more laptops would go with this style of keyboard rather than the attractive but less functional chiclet and flat key designs.

The one area where we wish Lenovo had done better is the LCD panel. We're happy to get the option of choosing a WXGA+ resolution (it's standard if you want the NVS 3100M GPU), and we like the matte surface, but higher resolutions don't inherently mean higher quality. The contrast ratio in particular needs help. We know that there are better panels out there—look at the ASUS 1001p or the Dell Precision M6500 for example, and there are plenty more—but such panels will obviously increase manufacturing costs. All we really want is at least a 500:1 contrast ratio, with a maximum brightness of at least 200nits; anything more (in contrast or brightness) is fine, but you definitely get diminishing returns. And whatever manufacturers do, please stop putting sub-200:1 LCDs in otherwise high quality laptops!

Ultimately, the decision often comes down to price, which is the one area where it's a bit difficult to give ThinkPads an explicit recommendation. The T410 is a wonderful laptop for a business user, and if your company is footing the bill then by all means, enjoy! If you're paying for the laptop yourself, you'll need to think a bit more about whether the extra features and build quality are worth $500 extra compared to consumer notebooks. In three years, that same $500 could be put towards a new laptop that would offer better performance than current systems. In fact, you could very easily buy two $800 laptops for the cost of a typical T410! Obviously, build quality doesn't come cheap.

The good news is that at least through the end of March, there's a great sale on the T410 and other ThinkPad laptops at Lenovo. A system similar to our test unit will run about $1275 right now, down from the regular $1720 price. That will get you 4GB DDR3 with the i5-540M and NVS 3100M, a 9-cell battery, Intel 6200 AGN WiFi, a fingerprint scanner, and a 2MP webcam that works better than most webcams we've tried. And unlike consumer laptops, short of outright abuse like dropping your laptop or spilling liquids on it, the T410 will probably last the next five years or more. If you've always wanted a ThinkPad but couldn't quite stomach the price, you might want to look at the current offerings.

If you're interested in other Lenovo products, we have a few other reviews lined up for the coming weeks. Testing is already well underway, so I can safely say that for me the ThinkPad T410 is my favorite of the bunch. Still, if you're looking for CULV alternatives, the IdeaPad 150/450p and ThinkPad Edge 13 reviews might be more your style, so stay tuned.