New 4th gen Thinkpads are finally here

[ComputerBox34]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/

Finally has 1920x1080...welcome to 2009 Lenovo.

Seems like a lot of people here are saying Lenovo is losing corporate customers. Any reason why? I've been seeing more and more companies going from Latitude -> Thinkpad then the other way around.

 

[jamsomito]

Yeah, my company just switched from lenovo to HP. Not entirely sure why.

 

[Burke Hamblin]

Finally.

Ready to get a T440p, but can't decide if I want the FHD display or not; I have a 1600x900 T420 and at times the text seems too small (I don't really like using the Windows font scaling, either, always looks goofy to me). I can only imagine how small the UI elements would be at 1080p.

 

[hellfire88]

Finally.

Ready to get a T440p, but can't decide if I want the FHD display or not; I have a 1600x900 T420 and at times the text seems too small (I don't really like using the Windows font scaling, either, always looks goofy to me). I can only imagine how small the UI elements would be at 1080p.

I echo that "finally". I've been eyeing the T440p as well. Regarding 1080p on a 14" screen...I have an Alienware 14 which has this. While the IPS is nice for sure, the text size is tiny (for me anyways since I have crappy eyesight) and I also agree with you the DPI scaling looks funky. Its improved in Windows 8.1...but still not great. Also, the high-res stinks when I remote into servers for work-purposes...makes everything tiny.

I wish the HD+ (1600x900 res I think) screen option is IPS as well....but most likely its the same TN screens Lenovo has been using for the older 14" Thinkpads...of which the color quality and black levels stink. After using IPS screens I don't want to go back to TN.

Edit: Looks like Lenovo lists in the T440p specs page that the HD and HD+ screens are TN screens :
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440p/#techspecs

Knowing them they probably recycle the same units from the older T430/T430s/T420 which were pretty shoddy quality contrast-wise.... Guess I'll have to get used to 1080p on 14" screens.

 

[Burke Hamblin]

I echo that "finally". I've been eyeing the T440p as well. Regarding 1080p on a 14" screen...I have an Alienware 14 which has this. While the IPS is nice for sure, the text size is tiny (for me anyways since I have crappy eyesight) and I also agree with you the DPI scaling looks funky. Its improved in Windows 8.1...but still not great. Also, the high-res stinks when I remote into servers for work-purposes...makes everything tiny.

I wish the HD+ (1600x900 res I think) screen option is IPS as well....but most likely its the same TN screens Lenovo has been using for the older 14" Thinkpads...of which the color quality and black levels stink. After using IPS screens I don't want to go back to TN.

The HD+ has been fine for me, save for the times when I want a little more breathing room on snapped pages, so I may just end up with it despite being a TN panel.

When I ordered my T420, I had to look up part numbers on what users reported was the "better quality" panel because even though I paid extra for the HD+, it had a horrible screen door effect. Couldn't unsee it. I'd bet that the HD and HD+ panels Lenovo puts in these new ThinkPads will be the same panels from the previous gen, too.

I have a couple of solid color profiles that helped enormously on my T420; gray is now actually...gray, and there's some...gasp...contrast! instead of everything being milky bluish.

 

[dandragonrage]

If they had released these without the crazy delay, I would have bought one, but now I just upgraded my desktop and I'll stay laptop-less for at least another year. Way to go, Lenovo. I won't claim that the delay will cost them the company because of missed sales, but they honestly did lose at least me as a sale.

They fucked up worse than delaying it, though. GET RID OF THE GODDAMN VGA PORT. I will NOT buy a laptop that has one. PERIOD. I require at least 2 of DP, DVI, HDMI (exception: maximum one HDMI). I don't understand why the downgrade this year. Several previous laptops came with dual DP and stuff, but it seems everyone this year has decided it's 2005 again and has given us VGA.

There is absolutely no reason to still include VGA. Those 0.000001% (slight exaggeration) of us that'll use projectors (the usual reason I see for a VGA port being included) will most likely have a better connection than VGA available these days (projectors have included digital inputs for quite a few years, even the cheapest ones) but if not, they should be using a DP/DVI -> VGA adapter.

Might as well remove all the other useful ports like USB and give us all the other old school connectors like serial and parallel as well. Oh wait - those are actually more useful than VGA.

I just emailed them about it. I even managed to be nice. lol.

 

[Wrench00]

If they had released these without the crazy delay, I would have bought one, but now I just upgraded my desktop and I'll stay laptop-less for at least another year. Way to go, Lenovo. I won't claim that the delay will cost them the company because of missed sales, but they honestly did lose at least me as a sale.

They fucked up worse than delaying it, though. GET RID OF THE GODDAMN VGA PORT. I will NOT buy a laptop that has one. PERIOD. I require at least 2 of DP, DVI, HDMI (exception: maximum one HDMI). I don't understand why the downgrade this year. Several previous laptops came with dual DP and stuff, but it seems everyone this year has decided it's 2005 again and has given us VGA.

There is absolutely no reason to still include VGA. Those 0.000001% (slight exaggeration) of us that'll use projectors (the usual reason I see for a VGA port being included) will most likely have a better connection than VGA available these days (projectors have included digital inputs for quite a few years, even the cheapest ones) but if not, they should be using a DP/DVI -> VGA adapter.

Might as well remove all the other useful ports like USB and give us all the other old school connectors like serial and parallel as well. Oh wait - those are actually more useful than VGA.

I just emailed them about it. I even managed to be nice. lol.

I am a Lenovo partner and I was at their conference and the most requested feature was the VGA connector.

If you are that hard up for monitor connectors just buy a docking station.

 

[dandragonrage]

I am a Lenovo partner and I was at their conference and the most requested feature was the VGA connector.

That problem has been solved for ages via DVI/DP to VGA adapters. You can adapt digital to VGA, but not VGA to digital, thus I'm right. My solution works for everyone. VGA ports work only for people with 15-year-old monitors/projectors or for people who run at 800x600 or otherwise are too blind to see the MAJOR quality loss with VGA at higher resolutions. It was fine when people used 1024x768. It is not fine for 1080p+, even with the best cable in the world. Those of you who asked for a VGA port, please privmsg me your address. I promise the rolls of TP all over your house were put there by those punks down the street.

I did admit in my email to them that it's probably not exactly going to cost them a million sales, but that it did cost mine plus likely one of my friends who is currently laptop shopping (as I normally do recommend Lenovo, but I don't feel like recommending them now even if he doesn't care about dual monitors).

I would be willing to bet that there are a LOT more people who prefer dual digital outs than there are that want 1 digital + 1 VGA. Perhaps the VGA lovers were just more vocal about it.

I would ask that those of you who agree also send an email or other correspondence to Lenovo to ask them to reconsider the VGA port next time. Or go one step further and give 2 digital + 1 VGA output. (and I need 2560x1440, so I'm pretty sure I can't run 2 monitors from the 1 DP with those kind of resolutions, but please do correct me if I am wrong.) As long as they don't take useful ports away (like a second digital monitor output) then I don't care if they include the VGA. In that case i'd still rather have 2 more USB instead of VGA, but at least it wouldn't be a deal breaker.


As for the docking station, they are nice and all but I don't feel it should be a requirement for such a basic feature. Also, do these Thinkpads still have real docking stations, or are they also using stupid USB3 docking stations that are beyond terrible like they do with Ideapad? Hopefully Thinkpads still have them. But I still wouldn't want to pay that much extra money for a basic feature, even if it would also make things more convenient for me. The convenience of a docking station, to me, is not worth the cost. Edit to add: If it happens to be the case that Lenovo INTENDS to force people to buy the docking station for modern monitor connectivity options, then they lost my sale for that - but hey, given that these products were once IBM (king of forcing you to buy a bunch of extra stuff), it's not too surprising!

P.S. I'm not requesting this support for gaming as I don't do much of that (and wouldn't do much of the little I do on a laptop anyway), but I will use it for multimedia, both viewing and encoding stuff.

 

[Burke Hamblin]

The T440p can connect to the ThinkPad Ultra Dock (40A20090XX), ThinkPad Pro Dock (40A10065XX), or ThinkPad Dock (40A00065).

I did not see a battery slice option (yet) on the T440p config page, but that's become a requirement for me, not just for the insane battery life it provides, but also the typing angle.

 

[omega-x]

I might be mistaken, but the T540p appears to have a thunderbolt port. Which solves any digital connectivity issues in one go

 

[omega-x]

I'm honestly more concerned about the loss of expresscard slot on the smaller models.

 

[DrinkTea]

I am a Lenovo partner and I was at their conference and the most requested feature was the VGA connector.

If you are that hard up for monitor connectors just buy a docking station.

Just because people think they want it doesn't mean it's a good idea and should be included. They think they know what they want and they want what they're familiar with. Sometimes realizing the less familiar alternative is better takes time. In this one regard, I respect Apple and other companies that make unpopular decisions for the sake of progress. Not saying they always know what's best, but the customer isn't always right.

 

[ComputerBox34]

Just because people think they want it doesn't mean it's a good idea and should be included. They think they know what they want and they want what they're familiar with. Sometimes realizing the less familiar alternative is better takes time. In this one regard, I respect Apple and other companies that make unpopular decisions for the sake of progress. Not saying they always know what's best, but the customer isn't always right.

Hahahahaha

So you're saying....people don't know what they want?

Sure, Apple does what they want for the sake of "progress" - that's why they have less than 10% of the PC market.

I don't know where you work, but every single conference room I've ever been in still uses the VGA for projector hookups. Who wants to carry an adapter from meeting to meeting?

 

[brinstar117]

I want to try the new trackpoint mouse "buttons" before I even consider this generation. The bump in resolution is welcome.

If anyone ever gets their hands on one of these please report back on with your assessment of the ThinkPad.

 

[The_Moves]

The biggest issue I have with the new generation of Lenovo Laptops are the keyboards... I used a Thinkpad through 4 Years of College and 2 at IBM after, and I love those laptops. I've since moved on and now using HP EliteBooks, which although have great build quality, I don't particularly like. My current EliteBook 8470p I have issues accidently hitting the trackpad while typing which screws up where i'm typing, often time moving the cursor somewhere up the page... also the light for the keyboard is pittiful. I had the previous generation EliteBook, would switch back if I could, and it didn't have these issues.

If I had a choice though, i'd go Thinkpad, and then find a way to convert the keyboard back to the T400 and before style.

 

[thejokker]

They fucked up worse than delaying it, though. GET RID OF THE GODDAMN VGA PORT. I will NOT buy a laptop that has one. PERIOD. I require at least 2 of DP, DVI, HDMI (exception: maximum one HDMI). I don't understand why the downgrade this year. Several previous laptops came with dual DP and stuff, but it seems everyone this year has decided it's 2005 again and has given us VGA.

There is absolutely no reason to still include VGA. Those 0.000001% (slight exaggeration) of us that'll use projectors (the usual reason I see for a VGA port being included) will most likely have a better connection than VGA available these days (projectors have included digital inputs for quite a few years, even the cheapest ones) but if not, they should be using a DP/DVI -> VGA adapter.

Lenovo used to be IBM (International BUSINESS Machines). Businesses are not early adapters but rather tend to be late adapters. While "you" might not need projectors, old fashioned, quasi-technophobic businessmen do. Those are Lenovo's core customers, not hobbyists. Money talks... Lenovo listens...

 

[Meaker]

As already stated you can cheaply adapt DP to VGA and then if you upgrade your equipment all your machines are already DP capable.

 

[Tirilwen]

The T440p can connect to the ThinkPad Ultra Dock (40A20090XX), ThinkPad Pro Dock (40A10065XX), or ThinkPad Dock (40A00065).

I did not see a battery slice option (yet) on the T440p config page, but that's become a requirement for me, not just for the insane battery life it provides, but also the typing angle.

Can the T440s connect to those docks too?

 

[Tirilwen]

A Polish review site found the FHD screen used on the T440p and T440s had a 800:1 contrast ratio and a 99% sRGB color space, with a brightness of 320 nits.

 

[ComputerBox34]

As already stated you can cheaply adapt DP to VGA and then if you upgrade your equipment all your machines are already DP capable.

As already stated, these machines have mini DP and can be used with DP displays at anytime.

 

[Meaker]

Yes but if you want to use 3 displays at once for instance you need a second display port which would add more than the VGA port does.

 

[MrCrispy]

These machines are sold to corporations. 90% of them have projectors that take a VGA input. Do you think people want to -

1. carry around a VGA adapter with them all over the place, and if they forget they can't give that critical business presentation worth real money

or

2. sacrifice one port and have peace of mind, since the other can already be used to drive multiple monitors

If you choose #1 you shouldn't be selling to corporate customers.

 

[Meaker]

At the PNB office we need at least 3 displays in order to do our normal work flow.

The intel chip can only drive 2 monitors UNLESS you have 2 display ports or you use the wireless display technology which is just a bag of worms so actually only having 2 displays being run at any one time (that's including the internal display) is quite a limitation.

 

[ComputerBox34]

At the PNB office we need at least 3 displays in order to do our normal work flow.

The intel chip can only drive 2 monitors UNLESS you have 2 display ports or you use the wireless display technology which is just a bag of worms so actually only having 2 displays being run at any one time (that's including the internal display) is quite a limitation.

The amount of users who use VGA for projector connections vs. those who need 3 high-res displays are pretty lopsided if you ask me.

Money talks.

 

[dandragonrage]

These machines are sold to corporations. 90% of them have projectors that take a VGA input. Do you think people want to -

1. carry around a VGA adapter with them all over the place, and if they forget they can't give that critical business presentation worth real money

or

2. sacrifice one port and have peace of mind, since the other can already be used to drive multiple monitors

If you choose #1 you shouldn't be selling to corporate customers.

Do you seriously not see the obvious answer of leave the damn adapters with the projectors? I'm sorry, but technology shouldn't be driven (or, rather, held back) by some businesses (90%? lol...) that don't want to upgrade projectors. There is absolutely no way that most of these are getting used with projectors. I guarantee you at most a few percent will.

 

[MrCrispy]

Do you seriously not see the obvious answer of leave the damn adapters with the projectors? I'm sorry, but technology shouldn't be driven (or, rather, held back) by some businesses (90%? lol...) that don't want to upgrade projectors. There is absolutely no way that most of these are getting used with projectors. I guarantee you at most a few percent will.

Number of Thinkpads used with projectors >>>>>>>>>>>>>> no. used with 3 displays. It's not even going to be close.

You've clearly not used them for this purpose. Try going to client meetings in different cities/buildings and then whine about how they should have adapters for every projector, or upgrade them, see how well that goes.

Seriously, do you guys think Lenovo is stupid? Do you think a major decision like this gets made without consulting their customers?

Guess what, decisions like this ARE driven by customer demands.

 

[Meaker]

It's still a negative for most non corporate customers who can't work around the 2 display limitation without making sacrifices though.

 

[ComputerBox34]

It's still a negative for most non corporate customers who can't work around the 2 display limitation without making sacrifices though.

and who do you think buys these laptops in greater numbers?

Not everyone can be happy.

 

[Meaker]

Why be happy with a comprise on this non corporate forum? There could have been other potential solutions like an adapter that can affix to the unit to allow it to retain both VGA and DP functionality or by simply also having two mini display ports on the machine.

 

[MrCrispy]

You're not getting it - given the market for these, removing the VGA port is not an option! That's it.

The Thinkpad is not a consumer line and will never make any compromise to benefit consumers at the expense of corporate customers.

'Non corporate forum' is funny, as if what we say on [H] matters to Lenovo.

 

[Tirilwen]

Why be happy with a comprise on this non corporate forum? There could have been other potential solutions like an adapter that can affix to the unit to allow it to retain both VGA and DP functionality or by simply also having two mini display ports on the machine.

I'd email your suggestion to their engineering team or design team if you wish to have this in future models. I'm not being sarcastic, just saying that's how you can reach them with your ideas. Even if you convince us it's not going to amount to much.

Personally, I think compromises MUST be made in a laptop of this size. And I believe it is also something intrinsic to engineering.

 

[kevinsbane]

Do you seriously not see the obvious answer of leave the damn adapters with the projectors? I'm sorry, but technology shouldn't be driven (or, rather, held back) by some businesses (90%? lol...) that don't want to upgrade projectors. There is absolutely no way that most of these are getting used with projectors. I guarantee you at most a few percent will.

How is the removal of VGA a positive thing, given the amount of legacy hardware floating around?

Among all the dozen or so people I know using Thinkpads with external monitors, 100% (one hundred percent of them) use external monitors and projectors via VGA. One. Hundred. Percent. I'm trying to wean them off, but it's slow going when all of them still have VGA monitors and projectors.

You know how many people I know use their Thinkpad with DisplayPort, or via adapters? Just me. I'm the only one. One other guy uses DVI via a docking port. The biggest reason for this is that almost 100% of legacy monitors (what most people have) have VGA. Almost none have DisplayPort, or even HDMI. No one I know has an adapter cable for even DisplayPort-> DVI or DisplayPort->HDMI.

And you want it gone? Yes, DisplayPort is better. DisplayPort is the future (and I refuse to buy a laptop without DisplayPort) Even HDMI is better. But they are only better technically. They may not be better solutions to the problems that people face when having to deal with their VGA/DVI monitors. To refuse to buy something because it happens to support legacy technology smacks of a kind of chronological snobbery that makes no sense.

Edit: So now we need a VGA->DisplayPort adapter for the Thinkpads. At every legacy VGA display we interface with. And you still need to carry around an adapter if you go out to another company for a presentation just in case their setup doesn't have the right adapters. How is that a better solution than just including the VGA port on your laptop, and getting a docking station for output to your multiple monitors? I mean, it would cost less than buying multiple adapters for all the legacy VGA display devices and it would even provide additional functionality.

 

[rudy]

If they had released these without the crazy delay, I would have bought one, but now I just upgraded my desktop and I'll stay laptop-less for at least another year. Way to go, Lenovo. I won't claim that the delay will cost them the company because of missed sales, but they honestly did lose at least me as a sale.

They fucked up worse than delaying it, though. GET RID OF THE GODDAMN VGA PORT. I will NOT buy a laptop that has one. PERIOD. I require at least 2 of DP, DVI, HDMI (exception: maximum one HDMI). I don't understand why the downgrade this year. Several previous laptops came with dual DP and stuff, but it seems everyone this year has decided it's 2005 again and has given us VGA.

There is absolutely no reason to still include VGA. Those 0.000001% (slight exaggeration) of us that'll use projectors (the usual reason I see for a VGA port being included) will most likely have a better connection than VGA available these days (projectors have included digital inputs for quite a few years, even the cheapest ones) but if not, they should be using a DP/DVI -> VGA adapter.

Might as well remove all the other useful ports like USB and give us all the other old school connectors like serial and parallel as well. Oh wait - those are actually more useful than VGA.

I just emailed them about it. I even managed to be nice. lol.

Probably because when they skipped the VGA port a ton of people complained, it can be a cyclical thing. All I know is every projector around me that I use which is about 6 of them has VGA + VGA cable. Some of them are ceiling mounted so their is not reasonable option to pipe in HDMI. 1 of them actually has a reasonable HDMI cable sitting out to use, which is nice. But that's it. But most of them would require me to bring my own cable if I didn't have a VGA port so quite frankly I love the VGA port. AFAIK VGA is a not costly to add, my laptop has VGA, DP and HDMI, and I like it that way. On my personal second monitor I use DP but for everything else because of VGA I don't have to lug any extra adapters around like all the mac folks.

Also some projectors have adapters but its rare and my guess is because they get stolen.

I really think it would be better if these companies upgraded, heck I think it would solve a lot of their tech problems since newer ports like HDMI and DP automatically set the right resolution ETC.... But we cant expect that, the few projectors I have seen do not use DP just HDMI or DVI

 

[JaguarSKX]

I'm looking at the T440p or more likely the T540p for personal use. I have an old IBM ThinkPad T40 with the original CMOS and main batteries. Still works after a long, rough start up 'cause of the dead CMOS battery.

The one feature I am sure that will feel quite different is the keyboard. I really like old keyboard style, but there is something known as "progress" and "adaptation", so I suppose I will find out how good the new keyboard will be.

Personally, I don't really care about trackpoint or the trackpad; I've alway use a wireless mouse with a laptop. I would only use the trackpad if the mouse's battery dies (never happened) or I forgot to bring the mouse with me (happened 2 or 3 times). Whether it has physical buttons or it is just one flat surface, using the trackpad is awkward for me since I don't use it very often. My point device of choice is the Logitech Performance MX mouse.

Personally, I don't care about whether or not it has a VGA port. As pointed out several times this thread, someone like me is not Lenovo's core customer base.I generally don't care about connecting an external display to the laptop. I have never done so before, and I don't really plan on doing so in the future... Actually, I did use the HDMI of my Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 once to connect it to a friend's HDTV, but that was only done for diagnostic purposes. Apparently the HDMI port of her Blu-Ray player died.

I am definitely going for the 1920x1080 IPS screen. I am sick of looking at TN panels and the 1366x768 resolution screen on my Y470 makes it very difficult to multi-task. The 3K resolution screen seems intriguing, but I don't know how that will look on a 15.5" screen and it is likely an expensive upgrade option.

Not sure if I wanna toss in $125 - $150 for the nVidia GT 730m. It is more of a luxury for me. Then again buying a T440p / T540p for personal use is a luxury in itself.

 

[Burke Hamblin]

I've chatted with three different Lenovo reps over the past few days and they have all confirmed that Lenovo will not be offering a slice battery for the T440p (and, I assume any of their new ThinkPads).

Deal breaker for me, since I want/need the epic battery life the slice provides (which would be a boon even considering Haswell's already fantastic battery life), but also because of the typing angle it provides.

I'm now looking at other brands, but man, Dell's really dumbed down their config options these days. And HP? :shudder:

 

[dandragonrage]

Probably because when they skipped the VGA port a ton of people complained, it can be a cyclical thing. All I know is every projector around me that I use which is about 6 of them has VGA + VGA cable. Some of them are ceiling mounted so their is not reasonable option to pipe in HDMI. 1 of them actually has a reasonable HDMI cable sitting out to use, which is nice. But that's it. But most of them would require me to bring my own cable if I didn't have a VGA port so quite frankly I love the VGA port. AFAIK VGA is a not costly to add, my laptop has VGA, DP and HDMI, and I like it that way. On my personal second monitor I use DP but for everything else because of VGA I don't have to lug any extra adapters around like all the mac folks.

This is getting a bit ridiculous... Why are you all refusing to understand what I said correctly? It's not because there IS a VGA that there is a problem, but that the VGA port prevents digital dual-monitor setups. VGA is always crappy at higher resolutions. I'm sorry, but the few people who use projectors (I realize these are business laptops, but I'm sorry, most business people still don't do presentations, even though there are some departments in some companies that do have several people that do) can deal with using an adapter. Give us DVI and mDP and the adapter they need will be under a dollar and CAN BE KEPT WITH PROJECTORS. Even if you guys DO work with TONS of people who do presentations, how many projectors would you need to buy these $.50 adapters for? Not many. I'm sure a couple of you will claim that they work with 34,000 people that do presentations on 2,500 projectors and there is no money for adapters, but it'll be obvious BS.

DVI and DP can easily be converted to VGA without quality loss (I mentioned DVI above because the adapters are much cheaper, but DP can also do it) and VGA cannot be converted back to a digital signal without significant quality loss.

Then half of you went and assumed that I wanted triple outputs... Really? I said I don't care if they wanted to accomplish it that way, but I never requested they do that.

Lenovo can do what they want, but I'm not interested in old technology.

 

[kevinsbane]

This is getting a bit ridiculous... Why are you all refusing to understand what I said correctly? It's not because there IS a VGA that there is a problem, but that the VGA port prevents digital dual-monitor setups.

Because you said the following...

They fucked up worse than delaying it, though. GET RID OF THE GODDAMN VGA PORT. I will NOT buy a laptop that has one. PERIOD. I require at least 2 of DP, DVI, HDMI (exception: maximum one HDMI). I don't understand why the downgrade this year. Several previous laptops came with dual DP and stuff, but it seems everyone this year has decided it's 2005 again and has given us VGA.

There is absolutely no reason to still include VGA. Those 0.000001% (slight exaggeration) of us that'll use projectors (the usual reason I see for a VGA port being included) will most likely have a better connection than VGA available these days (projectors have included digital inputs for quite a few years, even the cheapest ones) but if not, they should be using a DP/DVI -> VGA adapter.

You did not mention that you were frustrated that you couldn't set up a high-res dual monitor display with a Thinkpad without a dock. You just raged against a useful legacy port (which is probably currently used in more monitors/projectors than DVI, HDMI and DP combined) for no apparent reason other than the fact that it's legacy.

Face it. VGA is gonna stick around until at least the entire last generation of laptops finally dies out. Which is probably gonna be another 2-3 years.

Perhaps you should invest in a dock. This dock comes with 2x DVI and 2x DP. I got one of those for $120. Then you can save yourself the increase in blood pressure of raging against a useful legacy port and we can stop riling you up by raging about your chronological snobbery. That's what I ended up doing for my coworkers.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Perhaps you should invest in a dock. This dock comes with 2x DVI and 2x DP. I got one of those for $120. Then you can save yourself the increase in blood pressure of raging against a useful legacy port and we can stop riling you up by raging about your chronological snobbery. That's what I ended up doing for my coworkers.

Agreed, 100%.

Seriously, can you not see the point of VGA on a laptop? A LOT of home users still have VGA LCDs. A lot of corporate users are driving old LCDs via VGA. Every conference room has VGA. I work at a company with 60,000+ Lenovo workstations. I see people carrying around laptops open to meetings...do you think they want to remember their HDMI->VGA adapters? Plus, honestly, HDMI sucks a bit as a physical port - it tends to fall out, ports break from the weight of the hdmi cable, etc. Sure it's convenient, but as a port it's actually kinda sucky.

And VGA is FINE at high rez. It looked just like digital on my 110" DLP projector at 720p, and it looked great on my 24" FW900 CRT at 1920x1200. In fact, for long runs, it's a LOT easier to run analog like VGA than it is HDMI - another reason conference rooms still tend to have VGA, I'm sure. Long runs of digital, esp HDMI, can be a PITA.

When I drive two monitors, I use one VGA and one via DVI or HDMI. OMG It's not all digital, the horror! Digital (HDMI, DVI, DP, etc) is *technically* better but in reality for most purposes it's pretty close to indistinguishable. I'd bet you couldn't pick out an HDMI cable from VGA at 1920x1200 in a double blind test. I'm sure for those that want to drive single VERY high rez displays with dual-link setups or whatever it's not going to work, but that's an even tinier portion of the public than folks using more than 2 monitors.

 

[ComputerBox34]

Agreed, 100%.

Seriously, can you not see the point of VGA on a laptop? A LOT of home users still have VGA LCDs. A lot of corporate users are driving old LCDs via VGA. Every conference room has VGA. I work at a company with 60,000+ Lenovo workstations. I see people carrying around laptops open to meetings...do you think they want to remember their HDMI->VGA adapters? Plus, honestly, HDMI sucks a bit as a physical port - it tends to fall out, ports break from the weight of the hdmi cable, etc. Sure it's convenient, but as a port it's actually kinda sucky.

And VGA is FINE at high rez. It looked just like digital on my 110" DLP projector at 720p, and it looked great on my 24" FW900 CRT at 1920x1200. In fact, for long runs, it's a LOT easier to run analog like VGA than it is HDMI - another reason conference rooms still tend to have VGA, I'm sure. Long runs of digital, esp HDMI, can be a PITA.

When I drive two monitors, I use one VGA and one via DVI or HDMI. OMG It's not all digital, the horror! Digital (HDMI, DVI, DP, etc) is *technically* better but in reality for most purposes it's pretty close to indistinguishable. I'd bet you couldn't pick out an HDMI cable from VGA at 1920x1200 in a double blind test. I'm sure for those that want to drive single VERY high rez displays with dual-link setups or whatever it's not going to work, but that's an even tinier portion of the public than folks using more than 2 monitors.

Most laptops can't support resolutions higher than 1920x1080 out of their VGA cards anyway.

No, I think it's clear he's never had to work in an environment with hundreds, let alone thousands, of users who don't know the difference between a VGA cable and HDMI cable. They expect to walk into a conference room, plug in their computer, and have everything work automagically. Adding the element of needing to plug in an adapter would easily contribute to an increase of tickets and even more hate towards IT.

 

[TechLarry]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/

Finally has 1920x1080...welcome to 2009 Lenovo.

Seems like a lot of people here are saying Lenovo is losing corporate customers. Any reason why? I've been seeing more and more companies going from Latitude -> Thinkpad then the other way around.

Possibly because their "Next business day" onsite service has become "We'll be there between noon Tuesday and Thursday"

If parts are on back-order, they don't even call the customer to inform them.

Repair orders get cancelled for no apparent reason.