ThinkPad T430s: The Source of My Computing Happiness

 

You can call me jaded, or simply a "crackpot", but I've gotta say, that I'm pretty happy these days. In the last post, I discuss my return to my computing roots by migrating from the X1 (not "Carbon") to the T430s. However, that post mostly discuss the philosophical/emotional sense of why making that move was a comfort zone thing for me and I really didn't discuss the machine much at all. Today, I'm going to get as close to reviewing a product as I ever get. So, here goes.

Let's start with a history lesson. My first ThinkPad was a 701c "Butterfly", which as an engineering "tour de force", but not really a full every day working machine. After a couple of years in the late 90's of using it as a coffee shop machine, I bought myself my first true ThinkPad love, the 600. It was just the perfect size to get work of all kinds done and was absolutely a "no compromise" machine. It's build quality was probably the high-water mark of all ThinkPads back in the day when IBM could and did charge $4000-5000 a-pop for their high-end machines.

Over time, I progressed to the T20 line that succeeded the 600, ultimately owning all the models in succession; T20, T21, T22p, and my favorite, the T23p. If you'll note the "p" suffix; it stands for "professional", and significantly for me, the model with a "high resolution" LCD panel, which at the time was 1400 x 1050. That's when I fell for the concept of high pixel density and screen real estate in the mid-sized (14") panel. I actually hung on to the T23p for quite some time, refusing to upgrade to the next series.

But, eventually, I gave in and moved on to the T4x Series. This next evolution was not only thinner (arguably started the current trend of "ultra-thin" notebooks), but marked Intel's return to power efficiency after the dead-end of using the P4 in notebooks. That was such a dark time that I'm choosing to not depict the T30 that I owned for less than a year! I would go on to have a T40, T41p, and (again my favorite of that generation) the last of model T42p. Yes, I'm aware that there was a T43, but I don't count that since it was really a cobbled together "transition" machine with a weird chipset that used a SATA hard drive on a PATA board! I feel better now... Oh yeah; then there was a the problems with the transition to lead-free solder as mandated by the Europeans which led to BGA issues with the ATI graphics processors. I was so put off by all this, I diverged onto the "X Series" for several years. 

Those were really nice machine, and in many ways reminescent of the "600" years, especially the 13" panels. Then the larger "X Series" went the "designer" route and.....

..... I 'm back. Back to where I started. The "mid-sized" machine that has all the more typical features without being too big or heavy to carry around. So, let's look at why this is a great machine for me. Let's start with the keyboard. I'm not wild about the layout, but it's the best "feel" (subjectively of course) of any ThinkPad I've owned since the 600x. I miss the page forward/back functions, but I like the optional back-lit, and the Delete key being on the end vs. in the middle of the keys. I really like the fact that it still has actual buttons for volume, mute and mic. I will never own a T440 because of Lenovo's ill-fated design mis-step of removing the mousing buttons. It was so poorly received, the they were restored the very next model in the Tx5x machines!

Other specs that I really love? Here's a list for ya:

• Way more screen real estate in 1600 x 900 vs. the 1366 x 768 on my X1. This is a really big deal to me! And on this screen, are honest to gosh latches! I like the old style ThinkPads where the fit of the lid became part of the rigidity of the entire unit when the machine is carried. The latchless screens are just something I didn't prefer. They simply didn't feel solid to me. These are like closing the door on a high-end German car.
• On board optical drive. Although I rarely used it, I like having it there. Especially since the penalty for it's inclusion is only a few ounces more weight AND virtually No footprint gain at all.
• UltraBay. This feature not only gave me the optical drive, but a flexible platform to put in another battery, or another hard drive. You might be wondering ..... why, on a machine that has the OS living in an 512Gb mSATA SSD, and a 2.5" SATA-3 bay holding a 600Gb SSD!?! It's not for storage. It's really so that when I'm at a client location, I can throw a client's drive into an adapter and access data as necessary. This is a bigger deal than you might think. I've found that, on failing drives, when an external enclosure fails to get it going, having it mount internally will often do the trick.
• Replaceable main battery is something I prefer. I know I can replace the internal battery in an "ultrabook", but I'd prefer to be able to just carry around a spare if I want/need to. 

And that I get all this at 3.9 vs. 3.7 pounds of the X1 is basically no penalty at all for me. Am I going to be able to tell the difference between the Sandy Bridge i5-2520m of the X1 to the i5-3320m of the T430s? I doubt it. I will say this (as small as it might sound), I'm really going to enjoy not having to pull out the rubber cover over the headphone jack though! This might be the single most annoying "feature" on the X1! What am I giving up? Probably the "cache" of owning a design-intensive "halo" product. But you know what? I'm 55! My days of wanting a product with "cache" are well-over..... if it ever was a thing in my world anyway......