On 02/02/2015 11:44 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
| From: John Moniz <john.moniz@sympatico.ca>
| I went back to the store to re-examine the T410 more closely and to look into | the T420 as someone suggested. My attention switched to a T520 that he had | available for $20 more than the T410. It has Intel wifi (Centrino) and | switchable graphics (Intel & Nvidia). It presently has nvidia but he said I | could get intel graphics instead. I don't know if this switchable thing means | that I can swap graphics cards. | | Unless someone sounds an alarm soon, I'll be buying the T520 later in the | week.
To me, the display resolution is important. You can get anything from 1366x768, 1440x900(?), 1920x1080. There may be an IPS screen option too, which is quite nice. You haven't mentioned the resolutions on the models you are considering. Does it not matter to you?
The Intel + Nvidia choice is probably better than straight Intel. After all, you can chose which to use (as Lennart pointed out). For my use, the Nvidia would probably not be important, but I'd take it if it was inexpensive or free.
Clearly the T4x0 is easier to carry than the T5x0.
We have T520, W520, and T530 and they seem to be pretty good workhorses. But my main notebook is a Lenovo Yoga 2 pro and that is much better as a portable device (more screen resolution, lighter, thinner, longer battery life). As workstations, the Thinkpads are much more powerful and upgradeable/repairable. --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
The screen resolution is not great but it suits my needs (1366x768). And it does have a multi card reader. Unfortunately, it has no USB3. The specs in general are good, but not the latest greatest. Overall, I think it's not only good for my application, it's also a good fit for Linux (as per all the feedback, for which I am grateful as it puts my mind at ease). Thanks, John.