It hardly bends when the case is lifted up at its edges. The display components stand up well to our warp and pressure tests. The case can yield somewhat and creak under selective pressure. So, in the Ultra Bay slot's area and on the plastic cover above the keyboard. But it still shows the same weaknesses known from the T400. The case's stability is basically satisfying. However, the matt and slightly roughened surfaces don't feel unpleasant. The haptics correspond to the choice of materials. The almost completely black case has been made from plastic. No modifications can be found in color or material choice, either. The measurements for comparison: 30.5x340.5x233mm for the T420 and 32x336x239 for the T410.Īlbeit, as we will see in a moment, quite a few changes have been made on connectivity, Lenovo sticks to the proven, light clamshell design. The same applies for the laptop's height and width, whereas the depth has interestingly gained a bit.
For one thing, the display's diagonal has slightly shrunk from 14.1 inches to 14 inches. We will show to what extent both vying notebooks differ in detail.Īt first glance, The T420 doesn't seem to differ from the T410 much. While Dell has opted for a completely new design, Lenovo contrarily sticks to the tested and tried Thinkpad design for the Thinkpad T420. The Thinkpad T420 can practically be seen as an immediate opponent of the basically similarly configurable Latitude E6420 from Dell.
Consequently, the rating of performance contingent parts is dependent on the real configuration and can't necessarily be applied to other models. Aside from various Core i processors, the T420 is also available with a dedicated NVIDIA NVS 4200M graphics card and Optimus technology – at least in the USA. This configuration is supported by a four gigabyte DDR3 main memory and a fast 500 GB hard disk with a revolution speed of 7200 rpm. The incorporated graphics chip, Intel HD Graphics 3000, is exclusively available for video output in our test model. Inside an Intel Core i7 2620M CPU does its job.
The test device's full name is T420 4236-NGG. Essentially, the Tx20 laptops only differ from the previous models, called T410 and T510, by a hardware refresh to the new Sandy Bridge processors. Adjacently, the 15 inch model, T520, is also offered and in review at the same time. Our test device is the 14 incher from the T-series, called T420. In return, the X-series scores with a greater mobility. The T-series wants to "offer the best security, manageability, services and support" according to Lenovo's homepage, and thus sets itself apart from the top of the significantly stronger W-series. Lenovo has doubtlessly made a name for itself in the business field with the Thinkpad notebooks.