Lenovo ThinkPad T510 (Review)

Do you exactly know what you’re getting? when you think of buying a ThinkPad? You’re actually getting a black color scheme laptop that’s sturdy and strong with a very different design. This machine is sure to have power and its ready keep you up and running where ever you might be. Recently, Lenovo has added another member in the family of ThinkPad and its T510. Would this ThinkPad fulfill your needs? We’ll find about it later.

Lenovo has hit the store racks again with another previously tried and tested ThinkPad design in T510. An area just above the screen is having an average quality 2-MP web cam and also an overhead keyboard light. The case is made up of plastic material and seems perfect for a 15 inch laptop. What’s surprising to see is, the metal screen hinges add some highlight to the black and gives you a nice and smooth glossy look, it also feels that their durability and strength have increased. ThinkPad T510 is having a vacant space for little ventilation for core i5 processor with an air intake and outlets limited to the rear left corner ; I must say plenty of room for ports and its removable battery. This machine is glaring with indicator lights. Also, with Wifi and hard disc indicators located just at the bottom of the screen. You will also see power and sleep indicators placed at the back side that can be seen with a lid closed and a connection indicator for an option 3G module along with Wi-fi LED.

If you’re a typing specialist, that means you can type up to several hours at a stretch then this machine came over the wires only for people like you. The company has given you one of the most comfortable keyboards to be used this time around and you will feel the difference yourself, endless hours of typing wouldn’t get your fingers teased. There is plenty to do on this little monster and you can carry it along with you for travelling purpose etc. Although, the keyboard seems comfortable while using, there is something unusual about it and that’s having a little too big Caps lock key over it, making it easy to hit by accident. The special function keys through which numerous components can be operated such as, wireless, camera and audio settings, they’re very clearly marked in bright blue color. At the other hand, keyboard is plastered with volume control keys and this Think Vantage button above the keyboard. Also, there are buttons to be used for moving back and forth while browsing.

For a Laptop of this size, Lenovo has fitted it with indeed a very small touch pad and luckily it is very sensitive. It is quite easy to jabber your fingers over to it and get any task done within some seconds, this touch pad is based upon a rid get surface which surprisingly makes it quite easy to make to very slow motions. An addition of a track point finger tip is placed in between the G and H keys. That means, two sets of buttons, an upper set for when you’re using the track point button and the lower set for using the TouchPad. Both of these sets does have a positive feel, though we did find the upper case of buttons a bit more comfortable and it is also having a rare middle mouse button.

Let’s discuss about the multi touch touch pad that supports usual gestures. Only your two fingers are required to scroll, zoom and to rotate. There are also some more finger gestures, one to launch a chosen application and the other one to turn on the navigation system or your browser history ; unlike some machines in the market, all these gestures are very responsive and they do work well without any lag. Don’t worry, if you think you might accidentally add gestures over to the Touch pad. As, the Palm Check option assures that you can only use your fingers. You can select a specific part of area on this TouchPad, where you want all these gestures to be sensed by your machine.

The 15.6 inch screen gives this machine plenty of screen’s real estate, but having 1366 x 786 resolution is not sufficient for this kind of screen size. It is also little at the dim side though you can’t doubt over contrast rations as, they’re fine. We also wanted to see more vibrancy in the colors though we did find the over all after math good. Considering the fact, T510 has integrated graphics, performance was beyond expectations. High definition video play back of 720p was smooth, with no real stutter and all detailed. We got similar performance on the chart when downscaling another 1080p video directly from the Internet.

There is an integration of two large speakers at both of the sides of the keyboard for better audio performance. They’re obviously not carrying a fancy brand name but that doesn’t mean they get you bad sound quality. Over all, the sound quality seems balanced with directional treble and bass. If you prefer using a headphones then,  there is a single socket for both headphones and as well as for microphone, that is very ideal, specially when it comes to making VOIP calls from soft wares like Skype etc. This pair of headphones and microphone is located at the bottom of the screen, a little nearer to the keyboard only for our likings, though the Lenovo’s audio control panel let’s you reduce microphone exposure during the time of typing.

Lenovo has given this edition of their ThinkPad pretty much ports, our test machine came up with 4 USB 2.0 ports and also an unpowered IEE1394 FireWire port followed by seperate VGA and display port video connections. An express card slot is also available to be used, a 5 in one media card reader and last but not the least, a 1GBps Ethernet port, plus, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless and an optional 3G modem).

You wouldn’t want to call this laptop, a lightest one and it’s not the heaviest either. It weighs a friendly 2.67 kg with a backpack. Truly an idea machine for those who are on the road with extra ordinary powerful processing units working in it such as ; M520 2.4GHz CPU although the 300GB mass storage hard drive is not the largest or the fastest we have seen by now. Lenovo ships this tremendous machine with 4-GB of ram and a 64-bit built-in Windows 7 Professional edition. You can also find a removal DVD burner, if you’re planning to watch the movies on the road, you may like to check the blu-ray alternative.

Battery life is good and I’m impressed with it this time around. We were unable to get over four and a quater hours of use out of this standard 57Wh battery, this phenomena happened with Wi-fi turned on and we were browsing the web and using Office. The charging of this battery is surprisingly fast and this is what I personally felt was missing in the previous versions of Lenovo’s Thinkpads. A full charge only takes 2 hours to complete and then you’re all geared up to do fast computing with wireless Internet connectivity.

At the top of the keyboard, you will see a blue button which is placed there to operate the Think Vantage PC management software and this program includes tools for keeping your system up to date. Also, you can monitor your system’s health with Think Vantage and this is one of the most useful soft wares I’ve ever come across for analysing your own machinery. Other parts of Lenovo’s management suits, let’s you manage web passwords, a finger print reader can also be used to lock away your data.

I’m quite surprised at the bundle of soft wares Lenovo has given this Think pad. As you already know that, Office 2010 is out in the markets for almost an year now and it’s quite odd to see this ThinkPad still coming with a trial 2007 Office. While a full copy of Office is better than an Office starter, using a trial 2007 version on a new technology is a bit peculiar. Specially when business men would already be using Office 2010 professional version and they might take a note of this think and might as well write a complain to the company. You will also get a Microsoft’s Essential 2009 bundle that includes ; IM, blogging and other image editing tools. Other bundles include a pack of Noron Anti virus security and I’m pleased to see that its only an installer.

Verdict

This ThinkPad could get you the best computing ever with such a blistering processing unit of core i5, who wouldn’t be satisfied with it? It is by far the fastest ThinkPad you’ll ever come across. It is comfortable and not too heavy that means you can flaunt around with this little machine anywhere, if a gypsy, you can take it on a journey and it won’t disappoint you from any angle. The battery life is incredible and doesn’t take too long to get refilled with power again, the durability as well. We’d have like to see a little more RAM and a little more resolution screen but that’s fine. This is a pure cameo by LENOVO, I’d like to bow down for what they’ve given us.