Leonard F. Bell
- التعليق
I bought this "recertified" laptop with some trepidation, since I have had mixed success with such purchases in the past. However, I consider this purchase is an unqualified success. For background, I do not need a personal laptop much except when I travel. I build my own desktop PCs and I have a pretty robust rig in my man-cave for most needs at home, plus a HTPC in the family room. I therefore dont want to sink a lot of money into something I only use occasionally. On the other hand, knowing a thing or two about computers, I found the new offerings in the $300-$350 range to be pretty disappointing to say the least. Were pretty much talking a cheaply built piece of flimsy plastic with 4GB of RAM and a clunky processor at that price point. A prime example being the Acer piece of junk my new ThinkPad T430 is replacing. So my conundrum was how to get prime rib performance and quality on a hamburger budget (and no, Im not a vegetarian!). My computer at work gave me the basis for my solution. My work computer is a HP ProBook laptop that plugs into a docking station at work and I take it home on the weekends and some evenings. I have had my current ProBook for about two years. Being a government computer, it is pretty much clobbered with government software and connects via a sluggish network but with 8GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor, it has performed as well as one could expect and has held up exceptionally well to daily use (nearly 7 days a week due to the nature of my job .. BTW, think about that the next time you sneer at civil service folks since some of us do have real jobs!). So I started looking for recertified HP ProBooks and EliteBooks but after reading lots of reviews that compared them with Lenovo ThinkPads, I expanded my search to include those. Although I have not had a ThinkPad since they were owned by IBM, the T430s looked like the best bang for the buck and so far, that seems to have been a very good call. So here is a summary of my mostly positive experience so far. As some reviewers have mentioned, the computer arrives well packaged. True statement and thats more than I can say about Amazons outer box, which was way too big, allowing the inner box to move around a lot. Fortunately, the inner packaging (highly recyclable, BTW) kept the computer snug and reasonably protected from shock. I expected to see some wear and scratches and found none, zero, nada, zilch, goose-egg and null-set instances of blemishes. The ruggedly superb build quality was clearly evident from the moment I opened the box. I nearly broke into a happy dance but fortunately thought better of it. The first boot-up was pleasantly uneventful. Windows 10 ran its usual start-up wizards, giving me gentle prompts for WiFi connection, log-in to my Microsoft account, etc.. No drama there. Once the initial set up was complete, Windows of course asked if I wanted to install updates. Pro-tip: say yes, since much of that are security updates but then expect the process to take a while (2 hours in my case since there was a big service pack involved). Its worth it though. Once updated, I did the next thing I always do with a new laptop, namely embarking on a search and destroy mission for bloatware. This was the only real surprise in the whole out-of-box experience. Amazingly, no bloatware! I went to the uninstall programs section in Control Panel and found maybe five items listed, all of which the laptop needed. Pleasantly surprised, I moved on to load my personal apps and configure Windows the way I have it on my other computers. No glitches and superb, smooth performance throughout. A word to the wise, although a computer "can" run Windows 10 on 4GB, I consider 8GB to be the minimum for decent performance. I may upgrade to 16GB down the road but the performance I have seen so far puts that much lower on my to-do list. Looking ahead, I plan to upgrade the T430 to a SSD at some point. For upgraders, the ease with which you can access the HDD and RAM was one of the big selling points for buying a corporate grade laptop. In contrast, the Acer that I am relegating to the recycle bin required extensive disassembly and removal of the motherboard to access the RAM. No, really, I am not exaggerating! Check YouTube. My ThinkPad T430 is clearly a keeper! Okay, so this would not be a proper Amazon review unless I found something negative to say, so this is the best I can come up with: 1) Amazon needs to stop using trained bears in their packaging section. Jeez! I am glad I have that off my chest. 2) A printed "quick-start" guide in the box would have been nice. For instance, the day after initial start-up, I got the "Activate Windows" message on my desktop. I am well used to this process on my desktop builds but I have not needed to do that on a newly purchased laptop before since they are typically pre-activated at the factory. I briefly thought, "oh crap, here we go with unlicensed software," but to my relief, the authenticity label was right where it was supposed to be on the bottom. However, what all purchasers might not notice is a "scratch-off" section obscuring part of the activation code. I happened to notice that from experience but I am not sure everyone would. With the complete activation code revealed, activation was a snap. A couple page guide that covers "expectation management" kind of things such as the activation process, wouldnt be that hard or expensive, would it? Come on, guys! 3) While I hate bloatware and other unnecessary stuff occupying hard drive space, it would have been a nice touch to include the Lenovo User Manual on the hard drive (and pointed out in the aforementioned quick-start guide). Its easy enough to download but it would have been a thoughtful inclusion. 4) If you have read the other reviews, you probably already know the T430 does not have HDMI. Not a deal-breaker for me and Ill probably buy an adapter just in case I need to connect to a HDMI display for some reason. But if you absolutely must have HDMI installed, youll need to look elsewhere. So there, I told you too. But I think having 4 USB ports, 2 of which are USB-3, more than compensates since I never met a USB port I didnt like (and use). Thats as close to negative as I can get. Otherwise, my T430 and I are off to a great start. Some users who look at a computer as an appliance may be put off by the lack of additional software. No, this does not have Microsoft Office installed, so dont ask in Amazons Questions and Answers section and youd probably get some clown telling you "I dont know" anyway. Snarky comments aside, I cannot recommend this to someone absolutely lacking in computer skills and would suggest that those folks stick to their iPhones and tablets (still a bit snarky, huh?). But for those in my situation who are not intimidated by the Windows 10 environment, can live without leading/bleeding edge technology but still want a durable and reliable laptop, youve come to the right place. The notable exception would be gamers and you poor suckers are going to have to plunk-down the big bucks for a gaming laptop if mobility is that important to you. Hint: Desktops still have a role and gaming is one of the reasons! So with the above caveats noted, the Lenovo ThinkPad T430 gets five stars and my strongest recommendation. This piece of cyber prime rib is delicious!