Lenovo ThinkPad T420s

Lenovo's ThinkPad T420s is the business user's ultimate Goldilocks notebook. At 14.1 inches and 4 pounds, the laptop is extremely light and portable, but it's large enough to provide a generous high-res screen, a powerful processor, and a full-sized keyboard and touchpad. However, with a price of $1,349 (as configured), the ThinkPad T420s costs more than heavier 14-inch systems such as the ThinkPad T420 and the HP EliteBook 8460p. Spoiler alert: This lightweight notebook is worth the investment.

Design

From its raven-black soft-touch lid to its strong chrome hinges and elegantly simple black interior, the Lenovo ThinkPad T420s has traditional ThinkPad styling right down to the bright red track point in the middle of its keyboard. Though the system offers few a new riffs on this tried-and-true theme, users will appreciate the clean bottom and sleek sides on the T420s, as well as its large, textured touchpad and dedicated volume and microphone buttons that sit above the keyboard.
At 13.5 x 9.1 x 0.8-1 inches and 4 pounds, the ThinkPad T420s is significantly thinner and lighter than competitors such as the HP Elitebook 8460p (1.3 inches thick 5.4 pounds) and Dell Latitude E6420 (1.3-inch profile, 6.2 pounds with a nine-cell battery). The Toshiba Tecra R840 is just as thin, but it weighs a heavier 4.6 pounds. The ThinkPad T420s is just a tad wider and taller than the previous generation ThinkPad T410s, because Lenovo chose to switch to a wider 16 x 9 screen from the older 16 x 10 standard.

Klutzes will appreciate the durable ABS plastic lid and carbon fiber-reinforced bottom on the T420s. An internal roll cage protects the internal components in the event of a fall. The keyboard has a drainage system that routes spilled liquids out through two drainage holes in the bottom.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Lenovo ThinkPad T420s uses the same, classic-style keyboard we've come to know and love on many other ThinkPads. With a complete set of legacy keys--including the ancient pause and scroll lock keys--and enlarged Esc and Del keys, the T420s keyboard offers a superior typing experience with strong tactile feedback and smile-shaped keys that make it easy to avoid mistypes.

The T420s's long palm rest also provides more than enough room to support adult-sized wrists. The combination of these factors led us to a score of 86 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing test, slightly above our 80-wpm average.
We've long been fans of Lenovo's TrackPoint pointing stick, and the red nub on the ThinkPad T420s continues this proud tradition by offering extremely accurate navigation. The 3.2 x 2-inch textured touchpad was also highly accurate, but multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom were not smooth. The two discrete mouse buttons offer just the right amount of feedback.

Heat

Thanks in part to its dual exhaust ports, the ThinkPad T420s stayed cool during our use. After steaming a video at full screen for 15 minutes, we measured the touchpad at a chilly 84 degrees, the keyboard at a mere 90 degrees, and the bottom at only 91 degrees. We consider temperatures below 95 degrees comfortable.

Display and Audio

The 1600 x 900, matte 14.1-inch display on the T420s offers sharp images and significantly more desktop real estate than the 1366 x 768 panels we see on most other notebooks this size. The difference between 768 and 900 pixels of vertical space is a significant advantage because it can show you several additional lines of text on your favorite web pages, e-mails, and docs without requiring you to scroll.

At 250 nits and with a 300:1 contrast ratio, the ThinkPad T420s's screen isn't especially bright or colorful, but its antiglare surface allows for reasonable viewing angles. We were able to get a decent, though slightly white-washed, view of the desktop at up to 90 degrees to the left or right, but videos got totally washed out at angles greater than 45 degrees.
Though the ThinkPad T420s's speakers are accurate enough for conferencing and playing movies, they sounded somewhat tinny during music playback. The bundled Dobly Home Theater v4 software didn't help much. Disabling this enhancement tech led to louder volumes but even harsher audio.

Ports and Webcam

The ThinkPad T420s has a Kensington lock slot and a Wi-fi on/off switch on the right side. On the back are an Ethernet port, VGA, Display Port out, and two USB ports. The first is a yellow USB port for charging gadgets while the notebook sleeps and a light blue one for connecting super-speed USB 3.0 devices. A memory card reader, headset jack, and a third USB port line the left side.




The 720p webcam captured sharp, accurate images even in low light. When we were chatting on Skype in a room with overhead fluorescent lighting, our call partner reported that fine details of our face were visible, though a little overly bright. When shooting pics in our shadowy office cubicle, our face was a little darker but still sharp, though we got the best color quality when we sat in front of a window on a sunny day.

Lenovo's dual array microphone provides excellent audio capture for conferencing on the T420s. We particularly like the keyboard noise-suppression filter. When the filter was on, our call partner said she could barely detect the sound of our keystrokes as we typed.

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