The new Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL series "Lenovo Thinkpad SL400" is the first line of small business notebooks designed with ThinkPad styling at an affordable price, provides good performance, a fresh new design, mobile broadband, and top-notch support. The Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is the 14.1-inch member of the SL family, It's almost like a cross between a multimedia and a business notebook.
The SL series will initially be introduced in the 14.1-inch SL400 and 15.4-inch SL500 so all the mainstream bases are covered, but there is no large workstation or ultraportable. Both the SL400 and the SL500 start off at $799 , but this depends on the processor, memory, display (1440×900 or 1280×768) and other features you opt for. Like the Notebook Lenovo X300, the Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 has replaced the traditional ThinkPad’s ugly steel hinges with color-coordinated black hinges which are completely hidden when the lid is closed.
The SL400 is running a discrete graphics card, the nVidia GeForce 9300M GS, which eats up more battery resources than integrated graphics do. The SL400 not only produced blazing speeds, it also achieved 4 hours 38 minutes of battery life on MobileMark 2007. The Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 with monitor 14-inch display operates at 1440×900, a respectable widescreen resolution that is big enough for day-to-day use as well as basic multitasking.
The Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is quite solid in terms of build quality, though the plastics used in the chassis construction do give in to some case flex when squeezed. First and foremost is the top of the display lid, which has been given a high gloss reflective surface. The keyboard on the Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 has zero flex and excellent key travel with quiet presses. The keyboard is remarkably similar to the keyboards on the older ThinkPad R-series notebooks.
The number of ports the SL400 has is fairly good and certainly much better than the average budget notebook designed for small business. Here's a run down of the ports:
- 4 USB 2.0 ports
- Firewire
- ExpressCard slot
- Gigabit Ethernet and modem
- 5-in-1 multi-card reader
- Audio out, microphone in
- VGA monitor out
- HDMI (video and audio)
- Kensington lock slot
Following the Notebook FSC Amilo Si3655, the Lenovo Thinkpad SL400 is our second test sample to be equipped with Intel's newest PM45 chipset and the much hyped Montevina Platform. Completing the package, the ThinkPad SL400 has a new Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU at 2.26 GHz and 3MB L2 Cache, It's equipped with 256MB GDDR3 of video memory.
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