4 ms·

Even with powertop and and eye for cutting things, odds are you are ending up with worse battery performance than a Lenovo-supported drop of Windows 7. Which is

Even with powertop and and eye for cutting things, odds are you are ending up with worse battery performance than a Lenovo-supported drop of Windows 7. Which is sad because it's not great battery life for not great performance, the T420 is also a pretty underpowered machine for developer use. I'm not going to fisk your post otherwise. I have better things to do. I will point out that due to the way Lenovo updates models over time, it's entirely possible for mutiple people to buy "T420s" and end up with different-enough components that you'd need to tweak drivers to get things to work right. So "Your T420" may not be someone else's "T420." This is provably the case for my T520, and supposedly the case for the T61.

eitally 14y ago
Actually, you're mostly wrong on that last point. We are an enterprise customer of Lenovo's for both laptops & desktops and they are quite good about maintaining stability within a model range for at least 9-12mo, and they always tell us at least a quarter in advance of any changes... and they provide imaging services if a customer wants to pay for it (Windows or Linux). There's still enough IBM alive at Lenovo for them to care about engineers.
- KirinDave 14y ago
  Their consumer facing division cared little for me or my problems. Evidently I didn't pay enough for support, even though my problems were all well within the first 90 days of purchase. I've had some of the worst customer service I can imagine from them, both at the policy and individual level. But it is ABSOLUTELY the case that my T520 has a slightly different configuration than most of the T520s I come across. There is no argument allowed here: this is fact. It's also ABSOLUTELY the case that Lenovo couldn't replace my latpop with a new one because I ordered a very popular processor option that was repeatedly out of stock. Twice now I've been offered replacement downgrades without even so much as an offer of credit. Twice I've refused, and twice I've gotten back a laptop with the same exact problem. So perhaps I am just not enterprisey enough.

eitally 14y ago

Actually, you're mostly wrong on that last point. We are an enterprise customer of Lenovo's for both laptops & desktops and they are quite good about maintaining stability within a model range for at least 9-12mo, and they always tell us at least a quarter in advance of any changes... and they provide imaging services if a customer wants to pay for it (Windows or Linux). There's still enough IBM alive at Lenovo for them to care about engineers.

KirinDave 14y ago
Their consumer facing division cared little for me or my problems. Evidently I didn't pay enough for support, even though my problems were all well within the first 90 days of purchase. I've had some of the worst customer service I can imagine from them, both at the policy and individual level. But it is ABSOLUTELY the case that my T520 has a slightly different configuration than most of the T520s I come across. There is no argument allowed here: this is fact. It's also ABSOLUTELY the case that Lenovo couldn't replace my latpop with a new one because I ordered a very popular processor option that was repeatedly out of stock. Twice now I've been offered replacement downgrades without even so much as an offer of credit. Twice I've refused, and twice I've gotten back a laptop with the same exact problem. So perhaps I am just not enterprisey enough.