Lenovo ThinkPad SL400

Sturdy performer has a stellar screen




LENOVO'S $1,163 THINKPAD SL400 is a well-priced think-and-light business system that has the sturdy feel (and bulky design) of a midsize.

With its smudge-resistant black finish and glossy cover, the SL400's design is pure corporate. The keyboard is soft and easy to work with, and fans of Loenovo's signature TrackPoint pointing stick will be happy to see it here. (There's also a traditional touch pad under the keyboard.) The 14.1-inch matte screen (running at 1,440x900) with an antiglare finish looks as good as (if not better than) some glossy screen we've looked at lately, and it's much better suited for a crowded conference room or office.

Besides looking good, the system's design also functions well, keeping it cool and silent. Its bulk and 5.5-pound weight-especially when paired with the optional nine-cell battery (the standard battery is a three-cell model)-push this system close to midsize models, but the unit more than makes up for this heft with its variety of connectivity options: four USB ports, a FireWire jack, an Express-Card slot, a multiformat memory-card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, VGA out, Bluetooth 2.0, and an HDMI output.

Our review unit, armed with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 and 2GB of RAM, demonstrated improved performance over other thin-and-lights in its price range, though the jump was far from dramatic. Ang gaming is not one of the ThinkPad SL400's strong suits-its 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9300M discrete GPU has limited potential.



Battery life was considerably stronger. With a nine-cell battery, the system lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes in our DVD-rundown test. Prospective DVD-watchers should also know that the speakers of ThinkPad SL400 are a but on the weak size.-Serguei Servianov

Computer Shopper November 2008