Type: General Purpose, Business, Small BusinessOperating System: Microsoft Windows Vista
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Weight: 6 lb
Screen Size: 14.1 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9300 M GS
Storage Capacity: 160 GB
Networking Options: 802.11n Business
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 incorporates the ThinkPad keyboard, TrackPoint pointing stick, touchpad, and another set of mouse buttons to provide dual pointing devices. With keyboard and navigation components that are the best in the industry, typing and navigating on a ThinkPad is an experience like no other. There are also physical volume buttons to the left of the keyboard. Though it doesn't say "ThinkVantage," a nameless blue button launches lenovo. Dell 1310 and the Toshiba U400 also offer this type of flexibility. Care—a suite of proprietary applications that you can use to manage power settings, wireless connections, and maintenance. (lenovo Care is a subset of the ThinkVantage suite that's been carried over from the 3000 line). Some might consider this suite bloatware, so lenovo offers the option of leaving this sort of management software and third-party applications off when configuring an "SL" ThinkPad.
Although the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 succeeds in retaining many of the ThinkPad qualities, lenovo does several things to differentiate it, such as a glossy black top. 'The styling not meant to be cutting-edge—in fact, it's similar to what Dell did with the Vostro 1310, which was to find the line between conservative and chic and hang on to it for dear life. To keep production costs down, the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is part plastic, part magnesium alloy, so it's not as sturdy as, say, the lenovo ThinkPad X200 and ThinkPad T61 Widescreen. Even more impressive is the energy efficiency that this processor brings to the table.
The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 not only produced blazing speeds, it also achieved 4 hours 38 minutes of battery life on MobileMark 2007. Though this battery score doesn't sound as impressive as the X200's 6-hour one, keep in mind that the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is running a discrete graphics card—the nVidia GeForce 9300M GS, which eats up more battery resources than the X200's integrated set. Over 4 hours of battery life on a laptop that runs a good graphics card is very impressive. The nVidia card is there not so much for 3D gaming, but for enhancing 3D environments like Windows Vista Business and supporting high-definition video playback.
