ThinkPad T400s arrives in Asia, but with a small catch

Darius Chang | Jul 22, 2009

The latest business laptop from Lenovo, the ThinkPad T400s, should need no introduction. Billed as the slimmest and lightest full-featured 14.1-inch notebook in the market, the Chinese maker claims it's even more portable than competitors such as the Dell Latitude 6400 and HP EliteBook 6930p. The T400s officially debuts in Singapore and other Asia markets today with a starting price of S$3,199 (US$2,279.30).

While the older ThinkPad T400 will continue to target mainstream business users, the new T400s seeks out corporate travelers willing to pay a premium for a more portable 14.1-inch machine. The T400s comes equipped with dual-array mics, multitouch trackpad, sleep-and-charge USB ports and eSATA connectivity. In the process, some compromises were made to keep the laptop slim, such as the use of 1.8-inch drives (instead of the cheaper 2.5-inch HDD) as well as an ExpressCard/34 slot rather than the 54mm version in the T400.

However, the real catch is that the ThinkPad T400s is the first to sport a new proprietary dock connector. This means the previous range of ThinkPad accessories will not be compatible with this new notebook. As a result, expect higher cost of ownership as new docks have to be purchased. Fortunately, Lenovo confirms that this new connector will appear in future ThinkPads. In the meantime, the old line of docking solutions will be phased out eventually after a few years.

The ThinkPad Port Replicator 3, Mini Dock Series 3 and Mini Dock Plus Series 3 are now available for S$158 (US$112.58), S$233 (US$166.01) and S$233 (US$166.01), respectively.

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