Lenovo ThinkPad T430u review

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Verdict:

Has great potential as a business Ultrabook, but its sharp and uncomfortable keyboard tray makes this one to avoid

Review Date: 27 Dec 2012

Price when reviewed: £896

Supplier: http://www.lambda-tek.com

Reviewed By: Katharine Byrne

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

The Lenovo ThinkPad T430u is the Ultrabook version of Lenovo’s popular T range of business notebooks. It looks almost identical to its significantly more expensive cousin the T420, but the slim T430u stands just 21mm thick and weighs 1.9kg. It isn’t the lightest Ultrabook we’ve ever seen, but it is portable, and its soft touch finish complements its business-orientated design.

Our review sample came with a dual-core Intel Core i5-3317U processor that runs at 1.7GHz (although it can Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz within certain thermal conditions), 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk. The T430U managed to score a respectable 44 overall in our multimedia benchmark tests, which is lower than we expect from an Ultrabook at this price.

Its integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset provides the graphics, and the T430u was just about capable of playing Dirt Showdown on High Quality settings and a 720p resolution, averaging 16.6 fps in our benchmark tests. You may get away with playing some modern 3D games, but you’ll really have to reduce the display settings to get a playable frame rate.

Excellent viewing angles and a matt finish make the screen ideal for work

The T430u has maximum resolution of 1,366x768, and its 14in display lets you make the most of it. The T430u also has superb viewing angles, with 180-degree screen tilt to help you find the perfect working position no matter where you are. Its matt finish posed no problems with reflections either, but it did make the screen slightly dimmer overall, which meant colours were often not very bright or vivid.

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