Ratings Breakdown (1-10)

The ThinkPad T430's 500GB 7,200-rpm hard drive booted the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional in 49 seconds, faster than the 0:59 category average but on a par with the T420.

1. I have T430 Intel Core i5 3320M @ 2.60GHz.And my pc's ram is 4GB 1333 DDR3. And i want to upgrade my ram to 16 GB. How many ram slots are there on my pc? What is the max ram size for each slot?
2. Lenovo Thinkpad T430 laptop has a display for your daily needs. This laptop is powered by Intel Core i5-3320M Intel Core i5-3320M processor, coupled with 8 GB.
3. Thinkpad T430 ExpressCard eGPU Hello, I have the T430 with an i7 3520M and NVS 5400M graphics. Is it possible to use the ExpressCard slot to run an external graphics card?

• • Software & Support
  • 8
• • Upgrade Capabilities
  • 7
• • Usability
  • 7
• • Design
  • 8
• • Performance
  • 6
• • Features
  • 7
• • Price/Value Rating
  • 7

• • Total Score:
  • 7.14
  • Rating 1 to 10, top score 10

Overview

• Pros

  • Great keyboard (see cons)
  • 15 hour battery life with 9-cell
  • Excellent build quality
  • Input/output port variety

• Cons

  • Non-standard keyboard layout
  • Poor 1366x768 screen

Quick Take

The ThinkPad T430 is still 'the king of 14-inch business notebooks' but the keyboard might not be changing for the better.

The ThinkPad T-series is Lenovo’s bread and butter business notebook. This 14-inch T430 is a refreshed version of the popular T420. Read on to find out what we like and dislike about this laptop.

Overview

Build and Design

The ThinkPad T430 continues Lenovo’s tradition of nondescript all-business designs valuing form over function. The exterior is covered in strong carbon-fiber reinforced plastic which doesn’t flex. It has a finely textured surface while the back of the lid is slightly rubberized. There’s not a hint of glossy plastic to be found; remember, the T430 doesn’t have to look good on a display shelf at Best Buy.

Build quality is superb and amongst the strongest of any notebook we’ve tested. The chassis is all but impossible to flex thanks to the metal roll cage supporting the inside of the chassis. It’s not something you would find on a consumer-class notebook (or most lower-priced business notebooks, for that matter). The display hinges are metal and control the displays’ tendency to wobble quickly.

All in all Lenovo maintains the traditional ThinkPad design and we see no reason why they shouldn’t keep doing so.

Ports and Features

One way to tell a true business class notebook from an entry level or consumer model is by the variety of ports included. This ThinkPad T430 is a true business class notebook; it includes the expected USB ports but also has DisplayPort (albeit a mini version), a SmartCard reader (a $10 option), an ExpressCard/34 slot (good for adding 3G cards) and a pair of fast USB 3.0 ports. It’s not missing much – eSATA, whose purpose has been largely eclipsed by USB 3.0, and HDMI, which isn’t usually found in the business world.

Screen and Speakers

Our review unit unfortunately has the base 720p screen (1366×768 resolution); about the only thing it has going for it is the anti-glare coating. An anti-glare coating is preferred to glossy surfaces because light sources don’t create annoying reflections. This screen has poor color reproduction – colors look dull and unimaginative. Black levels aren’t deep and appear slightly grayish. But the biggest problem especially for business users is the low resolution; 1366×768 doesn’t cut it for multitasking between two windows and too much scrolling is required in web pages, documents – pretty much everywhere. The available 1600×900 display is well worth the money for the increase in resolution alone (it has one-third more space).

The two speakers on either side of the keyboard are typical for a notebook and have little beyond the ability to produce basic sound. There’s no noticeable bass and they distort easily at higher volumes. Note that the T430 has a single headphone/microphone combo jack; they’re not separate.

Keyboard and Touchpad

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The T430’s keyboard is a departure for Lenovo; they switched to the increasingly popular Chiclet style with extra spacing between the keys. This has the most encouraging tactile feedback out of all the variants I’ve tried. It has a slightly more clicky sound than the traditional ThinkPad keyboards and the key travel isn’t as long, though the feedback doesn’t suffer as a result, dare I say it feels even more solid. Lenovo is offering a backlit keyboard courtesy of this new design, a first on a ‘real’ ThinkPad. It still has the Think Light for die-hard fans, though.

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So what’s the matter with it? Simply put, more than a few ThinkPad owners will say Lenovo botched the keyboard layout. The Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Insert and Delete keys are all over the place instead of being clustered in a nice organized group at the top right. Also missing is the multi-colored keys such as the purple [Enter]. This bothers me in a way; the ThinkPad keyboard formula was exactly what many business users wanted and now they changed it – what was the reasoning? It doesn’t make sense to the end user. I’m all for change but this is a step backwards.

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The touchpad remains largely unchanged but the dimpled surface is slightly more pronounced. It feels almost too rough at first though I got used to it after a few days. The trackpoint “eraser” head in the center of the keyboard is also unchanged and remains the most intuitive version offered by any brand. The buttons for both the touchpad and the trackpoint are excellent with quiet, supple clicks.