Product Notes: Lenovo ThinkPad T510

January 7, 2010

In January 2010, Lenovo announced the ThinkPad T510 15.6-inch widescreen, which is based on Intel's Calpella notebook platform. The ThinkPad T510 supplants the ThinkPad T500 and is a significant update.

Design and Changes

The ThinkPad T510 retains much of the same basic design of the previous generation ThinkPad T500 15.4-inch widescreen notebook. It weighs from 5.7 to 6.0 pounds, depending mostly on battery size and slightly on optical drive choice with a travel weight (which includes power adaptor) ranging between 6.5 and 6.9 pounds.

The biggest single change for the ThinkPad T510 is that this generation of the T-series moves to Intel's Calpella notebook platform. The most visible change is that the T510 now has a 16:9 symmetric display, unlike the off-centered 16:10 display of the previous T-series systems. Another obvious change is a yellow-colored USB port. This port is always-on; it remains active when the ThinkPad is in suspend/hibernate to allow charging of smartphone or other USB powered accessories.

The ThinkPad T510 is optimized for videoconferencing use with dual noise canceling microphones, low light sensitive cameras with auto white balancing, and a lighted microphone mute switch on the keyboard. Every T510 comes with an LED backlit display.

The ThinkPad T510 trackpad inherits multi-touch capability and a slightly dimpled surface from the ThinkPad T400s. It also has the keyboard layout that debuted with the T400s: keys are spaced more tightly together, ESC and Delete keys are larger, and Caps Lock and Power switches are lighted.

The ThinkPad T510 is EPEAT Gold-compliant and Energy Star 5.0-certified.

Ordering Notes

Several notes when ordering a ThinkPad T510:

1. The T510 uses the same power supplies that the T500 used but implements the Series 3 docking solutions that debuted with the ThinkPad T400s.
2. All T510s include Arrandale versions of Intel's recently introduced Core i5 and Core i7 processors. ISC believes that the Core i5 is sufficient for all but the most demanding users and that those users may wish to consider Lenovo's ThinkPad W510 mobile workstation or other 15-inch mobile workstations.
3. Having at least 3.0 GB RAM is essential for the optimal functionality of a modern mid-weight notebook.
4. ISC strongly suggests purchasing the T510 with a discrete video card. All T510s with a discrete video card support NVIDIA's hybrid graphics, which allows switching between discrete and integrated video for performance and battery life considerations.
5. There are two display options available for the T510, one designated HD (1366x768) and one designated HD+ (1600x900). Though the HD display substantially matches the previous WXGA display available with the T500 in pixels and pixel density, the HD+ display gives up 18% in pixels and 9% in pixel density to the previous WSXGA+ display
6. As with any mid-weight notebook, ISC suggests that LSPs consider purchasing both a high-capacity (9 cell) and a mid-capacity (6 cell) battery along with an extra AC power adapter for the T510. Providers also may wish to consider Lenovo's range of peripheral accessories, such as port replicators and mini docks.
7. The T510's connectivity options including 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Gobi multi-vendor WWAN connectivity, and Bluetooth 2.1. After a seven year development process, the 802.11n standard was finalized in September 2009, so currently shipping 802.11n products may not work correctly without a firmware update. ISC believes that Bluetooth is a relevant protocol for most notebook users and that WWAN connectivity is useful for many "road warriors".

See ISC's Notebook Purchasing Guide for more configuration hints.

ISC sees the ThinkPad T510 as not showing as much differentiation from its competitors as the smaller T410 and T410s, but the T500 is still a capable product. The University's Computer Connection will have at least one T510 configuration available for order as soon as possible.

ThinkPad T510 graphic courtesy of Lenovo

--John Mulhern III, Lead for Client Technologies, ISC Technology Support Services (January 7, 2010)