Lenovo Thinkpad L412 is another addition to Lenovo’s business oriented, attractively priced, L-series Thinkpad laptops. Designed for the environment-conscious businessman of the new age, it is made using up to 30% electronic wastes, comes packaged in almost 100% recycled paper, and consumes at least 40% less power than other similar laptops.
Beginning with a price of $804 (as on June 6, 2010), Lenovo Thinkpad L412 is powered by a 2.26 GHz Intel Core i3 350M processor with 3 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive space and Windows 7 Pro operating system. Measuring 13.5 inches in length, 9.2 inches in width, 1.4 inches in thickness, and 5.2 pounds in weight, it is soft matte-black textured with blocky, sturdy looks. It has a 1366 by 768 pixel LED screen, a 2 Megapixel Webcam, a microphone, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a fingerprint reader, and a Dual Layer Recordable DVD drive (8X).
Lenovo Thinkpad L412 comes with a host of connectivity options. Besides WiFi, it includes a 5 in 1 memory card reader, and express card slot, a Display Port, an ethernet port, a combined eSATA/USB port and three USB 2.0 ports. You can add Bluetooth at an additional cost of $20 and 3G connectivity at another $150.
The Thinkpad has a flat keyboard with a comfortable typing experience. The key sizes are appropriate for your mitts. Only the arrow keys are somewhat smaller and a little inconvenient, being placed next to the PgUp and PgDown keys. The volume keys for the speakers as well as the mute key for the microphone are placed to the left side of the keyboard. Among other keys is the Think Vantage key to open Think Vantage Toolbox for updates and security. The Think Vantage offers several great features like power control, password vault, enhanced backup and restore including factory recovery disks, as well as a system health and diagnostics toolbox.
The trackpad of Lenovo Thinkpad L412 is textured, quite spacious and responsive. Additionally it has a red Trackpoint – another pointing device in the keyboard , which makes it possible to use mouse features while not leaving the keyboard. Both the trackpad and trackpoint are hypersensitive and a pleasure to use.
Lenovo Thinkpad L412 comes with a 14 inch, 1366 by 768 pixel high definition, anti glare screen. It is not glossy and shows good pictures even from fairly acute angles, so that three people can watch the videos quite comfortably. Video streaming is smooth and seamless. Colors sometimes appear faded, and the darker portions of the videos sometimes show artifacts, yet the overall experience is good. Speakers, appearing below the screen are quite loud, a useful feature for presentations that include audio.
The laptop comes not only with a basic software but also two month trial of MS Office Home& Student, MS Research Auto Collage Touch 2009, Corel DVD MovieFactory and Norton Internet Security 2009. The only drawback of this laptop seems to be the sound of its keyboard which may be annoyingly loud in conferences and meetings. Leaving that little annoyance aside, it is a really good business laptop; why, it even has a good multimedia playback for your long business trips.