Lenovo has come out with the T410 – a major update to their laptop line. It has a better screen. Built in eSATA. High quality camera built in. And of course a massively better processor than what I have in my T400.

But the thing is, my T400, as beat up as it has gotten over the past 2 and a half years, is still ridiculously fast and useful thanks to a few decisions that have really worked out.

First, I got 8 GB of memory and 64-bit Windows (first Vista, now Windows 7). This was a huge deal because after awhile, everything is in the disk cache and I can load up Word or Outlook as fast as those programs take to restore from the taskbar on most computers.

Second, I got an Intel X-25 SSD. When combined with the above, loading programs is instantaneous.

In fact, let me show you:

And mind you, this is a 2.5 year old laptop.

And I didn’t do something special in that video. Heck, you guys know what kind of hit to performance doing a video capture does.

Third, I got the Verizon WAN option which I didn’t think would be nearly as useful as it has been. I use this feature a LOT. There are just so many times when it is a pain to hook up to some WiFi and the Verizon performance is so good that, as a practical matter, it’s “good enough” for whatever it is I have to do.

Put these factors together and the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 is still just a wonderful machine. No new laptop for me but if you’re looking for a new PC that’s USEFUL and not too expensive, check out the new ThinkPad T410.