[REVIEW] Lenovo Thinkpad T460 Long Term Review - Perfect laptop for developer?

I've been using this laptop for more than 6 months now since May 2016. Click read more to find out whether this is the best developer laptop.

Let's start with pros and cons

PROS

1. Solid build
2. FANTASTIC battery life
3. Good keyboard
4. Light weight

CONS

1. No back-lit keyboard
2. The screen sucks
3. CPU only dual core

Specification

Here is base spec offered by Lenovo and there is no "official" way to customize it, unlike in other countries, which you can customize the laptop specs.

INTEL CORE i7-6500U 

8GB RAM

1TB SATA HDD

Nvidia GeForce 940MX

However I upgraded to 16GB of RAM and 250GB of SSD from the shop that I was buying. I've also purchased an extra 6 cell battery. Here is the final spec

INTEL CORE i7-6500U 

16GB RAM

250GB SSD

Nvidia GeForce 940MX

All in all I've paid RM6359 for that. Probably there are laptops that are cheaper with similar specs. But it's a Thinkpad, I like it for the ruggedness and the upgradabilty. More on this later.

How I use it

I primary use a laptop for development purpose. I mostly code on Java using eclipse as my IDE. I also use run VM from time to time. Other than that there will be chrome browser and iTunes running all together. The laptop held up well in whatever I've throw to it.

It is almost the perfect laptop for me. It's small and light enough for me to carry around. It's a borderline ultrabook. It's not as thin as most ultrabook, but it's good enough. The laptop I use before this is also from Lenovo, which is Lenovo Y50. 

Rants

The 2 things I didn't like about Y50 is the screen and the battery life. It's a freaking TFT screen. The viewing angles is pretty bad. Battery life only last me maximum 3.5 hours.

So when I bought T460, I thought, this should solve the 2 biggest problem I had with Y50. However I was wrong, well on the screen part. Lenovo Malaysia has the balls to use TFT screen. I gotta admit partly it was my fault, because I didn't see that when I purchase it. The viewing angles and the color is VERY VERY bad. Common Lenovo Malaysia, it's FREAKING 2016! TFT screen should be BANNED. I paid "premium" price for a laptop to get a FREAKING TFT screen. I can't even do web development on this screen because I can't differentiate between white and light grey.

But then comes another problem. It doesn't have a backlit keyboard. It's 2016, backlit keyboard should be standard.

Praise

Other than these 2 problems, the rest works great. ONE thing that stands out is battery life. IT IS AMAZING. With the 6 Cell battery attached, this laptop can last whole day just on battery life. By whole day I mean from 9AM to 6PM and with some spare battery life left. And with detachable battery, I can easily last a few more hours with my spare 3 Cell battery, if I need it.

Is this the perfect laptop?

I'm pretty disappointed with the 2 problems that I had. At first I said to myself I'm going to change to the new macbook pro. I'm so sure of myself that I'll change to macbook pro when it's released. But then when the new macbook pro finally released, I don't think it's worth my hard earned money. There are plenty people that rant about it.

My second choice is Dell XPS 15. It seems like a good replacement. But I'll need to lose out the amazing battery life of the T460.

As I said earlier, the best thing about Thinkpad is the upgradability. I went to ebay and buy a IPS screen and a backlit keyboard. Did some googling and youtubing and 2 weeks later, I got myself a perfect laptop. At least it's perfect for me.

Conclusion

So in the end I'm pretty happy with the laptop I'm using now. Lenovo Malaysia should really seriously think about offering sub-par components in their products. Common it's 2016.

Thanks For Reading. Have a great day.