Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I'm new to the Lenovo world, and I'm looking for a secondary notebook that I can throw around, and use where I would be worried about my MacBook being damaged/stolen. I decided that a ThinkPad would be good for this considering their reputation for durability, and after some research, I settled on the 14" R61 with Linux. (with a few customizations) The price came out to be about $730. But I later realized that this price was only while it's on sale. But I had planned on waiting a few months to buy one, so the sale will probably be over by then, and the original price is too high for me to spend on a secondary notebook. So, on to the point, how often are these sales offered? Will there be another one with similar savings before the end of the year? If not then I'll have to decide whether to buy one now, or find a different notebook.

Also, I want to ensure that I'm correct in thinking that the R61 is the same as the T61 with the exception of a slight weight and thickness variation.

Obviously, I do not have any insights into what sales Lenovo will be offering in the future. But this is what I observed over the last couple of months wrt. sales and other special offers (limited to the models I was interested in - mostly 15" WUXGA T61p - somewhat the opposite to what you are looking at).

The price of the configuration I was looking at has varied as follows:

4/7 $1,194.65 (25% off sale going on + free upgrade to DVD burner)
4/15 $1,139.75 (25% off + special discount for configurations over $1200)
4/21 $1,365.52 (no substantial discounts that I remember)
4/29 $1,194.65 (back to 25% off sale + free upgrade to DVD burner)
5/1 $1,239.28 (25% off sale going on, but no longer free upgrade to DVD burner)

Obviously, in hindsight, I should have ordered the system on 4/15. But back then I just started tracking prices ;-( .

In between I was briefly looking at a 15" WSXGA+ R61 because Lenovo discounted the Blu-Ray burner heavily (just $100 more than a DVD burner) but in the end I decided against it.

Also, what I was not aware back then, but since then read here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... 8&t=249497
is that:

Price Protection
If you find a lower price within 21 days after your purchase, you can call to get a price match done.
Price Quotes
Do everything you would do when ordering excepting when you get to the last page, do not submit order and select "Convert to Price Quote" instead. Save the Price Quote order number and present it to a customer service rep within 30 days to convert the price quote into an order.

Another place worthwhile checking out (if you don't need to have the latest and greatest) is the Lenovo outlet: http://stores.channeladvisor.com/LenovoOutlet/Notebook/
Three caveats, though:
1. Product description is minimal and may differ from what they actually ship (there is another good thread around here on what to do when dealing with the outlet). But you can always call them and ask for additional info.
2. Really good deals go fast, so check back often.
3. You need patience after ordering. Apparently, even though the Thinkpads should be somewhere just waiting to be shipped it takes them a couple of weeks or more to actually ship out the order (see another thread on this topic somewhere around here).

basketb wrote:Also, what I was not aware back then, but since then read here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... 8&t=249497
is that:

Price Protection
If you find a lower price within 21 days after your purchase, you can call to get a price match done.
Price Quotes
Do everything you would do when ordering excepting when you get to the last page, do not submit order and select "Convert to Price Quote" instead. Save the Price Quote order number and present it to a customer service rep within 30 days to convert the price quote into an order.

As was explained to me today, this 21 day price match is good from when you receive the unit (or when it was shipped to you). So if there's a four week delay in say assembling the unit, then you have four weeks + 21 says to watch the prices. This is a very nice deal.

I just posted this in another thread that links to this one:

One word of caution on the price protection policy (though I do not have any personal experience with it). Does it still work if you order the Thinkpad with an option that later becomes unavailable? For example, in early April you could order a T61 with a 9 cell battery. This option was subsequently removed, making it somewhat impossible to configure the same machine for price protection. Similarly, there is some fluctuation wrt. the wireless card. At one point, they had three options, thinkpad abg, intel abg, and intel abgn. Then the thinkpad abg was gone, then it came back and the intel abg was gone.