Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone

Just thought I should share some pictures of my Thinkpad collection, and then some pictures of my latest purchase, a T60.

Below are my Thinkpads, from left to right: T42 15", T43 15" Flexview, T60 15" Flexview, 360Cs and my Lenovo S10-2. The Lenovo is only a distant relative, but it was allowed to join anyway. The T30 is left in the US, so only it's port replicator got to join my little photo session.



Below are the T42, T43 and the T60. Pretty similar in size and shape. However, the T60 is a nice upgrade and carries on the nice features from the T4x series in an improved way. My wife got the pleasure of being the background image on my T42. The camera's whitebalance makes the colors a little more blue than they really are.



The newest and the oldest. The T60 and the 360Cs. 12 years apart, and in computer years that makes for quite some change and development. 33MHz vs. 1830MHz, 12Mb RAM vs 2Gb RAM, etc. But the 360Cs is still booted up a couple of times a year, and I find my self typing documents in WordPad for Win 95, and transfering them on floppy discs. Just because I can.



The 360Cs and the Lenovo S10-2. Not really related at all, but the screen is actually similar in size. My old boss created AutoCad drawings of an entire dairy plant using this 360Cs. Who would do that using a 10" netbook today.



Below is my T60. 1.83GHz, 2Gb RAM, ATI X1400, Fingerprint reader, Bluetooth. (This is not the same computer as the one in the pictures above. That belongs to work. But they are 100% similar, except my T60 has a fingerprint reader)



IBM logo is still present, even though this was a 100% Lenovo product.



9 cell battery, found in the recycling container at work. I expected it to be almost dead, and planned to keep it installed to save my good battery, and prevent the laptop form going down and have the chance to shut it down properly in case of a power outage. But it still keeps almost 3 hours of charge, and was still "good", so I got a good, free battery. I also found 2 T60 advanced mini docks, never used.. Recycling pays off.

Norway Pad wrote: Below is my T60. ..............IBM logo is still present, even though this was a 100% Lenovo product.

NICE COLLECTION & PICTURES!
.umm...T60P = LeNOvo??? *hint*
might want to 'check' on that info ! <unsless u got a refurbished machine from Outlet Store>...

e.g. S10e = IBM ONLY product!!

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here, though. He, he. If you are referring to whether the T60 is an IBM, I would say it's not. Lenovo bought IBM's PC division during a process from late 2004 to mid 2005. That means that the T42, and early T43s were the last Thinkpads to be manufactured for IBM. The T60 were Lenovos, but part of the business deal was that Lenovo could use the IBM logo for some years in markets where the IBM brand was well built up.

On the other hand, IBM outsourced the production of their laptops to China much earlier than 2005. Even my T42 is labeled "Manufactured for IBM.. Made in China.." Not sure about the T30, I don't have it here.

So if we are really critical, I guess the only genuine, non-China IBM in my collection is the 360Cs. The bottom sticker says: "Manufactured by IBM United Kingdom Ltd. Greenock, Scotland. Made in U.K." The Greenock IBM plant is now just a sad memory and was, referring to an earlier thread here, demolished last year.

Norway Pad wrote:On the other hand, IBM outsourced the production of their laptops to China much earlier than 2005. Even my T42 is labeled "Manufactured for IBM.. Made in China.." Not sure about the T30, I don't have it here.

I came across this thread, and now that I have my T30 again, I checked it out. "Manufactured for IBM.. Made in Mexico." So apparently the manufacturing was taking place several places outside US/Europe. I also briefly used a Thinkpad from the A series (A21m I think it was) to do some terminal emulator work this summer, and I noticed the fact that the A was made in Greenock, just like my old 360.

Don't know what era the A21m comes from, but it had a Win98SE label on it. In recent years someone had done the smart move of installing XP on it, and with 64 + 128MB RAM, it was really flying!

Nice collection...the T60 looks great.

Yeah, kind of makes me want one again.

Norway Pad wrote: I came across this thread, and now that I have my T30 again, I checked it out. "Manufactured for IBM.. Made in Mexico." So apparently the manufacturing was taking place several places outside US/Europe. I also briefly used a Thinkpad from the A series (A21m I think it was) to do some terminal emulator work this summer, and I noticed the fact that the A was also made in Greenock.

Careful observers will note that the indicator is the wording.

Machines made by IBM themselves will bear something like "Manufactured by IBM", whereas those built in outsourced plants have "Manufactured for IBM" on their labels.

ThinkRob wrote:Machines made by IBM themselves will bear something like "Manufactured by IBM", whereas those built in outsourced plants have "Manufactured for IBM" on their labels.

Yes, that will be exactly what the labels on the 360 and the A21 say: "Manufactured by IBM United Kingdom Ltd. Greenock, Scotland. Made in U.K."

Not sure if Thinkpads were made at any other IBM location, or if the personal computer plant in Greenock was the only place IBM made them before they got outsourced.

Norway Pad wrote: Yes, that will be exactly what the labels on the 360 and the A21 say: "Manufactured by IBM United Kingdom Ltd. Greenock, Scotland. Made in U.K."

Not sure if Thinkpads were made at any other IBM location, or if the personal computer plant in Greenock was the only place IBM made them before they got outsourced.

You mean *any* other locations or just any others in the UK? 'cause I have a 600X that says "Manufactured by IBM. Made in Mexico" and a 750cs that reads "Manufactured by IBM de Mexico".

Ok, I didn't know that IBM had any computer manufacturing plants in Mexico. So I thought that the units made there were manufactured "for" and not "by" IBM. Maybe this plant was initially built and owned by IBM, later sold out to someone else, and changed status to manufacturing computers "for" IBM. My T30 was made in Mexico "for" and not "by" IBM.

Anyway, this will be speculations from my side, and that really doesn't benefit anyone. I should sit down and read about this and gather some hard facts here before I go on and write more.

Since the Lenovo´s acquisition of the IBM´s PC Division in 2005, there has been a hard debate on the quality of the Thinkpad line. Many die-hard loyalists and fanatics said since the begining that the brand managed now by the chineese would fall apart and even disappear, much part of this discussion had an emotional and subjective content rather than on a technical basis.

What do you think of this issue?

rleo25 wrote:What do you think of this issue?

Are you asking me what I think? Well, when I first read about IBM's plans to sell out their PC division, I had the same thoughts as most other people: Good job guys, the Thinkpads will now become a cheap chinese plastic laptop as opposed to the sturdy business laptops they have been so far.

But looking at my T510 next to my older T-series, I have to say that the impression is different and better. I still feel that my T60 4:3 UXGA is my best laptop, but that has more to do with personal preferences, mostly the form factor and the quality of the screen. I would of course loved to still see the IBM logo on new Thinkpads, but I think Lenovo has done a good job of preserving the Thinkpad "feel". Particularly with the Tx10 series we see a better design than we have had in years, almost on par with the T4x series. The laptops have probably become cheaper now and moved slightly away from the very top-end of the market, but do we know what they would have been like if IBM had still been making them today?

I personally think the Thinkpad T, X, R and X series are all still desireable laptops, despite being Lenovo owned. So if things don't change much in the years to come, I will continue buying and using them also in the future.

Lenovo vs IBM issues probably be more relevant to see what's the "quality" and "user apeal" of the NEWER (non IBM legacy designs') Models like "IdeaPad" etc.
Most of the T & W series are STILL MADE with little or NO CHANGE to the Orginal IBM design and layout - or items are moved around to fit and used in other models eg Battery from T60 & T61 are now sued on SL, Edge and some T40x machines etc ...the System board layout hasnt really changed much - items just moved about to accomodiate ed USB3, eSata ports.

For me I order 1200+ W & T series ( few X tablets) and the returns - DOA's etc are HUGE compared to older models. I had returened 4 x Edge220s that didnt even comform to WHAT WAS ORDERED !! Even the famous" sticker" at the botoom of one of machine = didnt match with MODELS were recorded in the BIOS!!!. Recently one W520 didnt even have the DVD drive left off and it was PASSED (QUALITY INSPECTION slip found in box!!)..

Am sure everyone who has used the OLDER IBM TECH Support and used what is there now - would know the differance - huge changes ... Depot repair seems to be same as the thinK brand are still repaired by IBM (managed as a oursouced unit)

But then .. I am NOT YET sure I want to jump ship - jsut my complain is that now a W series = $3500.00 and feels like you being ripped off !!! The Same config in ASUS has a HDMI ( my biggest and pet reeve) and is HALF THAT THINKPAD PRICE often !!

I don't know antything about the tech support, I have never used that. We recently recieved a batch of 30 T510s where I work, my own inlcuded, and no problems still. So my impression is still equally good as back in 2001/2 when we got a load of T30s. Our T60s ond T61s were delivered at a time when I didn't work here.

However, such a small amount of units as we deal with here doesn't do much for statisitcs. Even a 1 out of 30 (3%) DOA rate for us would have given 40 faulty units for your 1200+ units order.

I guess only time will tell in my case. My 360Cs from 1995 still works, for what it's worth. Wonder if the T510 still works in year 2027.

Hiya Norway\*..you only a NewBie than .. lol....

Cheera mate!

How did I miss this thread and this lovely collection?

T42 is awesome