Thinkpads Forum

Thats exactly what i was thinking. The red trackpad buttons looked really nice and unmistakeably IBM. Now it just gives a bland look i,e no character.

Note from Moderator: I split the discussion stemming from the pics into its own thread and made a sticky out of the pics themselves.

I hope they give an option atleast for people who want to buy without the windows keys, in the current keyboard one could press Ctrl+Alt+del with 2 finger of a single hand.

Also the ultranav button buttons have a bland look, the earlier T4x series touch pach and ultranav buttons were more elegant.

Anonymous wrote:I hope they give an option atleast for people who want to buy without the windows keys, in the current keyboard one could press Ctrl+Alt+del with 2 finger of a single hand.

They won't, don't even dream about it. And you can still press Ctrl+Alt+Del with two fingers, the app key in between won't make an issue. As if pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del with two fingers is some quality of great importance.

Anonymous wrote:Also the ultranav button buttons have a bland look, the earlier T4x series touch pach and ultranav buttons were more elegant.

Right you are. I really don't like the "new" look.

Hmm, it looks thick.

on the other hand, the x-60 looks much better than this one, with great batt life too.

NOTE from Admin: I forgot to lock out unregistered users from this confrence.
I have now corrected this error on my part. I also deleted one pointless "guest" comment.

SpaRood wrote:Hmm, it looks thick.

Same dimenions as T42 R4U actually. Slightly heavier though.

With the new microphone location I'll have to move my hand off the keyboard to use the mic. Kind of inconvenient.

-darren

darrenf wrote:With the new microphone location I'll have to move my hand off the keyboard to use the mic. Kind of inconvenient.

-darren

Just out of curiosity, where is the microphone location for the T43? If there is any. I see two parallel holes above the Esc key, is that it?

Top left of the keyboard, right above the ESC key and slightly towards the right; two slots running northeast-southwest.

The right-side bottom-edge taper is absent and the CD-ROM drive door is flat. I guess they have come along with YET ANOTHER drive type? I'm guessing that it's still 9mm but with a new door. That means that untrabay slim drives won't be usable in the T60. Unfortunate.

The stairstepped taper on the bottom plate of the T4x series appears to have been replaced with a flat bottom. Does anyone have a picture of the T60's base?

I hope that these pictures were just taken in harsh lighting and that the laptop doesn't look as cheap and flimsy in person because I *really* want multi-core and 256M Vidram!!

-darren

No on has mentioned the missing parallel port yet?

-darren

Yes, it has been mentioned...But I don't think "Missing" was a complaint

Hanson wrote:Just out of curiosity, where is the microphone location for the T43? If there is any. I see two parallel holes above the Esc key, is that it?

Correct-o, and now it's below the FN key, blech. Better learn to use a Bluetooth headset for conferencing.

BTW, Chris, one of these new Lenovo keyboards is where I noted the functional, but un-labeled, FN + F2 and FN + F9 keys I posted on the T4x forum about.

[edit]BTW, I'd bet that square right edge and UltraSlim door is to be consistent with the brick-like Z60s. And note that both teh CD door and the lid latch (see other thread) are silver ... so out with the blue and red Trackpoint buttons, in with occasional silver touches. I don't use my LPT port, but I'd gladly take that over ugly, brick-like design touches.

I don't see any real functional differences in the new chassis. It looks to be about the same dimensions with a couple cosmetic changes, and probably better cooling (2 vents).

The only addition I see is another USB port (in exchange for the parallel), but that's it. No Firewire, no DVI, no SD/CF/Memory Stick, etc. cardreaders, bleh. Consider me underwhelmed.

Well; I would like a DVI port, and maybe a Firewire port as well; I am impressed by the SD Readers I have seen on the X Series though since they are thin, that shouldn't be too much of a problem to put on a T Series. Although only the Z60 so far has the Three-in-One Type.

I just checked the Lenovo site and the T60's CD-ROM drive is listed as an "ultrabay slim." I hope that that's a typo. If they use the same name for the old and new drives things could get confusing.

JFTR, I'll miss the parallel port.

-darren

Interesting that these pics omit the shiney black protuberance on the right side of the screen that was visible in the anandtech review. Does anyone know what that is? EV-DO antenna??

-darren

AFAIK, I am glad I didn’t cancel my order for my T43p. This far, I don’t se any improvement whatsoever except the fact that it’s dual core and has a less power consuming chipset. When purchasing a laptop for an amount of 3000 $ (in Sweden), you’ve the right to be picky.

Impairments and disappointments.

- The T60 did not feature a DVI port as many requested.
- The T60 still does not feature a Firewireport as many requested.
- The T60 no longer features a S-video out port. I really hope the feature is built in to the VGA port and an adaptor will be available.
- Old Ultrabay devices are not compatible.
- Old power adaptors are not compatible
- Old T4x/R5x series Batteries are not compatible.
- Old docks are not compatible
- Keyboard is not available without the windowskeys. I really LIKE the fact that the Thinkpad keyboard was without them.
- Design seems not as thought out as the one on the T4x series. It looks cheaper, and it seems less efficient from a layman perspective. Especially the navigation buttons (ultranav) seem really boring.
- I DON’T like any buttons what so ever on the front of the laptop. I often sit with my laptop in my lap (hence the word lap-top) and anything on the front side will lead to random activation/deactivation of what ever it is.
- The mic is placed in an awkward, not so well thought out spot?
- It seems to be the same thickness (but heavier??).

In short, I se NO single feature of importance on the chassis that seems improved since the T4x series.

Further comments:

Yet there has been nothing that I have read that supports there will be a p model soon. Also I am not sure about the 256 Mb graphics ram either since ATI has not presented such a card that would be suitable for the T60. The next step up from the FireGL 3200 graphics is the FireGL 5000 and that too has (only) 128 Mb ram. My guess is that T60 will only be available with the X300 card along with integrated graphics just as the T43 and just maybe a T60p with the same graphics as today’s T43s. For anything better, my guess is that you will have to wait for the next T-series.

Also, regarding better venting due to the venting port placed where the parallel port was formerly located. I believe that is actually an air inlet. Although I believe the location of the inlet on the back opposed to in the front as on the T4x series is far more effective in situations where you sit with your laptop in your lap, I don’t believe it dramatically improves overall cooling.

what? they really use a new formfactor for the "ultrabay slim" drives?
what's this for? so you can't use old drives in a new T60 or new drives in a T4x??
that's odd.

VERY good point, Rose. The buttons on the front would prevent me from doing what I'm doing now - sitting up in bed, with my knees bent, and the TP on my thighs at a 45 degree angle. The touchpad keys can be activated accidentally by the blanket on my stomach. Anything on the front would be disastrous.

I can do without Firewire, SD/MMC/CF slots ... there are PC Card adapters for all those. But DVI is the future, and would be a nice (though large) connection. LPT ... c'mon, aren't printers going to Bluetooth, or shared on Wifi connections or LAN connections anyway? It's been 10 years since I actually connected a pinter to an LPT port. Really, my LaserJet 4P at home has been on a LAN share since 1995 or so.

I would be supremely surprised if the power adapter was changed. But - if true - the non-interoperability of Docks, and UltraBay devices, may convince many corporations to decline the T60 for many moons to come. Think on it ... if you've got a fleet of several hundred (or thousands, like I know Cisco does) T40/1/2/3s, would you want to introduce the anomaly of T60s which won't work with hundreds, thousands of port replicators and power bricks that are already in the inventory? That would be a dumb move indeed. Lenovo may've struck a serious self-inflicted dent in the T- line's sales projections.

would wrote:what? they really use a new formfactor for the "ultrabay slim" drives?
what's this for? so you can't use old drives in a new T60 or new drives in a T4x??
that's odd.

Actually, I think this is an assumption people are making, I don't know if we know for sure (but I may stand corrected) that the T60 uses a different ultrabay. It looks different, but consider the possibility that it just uses a different bezel.

I have used my laptop as David mentioned and definitely one cannot use the T60 with the buttons in the front.

It would also make sense to leave the mic inlet somewhere in such a place where it is not covered by your hands while typing. But I guess since they have the cooling mechanism now, they cannot leave it in place.

keyboard quality which has been one of the highlights of thinkpads so far seems to be compromised.

Eugh, I hope those keys for volume, power etc are simple preproduction keys, as they look cheap and nasty.

rssb wrote:It would also make sense to leave the mic inlet somewhere in such a place where it is not covered by your hands while typing. But I guess since they have the cooling mechanism now, they cannot leave it in place.

Good observation - I hadn't thought that through. Upper-right or center would still be better but at least this explains why it was moved.

Changing the power adapter does seem pretty insane - I guess it was absolutely necessary. I have about $400 tied up in AC and DC adapters for my personal laptop alone (I hate to carry a power brick around) that would need to be replaced. Ugh.

At least this gives them another opportunity to make a slim AC/DC adapter. The current "slim" model stretches the definition of slim to its limits and the non-slim model requires its own backpack.

The touchpad buttons on the front look to be in the same place as on the 14" T4x. The slope of the case at that spot has been changed which makes them look as if they are positioned differently, but I am guessing that users with the 14" T4x will not have to adjust.

Noone knows what that thing is hanging off the side of the screen?

-darren

Oh, I see the button you guys were talking about -- it's the wifi switch, correct? Someone in another post says that the Z-series wifi switch is a slider so this might not be so easily bumped.

-darren

Well, I don't think that the mic, unless it is very large for what it does, impeded that much in its former position. Would it be that deep so as to interfere with the fan? Could it have been because there may not have been enough space for needed insulation to lessen the chance of fan noise interfering with the Mic pickup signal?

The WiFi Switch on the Z60t is a slider; quite stiff one at that too. It would take a significant amount of force to switch it accidentally.

For the T60 that is available for purchase on Lenovo's website, it says there is a DVI port.

That is under the "Expansion Options" Section; you can get those by attaching it to a dock or a port replicator.

http://tinyurl.com/9dn9t

I miss the old trackpoint buttons.

Seems like every brand new ordered from IBM thinkpad I have seen comes with the pack of extra buttons including the hard spongy feeling original one, wonder if that has changed?

I have one more comment on the design of the Thinkpads, I assume the specs are good enough, much better than this 3 year old notebook I am typing on....

The Thinkpad is now blacker than it already is, and it has hardly changed at all. For an average consumer, it is still an ugly black box. Lenovo can fill this void by launching a new brand that can compete with nice design laptops and it will, I believe.