#1667
Post
by slagmi » Sat Feb 16, 2008 4:10 pm
I've been using ThinkPads since the early 90's when I bought my wife an inexpensive 365x and myself a 5 series model that was only a little better.
I recently decided it's time for an updated one, and it's time to run Vista at home,and at better than a 3.2 'Vista Experience Index'. I also decided this purchase will be financed in whole or most by the sale of an R32, an A31, an A22m, an A21m, and various Txx parts I won't likely be needing. I just couldn't part yet with my X30, even though nowdays it bogs doing such mundane things as trying to watch a 'Lost' episode; and it takes forever to hibernate with 768MB of RAM. The other aforementioned Thinkpads were now in the hands of their new rightful owners, and the search was on.
After careful consideration, I decided I was looking for a T6x with widescreen and discrete graphics. Sources for the product abound, and nearly any desired config can be found on eBay. But someone named Bill cautioned me to be careful about such a purchase. Crushing, since you probably already guessed where I unloaded all those computers at once. But at least my descriptions are accurate and complete, and my feedback is 100%. And I actually pack pretty well. I also checked common places such as newegg.com and buy.com, of course. But I ended up at Lenovo.com.
The Lenovo sale, plus my employer discount (perkspot), plus the 'purchase with PayPal' discount code....well, it brought the price down too low to pass up! Much less than I would pay on eBay or at any of the discount webstores.
So on January 19, 2008 I ordered a T61p 6459-CTO, with the 15.4 inch widescreen WSXGA+(1680x1050), nVidia FX570m/256(MB) discrete graphics, Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU(4MB), 120GB hard disk and dual-layer burner.
The next day, I decided I wanted the fingerprint-gadget. Would still be happy without it, but I figured Lenovo would be more that happy to have an extra 20 dollars from me, so I decided to call. Fortunately I anticipated it wouldn't be that simple.
Here I employed a couple of tricks. First, I called on purpose on Sunday around 2PM (Eastern). As you may figure,where I've called -it wasn't 2PM- or anytime close to that. And not a business day. I had no wait. Second, I called more than once. I was professional and pleasant with everyone I spoke with, but I was most definitely fishing.
1st rep: No wait.Courteous and friendly, but it was very hard to communicate with him. I asked a few questions then thanked the rep and disconnected. 2nd rep: 10 second wait. Communicated well but didn't feel the need to be especially helpful. Wasn't really sure how to handle the call, eventually wanted to xfer me somewhere. I accepted the transfer then hung up. 3rd rep: Again, no wait: This man was friendly, he spoke clearly and communicated well, and seemed genuinely concerned that I should get the laptop with exactly the desired features. His name was Thom. We agreed the best way to address getting the order changed and preserve the three discounts was to cancel and reorder. He put the cancel request in whilst I was on the phone with him, and said he would try to expedite the new order, which I was placing on the web at the same time. I'll never know whether that mattered, but the unit shipped within 48 hours of that point in time. I was impressed! I've saved Thom's ID for future reference.
Regarding shipping, overall I was pleased. Due to my discounts as mentioned above, shipping was free. Shipping from Shenshen, CN to Louisville, Ky took only two days. But shipping from Ky to my location in Ohio took several additional days. First, " THE SHIPMENT IS BEING HELD BY BROKERAGE FOR REASONS BEYOND ***''S CONTROL ". I've bought expensive electronics from overseas before, so this two day delay was not unexpected. Second, there were a couple of attempts before they caught someone at home. You'll have to sign for this, no way around it. The repeated delivery attempts caused some undesired additional handling, yet even with the delays, total shipping time was only 8 days. Finally, I'd really prefer the option of letting someone besides 'Brown' do the handling, but no such option was offered. When I placed the web order, expedited shipping methods appeared to be available, but alternate carriers did not appear to be available. Note that if you choose to pay for expedited shipping, the product will still be held up once it arrives in the states.
Regarding packaging, on first glance, the box seemed tiny and lightweight. Besides the T61p laptop, there were five paper documents, the A/C adapter, a bag with two screws and a bag with two extra Trackpoint caps included. I have done some informal drop and crush testing of the packaging and found it to actually be quite strong. In the event of a drop, it will actually 'bounce', cushioning what's inside.. Fortunately, the packaging survived the tests more than well enough to be used again, should I ever need to.
The 20 Volt A/C adapter is unlike any of the spare Thinkpad adapters I already own, so just be aware, if you need a spare then you may need to plan on an additional purchase. The adapter itself is fairly small and light considering the rated 90 watt output. The cord supplied for the purpose of connecting the adapter to the wall outlet is much too short for me, however that part is a two wire power cord with a standard plug on each end, and so was swapped immediately for one of the desired length.
Charging the battery didn't take long, it seemed the battery was mostly or fully charged before the laptop was shipped. Upon first power on, there was a continuous beep and no display. Alarmed, I immediately held the power switch in until the unit turned off. I considered removing the battery and opening the unit up at this point, but instead I pressed gently yet rather firmly on the keyboard then on the palm rest. Subsequently, the notebook powered on without beeping and gave a display. Hmm....
When booted for the first time, the software appeared to be parsing a batch file and actually restarted the computer two more times. Hmmm... Of course, the prudent thing to do is leave it alone, and eventually I did see Windows, after nearly 15 minutes. The computer seemed extremely slow and at first I suspected the load was bad(at best), and considered loading from scratch. I had already gathered the multitude of latest drivers and patches in preparation for this possibility. Obviously, Lenovo's Vista load is dated. The installed drivers were not the latest, or in the case of the chipset support, even recent. So I made a couple of updates right away.
Deleting the card reader and letting Windows re-enumerate it cured some weirdness there. Norton Internet Security (NIS) is provided, but alas, it is the 2006 version. Trust me, you're much better off getting an up to date product for the purpose of protection and also for system stability. Should you consider clean loading it yourself, don't underestimate the amount of time and effort involved, to get an end result that is substantially similar to what you already have. But perhaps you want to use BitLocker? Or the pure Vista backup/recovery environment rather than the hybrid Lenovo/Vista one provided? If so, you'll need to partition the drive appropriately. The Vista install itself is quite automated, but have a look at the number of Lenovo provided drivers, softwares and patches available for your model before you start this process. It truly could be an all-nighter! As it was, Windows Update/Microsoft Update(recommended) and the updates found by the ThinkVantage Updater took 'only' a couple of hours. Sadly, you have to hang around for this because you must restart the computer a number of times. Not to mention the endless clicking of 'Next', 'I Agree" and 'Finish'.
In an attempt to address the slowness, I removed Access Connections, removed the Tablet components and made a host of other changes, such as disabling Vista's defrag(since an old version of Diskeeper was graciously installed and active), but I saw absolutely no improvement. Zilch!
Then I realized that I had never actually tried to run Vista with 'only' 1GB of RAM. Time to unwrap the 4GB of CL5 DDR667 I had purchased off newegg ($80/US). At the same time, I also installed an Ultra III SD card which will be used for ReadyBoost. INSTANT cure! Vista still shows the desktop before Vista is fully loaded, but that is a different story, and not something I can fix. My Vista experience score also improved, from 4.5 out if the box to 4.8. While I'm on the subject; 'Graphics performance for Windows Aero'>>> 5.9. As you may already know, that is as high as the scale goes at the present time. I don't have any new games, but the ones I have tried (COD2, Q4, BF2, UT/04, all with the latest patches) have all ran very well at the games highest possible resolution. Three of the four can be adjusted to the native 1680x1050!! I don't have any hard numbers to share, but Photoshop CS2 performance is more than satisfactory.
I probably won't have very good luck truly getting rid of the Trial Office 2007 components Lenovo so graciously populated my hard drive with, but I've decided for now not to reload from scratch. If I can bite the bullet with Vista, maybe Office will be for the next round...but the interface is sooo weird. And choosing 'save as' to choose a .doc rather than a .docx (so others can read your documents) gets sooo old. Anyways, it's time to make a backup. I'd hoped that by now OEM's would get the feedback and resume providing Operating system disks, but not so. I may buy them, you say?? Fortunately, a Vista DVD is a Vista DVD. Basic, Ultimate, Business, it's all the same disc. But that's material for a different thread. Something else that is noteworthy- the WiFi reception is by far the best I have ever seen in a laptop. Informal tests indicate that my reception area(not range) is physically approximately 8 times the reception area(not range) of my x30. Wardriving should be fun! Overall, I have a fast laptop with specs that will keep it more than useful for at least two to three years.
IMO the design is clean. Personally, I can live happily ever after without all of those legacy ports.The placement of the ports seems unusual, with the D/C port on the rear and the VGA port on the left side, and the audio out in front; but that is by no means a huge issue. If you use those ports, and you want a clean desktop, consider getting the dock! An optical audio or HDMI port would be a welcome addition! There are three USB ports, and one mini IEEE1934 port. The LCD is slightly off center, relative to the LCD bezel, apparently designed that way to accommodate antennas. The lid still has that same difficult to keep clean finish that many of us know well. Buttons, Keyboard, Tracpoint and Touchpad are all placed as well as possible, and I don't find myself accidentally working the touchpad or the two touchpad buttons, so I have not yet disabled it, which can be done by simply pressing <Fn>+<F8> and choosing to. The touchpad itself is rather small, and it's finish closely matches the finish of the surrounding palmrest. The keyboard itself seems on par with past Thinkpad keyboards, though slightly stiffer in response. The new (to me) ThinkPad logo is simple and elegant, if not colorful, as is the overall appearance. The base itself is quite stiff. and substantial, mostly due to the long overdue ''cage' design. There is a convenient sliding switch for turning the WiFi on and off placed along the leading edge of the palmrest. This switch has a positive tactile feel, and isn't likely to get switched off on accident. The latch doesn't seem to 'grab' 100% of the time when closing the lid, especially one handed. The hinges don't feel as 'fluid' as I am accustomed to. These factors, coupled with the sheer size of the screen, make opening and closing the lid a two handed job. The 1680x1050 resolution screen looks good, absolutely yes, but unfortunately no better than the screen on pretty much any other brand of new laptop. Once, IBM screens were commonly regarded as superior. Then HP caught up. Then Dell and others. Now there is no Flexview option. There simply isn't anything display-wise to differentiate Lenovo from any other manufacturer anymore. The once progressive 'Thinklight' seems dated in this era of backlit keyboards, but it's functional, though nothing to show off. Finally, as others have mentioned, there is a little undesired flex in the palmrest near the arrow keys. Overall, I have a good looking laptop that is clearly designed to be more solid and durable than most other brands sold today.
The build quality itself was less than expected, in fact substandard. The 'Windows Vista' sticker was applied in a hurry, crooked. I now see that the Intel Core 2 Duo sticker is mis-aligned also, though to a lesser degree. I used to work for a large 2nd tier OEM, and I can assure you, that manufacturers QC would not have passed this laptop.. Once I'm sure I'm going to keep the notebook, I'll remove both of the stickers. It's just not something you want to show off to people, if you understand what I mean. The Vista License sticker on the bottom of the unit has started to wear off already and consequently is now covered with clear package tape. The first time I used the laptop in daylight I noticed a significant 'bulge' in the plastic on the keyboard and the upper bezel, between the power button and the blue "Thinkvantage' button. Unhappily, I removed the palmrest, keyboard, WLAN card and modem card. I was able to resolve the issue by reseating the video cable and properly routing the internal cables, including the antenna leads. It appeared to me that possibly the assembler had installed the modem daughter card before plugging in the LCD cable. I also replaced 'boot' covering an unused WWLAN lead, because in my opinion the one used was much too large, causing undesired heat retention and physical stress. Upon reassembly the unsightly bulge was completely gone. The prospect of an average user calling tech support and trying to explain this sort of issue, much less get resolution, seems to me to be dicey at best. Resolution might require, um, more than one call, perhaps. Overall, I found the build quality to be lacking, a serious detriment to an otherwise very good product.
In spite of these issues, overall I am happy with the purchase, even when I encounter other brands of new laptops with some similar or better spec's that I know cost less. Which brings me to the final reason I went with the T61p. The MacBook Pro doesn't come with a TrackPoint! And even the Apple just isn't quite as cool.
ThinkPad = Business.
And yes, that X30 will very likely be for sale soon!
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