Is the T60p as good as the Dell Latitude D820?

[rocketman]

I'm not kidding, I've been reading user reviews of the D820 and not one negative review, everyone using one seems to be extremely happy with it. Some who own both the D820 and T series Thinkpads are saying that the trackpoint on the D820 is as good as on the T60 and the keyboard is as good or extremely close to Thinkpad quality. All the reviews comment on how good the build quality and display quality is on the D820 and there does not seem to be any issues with it. This contrasts with the mixed reviews I've read of the T60p. I wonder if it's possible that Dell actually got it right with the Latitude D820, even more so than Lenovo did with the T60p. Has anyone here actually used a Latitude D820?

[Leeper]

I have both in front of me currently and while the 820 is better than the 810 it replaced, it is still no match for the T60.


The 820 is a huge laptop and is wide screen vs. the sleek T60. I still feel that the Dell unit is not as ridged as the ThinkPad and the Dell keyboard still sucks. If there are any specifics you are looking for let me know and I will reply.

[gunston]

thinkpad is ideal for professionalism, whereas dell820 is for entertainment, and somehow it has more heat dissipation and unbearable heat on its palm rest.

think twice before you decide, thinkpad will never dissapoint you.

[rocketman]

I have both in front of me currently and while the 820 is better than the 810 it replaced, it is still no match for the T60.


The 820 is a huge laptop and is wide screen vs. the sleek T60. I still feel that the Dell unit is not as ridged as the ThinkPad and the Dell keyboard still sucks. If there are any specifics you are looking for let me know and I will reply.

Is the T60 you have the 15" version? I've read that the D820 runs cool with very little fan noise, how does the T60 compare in those regards? Also the display, how is the T60's display compare to your D820? One more thing, do you find the build quality of the D820 generally close to the T60?

[Leeper]

I have the 14" T60p. I still don't feel that Dell's build quality is compareable to the Thinkpad. I will agree that the new T60 is not at the same level as the previous generation but Dell still has some work left to do.

I have not had any issues with fan or hear nosie on my T60, but I didn't have any fan nosies on my T43p when everyone else was flooding these boards with complaints.

[rocketman]

I have not had any issues with fan or hear nosie on my T60, but I didn't have any fan nosies on my T43p when everyone else was flooding these boards with complaints.

I'm going by my own personal experience, I had a T43p that was terrible, the fan noise was unbearable and the hard drive was very loud as well. I've been reading about the T60p and some people seem to have some issues with it where all the D820 reviews are really glowing. I guess a fairer comparison in size would be a 15" T60p to the D820 but the D820 does have a wide scrren display plus a better available video card and more display resolution choices.

[ajb]

Out of the six Dell laptops I've owned over the past 7 years, they have all needed the keyboards replaced (a couple of them multiple times). Dell's are decent machines, and certainly less expensive than many others... but they are not robust, professional machines like ThinkPads.

I've got a good friend who owns a reselling/refurb/repair business and he always has a huge stock of Dells laying around and almost never has any ThinkPads... his comment when I once asked "why" is that ThinkPads are built to last and the other's aren't.

Enough said?

ajb

[astro]

I've been reading about the T60p and some people seem to have some issues with it where all the D820 reviews are really glowing.

As context, consider that the two companies are going in two different directions:
- Dell (in some respects) trying to be Lenovo
- Lenovo (in some respects) trying to be Dell

What matters when you talk about reviews is customer expectation. People know the directions that these companies are taking.

Here are a couple generalisations, but have a think about them:
- Keep build quality on a new ThinkPad the same, or improve only slightly then you'll find (on this forum at least) that people will be ho-hum, bordering on disappointed -- because ThinkPads are relatively expensive and known to be of a 'high standard'
- Marginally improve build quality on a Dell and it is likely that people will be impressed, because they are relatively cheap and known to be of an 'average standard'

There are many posts here commenting on the fact that the T60 is built like a tank and that the roll cage has really benefited the overall rigidity of the machine. There only build quality issues I have heard about are fit & finish of the plastics used.

[christopher_wolf]

I've been reading about the T60p and some people seem to have some issues with it where all the D820 reviews are really glowing.

As context, consider that the two companies are going in two different directions:
- Dell (in some respects) trying to be Lenovo
- Lenovo (in some respects) trying to be Dell

What matters when you talk about reviews is customer expectation. People know the directions that these companies are taking.

Here are a couple generalisations, but have a think about them:
- Keep build quality on a new ThinkPad the same, or improve only slightly then you'll find (on this forum at least) that people will be ho-hum, bordering on disappointed -- because ThinkPads are relatively expensive and known to be of a 'high standard'
- Marginally improve build quality on a Dell and it is likely that people will be impressed, because they are relatively cheap and known to be of an 'average standard'

There are many posts here commenting on the fact that the T60 is built like a tank and that the roll cage has really benefited the overall rigidity of the machine. There only build quality issues I have heard about are fit & finish of the plastics used.

These are some really good points; think of Yin and Yang and you will have down pretty much most of what is going on here.

I still would rather get a T60 than a Dell 820. Remember, if you are the top of the line (IBM/Lenovo and the Thinkpads) everybody looks up to you and expects you to keep up the really hard work. Then look at the mid to bottom of the line, Dell, and everybody that looks at them won't be expecting too much..but will get impressed with a smaller positive delta in quality, much more so than if you are already at the top of the line where huge increases in quality are expected as well as a high standard of robustness.

The Australians, I believe, have a saying, it has to do with being the tall poppy in the field; if you are the tallest then you get the most attention, but you are also more liable to have your head cut off.

The best bet is to balance a professional machine with total cost of ownership and quality. If you look at WWII, the germans started to make highly advanced, nearly invincible tanks that moved very quickly for their size...The biggest problem? They could only top out production of such tanks at *25 Tanks* per month; comapre that to the US and Russia who were producing a larger variety of simple, easy-to-fix tanks at unbelievably high rates. Those tanks may have been cheap and easy and nowhere near as individually effective as a Tiger or a Jagdpanther...but they were in numbers and they had crews who knew what they were doing.

Also, not to take cheap shots here, look at the user base for the Thinkpads and the Dells.

Most Thinkpad users will look over and over and over their system, optimize, go back and do it again...then complain about what, to others, would seem to be a very minor issue.

Most Dell users are happy to have a machine that runs decently without having to throw several wallets at the company making them and something that operates simply yet with a good amount of power. Of those Dell reviews, how many have actually reviewed *other* systems including the T60? You can't make a direct comparision if your units of measure (authors of the reviews) are different....

Therefore, there could, and is, a large difference in the two that doesn't get accurately reflected in the reviews upon a direct view between the two. If one system completes Job A perfectly to User A and another system completes Job B well according to User B, you have to account for 4 independant variables to even hope of having a chanceof getting some meaningful information out of it.

(Required Cheap Shot at Dell: Did anybody run a spell-checker through the reviews from the Dell users? )

[jeremivw]

Well, I just switched over to IBM after years of being a Dell user.

I've not used the new platform that Dell just released but it doesn't matter...I'm not buying it. I had an M60 for a year and a half and then an M70 for a year. There is no way that Dell makes anything as nice as the T60p I'm typing on now. And screw those wide screens...

As far as a comparison goes...this one is not good.

T60p vs. D820 = Apples vs. Oranges

The closest thing to the T60 that I can find on the Dell website is the new D520 w/ 15" SXGA. it's top line config is comparible to a mid T60 (at ~2K).

Heck, with the Lenovo sale right now you can pick up the T60p express model for $2200! Dell's not even that cheap anymore!

[astro]

The Australians, I believe, have a saying, it has to do with being the tall poppy in the field; if you are the tallest then you get the most attention, but you are also more liable to have your head cut off.

Now, there was a nail around here... Somewhere... Oh, you must've hit it.

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome (TPS) is a term used in Australasia for a levelling social attitude, pushed to the point of bad behaviour. Someone has tall poppy syndrome when they are envious, defamatory, or overly critical of someone because of their notionally higher economic, social or political position.

Stick your head out and be the best and you'll discover an army waiting to cut you down... and I daresay this attitude is not limited to Australians.