Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone, been a while since I posted!

I am in need of some good feedback about an upcoming notebook purchase and this was the first place that came to mind. I currently have a wonderful T41p, which has served me better than any other piece of equipment ever has. But sadly the warranty on it is about to run out, and being a big traveler and a true power user, I can't roll without a warranty for too long.

So I am looking at a T60p, but I feel I'm having a really difficult time settling anything, admittedly due to the Lenovo name. Before I got my perfect T41p and when back when I sold ThinkPads, I used to keep informed of just about everything ThinkPad. But since I no longer sell them, and since my T41p has served me so well, that I really haven't cared to keep track of the latest and greatest in ThinkPad news, or anything in notebook hardware for that matter.

So my questions are...

1. How is the build quality since Lenovo took over? I've read a few threads that have praised the new Rollcage, but I've also seen some comments about fan issues and palm rest creaking. Can the T60p endure about 20 hours of daily uptime, like my T41p?

2. How is Lenovo's service when you have a hardware problem? This is a very big issue for me... With IBM, when something broke, it was a pleasure to get serviced.

Every call i made was answered by an English-speaking rep, I was able to get a replacement battery and keyboard shipped to me in under 20 hours when customs banged my machine in Australia, and when my system fried in Canada and I shipped it to IBM in their pre-paid box, they returned it to me with a replaced mainboard in under a week.

Does Lenovo uphold this bar-none service? Are their policies any different?

Thanks in advance, guys!

Note from Moderator: Welcome back! Things have changed a bit, so please update your location with something real.

T60's and T60p's are much improved over the T41, T42, and T43 models.

Same design elements, better quality. Service is also the same. Same people as before doing the work....

If you travel a lot, after getting your system, call 800-IBM-SERV when you DON'T have an issue, and verify that your system is set up for international warranty coverage, so if it does have a problem overseas you know its already in their system. Avoids hassles.

T60 is a successful successor of the T4X family
Go ahead!

All the service is still provided by IBM Global Services, so you shouldn't expect any decrease in the level of service.

If you're that happy with your T41P, just buy a post-warranty service agreement. Probably under $400 for three years of onsite service.