Thinkpads Forum

After using a Dell Inspiron 5150 (3.2GHz P4M w/HT, 60GB 5400RPM drive, 2GB RAM, DVD/CDR, Dell 1400 Wireless) for the last three years, the lease ran out and I've ordered a replacement.

This time it's a Lenovo T60 WSXGA+ with the ATI 1400 display adapter, T7600 C2D, 100GB 7200RPM drive and ThinkPad (Atheros) wireless.

The Inspiron still seems to provide decent performance for a device that's 3 years old. I often run, concurrently, multiple VMWare virtual machines, several terminal emulator sessions, MySQL Server, a Java-based integration engine, Outlook, multiple web sessions with both IE and Firefox, and other odds and ends.

So will my new laptop blow my socks off?

I think it will, I have been blown away coming from the Sony side. I will keep this one and buy more in the future.

Most certainly! I've used a friend's Inspiron 5150 and think it's one of the ugliest laptops Dell has ever made. The model I used happened to have a very low resolution (1024x768), and on such a big screen (15"), it looked terrible. The T60's WSXGA+ would be a huge improvement. I said a few days ago that the 15.4" widescreen T60 is ugly, but the Inspiron 5150 is much much worse!

pianowizard wrote:Most certainly! I've used a friend's Inspiron 5150 and think it's one of the ugliest laptops Dell has ever made. The model I used happened to have a very low resolution (1024x768), and on such a big screen (15"), it looked terrible. The T60's WSXGA+ would be a huge improvement. I said a few days ago that the 15.4" widescreen T60 is ugly, but the Inspiron 5150 is much much worse!

I actually have the 1024x768 display on mine, so that's excellent news. Most places I travel, I scare up an extra flat panel and extend my desktop to it. That improves the situation

My biggest beef with the Inspiron is the keyboard layout. I do a lot of Unix work, and having the tilde/backtick key next to F12 is simply perverse. On the other hand, Dell did relocate the Windows and context keys up to where they're likely to be ignored

You never really appreciate your T60 until you've used it for a good period. I was using my girlfriends 5150 it creaked so much I thought I just hit an iceberg with the titanic.

You'll feel solid.

Even when coming from a Macbook Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz with the same processor (T7200 2.0Ghz), same amount of memory (2.0GB ram) - I was blown away. Of course the T60 I ordered came with the 256mb video card, which made a huge difference compared to the integrated Intel 950 video of the Macbook. Two entirely different leagues. Maybe if I came from the MacBook Pro I wouldn't be as impressed.

The T60 performs even better than my desktop work machine (3.0Ghz P4 HT w/2.0GB ram) and that has been a solid performer for more than a year.

Probably the best measure was in games, even though I'm not a big gamer (now at least - too busy). But the benchmarks i was getting in FEAR and in World of Warcraft were very, very impressive for a machine that is not built for gaming (compared to Dell's).

As a recent convert, and former user of a Dell 600m, I think I can contribute my two cents.
Although I never really had any complaints about the Dell (maybe I was lucky), the level of quality on ThinkPads is truly superior. Starting with the build quality, which feels pretty [censored] solid. Even the business grade laptops from Dell don't feel that solid.
Then you go to the quality of the components. Even though I am not an engineer or software guy, I can tell that the premium you pay for the TPs is really worth it.
And last, the utilities and software you get from Lenovo are really outstanding and make your life easier. Granted, there are some apps that you might not need, like Access Connections or Message Center, but I would say that for the most part, Lenovo utilities are useful. That is without taking into account Rescue and Recovery, the hidden partition, and the ThinkVantage button.
In short, I am a very happy convert. I think you will be too.

Let me put it this way.

I "upgraded" from an Inspiron 5100 to a five-year-old T23 with a 1.13ghz P3. Been a Thinkpad man ever since. I have a machine I can move around.