Thinkpads Forum

I see the point about the audio ports. I don't use my laptop in the same way as the side-port posters. Most of the time, nothing is plugged into my audio ports on the T41. I'm using a USB webcam for international and long distance Skyping, and it has a mic. I use the built in speakers. When I just had a headset, I only plugged it in when I used it, not permanently. There is no audio on my T41. I run my iPod off tower pc's. My T41 disk is so small (40gb) that I don't have room for music (about 13 GB are free now), but also, I don't listen to music while I work. I do one or the other (not a background music guy- I want music to be the foreground or absent).

n.b. I can watch TV, read and get a headache at the same time, but music is more on a pedestal.

I don't want to pay for docking stations either, though when I worked for a big company, I had a Dell (two models, one good, one terrible) with docking stations at work and home (and two 20 inch monitors- CRTs- man they were BIG). Now a usb hub works as a pseudo dock: 2 disk drives, keyboard, floppy drive, webcam, mouse all stay plugged in all the time. I just remove a usb cable (from the side), unclip the webcam from the lid, and go. Unfortuantely I have to pray that the T41 will boot after being moved, but that is another story.

I guess I don't really understand the appeal of a laptop as a completely static machine- I like the upgradeable parts of a moderate or large case, optical drives that don't feel like 25 cent magic fingers treatments when spinning, etc. At the moment, one tower (cheesy old HP) has a boot drive problem and my new power machine hasn't worked since it was delivered in January, though maybe I just fixed it. (I've said that about 20 times, though). So I'm doing all my work on the T41 at home. I use the gigabit network card to speed backups to my Infrant NV+, which is much nicer than waiting for Godot with USB.

I'd like a laptop I'm not afraid to move (since I'm not smart enough to fix the one I have), and one that is pretty darn fast, with more than 4 hrs battery life, that will run XP Pro. Not too many choices out there for new technology with XP Pro. I'm very happy that T61's have it as an option. sooo, maybe soon I'll get one.

chemrat wrote:I'd like a laptop I'm not afraid to move (since I'm not smart enough to fix the one I have), and one that is pretty darn fast, with more than 4 hrs battery life, that will run XP Pro. Not too many choices out there for new technology with XP Pro. I'm very happy that T61's have it as an option. sooo, maybe soon I'll get one.

i see what you're saying, and i just have to say that the t60 already fits the bill for those listed criteria, though vista now seems the standard

laptops, especially business grade ones, are durable enough that you don't need to worry about moving them. and you can apparently drop thinkpads onto the floor (this is not advised and I would not personally try this) and be okay

the battery life on the new t61s is odd, because the cells last less, the system itself is supposed to be a lot more faster and battery intensive, and the batteries don't interoperate with t60s

if i could make a change to the t-series, i would add DVI. there is a quote from the lenovoblog saying how it wouldn't fit.. i guess i'm surprised, but no expert on the matter

chemrat wrote:My T41 isn't so stable, it takes a long time to boot, sometimes takes areally long time to shut down, doesn't like it when I shut down, move it and reboot somewhere else with none of my normal extra drives or network, ... (ThinkVantage software is a mess, drivers maybe, probably XP too). If I could fix it, I would be OK for a while, but I haven't been able to and I didn't get much help while it was under warranty (tech: "you are correct, the software update program does not work, (nor does access connections at this time) and you need to update drivers manually"); also the 40 GB HD is a way too small and a bit old and should be replaced.

The best way to fix your laptop would be to do a clean install of xp using a standard oem xp install disk, I did that, had to phone up MS to get the key ont he back to work then I downloaded software installer and everything else is done for you, I've a T43P.

Now I've upgraded to vista and find it boots quicker, shuts down quicker and in general works better, there are some negatives but things like readyboost cut load times on certain applications from a minute plus to under 30 secs.

I'm looking forward to the T61P, hoping I can pass my T43P onto the wife

I understand from my Lenovo sales reps that WUXGA is likely in the T61p by this summer. In addition, I understand that the Blu-Ray burner for the R61 will probably also be available on the T61.

Since I need (or feel I need) UXGA or WUXGA, I'm planning to order a T61p with WUXGA 15.4" screen, Blu-Ray, 100 gb 7200 rpm HD, T7700 processor and a selection of batteries as soon as I find it available. The Intel Turbo Memory will be great for me.

ryengineer wrote:Most people here are talking about T61 specs mostly. But where are the guys actually ordering one?

I'm not buying one. It's about time I tried other brands.

the t60 and x60s will be my last thinkpad.. going back to vaio next year.

xta wrote:
laptops, especially business grade ones, are durable enough that you don't need to worry about moving them. and you can apparently drop thinkpads onto the floor (this is not advised and I would not personally try this) and be okay

Mine fell off the back of my couch onto a hardwood floor the other day. It was about a 3.5 ft drop. No problems so far. The emotional impact of the fall was lessened by the fact that I have a 4 year insurance policy on the laptop.

xta wrote:you can apparently drop thinkpads onto the floor (this is not advised and I would not personally try this) and be okay

Not always. Quite a few people on this forum have reported serious problems after dropping Thinkpads onto the floor from just one or two feet above. I believe the Panasonic Toughbooks are the only laptops that can usually survive such drops.

About a year ago my thinkpad T42 fell 3 feet off the side of my bed onto a hardwood floor and landed on its left side. I had headphones plugged in at the time and because the thinkpad fell perfectly strait, the metal headphone jack took most of the shock and was bent 90 degrees. Thinkpad was just fine.

I ordered a T61 on Friday. The ship date is end of this month. Let's hope it arrives on time. I used to have T43, and loved it! I am sick of Dell laptops that I have been using for last few years. Anyway, it's time to go back to ThinkPads. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

nepats778 wrote:I ordered a T61 on Friday. The ship date is end of this month. Let's hope it arrives on time.

Please post some snaps then.

On the US site at least, they only come with 1 year warranty, can you configure it for more?

Dead1nside wrote:On the US site at least, they only come with 1 year warranty, can you configure it for more?

For some more bucks, yes you can.

Yes. On the second page, you can get upto 4 years of on site or depot service.

on other forums it appears that some t61s have even shipped, desite 5/30 predictions. hopefully we'll get more reviews soon!

pianowizard wrote:

ryengineer wrote:Most people here are talking about T61 specs mostly. But where are the guys actually ordering one?

I'm not buying one. It's about time I tried other brands.

I was just curious to what other brands you were thinking. I haven't been able to find anything as configurable and durable as a thinkpad thus far.

newskin wrote:I was just curious to what other brands you were thinking. I haven't been able to find anything as configurable and durable as a thinkpad thus far.

Perhaps a Panasonic Y5, which I believe is more durable than a Thinkpad. And MUCH lighter. Twice as expensive though.

I ordered a T61 with integrated video today with a ship date of 6/8. Selected T7500 processor, 2GB memory, Win XP, 100GB 7200 HD, slim DVD burner drive, 7cell battery and WXGA+ screen. I noticed that adding a HD adapter will probably push the ship back to 6/11.

My current Thinkpad T41 is down with a warped motherboard and the Memorial Day Sale prices on the T61 looked to good to pass up. If anyone has an economical source for a T41 motherboard I would appreciate hearing from you.

jjfcpa wrote:added a coupon for another 5% off

5% off coupon? Where might that be?

DavidNY wrote:

jjfcpa wrote:added a coupon for another 5% off

5% off coupon? Where might that be?

Go to the Lenovo site through Visa Card:

http://usa.visa.com/personal

Hi everyone, just wanted to tell you that I finally ordered my T61 after months and months of waiting for the right specs...

Here are the basics:
-2.2 GHz Santa Rosa Processor
-14 inch widescreen with camera (available as of 5/21)
-NVIDIA graphics
-2 GB RAM over 2 DIMMS
-100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
-1 GB Turbo memory
-DVD burner
-Thinkpad a/b/g/n wireless adapter
-7 cell battery
-Base warranty
-No additional software

I had originally ordered the 15 inch t60p but cancelled it when I found out that the 14 inch widescreen was coming out. I waited a few months and just couldn't take it -- so I just ordered the 14 inch regular screen t60. Then they announced the 14 inch WS release the very next day so I cancelled again -- but then where was the integrated webcam? May 21 rolls around and finally all the elements are here in one glorious machine. I'm OK without the advanced graphics of the t61P which is supposed to be coming out on June 5 according to the rep I talked to -- I basically just need the thing to do some basic editing, play internet video, and run Aero smoothly. I'm not anything of a gamer or a heavy graphics user.

I'm really excited about the turbo memory, hopefully I'll be able to start up in less than the 10 minutes it takes on my newly reformatted A31 that I've had for 5+ years. The thing weighs nearly 10 pounds.

My new machine has everything I've ever wanted while strolling the airport terminals so jealous of those thin t43s and t60s chugging away. My battery life on the A31 is a whopping 20 minutes, down from 90 minutes when I first bought it (it was the school-sponsored laptop at our medical school and everyone had to get it). The underclassmen who came after us all got t40s, t41s, t43s, and now t60Ps. I had to get a thinkpad, however, because of the keyboard, the trackpoint, and the feel of the machine. These were more important than anything because this is the way I have grown accustomed to interacting with a computer. Force me to use a trackpad, or the one-button mouse on a Mac and I get very emotional.

Anyhow I hope this thing will go long on the 7-cell battery despite the NVIDIA graphics. The smaller screen and the fact that it's not the monster GPU soon-to-come on the t61P should help out.

I decided not to wait around for the 15 inch WS t61 for several reasons. (1) Heavier, (2) likely shorter battery life, and (3) the t60 version of the 15 inch widescreen looked very unsleek when I saw it at Circuit City recently. All that empty space on the side of the keyboards without speakers to fill it up... I laptop from bed alot so the placement of the speakers next to the keyboard facing up is nice so that it doesn't bury the sound in the blanket in my lap. I don't mind the placement of the headphone jacks too much either -- I always hated turning the whole machine to find the jack on the side on my A31.

Initially I really didn't like the asymmetric bezel around the screen of the 14" WS, but after reading the Lenovo blog about how it houses a monster antenna, I'm OK with it.

With respect to the 667 Mhz RAM not being able to take advantage of the 800 MHz FSB of the Santa Rosa, I agree with many of the posters who say that the cheap memory right now is too good to pass up, especially for people like me who who hold on to laptops for years and years. I will switch out to the 800 MHz RAM as a primary upgrade in maybe 2-3 years when it's cheaper so that I can get another year or two out of this machine.

Estimated ship date is June 6, but based on past experience with the two previous (cancelled) orders, it should arrive about a week faster.

Thanks to all you guys on the forum who helped me make a choice I'm extremely happy with!

You might want to remove the EPP price from your post, it is against forum rules.

Please post pics your T61 once it comes. I hope you enjoy tour thinkpad!

ryengineer wrote:Most people here are talking about T61 specs mostly. But where are the guys actually ordering one?

Not the T61 for me, but the T61p... Waiting impatiently...

After thinking about it for a long time and waiting for the t61 to come out I finally placed an order , this will be my first Thinkpad. After having my HP laptop for five years , the time has come to retire it. Recently one of the RAM modules failed which means I have only 256MB left, this is hardly enough even if you use Linux.

I mainly chose to buy a Thinkpad because of their robustness and Linux compatibility. Since I will mainly use Linux on my Thinkpad, I chose not to buy the version with the Nvidia GPU. Although Nvidia has good drivers for Linux, they are still closed source. Intel on the other hand has open sourced their drivers for wifi and graphics cards, a direction I wish more companies would take. Another main reason for choosing the X3100 graphics card is the horrible battery live with the Nvidia card. Since I expect that the upcoming t61p will have an even more power-hungry Nvidia GPU I decided not to wait for the t61p and go with the t61 instead. I wanted to buy a system with 2GB of RAM and the possibility to upgrade to 4GB at a later. However, there is no 800MHz RAM available at this time, it doesn't make much sense to buy 2GB in one SODIMM. Since at the time I want to upgrade to 4GB 800MHz RAM will hopefully be cheap, so I can upgrade to 4GB 800MHz RAM.

the estimated ship date is.. WTF?.. it now says 08/29/07.. I seriously hope this is a joke!

jdhurst wrote:I expect that there will not be a headlong rush. After all, I still have my T41 running XP Pro and it handles as many as three computers simultaneously, so I am not wanting for performance.

So when Vista complies with Business Standards (security, VPN, etc), I will get a T6x with Vista Business preloaded and go from there. August is as near as I can see at this point.
... JDH

I feel the exact same way. My 15 month old T60 is serving my needs quite nicely.

Regarding Vista: Ditto, as I'm not only waiting for it to comply with Business Standards, but I am more than happy to be patient and watch as some of the bugs are worked out.

I really wish the T80p would feature the whooping 1GB of VRAM, like the FireGL V7350:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... html#sect0

Saving bucks to get a fully loaded Thinkpad in the future. It's very nice to be opening yourself a new laptop, specially a Thinkpad!

I think 1GB is a bit over the top, but of course, more choice is not a bad thing. 512MB would be the sweet spot in my mind.

I ordered one this morning. I had the privilege to hold one of the thingies in my hand and I was convinced immediately. The slightly increased thickness is absolutely not worth the whining, and I think most people who have seen the solid built will agree.

The display brightness is just fine for me (home office /research computer) and compared to others Thinkpads pretty normal. Not that this does mean much, of course. I guess they COULD have worked a little on this.

I wouldn't give to much on the comments by people who are justing looking long enough until they find something to whine about. Check it out for yourself, and do so not online but physically. Cool as ice, solid as a rock, and powerful -> good notebook.

However:

As indicated in the shipping thread, the estimated time of shipping is end of August for my T61. I am currently waiting for a call back from Lenovo. If they can make it earlier, good. If they can give me a T60 with similar configuration significantly faster, okay. If neither is possible, I will go for Dell.
I have been a Thinkpad user because I have always felt be taken seriously as a customer by IBM/Lenovo. If this is not the case anymore, it is time for a goodbye.


Edit: Btw, am I the only one who thinks the off-centered screen is kinda cool? I like it.

I was about to pull the trigger on the T61, but the availability of Flexview on the 15" T60, the current lack of ooomph in the Intel Turbo memory department (I'm sure it will help in the future) and my lack of a need for an integrated webcam made me turn to the T60. Hopefully the ~$200+ price premium on the T60 was worth it.

The only thing that I wish is that I could've gotten something better than the ATI X1400 graphics, but I figure I'll hopefully get more enjoyment out of the famed IPS Flexview screen than I will playing the occasional game. Here's to hoping the Flexview screen lives up to all the hype (I have yet to see one in person)

Hm, I thought about exactly that configuration as a possible alternative, should Lenovo not be able to process my T61 soon. However, I heard horrible things about current ATI cards and Linux; does anyone have this combination up and running on a Thinkpad?