Thinkpads Forum

I bought my 15" T61 in August, and I chose it because I have been under the impression that these things were built like tanks. But I'm having some issues with the screen bezel or something ...

Warning: The pics are rather large so you can see the detail.

Anyway, when I first got it, I noticed this random plastic piece protruding from the area above the screen where the diagonal etching things are in the bezel. Pic03. Pic04.

I didn't think much of it at first, but it appears that it's caused the whole bezel to warp at the center ... Pic01. Pic02.

... which is causing the finish to rub off on both sides of the wrist rest area. Pic05.

Okay, so that sucks. The paint is chipping off the corners (although I read this is a normal problem) and the interior of the case is getting beat to all hell, despite me toting is carefully in a neoprene sleeve inside a laptop bag.

Further analysis show that the whole screen assembly seems to be ... warped ... or something. Note in Pic08 that the edges do not touch each other (this is the extreme left front corner) but in the center the lip of the bezel is rubbing against the wrist rest thing in Pic09. And Pic10 shows the screen seeming to ... bow downward. Pic08. Pic09. Pic10.

... which in turn has caused the Trackpoint and several keys to rub against the LCD. The covering for the screen appears to be undamaged, but there's a lot of discoloration (a blue-ish tint), particularly where the Trackpoint is rubbing. (The white thing in the pics is a really blurry cursor, not screen damage.) Pic06. Pic07.

Well, in full color, it's not noticeable, but I do a lot of AutoCad work, which has a black background, and this ... SUCKS, to say the least.

I suppose I could contact Lenovo, but I feel like they may blame it on a "wear and tear" issue rather than what I perceive to be a poor case design. I don't do anything extraordinarily physical with this thing, but I'm exceedingly disappointed because I expected it to hold up a little better, especially since it's only 5 months old and they market this as a "rugged notebook". Additionally, I just talked my mother into buying an R61, which seems to have been built a little better (the lid is unfinished, so no paint rubbing issues), but I hope the same thing doesn't happen to hers.

Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone else had an issue like this?

My T61 15.4" widescreen looks pretty much the same. As you said, the display lid is (very!) slightly convex (bulges outward), and was like that from the beginning.

When closed, the sides of the display lid rest on the sides of the chassis. Thats one of the features of the design.

There are a few key marks on the screen, as with every laptop. Its worlds better than my old T41, where I could see the location of every single key on the screen.

I noticed, too, that the bezel is not completely flush with the screen at two points on the top (your pic01 and pic02). No idea if that is intentional or not. Seems to have no functional impact.