Thinkpads Forum

Hi there.

I'm finally thinking about getting a (used) T6X. But after those crappy T4X stuff I'm not that sure about IBM/Lenovo any more.
So what's your opinion/guess are there any (new) 'design flaws' showing up? I know its a bit early for that, but are there some hints already?

- its ugly ( but that's only a visual design flaw)
- screen appears to be dimmer than my t23
- the hinges went slightly loose after one year of normal usage
- touchpad buttons are flimsy
overall the machine feels extremely solid, reliable and the flaws mantioned above are mostly targeted towards those who are perfectionists such as myself.

I have no complaints about my T60 at all.

It's worth noting that I did do a great deal of due diligence before purchasing it new from Lenovo and in the end found many of the complaints I read online from others about the T60 to be baseless and trivial based on my personal experience with my T60.

As always YMMV.

so you think the bgas on newer atis(etc) is no more a prob? I'd like to have a little bit more power than a intel 950 or 3100.
I'm no more up to date...
(but i guess they had the time to work around, and its amd nowadays...)

It wasn't really ATis problem, but the placement of the GPU in the T4x series led to problems, due to motherboard flexing.
With the T6x series there's no longer a problem du to two reasons:
1) Roll cage is actually very sturdy, and does seem to do it's job well, even in the corners.
2) The GPU is now situated much further north-west, so that it is closer to the lid/hinges area, so it will be in a much stiffer department of the laptop.

IMO, T60/p with flexview display is the best thinkpad I've ever used!

ryengineer wrote:IMO, T60/p with flexview display is the best thinkpad I've ever used!

Please expand on this (very interesting!) view; are you talking about SXGA+ (and in such case, what panel do you like best/recommend; LG-Phillips or BOE-Hydis?) or are you talking about UXGA (and, again, which panel do you like the best; the "old" T42/3p IDTech or one of the newer BOE-Hydis; either the 13N7076 or the said-to-be sRGB 13N7194)?

Thanks for an experts recommendation!

best regards,

Johan

I'll second ryengineer's opinion. I've got two T60p's and couldn't be happier with them. Every machine has its limitations and peculiarities, but for my tastes and needs the T60p has been the finest machine I've owned so far.

BTW, one of my machines has the IDTech screen and the other has the BOE-Hydis. I'm a little more pleased with the BOE-Hydis, but the IDTech is a fine screen as well.

As always, caveat emptor. I wouldn't buy one sight unseen unless it was from someone very reliable like a regular Thinkpads Forum poster. Even then you might want to use the escrow option for which I believe Bill charges a fair $50. See FOR SALE advert. guidelines
good luck,
DenTPr4m

ryengineer wrote:

IMO, T60/p with flexview display is the best thinkpad I've ever used!

I third this opinion wholeheartedly. My (now departed) T60p with Boe-Hydis UXGA LCD was a joy to use.

ajkula66 wrote:I third this opinion wholeheartedly. My (now departed) T60p

But you sold it because you like the A31p even more? So I guess the T60p is only the second best Thinkpad you've used!

Honestly, this is how that goes:

a) T60p with Boe-Hydis is the best factory LCD my old eyes have ever seen.
b) My "main" A31p with backlight replaced by James (jamiphar) beats that on any day of the week, and any hour of the day. It is, IMO, the best LCD I've ever encountered.

Now, if I could find an out-of-warranty T60p with a bad backlight, that would be very interesting...

I have had a T61, my first Thinkpad, for a couple of weeks. Previously I have owned Compaq, HP, Sony and Fujitsu notebooks. I far prefer the Thinkpad for features and build quality. The only fault have is I would want a bigger mouse pad and maybe a slightly brighter screen. The T61 is also very cool running.

ATI x1300/1400 T60's overheat like crazy. SXGA+ screen is a little dark (ok really dark). other than that, this machine is a little beast.

kulivontot wrote:ATI x1300/1400 T60's overheat like crazy. SXGA+ screen is a little dark (ok really dark). other than that, this machine is a little beast.

I've had a T60 with the X1300 for a little over a week. Haven't noticed any overheating while watching movies or during fairly heavy computational work. I haven't tried any games, but the X1300 is pretty weak as GPUs go (this isn't the right machine for serious gaming). Overall, the machine runs cooler than my old T42 with the 9600 graphics (although the T42 power management never seemed to work quite right on my machine).

In terms of the display, I have the 15" SXGA+ display (IPS/flexview), which seems comparable to other machines I've used in terms of brightness (not the brightest screen out there, but very usable). Maybe kulivontot has a 14" screen which is spec'd as being dimmer than the 15". If you can find a machine with the IPS screen, by all means get it.

Overall I've been very happy with the machine. I did have an 'NMI parity error' blue screen just after I got it but updating the drivers seems to have fixed that.

- Jay

hmm, still on the search...
When u sell those things its really great that u have such high prices for used ones (done once or twice). but if u want to buy yourself one
anyway, thank u guys

I've got a 14" SXGA+ T61

- The display could be a lot better. Viewing angles are narrow. There's no position you can look it from where you could get uniform reproduction across the screen. The only improvement compared to my 3 1/2 years old SXGA+ T41 is that this is brighter.
- Battery could last longer (Standard battery, T8300, Nvidia 140M)
- Touchpad is smaller than in T41
- T61 seems to be well built. Does not flex. Except that this unit seems to have slightly bent roll cage. The computer rocks a bit on an uniform table. I've had to add a small pad under the original one to stop that.

mattbiernat wrote:- its ugly ( but that's only a visual design flaw)
- screen appears to be dimmer than my t23
- the hinges went slightly loose after one year of normal usage
- touchpad buttons are flimsy
overall the machine feels extremely solid, reliable and the flaws mantioned above are mostly targeted towards those who are perfectionists such as myself.

I would have to agree. I have seen a lot of the same problems with a lot of T60s and T61s around here. As a matter of fact, I spent a few hours one day trying to fix a friend's touchpad buttons ... they got to the point that they would just fall off whenever he clicked.

As for as reliability, mine has been good. Popped the motherboard back in October, but no problems since then.