Good time to buy a T61

[thinkxplx]

Hello All,

I have decided to get a T61. I have been reading that July would probably be a good time to buy as the corporate sales have slowed down considerably and the discounts are very attractive. Currently lenovo is offering roughly 36% discount.

Is it advisable to wait out until july for a better price ( or better features for the same price)?

TIA

[XCoalMiner]

I'm no market expert, but here's some thoughts. New T400/T500s are in the pipeline, and seem to be replacements for the T61s.

And Lenovo has been offering some good discounts, up to 36%, etc., etc., But you have to suspect they are ramping up production of the new T400/500s. And so at some point both the high volume production and large supply of T61s will start to go away. And therefore I'd question how much longer the discounts will last on the T61s, and will the discounts will ever get any better than they are now.

Maybe someone who has seen how this plays out many more times over with other model-line replacements can jump in.

[archer6]

Is it advisable to wait out until july for a better price ( or better features for the same price)?

TIA

I would not wait any longer. ThinkPads sell out fast, especially considering that Lenovo rarely has any in stock unless they have a canceled order which they can usually resell within hours of the cancellation. We are rapidly approaching the release date of the new machines, everyone knows it, and I would expect that production of the existing models is winding down if not stopped by now.

Cheers

[Crunch]

they are ramping up production of the new T400/500s.

Do you, or anyone else know anything regarding these T400's and T500's? What's new about them, what are some of the improvements, etc.??

Thanks...

[XCoalMiner]

What I know is what I read here: Details surface for future ThinkPads: X200, SL, T and R series - Engadget

[Quagmyre]

accidentally posted. Please delete.

[Quagmyre]

Be careful though about the latest T61 models.
Apparently, Lenovo has started digging up old LCDs from the bottom of their warehouses to produce their last T61s.

You can read a lot of reports over at the lenovo thinkpad forum. People either got a Samsung panel (poor viewing angles and very dim) or an LG panel (a little brighter, but often grainy appearance like with IPS panels).
This seems to be especially true for the WSXGA+ LCDs, but other LCD sizes are affected as well.
Meanwhile, Lenovo seems to refuse requests for LCD changes specifying certain part numbers for the replacement LCDs.

I myself got the Samsung LCD (manufacture date: 2005!!), and while it is basically OK, it's just too dim for being used outside, e. g. when sitting in a cafe on a sunny day, or even in a bright room.

This LCD is the only weak spot in my otherwise awesome T61p.

[bveghte]

Quagmyre,

Could you please post a link to that forum thread?

[Quagmyre]

Quagmyre,

Could you please post a link to that forum thread?

Sure. Here it is:

http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/mess ... ing&page=1

[bveghte]

Thanks!

Ben

[XCoalMiner]

Hello All,

I have decided to get a T61. I have been reading that July would probably be a good time to buy as the corporate sales have slowed down considerably and the discounts are very attractive. Currently lenovo is offering roughly 36% discount.

Is it advisable to wait out until july for a better price ( or better features for the same price)?

TIA

In reply to the original question, Buy a T61 in July ... good discounts? I'm in agreement with the 3rd post. I'd also say put your order in now. If the price drops below what you're quoted now, you can invoke the price protection/price match thing, details in this thread, Promotion Frequency.

Anything causing delays in shipments, parts shortages, for example, work to your advantage when doing this, because there is a longer period during which the price can fluctuate, and with the T61 nearing the end of it's production life cycle, interest may shift yo the new models, and demand may be waning and the price may go down accordingly for the T61. I hope.

[basketb]

One word of caution on the price protection policy (though I do not have any personal experience with it). Does it still work if you order the Thinkpad with an option that later becomes unavailable? For example, in early April you could order a T61 with a 9 cell battery. This option was subsequently removed, making it somewhat impossible to configure the same machine for price protection. Similarly, there is some fluctuation wrt. the wireless card. At one point, they had three options, thinkpad abg, intel abg, and intel abgn. Then the thinkpad abg was gone, then it came back and the intel abg was gone.

[archer6]

One word of caution on the price protection policy (though I do not have any personal experience with it). Does it still work if you order the Thinkpad with an option that later becomes unavailable?.

You have brought up a very valid point. I had a similar experience last year. In an attempt to wait as late as possible so as to take advantage of the discounts, I ended up having my order cancelled by Lenovo as they had run out of components to build the configuration I specified. By the time I was notified the next day, they had sold out all remaining models. It was like a feeding frenzy.

Thus it's due to this experience that I encourage anyone who's serious to just do it now & save yourself the risk of not getting one at all. (And I do not work for Lenovo, just a happy, long time customer).

Cheers,
sent via: BlackBerry Curve

[thinkxplx]

I read the link to lenovo forums for LCD related issues after I placed an order for T61. This has me really worried.

I used the very valuable suggestions offered on this forum to place an order. It would have been awesome if there were a youtube video of what a wide screen 14.1 or a 15.1 looks like for various display types. I do not know if anyone has posted something like this on any of the forums. But during my research I observed that
there were *many* members ( like me ) struggling to decide which display type to choose.

It is difficult to visualize what it means to have more screen real estate for a higher resolution screen or that the fonts are *too* small for this screen type ( and many other attributes that the members describe for their display types)

I am getting a webcam & can post a video of my T61 WXGA when it arrives.

-------
Owner of a T30 and quite happy with the display.

[archer6]

There is no question about it, as many new ThinkPads as I've had and yet, when it comes to display choices it is _still_ hard for me to decide.

Even though one might get a rough idea from a YouTube video, that's all you'd get. I'm afraid that even YouTube is of little use for this issue. The only true way to know if it's going to work for you or not, is to try it. Especially since it's a laptop that you are going to use at a certain distance from you which is so much more specific than a desktop monitor.

At least you have the 30day return period if you bought it from Lenovo, simply return it for the display you would like the best at that point. So that's my take....


Cheers!

[beeblebrox]

To be honest I don't quite understand what it means to ...buy a notebook as fast as possible before they are all sold out...

In my view electronics today are like fresh salad or vegetable. You buy when you need it and only as much as you really need.

In case you didn't get your last fresh salad on Saturday evening, then wait for monday. New salad is on the shelf.

Notebooks depreciate at about 1% PER WEEK. There are no exceptions. The longer you wait the more modern systems you'll get. The new T400/T500 looks much more promising than the T61, with many more features.

And... prices never go up. In the longer run they always go down. Always!!

[XCoalMiner]

"Notebooks depreciate at about 1% PER WEEK" is interesting.

The flip side here is the new T400/T500 are also going to carry bleeding edge prices, too. And so if you have a choice right now, buying a T61 near the end of the lifecycle is a way to lighten your wallet less that the alternative of getting a brand new T400/500 in a few months. Or so I tell myself.

[thinkxplx]

The sales person I dealt with hinted that the starting price for T400 would be around $1100 available july 15. I needed something earlier and decided to go for a T61.

[XCoalMiner]

That price is really surprising. Although the starting prices for the T61 right now are in the $750 range.

What happens after the 'starting price' is just the same as what happens to the person who walks into a car dealership with the intent of buying an economy model Toyota Corolla. But ends up getting a fully loaded Lexus with air conditioning, power windows, sunroof, rust proofing and all the other goodies.

[archer6]

To be honest I don't quite understand what it means to ...buy a notebook as fast as possible before they are all sold out...

In my view electronics today are like fresh salad or vegetable. You buy when you need it and only as much as you really need.!

It's simple really, It goes like this:

I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio display with IPS, had I not purchased mine when I did and waited until now I would have been out of luck. No amount of money will buy a new T60 today with the 1600x1200 TFT IPS Flexview display. A display that by the way, that is centered in the middle of it's housing, not off set to the right as are the 15.4" wide screens of todays' T61 models. A stellar display that is widely recognized as one of the best. Thus it's about timing the purchase so as to not miss out on a model with features that are very important to certain individuals with certain needs.

On the other hand, I do agree with your position which also has it's merits. After all it you do not use your computer for work, or do the type of scientific / design / 3D work that I do, it's of little consequence. If you simply need or want a new computer with no hard and fast "must have features" one can wait for a very long time. Yes, prices continue to decline, features go up, and one can watch that movie play out for years.

So it really does come to the point where once again, like always, it's simply a matter of personal preferences, needs, and timing.

As far as fresh salad or veges are concerned, I have never compared them to a ThinkPad as I personally love fresh salad, and it tastes so much better than chewing on a piece of plastic.......

[phr]

I got a T61 15" WSXGA a month or so ago and the screen seems fine. The machine seemed like an incredible bargain, I spent about $1200 total making it close to fully loaded (T9300 cpu, 3 year warranty package, encrypted 160GB HD, plus various accessories). I didn't want the Nvidia graphic card which is power hungry and doesn't have open source Linux drivers. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't get the UWXGA screen, but I don't like widescreen anyway. I got it with the Suse Linux preload which I erased and installed Ubuntu. Main benefit of Suse was to avoid paying the Windows tax.

I think the T61 is about as good as it will get for a while, i.e. the T400/500 adds just minor improvements and uses DDR3 which is super expensive. I got 4GB of DDR2 from Newegg for $75. DDR3 is a few percent faster and I think around 4x as expensive. Things will get more interesting in 2009 with the next generation CPU's, USB 3.0 and so forth.