Thinkpads Forum

Okay so the bottom line is I recently had a toshiba that died, and I need a new laptop for school. I could certainly use one right now, however I'm not in an immense rush if there is a significant upgrade coming in the x60 series (i'd be willing to wait for that.) I'm starting law school in Fall '07, and I'm going to need a good technology that will last me a solid 3-4 years. Since I have to commute, an ultraportable laptop is important to me (which is why I'm thinking x60s.) Have any rumors leaked of something coming I should be waiting for, or does it make sense to go out and get an x60(s) right now?

The X60(s) line now has Core 2 Duo and 802.11n both as options. It will have in the second quarter of 2007 the Santa Rosa chipset which includes:
1. On board Flash Memory for fast boot/save disk time.
2. Faster graphics processor
3. 802.11n
4. Faster memory bus.
5. EVDO Rev A. (relevant if you want built-in WWAN Verizon) instead of EVDO Rev 0.

I am selling X60s in Marketplace if you want a good buy.

I'd suggest waiting until sometime between May 1 and July 1...

First, you want to get the 3-year warranty (which for me was 3 years + a few extra months) and you want it to last until you're done studying for the bar exam...which should be late July in most states.

If you wait until late spring/early summer the low voltage core 2 duo processors should be out and it is likely you'll have access to some of their holiday/summer sales.

I'm in law school and I commute 4 miles roundtrip by bike with the X60s and I'm very happy with the size and weight. A lot of my classmates haul around the T60 or bigger, bulkier machines; I'm glad I'm not one of them.

I would definitely wait if I were you. You might also ask your friends and family if they know any IBM employees...IBM has a pretty amazing employee purchase plan for Thinkpads. You might also see if the schools you're looking at offer any special discounts on Thinkpads.

See what happens on 11/28. If nothing happens with the X then, it should be a while before we see anything significant.

I am going into business school in fall 07 as well. I bought my X60s last summer, and I (hope) to keep it through my freshman year in college (2 years is a long time for me, I average about 6 months). I have, however, used laptops in class since sophmore year of high school, so its nothing new to me.

If you ask me, the X60/s/t is the best laptop for a student, period (unless youre in design or something). Its light weight, durable, gets awesome battery life, nice comfortable keyboard, etc etc etc. You can, if you have to, just get an external monitor for your dorm/appartment (I plan on having a desktop for my room, X60s for mobile use).

dfumento wrote:The X60(s) line now has Core 2 Duo and 802.11n both as options. It will have in the second quarter of 2007 the Santa Rosa chipset which includes:
1. On board Flash Memory for fast boot/save disk time.
2. Faster graphics processor
3. 802.11n
4. Faster memory bus.
5. EVDO Rev A. (relevant if you want built-in WWAN Verizon) instead of EVDO Rev 0.

Does Windows Vista support the motherboard-based flash as implemented in Santa Rosa? The Microsoft direction appears to be towards hybrid drives (ie ReadyDrive) rather than motherboard-based flash. Intel, naturally, prefers the latter as it ensures that the flash memory comes from, err, Intel.

Oh, I'd also recommend ponying up for the next day, onsite, accident repair option. I can't emphasize how inconvenient it would be to lose you laptop for much more than 24 hours during law school. I'm sure mailing in a Thinkpad is faster than most other companies, but even losing the laptop for a week could be a major hassle. Plus you'll carry this around every day for three years; you or one of your classmates is bound to do somthing stupid like spill a giant cup of coffee on it or knock it off the desk.