Thinkpads Forum

Hi all!

I am about to buy my very first Thinkpad, and despite looking over this forum, have not been able to find a buying advice thread....so I wondered if people could make a recommendation for me - if I specify my requirements? This would be greatly appreciated, as I have never owned a Thinkpad before....but I previously used a T42 years ago in my job and always remember high excellent the build was.

I have a budget of only around £500.00, and want a thinkpad that has a good screen that would suit work on Photoshop and Illustrator, can handle some older video games, 2/3 years old.... occasionally, but primarily has at least a screen resolution that enables documents to be worked upon 'side by side', thereby 900p I think at least.

I had favoured the T420, but have read here on the forums that the screen is not particularly good for photo/graphics work. Therefore I looked at the x220, but this seems to be a bit small - I do not intend to lug this around, so do not have to make sacrifices on the mobility front. Ideally it will also be running Windows 7

And Finally - Also, Ideally I want a machine that is only a couple of years old, and may have some warranty left - as I intend to source from Ebay, if I can find a good seller.
One last 'nice to have' requirement, but probably impossible on my budget, would be the inclusion of a tablet function....

All suggestions, most welcome, thank you.

Something with a decent screen and GPU would say W510 with the HD+ or FHD LCD to me. If you start to go much older than the W510, it'll be hard to get a machine with warranty.

Ok

Thanks for the pointer! - though probably not feasible on my budget... Are the screens on the T5's any better than the T4's? I though maybe if I could find a T520 with FHD, it might be better than the standard build, what do you think>??

Yes, the T510 HD+ and FHD LCDs are generally better screens than the 14" LCDs. The T510 nVidia GPUs are pretty weak, which is something to consider if you want a decent GPU. The T500 with the ATI cards are better, though probably harder find with warranty since it's four years old now. Plus, the T500 has a WSXGA+ LCDs, which are my favorite resolution for a 15" 16:10 screen.

Thanks for the reply!, I found a good priced W520 new, so went for that, too bad it's not a 16:10, but otherwise i'm happy.

That's a nice machine.

My employer gives me a T420 with the 14.0" 1600:900 screen. This screen only has 85 square inches of real estate.
My employer previously gave me a T41 with the 14.1" 4:3 screen. That screen had 101 square inches.

I think you should try to get a low-end T520, it's the modern equivalent to the old-fashion 14" laptop with a 4:3 screen. The T520 has ~104 square inches of real estate. My screen is wasted, and HD displays are productivity-killers (too much horizontal resolution and not enough vertical resolution) when you are trying to do work such as mine (writing documents or writing software). If you are editing low-res HD movies then you may be o.k. with a 14.0" screen.