Thinkpads Forum

My company doesn't buy many notebooks, but for years I've always purchased the T4x & T6x series, and a few X series -- the last purchase in 2008 was a T61. The T series were slim, rugged machines in a 5-pound package which included a required optical drive. Last month, I got a rush request for a new notebook, and so ordered a 14" T400 (7417-TPU). Weight-wise, this isn't much heavier than the old T's. But compared to the T61, the wide screen increases the footprint quite a lot for a portable device. It also seems like the 9-cell is becoming standard, adding depth. The X300 series look great, but are about double the price of the T's I had been buying. If I want to stick with a "true" ThinkPad, was my T400 purchase the closest model to an old 14" T61? Thanks,
Jim

T400/500 are the official replacements for T60/T61. There are only widescreens on the market for manufactures like lenovo, there's also a somewhat moody blog post about that on lenovo blogs. Its just not that easy for notebook manufactures to put anything else than a widescreen in their notebooks. I much prefer original 4:3 displays, but it seems that in the next few years we will not see something else than widescreens on notebook and desktop market.

Good thing with new series is that T400/T500 are really cool and especially T400 has a nice battery life. It's also the first time that you can buy a 14'' thinkpad with led backlight.