If Thinkpad Quality were to go DOWN, which notebook to buy?

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vk60402 · #1 Post by **vk60402** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:56 am

Hi,

In case the quality of Thinkpads goes down, what would be your next choice?

#2 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:36 am

Well I sure do hope this never comes about but if so, even though i'll most likely be massacred for saying this but the next on my list would be the Dell Lattitude. Despite what everyone says about Dell here, I've been working with OptiPlex desktops and Lattitude laptops for many years now and have only had a few problems so far. I can't say the same for a Dimension desktop or Inspiron laptop as I've only used one or two and they were from the late nineties or very early 2000's so I have no real experience with them.

#3 Post by **K. Eng** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:40 am

I haven't gotten the chance to test out a Latitude D610, so I can't comment on how good those are, but the Latitude D600 (Dell's then competitor to my T40) had a keyboard that was utter garbage (flexy, no feedback, almost no travel depth) and that alone was reason enough to ditch it.

I'd go with an HP nc series if ThinkPads suddenly dissapeared.

AlphaKilo470 wrote:Well I sure do hope this never comes about but if so, even though i'll most likely be massacred for saying this but the next on my list would be the Dell Lattitude.

pphilipko · #4 Post by **pphilipko** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:45 am

Fujitsu or Panasonic for me...

wantathinkpad · #5 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:12 pm

Yeah I heard Fujistu just tied IBM in the 18th annual survey of computers by pc mag.

Apple's overall score for notebooks, 9.2, is just as high, and the rest are even further behind: IBM and Fujitsu are the closest, at 8.4.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1851295,00.asp

DIGITALgimpus · #6 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:27 pm

When Apple comes out with an Intel PowerBook... that will likely be the Thinkpad killer.

The current Powerbooks are rather nice though.

krma-thkpds · #7 Post by **krma-thkpds** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:53 pm

What do you think of HP?

pphilipko · #8 Post by **pphilipko** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:38 pm

DIGITALgimpus wrote:When Apple comes out with an Intel PowerBook... that will likely be the Thinkpad killer.

The current Powerbooks are rather nice though.

I would choose a Thinkpad over an Apple any day.

pphilipko · #9 Post by **pphilipko** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:47 pm

krma-thkpds wrote:What do you think of HP?

I know that their consumer line is just downright horrible, but based on other's opinions, I would say their business line is "competent".

Navck · #10 Post by **Navck** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 6:02 pm

And remember, Insprion line = You're buying whats in the toilet, thats about be flushed
You never touch the Insprion line, peroid.

pphilipko · #11 Post by **pphilipko** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 6:21 pm

Navck wrote:And remember, Insprion line = You're buying whats in the toilet, thats about be flushed
You never touch the Insprion line, peroid.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Navck · #12 Post by **Navck** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 6:44 pm

And I can back myself up too. I just saw a Dell booth at the mall
Touched each laptop, they ALL could wobble back and forth on their hinges (Press forward on right, press backwards on left side... You will see some hell)
The 2200 = Failure at even being a computer. I put my hand on it... Woah its about to fall apart, better not wreck display.
XPS Gen 2 = All T43 users, do not complain about noise, this idles loud.
Portablity? Sorry, nothing is thinner than even the thickest R5x series here

Insprion = No go.
Never touch them. EVER

verktyg · #13 Post by **verktyg** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:06 pm

I would look at top of the line Toshibas first. They were always the #2 choice of corporate buyers. Dell seems to have improved a lot over the past few years. I worked on some earlier Dells and the construction was junk compared to a TP.

#14 Post by **thePCxp** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:24 pm

I would just keep getting ThinkPad's.
I also believe that the quality of ThinkPad's will never go down (I also hope that it never will).

Ground Loop · #15 Post by **Ground Loop** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:30 pm

Fujitsu.
Excellent customer service, good builds, variety of form factors. Nice tablets.

ThinkPad · #16 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:36 am

Toshiba R200.

r50cheapskate · #17 Post by **r50cheapskate** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:12 am

It's all about the keyboard-embedded mouse for me, which limits the selection. The Latitude D610 I bought for work was quite nice, and it felt solid, but not in the satisfying and serious ThinkPad way.

benplaut · #18 Post by **benplaut** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:33 am

i think i'd go for a Fujitsu...

maybe just a Zaurus, and a USB mini-keyboard to go with it

#19 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:24 pm

I just finished testing an HP Compaq nc6230. It is clear to me that HP is aiming to take the ThinkPad down.

The nc62x0 series isn't quite the equal of the T4x in terms of sturdiness or keyboard, but it's coming close. The fit and finish of the nc6230 was very impressive. There were no creaky palmrests, loose batteries, gaps over the optical bay, or any of the other fit and finish gripes that I've seen over the past few months with the T4x. It was almost as if someone read the complaints about the T4x and eliminated all of them

Lenovo's next iteration of the T series better be fantastic, because HP isn't sitting still...

krma-thkpds wrote:What do you think of HP?

DavidNZ · #20 Post by **DavidNZ** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:39 pm

How's the keyboard on that HP Compaq?

#21 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:49 pm

It's hard to describe in words, but I'll try: the surface of the keys are a rough but pleasant matte surface. Key travel depth is about the same as the T4x, but the feedback is slightly weaker. For the most part, the keyboard is solid, but there is a bit of flexing from the 'L' key rightward, owing to the need for a little bit more support above the optical bay. My T4x had this same problem out of the box... fixed with very thin packing foam.

What I didn't like is that the function keys and all those other keys that are located above the main part of the keyboard (print scrn, scrl lock, pause, etc) are 80% the width of the normal keys.

No question about it in my mind: the nc6230 has a good keyboard, but the T4x still has the best keyboard.

DavidNZ wrote:How's the keyboard on that HP Compaq?

desdinova · #22 Post by **desdinova** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:41 pm

x86 iBook or a Panasonic subnotebook... if I won the lotto

The markups at dynamism.com are painful.

#23 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:46 pm

verktyg wrote:I would look at top of the line Toshibas first. They were always the #2 choice of corporate buyers.

It wasn't my #2 choice. My list was TP, HP/Compaq, Dell, and then Toshiba.

vk60402 · #24 Post by **vk60402** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:19 pm

K. Eng wrote:I just finished testing an HP Compaq nc6230. It is clear to me that HP is aiming to take the ThinkPad down.

The nc62x0 series isn't quite the equal of the T4x in terms of sturdiness or keyboard, but it's coming close. The fit and finish of the nc6230 was very impressive. There were no creaky palmrests, loose batteries, gaps over the optical bay, or any of the other fit and finish gripes that I've seen over the past few months with the T4x. It was almost as if someone read the complaints about the T4x and eliminated all of them

Lenovo's next iteration of the T series better be fantastic, because HP isn't sitting still...

krma-thkpds wrote:What do you think of HP?

Hi,

I'm also reading alot of positive reviews of HP nc6230 (HP business line notebook) and some people were comparing it to T42.

I'd like for you to clarify something (if you don't mind), as you said that nc6xxx is not quite equal to T42, yet, there were no creaks, etc...

What makes the NCxxx worse than T42?

Thanks,
VK

#25 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:41 pm

- The nc6230's case isn't as rugged as the T42's case. The lid is magnesium alloy, but lacks the T4x's reinforcing lips on the top and right hand side of the display housing. This makes the LCD panel slightly less sturdy. The base exterior uses standard ABS plastic rather than the carbon fiber composite in the T4x. Structurally, both the nc6230 and T4x use the same kind of composites for the internals.

- nc6230's trackpoint is clearly inferior to the ThinkPad's trackpoint. nc6230 has no scroll key, and the trackpoint buttons on it have poor travel depth and feedback.

- no ThinkLight. People may mock the ThinkLight, but I really did miss it.

None of these disadvantages are enough to cause me not to like the machine, but they do show that the ThinkPad still maintains a lead, albeit a diminished one, over competing notebooks.

vk60402 wrote: I'd like for you to clarify something (if you don't mind), as you said that nc6xxx is not quite equal to T42, yet, there were no creaks, etc...

What makes the NCxxx worse than T42?

#26 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:28 pm

r50cheapskate wrote:It's all about the keyboard-embedded mouse for me, which limits the selection.

Ditto r50cheapskate.

My first criteria would be the trackpoint, next would be the; size, weight, keyboard, display, and battery life (in rough order of importance). I would not rule out the importance of overall design quality, but I would take a poorer quality product with a trackpoint over a higher quality one without it. Also important to me are the technologies employed, but I don't have to be at the 'Bleeding Edge'. Unlike some here

, I have to watch my wallet.

BigWarpGuy · #27 Post by **BigWarpGuy** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:40 pm

I also have a Gateway 200 S series and like it much.

Inky · #28 Post by **Inky** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:15 pm

vk60402 wrote: Hi,
In case the quality of Thinkpads goes down, what would be your next choice?

A used ThinkPad

But what does this have to do with the T series?

-Inky

BigWarpGuy · #29 Post by **BigWarpGuy** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:06 am

There was no mention of the TSeries in the original question. This is the 'off topic' section.

Inky · #30 Post by **Inky** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:24 pm

BigWarpGuy wrote:There was no mention of the TSeries in the original question. This is the 'off topic' section.

D'ya think maybe that's why the thread got transferred here, from the T Series forum?

Inky

If Thinkpad Quality were to go DOWN, which notebook to buy?

If Thinkpad Quality were to go DOWN, which notebook to buy?

All about the mouse

Re: All about the mouse

Gateway 200S

Re: If Thinkpad Quality were to go DOWN, which notebook to b

Off Topic Section

Re: Off Topic Section

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