Thinkpads Forum

Black Friday is upon us and laptops are as low as $199! Is this the end of the Classic Laptop's appeal?

I love my thinkpads -- and will not replace one soon -- but, to be honest, it would be hard for me to rationalize buying a 600e right now given market realities. What do you think?

This has been discussed lots of times here. FWIW, you get what you pay for. A cheap laptop is just that. More expensive laptops have better parts and stronger warranties. Pick your poison.
... JD Hurst

I purchased a 600e here for a co-worker and it has blossomed into about 5 or 6 now for other co-workers, and as long as they keep asking i'll try to keep providing them. I honestly have been very surprised by this, in a way I started a thinkpad revolution where I work, but it is also a testament (sp) to the great care the users here provide thier machines here. I run into some of these real low end machines every now and then as an IT person and am amazed that they make it from point A to B without breaking.

What I pay for with a Thinkpad is the build quality, the depth of the support (upgrades, updates, drivers for whatever OS I want to run, parts availablility). There are actually some decent cheap laptops out there, but they are built with the idea that you will replace them, rather than upgrade them. Thinkpads cost more, but they also last much longer. Will the $200 machines last as long as my X30, Transnote, or 701 have? Unlikely.

lenmullen wrote:Black Friday is upon us and laptops are as low as $199!

But remember, the chance of getting one of those laptops is quite low for most people!

I am open to trying a T series ThinkPad when I have the money, but I am still in love with my 600E and with a few upgrades she should be able to fulfill most of my needs for the next several years.

My ex-girlfriend got one of those laptop "deals" last year. She got exactly what she paid for. Her new boyfriend stepped on/broke her LCD. She is a little upset, but is using it as an excuse to buy a new laptop (though it is normally a reliable brand, she had nothing but trouble with it). If that had happened to my ThinkPad, I would have been very upset and I would have remained that way until I got a new LCD for her.

I don't buy new so that rules me out of the poll...I'm trying to get a $400 HP notebook on Friday, but just to resell it. ThinkPad flows through my veins.

I would like to upgrade to a T4X at some point in the future.

I have a pimped 600E, and honestly it works fine for me.

nitro2k01 wrote:I have a pimped 600E, and honestly it works fine for me.

What's pimp about it?

Post a pic to this pimped out pad

Nigellus wrote:My ex-girlfriend got one of those laptop "deals" last year. She got exactly what she paid for. Her new boyfriend stepped on/broke her LCD.

Well, to be fair, even a Thinkpad LCD wouldn't have survived being stepped on.

These are the cheapest laptops on this year's Black Friday:

Toshiba Satellite L35-s2151 Notebook = $250
BestBuy, Minimum 18 per store, Stores open at 5 AM
5.1lbs, Intel Celeron 1.6GHz, 15.4" WXGA, 512MB, 60GB, Wireless 802.11b/g
DVD-ROM/CD-RW, XP Home, 1 year warranty

HP Pavilion DV6103NR Notebook = $380
BestBuy, Minimum 10 per store, Stores open at 5 AM
6.6 lb, Intel Centrino Core Solo 1.86GHz, 15.4" WXGA, 512MB, 80GB, Wireless 802.11a/b/g
DVD Burner, XP Media Center, Card reader, Firewire, 1 year warranty

Compaq Presario Notebook $400 - $100MIR = $300
Circuit City, Stores open at 5 AM
Intel Celeron 1.6GHz, 15.4" WXGA, 512MB, 60GB, Wireless 802.11g
DVD Burner, Free Upgrade to Vista, 1 year warranty

Kyocera wrote:I purchased a 600e here for a co-worker and it has blossomed into about 5 or 6 now for other co-workers, and as long as they keep asking i'll try to keep providing them. I honestly have been very surprised by this, in a way I started a thinkpad revolution where I work, but it is also a testament (sp) to the great care the users here provide thier machines here. I run into some of these real low end machines every now and then as an IT person and am amazed that they make it from point A to B without breaking.

Same with me. In the past year I've sold 5 600e's and x's to co-workers. I buy them, fix them up, and sell them for cost. I'm not making any money on them, it's mostly a hobby.

Last week 2 other co-workers approached me about buying 600x's for their wifes, and I just happen to have a couple laying around. They're great little machines.

I have both a 600X and a T30. The T30 sits in the case and the 600X gets used everyday. The only reason I like the 600X over a 600E is the Mini-PCI slot. I installed an Anthros mini-PCI Wifi and internal antenna along with a dual layer DVD writer and have less then $200 invested. My wife has a New Compaq with a turion CPU and I have to pry the 600x away from her at times. I prefer the trackpoint mouse which isn't available on any of the new lappys. The T30 is better for DVDs but in every other regard (size, keyboard height, lack of touchpad mouse) I prefer the 600.

Well, to be fair, even a Thinkpad LCD wouldn't have survived being stepped on.

Sorry... I should have been more clear...

My point was that the machine was such a troublesome lemon that she doesn't want it fixed, she just wants another machine of a different brand.

Nigellus, I love the quote in your sig

"A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind."
--Joseph Weizenbaum

I love Thinkpads, but i hate what Windows has become. My next new computer I buy will be an iMac or a Macbook pro. (haven't decided yet) That doesn't mean i will not buy a used thinkpad if the price is right. They are durable machines that will last a long time. My 600E is 7 years old this month and the screen still looks like new.

Stargate199 wrote:I love Thinkpads, but i hate what Windows has become.

Do you hate XP or Vista or both? If you dislike just Vista, why not continue to use XP? I am going to keep using XP on most of my machines for at least two more years. I was still using Win2K on many of my computers until around 2005, four years after the release of XP. Even now, I have a 200MHz MMX Packard Bell desktop that's running Win2K and it still does most of the things I need (Office 2003, Photoshop 7, etc.).

BTW, do you like Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis? I own all 9 seasons of the former on DVD and just got the latter's first season for $16 from Amazon. I hope the 2nd season will be released sooN!

Kyocera wrote:Nigellus, I love the quote in your sig

Thanks.

Stargate199 wrote:I love Thinkpads, but i hate what Windows has become.

I will continue to be shy of Windows XP until I can configure my laptop to boot to DOS, since the holier-than-thou execs at Microsoft decided that our computers didn't need to do that anymore. All of my favorite games are in DOS.

Nigellus wrote:I will continue to be shy of Windows XP until I can configure my laptop to boot to DOS, since the holier-than-thou execs at Microsoft decided that our computers didn't need to do that anymore. All of my favorite games are in DOS.

I have a 13-year-old Packard Bell which still hasn't been discarded because I need it to run Win98 and DOS programs, namely Doom, Doom 2 and a silly Mahjong game. This desktop computer has 100MHz 80486DX4 (upgraded from 50MHz DX), 64MB RAM (upgraded from 4MB), and two 428MB hard drives.

Spent the afternoon at the hospital visiting the wife...two little ones in tow. I threw a couple 600e's in a bag with some DVDs. This made for a very pleasant visit.

I left one of the machines with her so she could watch movies and surf. Everyone who passed through the room stopped and looked -- quite amazed at the fact that these PCs were older than the kids.

While it's unlikely I will buy another thinkpad, it's extremely likely I won't need too

I still run WinME on my 366Mhz 600E w/ 288meg RAM. No problems, no complaints.

pianowizard wrote:namely Doom, Doom 2

Me too. My favorite game of all time is Star Control 2; but it is now open source, and there is a version that can run on windows XP.

You want to talk about silly games, though -- I still like to play Scorched Earth, the "Mother of all Games."

I have no problem with XP on my 600E w/288MB, even with a little 12GB hard drive. It boots slower, but seems to run better (even a little faster) than Win98SE did. I have to admit that I used every tip and trick I could find to slim XP down and make it boot/run a little faster. I can't say much about the difference, as I know XP is more resource intensive and applied all the tips/tricks from a clean install before anything else was loaded. It appears to run a bit better/faster than W98SE -- the same at worst. Appearances may be deceiving, but it's great as long as I'm running only one application at a time. It does get a bit slow if browsing the web and doing more than playing something like solitare at the same time!

I'm happy with it, and would buy another at a good price. Would prefer a more upgradeable 600X w/SpeedStep though. Those go for a premium over the 500MHz models (500 and lower no SpeedStep!).

I've got a 600X, a 570E and a 560X. I shall be seriously grumpy if anything happens to the two PIII 500 machines and would almost certainly look for another one.

It probably helps that I think I've got all the available extra drives and adaptors for the 600X although I suppose the Portable Drive Bay means I should be able to use them on virtually any laptop.

I never use the 560X now which is a shame, I used to use it all the time actually on my lap. The 600X gets a bit weighty after a while hence the 570E.

Anybody want a 560X?

The help centre where i help out were donated some older machines, a mix of Es and Xs, over the months ( a heck of a lot of months ) with help from this forum, searching and asking questions, all but two now are up and running perfectly.

Centre has two new desktops, HP i believe they are, that have been nothing but trouble, these older IBMs with XP installed and with memory upgrades seem to run faster and are in use all of the time.

People just love the feel of them, they do feel more substantial and the keyboards can't be faulted, comfortable.

With this and as said in other posts, build quality and upgradeability what more could you want!