Something new you've got! *PICS*

[pianowizard]

I haven't spent so much money on a laptop in years ($770 shipped) but so far it seems to be worth it; it's a Sony Vaio Pro 13:



It's my first touchscreen laptop, and also my first 1920x1080 laptop. I do find myself touching the screen quite often, though I still use the touchpad most of the time.

[Medessec]

Vaios have always been an intriguing oddball to me... they are advertised as "multimedia laptops", an although Dell and Toshiba come close(by simply turning one of their cheap models into a 17" and putting two HDD bays and a Blu-Ray in it) Sony's laptops have always kept that flair.

I really hope the one you have here isn't following the Ultrabook fad... but it looks quite nice. Quite a stray from a Thinkpad, being a touchscreen laptop with a generic 16:9 aspect ratio screen design and shiny aesthetic, but hopefully it still keeps the Sony flair.

[thePCxp]

I got a nice T500 from Medessec last Wednesday. Have pretty big plans for it - I'm going to do an SSD + HDD in the Ultrabay combo upgrade (didn't come with a hard drive), install Windows 8.1, do a RAM upgrade to 8GB (from the current 2GB), and get a new battery. This will be used as my DJing and mobile music production rig for a few years (after that, I plan to upgrade to hopefully a W510 at the least - would really love a W540).


IMG_20140108_193242 by thepcxp, on Flickr


IMG_20140108_194250 by thepcxp, on Flickr


IMG_20140118_205528_2 by thepcxp, on Flickr


IMG_20140108_193651 by thepcxp, on Flickr

[Medessec]

Again, absolutely astonished to see it go to such good use. None of my close friends wanted it... they want a switchable T500 or W500. But music production will be a perfect role for it... glad it's got a good home.

W510's a good choice for music production as well as recreation... it still takes quite a bit from the older Thinkpads like the W500 does.

[A31]

I haven't spent so much money on a laptop in years ($770 shipped) but so far it seems to be worth it; it's a Sony Vaio Pro 13:



It's my first touchscreen laptop, and also my first 1920x1080 laptop. I do find myself touching the screen quite often, though I still use the touchpad most of the time.

Let us know what you think! They're actually not too expensive (£900 or so, which is cheaper than I was expecting it to be) and they do seem quite nice.

[Temetka]

I was going to quote everyone with their new laptops, but it's just easier to do this:

Glad you guys got some new machines.

May they serve you well.

[pianowizard]

I really hope the one you have here isn't following the Ultrabook fad... but it looks quite nice. Quite a stray from a Thinkpad, being a touchscreen laptop with a generic 16:9 aspect ratio screen design and shiny aesthetic, but hopefully it still keeps the Sony flair.

It is an Ultrabook, but it is *the* Ultrabook to get, because it's the lightest 13.3" Ultrabook around, only 2.34 lbs (though mine is actually 2.33 lbs). This is remarkable, since the touchscreen technology alone typically adds 0.3 lbs to a screen of this size. If it didn't have such a screen, it would probably be 2 lbs or so! But I do want to have a touchscreen laptop. There are situations where touching the screen is far more convenient than using a mouse. Besides, periodically alternating between different input methods is a good way to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. I've seen a number of forum members say "touchscreens are useless for laptops; I have never been tempted to touch my laptops' screens..." I suspect they would change their minds if they use a touchscreen laptop for just a couple weeks.

Indeed, this Pro 13 is quite a stray from Thinkpads, and I am glad it is because I have been fed up with Thinkpads since at least 4 years ago. The most modern Thinkpad I have owned was an X61 tablet, which I sold after just several days of ownership.

Let us know what you think! They're actually not too expensive (£900 or so, which is cheaper than I was expecting it to be) and they do seem quite nice.

It feels premium, but to achieve this amazing light weight, corners had to be cut. When the lid is closed, the laptop is quite sturdy, but after opening the lid, the bottom chassis feels a bit delicate. This is an inevitable trade-off when we want to shed every possible ounce. If rigidity must not be compromised, a 13.3" FHD IPS touchscreen laptop would need to be at least 3 lbs.

[Cola]

Jumping the wave of carbon-fibre vinyl Thinkpad lids:

[Temetka]

I got something new and shiny too. To avoid double posting it is linked below:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=112982

[A31]

Not a 'purchase', more like a swap. I've been starting to learn C# and develop touch applications recently and my Dad had this 24" 1080p Iiyama ProLite T2451MTS monitor which has a touch screen and is LED backlit, but he wasn't using the touch screen and we both thought that the better display on this monitor would be better for me and my photo editing. So I've swapped my 3 year old Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS (which is 24" and 1080p, but does not have a touch screen and is not LED backlit) for his monitor.

I'm loving this monitor! The colours really pop and the touch screen is pretty cool. Will be good to start developing some touch screen applications with C# and Visual Studio 2013 too!

We like Iiyama displays a lot in this household by the way.




Went out and bought Mum's Chevrolet Spark on Friday (we sold the classic Mini). It's a blue one which is about a year old - £7,000 from a dealer, so not bad at all. She only needs something small, so it's ideal.

Looks exactly like this. Same colour and everything.

[pianowizard]

Look at what I acquired just yesterday:



The Sony P Series caught my attention as soon as it came out in 2009. This particular model is VGN-P530CH, which originated from Canada. I've never had a computer screen with such a high pixel density: 8" 1600x768, giving a density of 221.85 DPI, so it can be considered a "retina" resolution. I am not sure I should call it a laptop though, and it's not quite a UMPC; perhaps it's a pocket PC? It does barely fit into the pockets of my pants. I replaced its original mechanical HDD with a tiny ZIF SSD, reducing its weight to 1.23 lbs.

So far, I am extremely happy with this purchase. The prices of the P Series haven't gone down much in the past 2 to 3 years. This was one of the few reasonably priced ones that I came across: $249.99 shipped, mint condition, and the VGA/Ethernet adapter (very important to me) was included. The screen looks beautiful. I am sticking with Windows' default DPI setting for now, i.e. things look really tiny. I wouldn't want things to look so small on a regular laptop screen, but this device is so tiny that I can just pretend it was a smartphone, which somehow makes me feel it's okay for things to look so small. Despite the amazing light weight, the battery is external and can be easily replaced. Also, opening up the bottom chassis (to replace the HDD) took me only several minutes. I do wish the screen was even wider because right now the left and right bezels are huge -- 1792x768 like the Toshiba u845w would be perfect.

[Temetka]

Cute machine. Looks a little small to be daily driver production machine. What are you going to use it for?

[pianowizard]

Cute machine. Looks a little small to be daily driver production machine. What are you going to use it for?

None of my laptops are my daily drivers -- I use powerful desktops with huge monitors >90% of the time. But this P Series will come in handy when I need to bring a laptop along but don't want to carry a bag. It's just small enough to fit a pants pocket.

[TRS-80]

... But I do want to have a touchscreen laptop. There are situations where touching the screen is far more convenient than using a mouse. Besides, periodically alternating between different input methods is a good way to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. I've seen a number of forum members say "touchscreens are useless for laptops; I have never been tempted to touch my laptops' screens..." I suspect they would change their minds if they use a touchscreen laptop for just a couple weeks.

Why not get a tablet and a laptop? I have both (plus a desktop powerhouse of course). Right tool for the job and all that...

[pianowizard]

Why not get a tablet and a laptop? I have both (plus a desktop powerhouse of course).

I have two tablets: a Nook HD (7" 1440x900), and a Nook HD+ (9" 1920x1280). I use them for reading PDF files (usually sheet music) and browsing web sites, but they simply don't cut it for demanding applications or extensive typing. A powerful tablet running Windows 8 that has a mechanical keyboard attached would work, for example the Microsoft Surface Pro, but the screen is small and with the keyboard attached, the combined weight is usually over 2 lbs. The Sony Pro 13 has a much bigger touchscreen, and yet weighs about the same (2.33 lbs).

[Cola]

Finally got a new Thinkpad!
This time, a T510i. Features an i3 330M, 4GB of ram and a 15,6'' LED screen. Condition is really good, even though seller thought it was quite bad.
I put on two missing buttons from a spare keyboard I had lying around, so now the only thing that needs doing really, is the touchpad surface.
The touchpad itself works fine, it's just the actual surface that is coming off.

Pictures:






For $90 USD I call it a steal! Even includes a 65W adapter.

[Temetka]

Nice Thinkpad.

I know you can replace the sticker over the touchpad with a new one. I have found quite a few on e-bay and amazon. While your at, swap the weak i3 for an i5. That's merely my own personal thing as I don't really care for the i3 CPU. Still, nice Thinkpad. Great price.

[A31]

I can see why the seller thought it was in bad condition, with missing keys and a TrackPad looking like that. If I were selling it, I'd say it's in bad nick too!

But since you're sorting it, and the rest looks quite good cosmetically, it's going to be a nice laptop.

[Cola]

Thanks guys.

It ended up looking really nice, like this:






And I sold it on for $350 USD

[A31]

Awesome! Looks fantastic! And you made a nice profit there.

How much did you spend restoring it?

[Cola]

Awesome! Looks fantastic! And you made a nice profit there.

How much did you spend restoring it?

Nothing at all, just some time and a wet dishrag. It proved to be in a very good condition. - Way better than I ever expected. I had a few spare keyboards lying around, and luckily, they were similar, so I just took some keys and buttons from my spare keyboard and put onto the one on the T510i. The lid was cleaned, and looked almost as new afterwards, the hinges were amazing. The laptop must've been used very little, especially compared to my workhorse T410, where the hinges have almost as much play as the typical T500/W500 hinges have.
I had some 3M carbon fibre foil lying, which I cut out a small piece of, and trimmed it to fit the touchpad nicely. Very easy fix. And as mentioned earlier, I really didn't understand why seller thought it was in such a bad condition. Of course, if I hadn't had these things lying around, it would've been a little pricey.
two replacement keys + key hinges, one replacement trackpoint, one replacement left mouse button, and a new touchpoint. But I guess I had my luck this time.

[Temetka]

That turned out pretty nice. I am glad you were able to make a tidy profit off of it. That being said, it sounds like all it really needed was a new keyboard if you didn't have the parts on hand.

[Cola]

Got a new Dell XPS 1640!


Specs:
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz
- 2x2GB Mushkin 1066MHz DDR3 ram
- 500GB Seagate Momentum harddrive
- ATI Radeon HD4670M 512MB graphics card
- 1920x1080 Full HD RGB-LED (That's really good!) 16'' screen
- 2.1 speaker system (2 speakers and a subwoofer) in the laptop itself



The screen is absolutely amazing. Never before have I seen such a pretty screen, especially to compare with, that I normally use my T410 everyday, which has the dullest 14'' 1280x800 display that might aswell could've been in black/white. Either way, the Dell notebook's RGB-LED shows incredible colors. Even better than my Dell U2412M display!

I got it really cheap because it didn't include a power adapter, the screw holding the power jack in place is gone and the threading is gone as well. There's a piece of plastic missing on the lid, there's plastic missing on the sides, there's no more rubber feet underneath, four keyboard keys are missing, the screen-plastic-cover is full of scratches and marks, the battery doesn't work, and the casing is in a general very poor condition.

But it still works, which is the main point of it, so the laptop has been well-designed, as all the hardware works perfectly.

My plans are to either use it at home as a mediacenter (as it actually has got an HDMI output, compared to many Thinkpads which hasn't....), or sell it on for a profit, or finally rebuild part of it and then sell it on.

[A31]

Saw there was a 15% discount on the L series and so I jumped and grabbed myself an L540:

Intel Core i5-4200M Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.10GHz)
Windows 8 64
15.6" FHD (1920x1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display WWAN
Intel HD Graphics 4600
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM
Keyboard with Number Pad - UK English
Ultranav with Fingerpint Reader
720p HD Camera
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
6 Cell Li-Ion Cylindrical Battery 56.16Wh
65W AC Adapter - UK
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 BT Combo (2x2 AGN)






Also bought a 1TB Seagate Hybrid SSD to replace the 500GB HDD it's coming with:




And also bought a generic 2.5" USB 3.0 HDD enclosure so I can turn that 500GB drive into an external drive. Might be useful for backups and things like that.




So there you go, I'm a ThinkPad owner once again. Not really sure when it's going to arrive since it was ordered directly from Lenovo about 2 hours ago, but I suspect it'll arrive about mid-May.

That lot cost me £847, £757 for the L540 with the 15% discount and £90 for the Hybrid SSD and the HDD enclosure.

I got it with one 8GB DIMM so that I could easily upgrade to 16GB in future by simply adding another DIMM. No idea whether I will or not but the option is there.

I have used a lot of real SSDs now, so I am intrigued to see how the SSHD performs in comparison. Apparently they're faster than HDDs but obviously slower than SSDs - to be expected but you do get a lot more storage and it was about £35 cheaper than a 256GB Samsung 840 Evo Basic, so it might be the perfect mix.

Will let you know what I think of the machine when it arrives and I've used it for a few weeks. I'm very excited!

[Cola]

Saw there was a 15% discount on the L series and so I jumped and grabbed myself an L540:

snip

Looks amazing.
My sister bought one a few days ago as well. Base model is £495 GBP here. She upgraded it with the Full HD screen, the fingerprint reader, 720p HD webcam and the 56WH battery, which made it end at around £575GBP. With the slower i3 CPU though. But I, who helped her find the laptop for her studies, told her that i3 would be fine. I've been using my W500 with Core 2 Duo's and never had any problem, and the same goes for my current T410 with its i5 540M. Should provide plenty of power.

[A31]

Looks amazing.
My sister bought one a few days ago as well. Base model is £495 GBP here. She upgraded it with the Full HD screen, the fingerprint reader, 720p HD webcam and the 56WH battery, which made it end at around £575GBP. With the slower i3 CPU though. But I, who helped her find the laptop for her studies, told her that i3 would be fine. I've been using my W500 with Core 2 Duo's and never had any problem, and the same goes for my current T410 with its i5 540M. Should provide plenty of power.

Great to hear! I'm hoping that the SSHD gives it a bit of a speed kick too.

The base model in the UK is currently about £560 with the 15% discount. With that discount I was able to save around £120 or so which is excellent!

How has your sister been finding it?

I reckon my SSHD and the little enclosure will arrive before Friday and the laptop itself won't turn up until about mid-May, haha!

[A31]

Well the SSHD and the external 2.5" HDD enclosure arrived today and I got an email from Lenovo this morning confirming that my order has been received and it may take 1 or 2 weeks to build and then 3-6 days to deliver. Just waiting now...

[Cola]

Well the SSHD and the external 2.5" HDD enclosure arrived today and I got an email from Lenovo this morning confirming that my order has been received and it may take 1 or 2 weeks to build and then 3-6 days to deliver. Just waiting now...

That sounds really nice. Keep us updated on your experience with your L540. My sister hasn't recieved hers yet.

[A31]

Will do! I have already started writing a 'user review' (obviously not a professional review) which I will be posting here once I have received the L540 and used it for a month or two.

[A31]

Will be buying this after the Bank Holiday weekend:

Swissgear GA-7343-06 Cobalt 15.6 Inch Laptop Backpack ready to carry my ThinkPad L540 to school next year.

I was using a Nike bag as my schoolbag but after less than a year of use the zips have completely given in. Hopeless really. Not impressed at all by that. I was planning to buy this Swissgear bag later on this year, but since the Nike has 'died' on me, might as well buy it now. All the reviews on Amazon are good.