T61p usable life...

[ELCouz]

Dear TP fanatics ,

I really love my T61p, but now the screen (Sharp WUXGA) has a very dim brightness... (already weak from factory ~175 nits)

I am looking at two options:

Buying a ThinkPad P50s (IPS woooaa!) or investing money (again?!?! ) in the T61p... any recommendation about LED mods?

I know this topic has been beaten to death but any progression for 2016 regarding LED mods....?

WUXGA screen is very nice but now the only way to use it is in the late evening or night (very weak backlight)

Thank you very much!
Laurent

[RealBlackStuff]

Thinkpads never had Sharp screens ex factory, aren't you mixing it up with Samsung (or LG-Philips)?
A REAL Sharp screen (lq154m1lw2a or lq154m1lw02) would do wonders.

[ajkula66]

Thinkpads never had Sharp screens ex factory, aren't you mixing it up with Samsung (or LG-Philips)?

LG Philips panels used in these machines were actually nice and quite bright by CCFL-lit-LCD standards, being rated 200/220 nits OOTB. My best guess is that OP is looking at an aging Samsung screen.

A REAL Sharp screen (lq154m1lw2a or lq154m1lw02) would do wonders.

I concur. These screens can breathe a new life into a 15.4" ThinkPad.

To me personally, the dilemma between investing in a new LCD and getting a P50 is somewhat of a stretch, here's why:

1) The amount of $$$ involved is vastly different.

2) We don't know whether the T61p in question is still "checking all the marks" apart from its dim LCD.

3) There's no doubt that any P50 will run circles around even the fastest/best provisioned T61p on the planet. Has the OP tried the new keyboard layout? Do they really need the horsepower of a current ThinkPad?

So before I'd take the liberty of suggesting a route for the OP to take, I'd really need to see these questions answered...

[Puppy]

Buying a ThinkPad P50s (IPS woooaa!) or investing money (again?!?! )

Read about quality and reliability issues of P series first in official Lenovo forum.

[ELCouz]

Thinkpads never had Sharp screens ex factory, aren't you mixing it up with Samsung (or LG-Philips)?
A REAL Sharp screen (lq154m1lw2a or lq154m1lw02) would do wonders.

It was a Sharp screen when I tor it down for the CPU P9700 hack... I was surprised... I bought it in 2014 , maybe the guy that refurbished it on eBay knew about that screen.

I said ~175 nits factory but I remembered last year when I tor it down that the screen was already maxed out (upgrade wise not brightness wise) no way it's original.


I'm gonna check more about the P50... either P50 or P50s was making me think about it...

Horsepower? Meh it's just that if I want to keep the thinkpad for a long time like (A31p or T61p I have) better have more juice in the long term, you will need it!

Keyboard has improved compared to the old W series, full size, has backlight and touchpad is back with 3 buttons (on P50 not P50s)... hurray!!

Buying a ThinkPad P50s (IPS woooaa!) or investing money (again?!?! )

Read about quality and reliability issues of P series first in official Lenovo forum.

Not looking good... heart breaking

On review P50 was praised on many site.... forum say different

[ajkula66]

You could always buy a higher-end W520 and do an IPS mod on it, much faster than T61p and way cheaper than a P50, no matter where one went to school...

[Muse]

I've always thought my T61 with Display WSXGA + TFT 15.4' resolution 1680x1050 was far brighter than I need. I never crank up the brightness near the top.

[ELCouz]

I've always thought my T61 with Display WSXGA + TFT 15.4' resolution 1680x1050 was far brighter than I need. I never crank up the brightness near the top.

Just to give you an idea how bad the Sharp screen brightness is now... maximum setting tops at ~51 nits

[brchan]

A maxed out T61p with an ssd still handles many tasks well. 1080p streaming and even modest app development aren't slow, either. I can see a machine like this performing comfortably for around 3 - 4 more years max, before increasing JS and fancy CSS render it too slow for web browsing.

That said, if you do CPU or GPU intensive work like compiling a lot of heavy code, media editing, or plan to use 3D applications, a W520 or W530 with classic keyboard mod will be a much more suitable choice.

[TPFanatic]

I've always thought my T61 with Display WSXGA + TFT 15.4' resolution 1680x1050 was far brighter than I need. I never crank up the brightness near the top.

Just to give you an idea how bad the Sharp screen brightness is now... maximum setting tops at ~51 nits

Considering the screens come from laptops built in 2002, at least it still works!

[Muse]

Just to give you an idea how bad the Sharp screen brightness is now... maximum setting tops at ~51 nits

Considering the screens come from laptops built in 2002, at least it still works!

I have a T60 (typing on it now) that I bought in 2006, and one I bought used of ebay (for parts, it had an issue that prevented it from booting, which I fixed). I use both in minidocks with external displays, one of them with two external displays. Yeah, I don't travel with them now. I got a tablet/laptop for that. I've never gotten into the screen replacement discussions, haven't perceived a need to. Maybe I would if I used my T61 more, but I simply put it to sleep when not using it and I don't use it a ton... the screen's still way brighter than I find comfortable, so I ease that way down.

[ELCouz]

You might not like me but I'm seriously considering a Dell Precision 7510.

Most the issues are resolved for the P50 today but the screen FHD IPS is very weak, low nits and weak gamut.

At least with the Precision I can choose between cheap panel and a very good FHD screen (15.6" UltraSharp FHD IPS (1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit with Premium Panel Guarantee (72% color gamut))

They are both P50/Precision MIL-810G tested.

4k display are not worth it for now, many apps have scaling problems (and higher battery usage).


Why lenovo used a subpart FHD display with the P50/70 is beyond me!!!

3 years warranty for the Precision, and P50 only 1 year... odd.

[brchan]

The Dell Precisions are nice machines. Keyboards are decent, but the trackpoint implementation is sub-par. I believe you can also stick a thinkpad cap on, to make it little better.

[ELCouz]

The Dell Precisions are nice machines. Keyboards are decent, but the trackpoint implementation is sub-par. I believe you can also stick a thinkpad cap on, to make it little better.

Great! Honestly I'm not a fan of Dell but I feel that only Dell and Lenovo build solid hardware... HP zbook look cheap and fragile.

Lenovo disappointed me with the build quality of the new P50.... I really miss IBM era so I'm sure many here do!

a31p IPS 1600x1200 screen was the most beautiful screen I've ever tried !

[ELCouz]

Well... Dell didn't want to sell me the Precision 7510...

So I've settled with the P70 (FHD screen ~300 nits / 72% gamut) + MXM slot (type-b) :O .. lot of future for this thinkpad !!!

I will keep it 10 years like all the other thinkpad I've used!