T60 questions from a prospective buyer

[Hokiedad]

I'm a long time Dell user but my college bound son is infatuated with the Thinkpad T60. I have a few questions that maybe you veterans could help me with:

1. We are interested in a 3-yr "accident protection" warranty. Does Lenovo offer such a thing?
2. I don't believe Lenovo provides OS or application discs. How would one go about performing a clean installation of the OS and/or applications?
3. How much "bloatware" does Lenovo install?
4. Does the Lenovo support site provide updated drivers, applications, etc. similar to what Dell does?

I also recently saw that the ODM Compal will be taking on some manufacturing for Lenovo. Of course, they make Dell Inspirons and have started manufacturing some business notebooks (most of which were made by Quanta until recently). Just wondering if anyone else thought of this news.

[pundit]

I'm a long time Dell user but my college bound son is infatuated with the Thinkpad T60. I have a few questions that maybe you veterans could help me with:

1. We are interested in a 3-yr "accident protection" warranty. Does Lenovo offer such a thing?
2. I don't believe Lenovo provides OS or application discs. How would one go about performing a clean installation of the OS and/or applications?
3. How much "bloatware" does Lenovo install?
4. Does the Lenovo support site provide updated drivers, applications, etc. similar to what Dell does?

I also recently saw that the ODM Compal will be taking on some manufacturing for Lenovo. Of course, they make Dell Inspirons and have started manufacturing some business notebooks (most of which were made by Quanta until recently). Just wondering if anyone else thought of this news.

1. Yes, they do. It is called ThinkPad Protection, which comes at a reasonable fee.
2. They provide a tool as part of their default install which allows you to create recovery discs. They also provide a complete collection of install files on the hard drive---which include both the OS and the applications---from which you can make OS install and application install discs. Poke around a bit in this forum to find out more information on how to make an install disc that suits your needs.
3. Quite a bit; and a lot more than Dell, since you're using that for comparison. More so than most people are comfortable with. These include everything from (redundant) applications duplicating functionality present in Windows to Google's products, like desktop search and Picasa.
4. Yes. And even better, they have a nifty app that can monitor and make sure you're running the latest of all these, and update them as needed.

[christopher_wolf]

As far as I know, the only Thinkpads that have been made outside of IBM, but still under IBM design, R&D, and QA, have been the R and X Series systems. They were built by Compal, but it is unlikely that Compal will still be making them as they are ardent competitors to Lenovo.

The T Series has always been made pretty much internally in IBM.

I take a slightly different POV, however, when it comes to the bloatware...It seems as if the bloatware actually increased in going from the T4X Series to the T6X Series. Google Desktop being one of some, fairly useless, applications that they put on.

The rest, however, like Access Connections. the APS controller, and the Software Updater are absolute gems to use. When I got my T43, I didn't get any crap like subscriptions to AOL or "Trial" or "WordPerfect 9," etc.


HTH

[archer6]

I take a slightly different POV, however, when it comes to the bloatware...It seems as if the bloatware actually increased in going from the T4X Series to the T6X Series. Google Desktop being one of some, fairly useless, applications that they put on.
HTH

I concur, bloatware definitely increased with the T6x series. However, I find that easy to eliminate, and I'd rather have that issue, than some thing worse. Especially since I like to customize my system to my liking, with my software configuration, my utilities (mostly ThinkPad) etc.
Thanks for the clarificationn of where the T series is built. I have used them since the very first T was introduced and I've been very happy.

[Hokiedad]

Thanks for the feedback.

I was in fact able to find instructions by some saint on creating an XPP SP2 reinstallation disc. That's a tremendous help. I've slipstreamed my own XPH/SP2 disc in the past, and it doesn't look any more complicated than the procedure I followed.

Back to the topic of installed software, for those apps & utilities that you might actually find useful, if we were to do a clean reinstallation of the OS upon receipt, are these available as a download from Lenovo? You mentioned Access Connections, the APS controller, and the Software Updater. Is there anything else others have found useful?

[dxben]

Thanks for the feedback.

I was in fact able to find instructions by some saint on creating an XPP SP2 reinstallation disc. That's a tremendous help. I've slipstreamed my own XPH/SP2 disc in the past, and it doesn't look any more complicated than the procedure I followed.

Back to the topic of installed software, for those apps & utilities that you might actually find useful, if we were to do a clean reinstallation of the OS upon receipt, are these available as a download from Lenovo? You mentioned Access Connections, the APS controller, and the Software Updater. Is there anything else others have found useful?

All of that stuff from Lenovo was certainly availabl to me as a T41p user, I would imagine it would be the same for a T60 user, so yeah you'll be ok.

[darrenf]

As far as I know, the only Thinkpads that have been made outside of IBM, but still under IBM design, R&D, and QA, have been the R and X Series systems. They were built by Compal, but it is unlikely that Compal will still be making them as they are ardent competitors to Lenovo.

The T Series has always been made pretty much internally in IBM.

About 9 months before the sale to Lenovo the T series manufacturing was moved to China. I don't know the name of the company but it was, ironically, Lenovo's main competitor in China. Is that Compal? I thought they were a Taiwanese company.

-darren