Design issues - disappointed

[christopher_wolf]

besides, anyone with any experience with ANY battery powered device will know that manufacturer runtime specs will almost always be overstated..

Indeed; when they give the max specs, they usually fail to mention on what conditions it was done under. Start interacting with any such device and, because of the energy spent on changing additional logic levels that don't really help the device stay at minimal "on", the battery life goes down. A perfect example is the iPod where you get close to the battery lifetimes only if you turn the volume down and *do not* touch it until the battery runs out. Nobody uses their iPod or laptop that way.

I don't have the link to it now, but there used to be a PDF around here that showed the max battery times for the T4X Series that IBM tested. One T40, with 9-cell and ultrabay battery, managed to get to 8+ hours....which would be great if one could use it and still get such battery life.

[archer6]

besides, anyone with any experience with ANY battery powered device will know that manufacturer runtime specs will almost always be overstated..

Indeed; when they give the max specs, they usually fail to mention on what conditions it was done under.

Precisely!

Reminds me of the EPA fuel economy numbers on new cars. What it fails to say is that the only way you will get this mileage is on an extended downhill run of 200 miles, never accelerating, just coasting.....

[darrenf]

(...) the design engineers moved the mic closer to the speakers (almost on top of them) with the T40 series it was at the top of the keyboard away from the speakers. (...)

While I agree that this location is less functional, I believe that liquids spilled in the mic port now flow out the bottom of the case rather than onto the mainboard. In addition, the decision to redesign the cooler with two exit vents in the back right made it impossible (and acoustically undesirable) to locate it in the same position as on the T4x.

FYI: Older T-series laptops had the mic in about the same place that it resides in the T60, IIRC, so the T4x was really the "different" model.

I still vote to move it to the top of the screen next to the ThinkLight, if anyone at Lenovo is listening.

-darren

[rleo25]

It is amazing how some people judge a so fine piece of electronic equipment, result of years of advanced development and manufacturing using as refrerence for the evaluation, the shape and color of buttons... surely if that were so important why not buy an Averatec a nice looking machine... and look what it has inside add the technical support from the firm and you would know exactly what is precious in Thinkpad... take a look at this:

http://www.larwe.com/technical/av3715-open.html

[lintzuchieh]

i agree to the battery complain...it kinda last a bit too short...