Thoughts and Questions on a new Thinkpad 87414BU widescreen

[mikesugar]

Through an offer from my college alumni office, in December I was able to pick up a:

T60 87414BU, T7200, 2GB RAM, 100GB 7200RPM, 15.4" SXGA+ 1680X1050, DVD Rewriter, 9-Cell batt, WinXP Pro 32.

for the very low price of $1756 plus tax and free shipping.

Just got it yesterday and here are my initial impressions and a couple of questions at the end:

SUMMARY:
If not for the weak display, this would be a dream machine.

DISPLAY:
I am a long time thinkpad owner. This is my 6th. My very first thought was "Hey, what's wrong with this screen!?!". Only after some research did I first discover that not all thinkpad screens are as awesome as the ones I have gotten used to. It is immediatley noticable.

If your head is in a good position, it is very bright, but off angle is bad. White is especially bad off angle.

Some colors are weak and all are uneven over long distances, so if you use a 1-color desktop background you will absolutely see patches of lighter and darker, richer and blander.

Off-angle vieweing is bad. Even if you hold your head perfectly still in the center of the screen, the sides still hint at the off-angle problems because the screen is so wide that the sides are a little off angle. If you move your head at all, it is immediately noticeable and distracting. Being off angle vertically looks a lot worse than being off horizontally. If the guy in front of you leans his seat back and you have to keep the screen at less than 90 degrees, you will be in for a very different vieweing experience.

If you touch the screen, you get the expected discoloration near your finger, but you also get puddle-like waves on about 2/3 of the screen. I am pretty militant about not letting people touch my screen, but here's the kicker: if someone walks by my desk, vibrations from the floor cause the same puddle-waves. I imagine this would make it unusable on an airplane tray, in a train or car, etc. This one fact may cause me to send it back to Lenovo for the trusty 15" flexview.

There is some light leakage, from the right side only.

Not a single pixel problem that I could find.

I watched part of a DVD on the screen and it looked fantastic.

KEYBOARD:
The feel of the keyboard is probably the best of all the thinkpads I've owned. The one thing I don't like about it: On my T42, the CTRL and ALT keys are larger and right next to ech other, so you could hit them both with your thumb while hitting DEL with another finger. This enabled quick, one-handed Ctrl-Alt-Del to lock the computer. On the T60, a windows key and context menu (right click effect) key are added between the pairs of Ctrl and Alt, which unforunately thwarts the one-handed computer lock.

Another welcome difference: the wrist rest is about an inch shallower than on the T42 and the other T60 15" models (t is more like the A20). It is more comfortable (at least for me) to type on the T60 wide because your watch band can hang off the end of the shallower wrist rest instead of being pushed up into your wrist. Although the A20 was 15", it had a narrower wrist rest becuase the keyboard was closer to you.

POINTING:
I don't use the touchpad, so I can't comment except to say it looks a tiny bit smaller than the T42. The touchpoint is about what you would expect. The same as my T42, which is a big step up from the A20. The mouse buttons have a nicer feel than my T42.

SPEAKERS:
Better and louder than the T42. Can't complain.


CHASSIS / CONSTRUCTION:
Feels very solid. Not too heavy. Has an external switch for turning off wireless. Nice.

Uses 20V AC adapter, wich is heavier, larger, and incompatible with the 16V adapters.

No longer fits my backpack in a way that I feel safe with. Will need to get bigger bag.

It is 14.1 inches wide. I think the engineers could have shaved a half inch off the width and still had the LCD safely mounted. I also think the LCD could have been an inch taller in the same chassis, so maybe 1680X1200. Wouldn't that be nice.


FINGER PRINT READER:
I was skeptical, but I'm won over.

DVD RW:
No complaints except that the ultra bay stuff is different than T42 series.

PERFORMANCE:
I didn't do any benchmarks, but it is clearly faster than my T42.
Two things I noticed that are slower than my T42 running Win2K:
- coming off screen saver there is about a 5 second pause before I can log back in.
- installing some software takes 5-20 times as long, with very long pauses of inactivity.

I assume these slowdowns are software-related or WinXP-related.

When idling with screen maximum brightness, the battery thinks it will last a little over 5 hours.


SOFTWARE:
This is an academic model purchased through my alumni office. It includes Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements. The recovery partition is about 8GB. The basic install of everything uses a whopping 20GB on the C drive. I was pretty shocked by this.


QUESTIONS:
Does any body know if there is a way to hack the Verizon internal EVDO modem to make it work with Sprint EVDO?

I also have an opportunty to get a 2623DDU 1600X1200 with T2500. Would it void the warranty to upgrade the CPU to T7200?




Thanks. And thanks Bill for a great site.

[mikemi]

On my T42, the CTRL and ALT keys are larger and right next to ech other, so you could hit them both with your thumb while hitting DEL with another finger. This enabled quick, one-handed Ctrl-Alt-Del to lock the computer. On the T60, a windows key and context menu (right click effect) key are added between the pairs of Ctrl and Alt, which unforunately thwarts the one-handed computer lock.

You can try "Windows keys" + L which immediately locks the computer. Ctrl + Alt + Delete still requires that you hit the "Lock Workstation" button.

[creed_mty]

hi there !!!

This is why I did NOT Choose widescreen!!!!! and chose 15" Flexview I think it was kind of perception that came through my mind that this will happen to me if I order widescreen and get exactly the same impression as you have of you laptop. and it came true.

well, if you are in the return period I EXTREAMELY Recommend you to RETURN it and get the regular 15" Flexview I have a lot of faith that i will be very happy with mine that's is on the way by 1/10/07.

[creed_mty]

QUESTIONS:
Does any body know if there is a way to hack the Verizon internal EVDO modem to make it work with Sprint EVDO?

I also have an opportunty to get a 2623DDU 1600X1200 with T2500. Would it void the warranty to upgrade the CPU to T7200?




Thanks. And thanks Bill for a great site.
[/quote]

WOW!! that is a very nice machine but for me core duo is old!
if you swap processor of course it will void warranty!!! so is not worthy for the only reason that the 2623 DDU has a better display
because if you do photo and you want accurate color you forcely need a calibrator device and I consider the 15" flexview (current ones 1400x1050) still a good display and is better to get the latest on performance (which I give more priority for the warranty)than start from backwards swapping processor when you can get the core 2 duo now. so about the display is not a big concern, otherwise, do it at your own risk!!!



About EVDO your best bet is to get your t60 without this feature and I don't think there is hack or seen an internal sprint WAN so if you don't mind to buy a external card with a little extra bulk on the side this my recommendation, in my case i don't needed, if i do i don't mind to buy a external EVDO.

good luck!

[pianowizard]

This is why I did NOT Choose widescreen!!!!! and chose 15" Flexview I think it was kind of perception that came through my mind that this will happen to me if I order widescreen and get exactly the same impression as you have of you laptop. and it came true.

What are you talking about? Not all widescreen displays have the problems the OP described!

[hoya]

mikesugar: was the panel on your T60 widescreen made by LG or Samsung?

[scoot1212]

I have a T60 WS 8741-49U and I couldn't be happier with it. The screen is great. I have very minimal light leakage. I believe I have the LG screen. The only problem that I have with the T60 is the fan produces a high pitched noise.

Scott

[hoya]

I just ordered the 87445BU for $1455 shipped from buy.com (using google checkout).

I didn't want Vista but I did want the 802.11n card, a 6-cell battery, and a DVD burner. I didn't see a need for the 'p' graphics since it would only mean more heat and less battery life for my use.

8744-5BU Core 2 Duo T7200 2.00 1GB 15.4" WSXGA+ X1400 120G 5400 DVD±RW Thinkpad 11n BlueTooth 6-cell 3-yr Dec 06

[jlr18]

Mikesugar - I think you and I (and other T60ws grumblers like deodeo) have the same garbage Samsung screen. I'm wondering if we can send it back to be replaced by an LG panel? I'm also pretty unhappy with the mushy NMS keyboard, but I have no problem paying out of pocket for a personal preference like that. It's the dismal, leaky screen on a brand new $1800 machine that has me fairly disgruntled... Oh yeah, and the creaking and crunching under the right palmrest. Other than that, this is a great machine!

[mikesugar]

Mikesugar - I think you and I (and other T60ws grumblers like deodeo) have the same garbage Samsung screen. I'm wondering if we can send it back to be replaced by an LG panel?

I already sent it back. They waived the restocking fee. How could I have determined who the screen MFG was? How could I have requested the better of the two?

I'm also pretty unhappy with the mushy NMS keyboard, but I have no problem paying out of pocket for a personal preference like that.

The keyboard was awesome. But I would have happly paid $250 more for a 15.4" flexview. That brief tase of 1680X1050 left me wanting more.

The sales team seemed to believe the 1600X1200 screen is permanently discontinued and it is unlikely that a 15.4" flexview will be offered. So I think I am going to go for the trusty 15" flexview.

It's the dismal, leaky screen on a brand new $1800 machine that has me fairly disgruntled...

The screen leaked a little but you could only see it when you were over 45 degrees off center so it didn't bother me.

Oh yeah, and the creaking and crunching under the right palmrest. Other than that, this is a great machine!

There was a minor irregularity in the wrist rest, but no funny noises.

Definitely the most disappointing thing was how the crappy screen ruined an otherwise spectaclular machine.

Another note: all of my service interactions with Lenovo/IBM on the transaction were very high quality and professional. No complaints there.

[Scratch]

@mikesugar - you can't go wrong with the 2623-DDU. It's the best T'Pad that I've owned to date and I've had a few. You're not giving up that much in day to day usage with the CD vs C2D in my opinion. I model on this thing for hours at a stretch and days on end with few complaints vs. my desktop WS. Unless you're specifically looking to run XP or Vista 64 I don't see the point. I already bought a C2D proc upgrade for when that becomes a necessity and it's sitting in the drawer...I'm leaving well enough alone for now. The RAM limitations preclude the greatest benefit to me.

In short the display is wonderful and the machine is a rock once you get past the bizarre Power Management issues, but there's plenty of support here for that.

Good luck with you choice.