T61p New Owner: First Impressions

[Vurso]

Hi,

Been lurking on the forum for some time but decided to register once I purchased my Thinkpad.

I had used the T41 laptops in the past and always thought they were legendry in use and the keyboard has always been a god send.

That pretty much secured my decision that the next laptop I purchased had to be a Thinkpad however due to one thing or another I was never able to get a hold of a T60p at the time. Thankfully Lenovo have kept the Thinkpad brand alive and when I saw a deal on the T61p model I had to snap it up.

Received my Thinkpad a couple of days ago with the following spec:

T7800 Core2Duo 2.6Ghz CPU (order the T9300 Santa Rosa model but there were none in stock so I didn't want wait months for my laptop to arrive)
4GB Memory
200GB 7800 RPM HDD
DVD RW Writer
Intel Turbo Memory
SD Card Reader (4-in-1)
Intel Wifi + Bluetooth Addon Card
Fingerprint Reader
15.4"WUXGA 1920x1200 Screen
+ usual Thinkpad extra's

I love the understated look of the notebook, folks at my office were commenting öh it looks like something out of the 80's" but I argued I wanted a laptop that could actually do more than just open up internet explorer and look good hence my purchase.

I love the insane screen resolution and it's perfect for my power computing needs (.NET development, Graphics & Design, 3D Modelling) but impressed with the way it scales down to other resolutions really well, none of that garish blurred/blocking effect you usually get.

Actual laptop design is solid, familiar rubberised cover and that legendry keyboard however I was a little dissappointed with the layout as a couple of keys are out of the way and this can making coding a bit of a pain but I can still touch type like a pro - name another laptop where you can do this (I have tried countless brands and always ended up cursing the design of the keyboard).

Graphics are impressive, the card is on par with the 8700M GT card and so far has not complained about any games I have thrown at it.

I went ahead and installed Vista Ultimate 64 bit on the Thinkpad, had absolutely no issues installing the OS and drivers were readily available from the Lenovo site. Only issue I did encounter was with Vista SP1 however after uninstalling SP1 and reinstalling it manually (rather than from the Vista Update app) everything worked as expected.

In operation I have noticed it runs a great deal cooler than other laptops, even when gaming hard through the likes of Supreme Commander and Rainbow Six Vegas.

So so far I am very impressed and glad I made the right purchase. I have yet to full explorer the T61p and find any naunces (I hope there aren't any) and I still need to install Debian Linux on the Thinkpad however I don't see any issues here as these laptops have always been a firm favourite of Linux users.

Anyone else with the new T61p, how did you find the new T61p notebook, up to your epxectations or had issues?

Adios,

V

[Makikun]

Hi. I purchased my T61p back in November 07. I have to say it is the best laptop I have ever owned. I've tried them all... Dell, HP and even Medion . This is definately one of the most stable laptops. My only issue is I like Windows XP x64 Edition. Finding drivers was kind of time consuming but I ended up getting it to run. I wish Lenovo had drivers for XP64 as they have drivers for Vista 64 and wouldn't be that hard to re-write. My laptop has the Quadro FX 570M graphics and it really suprised me. First, it is DX10. Also, I can play all my Steam games maxxed. I use this laptop every day. It has never hard locked and has never had to have been cold booted. Also, if you plan on getting any other mini pci-express network cards, make sure it has a Lenovo FRU and will work in the T61p otherwise you will throw a BIOS error and it will not boot. There is another topic in this forum you can search for that will show you how to modify your BIOS. I had to modify mine. It is very easy. But yeah, after the T61p, I am stuck on Thinkpads!

[archer6]

Hi,

Been lurking on the forum for some time but decided to register once I purchased my Thinkpad.

I had used the T41 laptops in the past and always thought they were legendry in use and the keyboard has always been a god send.

That pretty much secured my decision that the next laptop I purchased had to be a Thinkpad however due to one thing or another I was never able to get a hold of a T60p at the time. Thankfully Lenovo have kept the Thinkpad brand alive and when I saw a deal on the T61p model I had to snap it up.

Welcome to the forum, Vurso!

Thanks for the report on your new ThinkPad. It's great to hear how much you are enjoying it. I myself cannot imagine anything other than a ThinkPad as my laptop of choice. Not only have they served me well personally and professionally but I have over 200 deployed in my business and they are a cornerstone on the hardware side of my business. As a big advocate of laptops in general and one who has tried almost every other brand available. I'm especially aware of the advantages that ThinkPads offer.

You've found a great forum to support you, and I hope that you spend some time here, as there is a lot of education information here which will enhance the enjoyment of your ThinkPad.

Cheers!

[Pascal_TTH]

My T61p with T9300 will arrive on mai 20. Time never seems so long even if it's the week end.

I already have
A20p
A21p
X24
A30
A31p
X31
T40
T40p
T41p
T60p
R61
T61

Acording to what I read, it must me the most exciting one. My favorites were first A21p, second X31 and third T41p. I'am just a bit afraid of the WUXGA...

[archer6]

Hi. I purchased my T61p back in November 07. I have to say it is the best laptop I have ever owned.

Greetings Makikun, and Welcome to the forum!

Time flies when you enjoying your ThinkPad! I bet that Nov 07 seems like only yesterday. Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of ThinkPad ownership is how long they last. In fact I've been using them for so long I rather take it for granted. Then when I hear someone with a Dell, or some "other brand" complain about this or than and the computer is less than a year old it reminds me of just how great the lifespan of a ThinkPad is. In fact I have a small museum of ThinkPads myself as I never can bear to sell them when I upgrade. Each and every one, due to the fact that I take such good care of them, all look like new and function as well too. If it were not for the resource intensive work I do, I probably would not upgrade so frequently. However that said, I probably would anyway as I'm such an addict about them!


Cheers!

[Vurso]

They are a gem amongst laptops imo.

I am very picky and critical about the hardware I use as I have very specific needs and very few laptops (or even desktop system for that matter) have met all of my requirements.

I fell in love with the Thinkpad brand when I first laid my hands on a T41. It was a modest spec but it was such a joy to use I stopped using the desktop system.

Best of all I managed to install one of the ports of OS X on the laptop without a single problem, everything worked and this really wow'd everyone in my office.

The T41p is an amazing bit of kit, the more I use it the more I am starting to see just how well built it is. The WUXGA screen is solid, not overly reflective as others but does a very good job of reproducing color ranges so I have no issues in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

Something worth doing if your after more vivid colors, down the LCD driver pack from Lenovo and install the "Wide Viewing Angle & High Density & Flexview Display" color profile. Everything was brighter and more vivid when I did this so now I switch between this and the Lenovo profile when doing design work.

Most impressive is the gaming performance. I am still amazed at how well it plays games. The sound from the laptop is actually very vivid and strong, not tinny as I expected it to be and the graphics performance is just amazing - easily on par with any gaming specific PC. I had Rainbow Six Vegas cranked up to almost all the settings and it just chugged through it without dropping frame rates.

The only downside I have is the size of the T61p laptop as I always liked the cute look of the T41 laptops however it's only a minor objection.

I am planning on purchasing an additional 200GB SATA drive for extra storage and to use as a scratch disk and when money permits I will get my hands on the 64GB solid state drive - haha now that will be nuts!

[Vurso]

Forgot to ask, someone mentioned bios mods etc.. does anyone have any links to the information and anything else that can tweak some performance out of the Thinkpad?

[aiiee]

Something worth doing if your after more vivid colors, down the LCD driver pack from Lenovo and install the "Wide Viewing Angle & High Density & Flexview Display" color profile. Everything was brighter and more vivid when I did this so now I switch between this and the Lenovo profile when doing design work.

Got a link for that there driver? I can't seem to find it on Lenovo's site, and given all the whining about screen quality ( not you ) I would think there would be quite a bit of interest in this.

[aiiee]

Note from Moderator: Snipped excessive, nested quoting

Could I already have it? There's a TPFLX.ICM color management file that I switched to . Screen does seem brighter but no discernible difference in colors or viewing angle.

[Vurso]

That sounds like the one I got, the driver pack had two profiles in it. Worth spending some time and playing with the nVidia color management as well, this will also help improve the colour display.

I'll dig out the screen calibration software I used to setup my laptop, very useful.

[aiiee]

thanks. the more I use the screen now, the better it looks, the power of suggestion is a wonderful thing

[Vurso]

Slight update, been using the laptop a little more now and getting used to the way it works.

However I have had some interesting experiences with Vista 64 bit that I wanted to share.

So far everything has worked as expected, had no driver issues and did not have a problem finding the correct drivers from the Lenovo site.

However after installing Vista Service Pack 1 I had a whole heap of trouble starting with random network problems. These were no evident during normal use however when I went online to play my favourite mmorpg I started noticing issues whereby I would start to lose connection with the game world.

After much head scratching I determined there was an intermittent problem with the LAN driver/port.

I switched to Wifi and this seemed to aleviate the problem for a while however the issue only got worse. I rebooted my laptop today and started to experience some serious issues with the network stack whereby it would start to fall apart like a house of cards.

Certain communications worked fine but if I attempted to use a web browser or access the internet through a client such as email or an online game I would receive errors stating "No Socket Available" - this was serious enough to cause every application to report a critical error.

There seemed to be no way around it, each time I attempted to reinstall the network drivers or update them with intel's latest ones I would receive the same problem, one component or another of the Windows network stack would fail - pretty serious!

After reading up about Service Pack 1 woes I took the plung and wiped the entire laptop clean. Kind of glad this happened as I wanted to partition off the 200gb drive so I could deal with these issues in the future i.e not lose my data if I have to reinstall the OS.

Now I have Vista 64 bit running properly again however this time I deselected Vista Service Pack 1 and hid the update (right-click and choose Hide This Update) to stop the update from installing in the future.

Also worth doing is to set Windows Update to notify you before downloading and installing updates so as to stop Service Pack 1 auto installing and completely fubarring your OS.

Vista SP 1 is a shambles, I have read countless posts of people crying at the headache it has caused and personally I believe it is not fit for consumption regardless of what Microsoft state.

I noticed serious performance issues after install Service Pack 1, graphics performance had decreased, becoming choppy in some games. Overall performance was very sluggish and to really annoy me Vista took twice as long if not longer to boot up and shutdown.

So my advice is if you decide to go down the Vista 64 bit route avoid Service Pack 1 like it's the plague.

Adios,

V

[archer6]

Slight update, been using the laptop a little more now and getting used to the way it works.

However I have had some interesting experiences with Vista 64 bit that I wanted to share.

If I only had one ThinkPad, I would run Windows XP Pro SP3.

Vista is simply too problematic and unstable to use as ones main OS.

Of course there will be those that argue that Vista is serving them well. I assure you this is a somewhat rare exception which is usually experienced by those doing very light work. As a developer, I'm using Vista on one of my ThinkPads, and have been since the first beta release. This is for purposes other than those of a mainstream user. In addition, I would strongly advise against it unless you have a lot of free time to devote to continual patching, debugging, etc. The very nature of Vista is such that, once you do get it running well for you, it's short lived between then and the next time problems crop up.

Just a thought.

Cheers

[Crunch]

I noticed serious performance issues after install Service Pack 1, graphics performance had decreased, becoming choppy in some games. Overall performance was very sluggish and to really annoy me Vista took twice as long if not longer to boot up and shutdown.

So my advice is if you decide to go down the Vista 64 bit route avoid Service Pack 1 like it's the plague.

I must strongly disagree! And I'm very surprised at your assertion. But it is what it is with your Thinkpad I suppose.

I have seen nothing but improvements with SP1! WiFi being one, MUCH faster transferring of files, faster boot-up and shutdown. And I want to emphasize, too, that this improvements are not subtle. They are very noticeable. Everything seems to respond faster as well, such as application execution, opening browsers, etc., etc.

I wonder why we have such seemingly vastly different experiences with the SAME OS. I also run Vista 64-bit. But with SP1!

[Vurso]

I noticed serious performance issues after install Service Pack 1, graphics performance had decreased, becoming choppy in some games. Overall performance was very sluggish and to really annoy me Vista took twice as long if not longer to boot up and shutdown.

So my advice is if you decide to go down the Vista 64 bit route avoid Service Pack 1 like it's the plague.

I must strongly disagree! And I'm very surprised at your assertion. But it is what it is with your Thinkpad I suppose.

I have seen nothing but improvements with SP1! WiFi being one, MUCH faster transferring of files, faster boot-up and shutdown. And I want to emphasize, too, that this improvements are not subtle. They are very noticeable. Everything seems to respond faster as well, such as application execution, opening browsers, etc., etc.

I wonder why we have such seemingly vastly different experiences with the SAME OS. I also run Vista 64-bit. But with SP1!

This is the thing with Vista 64 bit Service Pack 1... for some reason it just does not like my Thinkpad, I tried it again from a clean install of Vista 64 bit, installed all of the correct Lenovo drivers and then did an update up to Service Pack 1, immediately after the service pack I noticed serious problems again.

Could be to do with drivers not being updated to deal with SP1, I don't really know. I use Vista 64 bit with SP1 on my work PC and like you I actually noticed an improvement so it's 50/50 right now hence my statement regarding it's release, I just believe it needs more testing.

As for using Vista, I have to use it for work. I developer .NET 3.5 Web Applications in Vista 64 bit as well as desktop applications so my home system has to replicate the same environment so as not to introduce any issues during development and testing.

Agreed Win2k3 properly setup as a desktop environment probably is a better solution but I fear I would have issues trying to replicate my work development environment.

.NET 3.5 framework seems to tie in too heavily into Vista, doesn't quite make the framework multi platform.

As for SP1, I will wait until it's matured a little and then try it again, I probably will have better luck. I also updated my LAN/Wifi drivers, seemed to still lose connectivity randomly so I downloaded the latest Intel drivers instead of the Lenovo one's and seem to be having more success now.

Cheers,

V

[crashnburn]

Almost feel like going out to a store that has one and see how the 15" WUXGA looks on the T61p.

[archer6]

Almost feel like going out to a store that has one and see how the 15" WUXGA looks on the T61p.

That's a great idea. There is simply no substitution for having a good long look for yourself. Personally I really like the high res display. However that said it does indeed take some getting used to if you have not used one before. I have 20/20 vision, and find it quite small when it comes to fonts / icons etc. However I also do 3D design work and for that it's stunning. l cannot imagine NOT having the highest resolution available. So it's truly a matter of personal preferences, what you are going to be using it for, and for how long you will be sitting in front of that display. I'm in front of mine for 8 hours and there are times when I do have a bit of eye strain. After having my eyes checked and found just fine, it really does break down to this fine resolution and the amount of time I use it.

That's my story and I'm sticking too it.......