Want a new thinkpad but which one?

[koden]

My T40 is to old and my T60 also not as good anymore and the T60 also is my working pc.

So I would like to by me a brand new thinkpad...
I have some ideas about what i need in my new laptop...

1. 3G UTMS/HSDPA

2. Battery that can hold a lot of hours (whats possible today... 8 hours ?).
If it's with solid state disk or what it's called, then it's possible or ?

3. A screen that can be seen in daylight, so that I can use it outside (not in directly sunshine).

Have i forgot something that I would be missing in some years.... future secure

[ZaZ]

The T400 with the high nit LED and nine-cell battery seems like a winner.

[mattbiernat]

before jumping from T60 into any of the T series I would watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8sOO-8LP4E
and also search around for reviews about the new T series.
i skipped this generation of T machines and went straight into X300. both of them have their pluses and minuses, but there is a lot of options out there. do the reasearch carefully and find out what you can live with and what you cannot.
if I was going for portablity i would get myself X300t. unless you can live with not so good screen on X30X.
and if I was going for a desktop replacement and going "future proof" I would get the W700 or W500 as a cheaper alternative.

[koden]

Thanks... yes I can see what have happend since T42.
I have a T42 (not T40 as I mentioned).
I have hat a T43 and T60, and I feel that the 42 quality is bether than this two.
And as the video shows also the new T series

okay.. I will have a look...maybe I have to buy another brand than lenovo...

[mattbiernat]

maybe I have to buy another brand than lenovo...

yes, there is a lot of options out there but lenovo still makes few good notebooks. i'd really check out W series, as people around this forum seem to like them.

[koden]

It looks like that the W serie is very expensive...
twice as much like the T series...

[mattbiernat]

It looks like that the W serie is very expensive...
twice as much like the T series...

yeah but you get what you paid for. i got X300 for $1150 and it is so much better than some hp tablet for $600. if you wanna go cheap but still get quality product with lenovo I would suggest the S10 or S20 netbook.

[dr_st]

yeah but you get what you paid for. i got X300 for $1150 and it is so much better than some hp tablet for $600.

The analogy is understood, but somewhat inaccurate. Unlike in the comparison between the X300 and some HP tablet, there are no differences in quality between the W and the T series. W500 and T500 are really the same laptop.

The difference in price comes mostly from the FireGL V5700 (rebranded Radeon HD3650 for professional CAD/CAM), and also other higher-end components (WUXGA screen on some models, faster CPUs, better/faster hard drives, and a couple of other options). Although, with the exception of the FireGL and the WUXGA, and maybe the full disk encryption, you can configure all these options on the T500 as well.

There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to get W500 over T500 if they don't do CAD/CAM and don't need the extra screen space that WUXGA offers.

[ajkula66]

dr_st wrote:

There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to get W500 over T500 if they don't do CAD/CAM and don't need the extra screen space that WUXGA offers.

Agreed 1000%. Furthermore, if you don't need much horsepower in the graphics area, get a T400 with Intel graphics and the biggest battery you can find. LED LCD would somewhat help as well.

You'll end up with a capable unit that has an exemplary battery life.

If you tell us more about your needs and user patterns, we'll be able to offer more specific opinions on what (not) to buy from the current ThinkPad lineup.

Good luck.

[koden]

Thanks...some new inf. for me there ))

I only use my laptop for internet.
For me it's just importend to could be online everywhere and to see the screen in daylight, so that it can be used outside.
The outside use is not possible with the screen on a T42.

Then battery time is importend... and taht it have some quality like I feel my T42 has..

[underclocker]

before jumping from T60 into any of the T series I would watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8sOO-8LP4E
and also search around for reviews about the new T series.
i skipped this generation of T machines and went straight into X300...snip...

Well...a couple of comments...
1) The review is shallow. The reviewer called the machine low quality because of the keyboard, keyboard bezel, palmrest and LCD bezel. While those parts are way to thin, weak and quick to wear, the rest of the machine is very high quality with roll cages top and bottom. Unless you buy a ToughBook, ThinkPad is still the way to go.

2) Regarding the thin, flexing and quick to show wear parts, come on Lenovo, FIX THAT. Laptops with keyboards and palmrests that show wear in 30 days is pathetic.

[dr_st]

I wouldn't call the review shallow. He just chose to focus on the exterior, which is legitimate. So yeah, it has a rollcage inside, which makes it more shockproof and durable in extreme circumstances, but if all the exterior looks and feels cheap, and will wear out quickly during normal use, that's not a high quality product in my book.

He didn't go indepth into some of the cool hardware/software features Thinkpads have, and have had, but then again, he did not compare it as much to other brands, but more to older Thinkpads.

All things accounted for, having seen lots of T60, T61 and T400 units at my workplace, I definitely share the feeling that ever since the T60, there hasn't been a single T-series model worth looking into. They are all heavier than before, thicker than before, ugly as sin, with progressively worse keyboards (even the T60 keyboards already don't feel as good as T4x), and offer very little innovation, other than the ever faster hardware, which is due to the chip makers, not Lenovo.

The new T400s looks as it can be much better in that sense, but it's not truly a T-series model, it does not belong to the same category, not in price, and not in feature set.

[koden]

maybe I should wait for built in LTE modems...

Don't know if they are called the same outside Denmark.
But LTE is a new form of 3G UTMS/HSDPA. Not 4G as someone calls it.
But LTE does not have the same limit as 3G

[mattbiernat]

maybe I should wait for built in LTE modems...

if you need a laptop now, buy it. i would still go with the thinkpad because of its superb trackpoint and the keyboard can be switched out for a better quality one. if you don't care about the keyboard or the trackpoint there are other brands out there. some people in here really like the new dell Vastros and swear that they are as good if not better quality than thinkpads. but if you can wait, then maybe lenovo will get their sh*et together and come up with something new in a year or so.

[asiafish]

dr_st wrote:

There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to get W500 over T500 if they don't do CAD/CAM and don't need the extra screen space that WUXGA offers.

Agreed 1000%. Furthermore, if you don't need much horsepower in the graphics area, get a T400 with Intel graphics and the biggest battery you can find. LED LCD would somewhat help as well.

You'll end up with a capable unit that has an exemplary battery life.

If you tell us more about your needs and user patterns, we'll be able to offer more specific opinions on what (not) to buy from the current ThinkPad lineup.

Good luck.

Why not get the T400 with switchable graphics? That way, you get decent graphics performance when playing games, working with video or anything else GPU-intensive, and the same exemplary battery life as the Intel graphics model, for only about $150 more.

I play Fallout 3 and Mass Effect on my T400, but also used it for 11 hours unplugged at a lecture (9 cell + ultrabay battery).

[beeblebrox]

I wish, there were a nice T700.
Would buy it in a heart beat, thin and light, but 17" WUXGA, matte (of course) and Flexview (or equivalent from Sony X-Black). Normal Dual-Core would be sufficient. But have NumBlock with T400s keyboard.
Still dreamin...
Lenovo is missing the boat here.