my t43p is 18 months newer than my t60p!

[andre#4]

This is surprising.

My t60p was made in china in may 2005
My t43p was made in USA in november 2006

I would have thought the t43 was the older model. It now occurs to me that there is a 2 year overlap during which they make both models at the same time.

I just got the t43p and I can see what people say about the slightly better quality. My only gripes are that the keyboard is way too easy to press the keys. (feels like toshiba keys, and I make lots of mistakes typing). And, it has a hideous LENOVO name right before the T43p designation, just to the left of the right hinge anchor on the lcd. It might be called a clear plate. Not sure of the name.

I would like to rectify the keyboard problem soon, as well as the ugly lenovo thing. Perhaps an earlier t43p might have a tag without the lenovo name. My t60p doesn;t say lenovo on it. I guess I should put a want ad in the marketplace.

[dr_st]

They were still making T43s in late 2006, that's true. But a May 2005 T60? That's got to be either a mistake or a very early pre-production model. The T60 series wasn't even announced until January 2006!

[RealBlackStuff]

If it bothers you that much, buy a new set of clearplates.
The IBM version just says "T43" or "T43p".
The insert on the palm rest (and on the front of the lid) can also be replaced with an IBM one if yours says Lenovo.
Cost? No more than maybe $5.-

[ajkula66]

Let me guess...your T43p's lid and palmrest say "IBM" but the clearplate (with no BT) says "lenovo"...and the machine in question is either a BY8 or a VQ7, more likely the former...probably came with no wireless card or FPR installed either. Chicony keyboard, ID Tech LCD. Computrace installed.

What - if anything - have I missed?

These are fabulous units and you should count your lucky stars that you were able to get one of them.

The "youngest" T43 I've ever seen dated from January of 2007...a year and a half after IBM sold the PC division. Had "ThinkPad" insignia on both the lid and the palmrest. That particular unit originally belonged to Lenovo themselves.

The T43p that you own used to belong to U.S. government or Alltel before Verizon scrambled an egg or two and had its former competitor for breakfast. I might be wrong on this one, but I honestly doubt it.

If your T60p was indeed built in 2005, that would be the oldest one I've ever heard of. Checking the warranty status dates might give you a clue on its history...

Enjoy these great machines, because neither of them will ever happen again...

[andre#4]

"Let me guess...your T43p's lid and palmrest say "IBM" but the clearplate (with no BT) says "lenovo"...and the machine in question is either a BY8 or a VQ7, more likely the former...probably came with no wireless card or FPR installed either. Chicony keyboard, ID Tech LCD. Computrace installed."


I just got this from a guy named Josh (Norris Cell) i think. He said it came from one of the flexview nuts on this forum. Maybe you had this machine at one time???


It is a 2668 by8. The keyboard is too light and I make many mistakes on it. I wish it had the harder to press keys that my t60p and x200t had. These keys feel like a toshiba laptop. Very different from my chicony and nmb t60 keyboard.

You seem to be right about everything else, except I have not checked the keyboard maker, the lcd maker, and I don't know what computrace is.

The lcd has a different hue than the one on my t60p. They are both uxga ips, but the t60p one (Boe Hydis) has a more pleasant hue. On a white screen, if both lcd's are compared, the t43 one has a very blueish look, as compared to the t60 one which has a more brown look. Slightly. Like the difference between looking at a flourescent light (t43) and a incandescant light (t60). I figured out a way to use the ati catalyst thing to lower the blue level on the t43 to mimic the pleasant tone of the t60. I don't know which one is right. Also, the t43 screen seems much brighter. I would say that the t60 would have to be on #7 brightness to be as bright as the t43 on #2 or #3.

I like everything about the t43 except the keyboard, which I will have to either get used to or change. But I don't want to have to get used to it. I can't believe the keys are so light. I make mistakes on every word. Even my corrections have mistakes.



"These are fabulous units and you should count your lucky stars that you were able to get one of them."

So what is so fabulous about these? Is there something I am unaware of? I mean are you just talking about the obvious fabulousness of the USA, UXGA, IBM, 4:3, IPS, T43p? or is there something in particular about the BY8 model? or do you mean the extraordinarily late manufacture?

I always wanted a UXGA, IBM, 4:3, IPS, T43p. And I always wanted a usa made thinkpad, but never dreamed of getting it all in one box. And for a reasonable price too.



(I will be very very upset when my t43p and t60p get so obsolete that I have to use a widescreen) And it is not a widescreen anyway. It is a SHORT screen. Only shows 1/2 of the website. The top half or the bottom half. By the time you take out space for the windows taskbar and the banner ads in all the websites, there is no room left to view the page. So if you want the height of a 15" viewable area you have to get a huge 17" screen. Really stupid. Besides the fact that there is no ips unless you get a tablet. Which restricts you to a 12" screen, and a short one at that. I guess we should be glad they didn't remove the screens entirely and switch to typewriter output. Or signal flares. that would save money. Don't give them that idea, whatever you do...

I am making my t60p into a t61 with the t9300 cpu and 8gb ram, so it will last as long as possible. I have all the parts to do it. Then eventually it will get the qxga screen too.

[andre#4]

Very peculiar about the 05/05 date on the t60p. That is the date on the little sticker with the type and the serial #. That unit is not here right now, but I think it is a 2007-xxx model. (I sent it back for repair)

Maybe the sticker is a misprint. It certainly surprised me to have it so much older than my t43p.

[ajkula66]

That T43p came from me. A nice amount of wear on the lid, but otherwise pretty clean. Great LCD. Not certain about the Computrace on that one, but if you attempt to change anything in BIOS, it will pop up if it's there. Even if it does, it's been deactivated.

I'm almost certain that the keyboard on that one is chicony.

I prefer ID Tech to Hydis, but I'm in minority here. Hydis always felt a little bit cold to my old eyes. What you have on that T43p is an ID Tech.

In my book, these machines - late top-end T43p units in UXGA guise - are the swan song of IBM's engineering and design. Install W7 on it - if you haven't already - and enjoy a six-year-old design running the latest OS with utmost competence. Pretty amazing.

Before you plop an QXGA in that T6x, let me ask you - without any offense intended - whether you've ever used that resolution on a 15" ThinkPad?

I've been using nothing but UXGA on my ThinkPads since 2001 and have found QXGA to be way too much for me on two separate occasions with R50p and T43p.

Just a word of friendly warning...and QXGA screens are dimmer than UXGA ones, BTW...150 nits when compared to 200.

Have fun.

[lukee]

Andre, could you post some photos of your fabulous T43p? Thanks

[pianowizard]

Before you plop an QXGA in that T6x, let me ask you - without any offense intended - whether you've ever used that resolution on a 15" ThinkPad?

I've been using nothing but UXGA on my ThinkPads since 2001 and have found QXGA to be way too much for me on two separate occasions with R50p and T43p.

Just a word of friendly warning...and QXGA screens are dimmer than UXGA ones, BTW...150 nits when compared to 200.

andre#4, heed this advice! Several years back, I had three Thinkpads with this mod and for many months I pretended I liked them, but eventually realized it's way to much for me. Besides having an insanely high pixel density and being significantly dimmer than most other panels, the QXGA panel is heavier than the UXGA panel.

If you still want to try this mod, make sure you do it on a secondary machine, one that you aren't going to use often.

[PowerPC]

Apologies for digging up a two years old topic. I came here by accident, while looking for information on ThinkPads made in USA.

I'm speaking in defense of the QXGA panels.

If nit is a linear unit, losing a third of the brightness is not horrible.

Regarding the excessive pixel density, things changed a lot in the last years. Even on Windows, interface scaling works better. This means that you will have text rendered with better quality. This is great for languages with diacritics (those extra things on letters, like the Spanish "ñ") and for languages with complex scripts (for example, Chinese characters). Even with English, you can always squeeze some extra lines of text from your screen.

Another advantage is for viewing .pdf files in full screen. The extra density makes it much more readable.

[ajkula66]

I'm speaking in defense of the QXGA panels.

If nit is a linear unit, losing a third of the brightness is not horrible.

Theoretically, you're correct...however:

These LCDs are both old, and CCFL-lit. A 7-year-old panel will have lost some of its brightness even if it has never been turned on.

So you're starting - mathematically speaking - with 1/3 less of its expected lifespan to begin with...

Once again, may everyone who is able to utilize these on a daily basis be eternally blessed with a perfect eyesight...