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IBM / Lenovo Compliment - Great laptop - Thinkpad T60 - Laptop
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I recently invested in a new laptop and thought I would share my research. In the past I posted a short review on my new work laptop, the IBM Thinkpad T60. Some of you regulars on M3C may recall many of my more recent posts where I said my next computer was going to be a Mac... Well I lied! I just purchased another IBM Thinkpad T60!
I had been going back and forth regarding the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros for a few months now and I finally spent some time playing around with one at Best Buy the other day... I must say I was not very impressed with the usability of the MacBooks. The keyboard was a bit small, and the mouse tracking system was not very responsive. Even after adjusting the settings to the most sensitive, I found myself having to move my hand back and forth multiple times just to get the mouse pointer from one side of the screen to the other, which really annoyed me. The Pro model had a bigger keyboard... but it was much more expensive starting at $1999 for the base model. Adding on some decent memory and upgrades put it well into the $2000's...
That's when I started to re-evaluate the IBM Thinkpads. I have been using one at my work for about 8 months now and really liked it. Then I saw they were having a sale at Lenovo.com on all Thinkpads this week. I ended up getting a loaded T60 model for under $1500 (base models start around $1000), which I think is a steal for such a quality laptop. My current work T60 has taken a beating from me and works flawlessly. It has a magnesium casing that helps protect it from getting knocked around... it has a built-in drain system in case you spill anything on the keyboard. It also has a neat little light that shines down on the keyboard if you are using it in the dark... Plus the best features are the battery life (5+ hours with wireless ON... 8+ hrs w/ wireless OFF)... and the cooling system... The laptop never gets hot... and it is very quiet! The mouse tracking system is top of the line as well... It offers a dual-tracking system with both the "eraser head" pointer and the tracking square. The keyboard is one of the best in the business in terms of quality and responsiveness...
For the operating system I went with Windows XP Professional... Vista was the same price but I just don't think it is ready for prime-time yet. All the benchmark performance tests show XP out performs Vista by a mile... So call me old-school... but I stuck with XP for now. Plus I don't have to worry about compatibility problems with all my current software... since I'm XP now.
They have also just released a newer model, the T61. It has a widescreen display, a little faster processor... and a few other new features. But from the reviews I read, its battery life is no where near the T60, and the casing is more plastic now than the all magnesium casing on the T60. I'm not a big fan of the widescreen laptops... I read they are actually cheaper for manufacturers to make which is why so many companies are pushing the widescreen models now-a-days. I stuck with the standard 15 inch... Though I don't think you could go wrong with either model...
If anyone is in the market for a new laptop, I would definitely recommend checking out Lenovo.com in the next few days since I'm not sure when their sale is going to end...
I had been going back and forth regarding the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros for a few months now and I finally spent some time playing around with one at Best Buy the other day... I must say I was not very impressed with the usability of the MacBooks. The keyboard was a bit small, and the mouse tracking system was not very responsive. Even after adjusting the settings to the most sensitive, I found myself having to move my hand back and forth multiple times just to get the mouse pointer from one side of the screen to the other, which really annoyed me. The Pro model had a bigger keyboard... but it was much more expensive starting at $1999 for the base model. Adding on some decent memory and upgrades put it well into the $2000's...
That's when I started to re-evaluate the IBM Thinkpads. I have been using one at my work for about 8 months now and really liked it. Then I saw they were having a sale at Lenovo.com on all Thinkpads this week. I ended up getting a loaded T60 model for under $1500 (base models start around $1000), which I think is a steal for such a quality laptop. My current work T60 has taken a beating from me and works flawlessly. It has a magnesium casing that helps protect it from getting knocked around... it has a built-in drain system in case you spill anything on the keyboard. It also has a neat little light that shines down on the keyboard if you are using it in the dark... Plus the best features are the battery life (5+ hours with wireless ON... 8+ hrs w/ wireless OFF)... and the cooling system... The laptop never gets hot... and it is very quiet! The mouse tracking system is top of the line as well... It offers a dual-tracking system with both the "eraser head" pointer and the tracking square. The keyboard is one of the best in the business in terms of quality and responsiveness...
For the operating system I went with Windows XP Professional... Vista was the same price but I just don't think it is ready for prime-time yet. All the benchmark performance tests show XP out performs Vista by a mile... So call me old-school... but I stuck with XP for now. Plus I don't have to worry about compatibility problems with all my current software... since I'm XP now.
They have also just released a newer model, the T61. It has a widescreen display, a little faster processor... and a few other new features. But from the reviews I read, its battery life is no where near the T60, and the casing is more plastic now than the all magnesium casing on the T60. I'm not a big fan of the widescreen laptops... I read they are actually cheaper for manufacturers to make which is why so many companies are pushing the widescreen models now-a-days. I stuck with the standard 15 inch... Though I don't think you could go wrong with either model...
If anyone is in the market for a new laptop, I would definitely recommend checking out Lenovo.com in the next few days since I'm not sure when their sale is going to end...
Thinkpad T60
Comments:
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-06-19:
Excellent review!
Posted by chemman on 2007-06-19:
Thanks for the great review! I'd been thinking about upgrading my laptop, but ended up just upgrading the RAM and battery. It serves my needs for now but if I decide to take the plunge, I'll definitely look into the T60.
Posted by MRM on 2007-06-19:
I was one, who thought that your next computer will be a Mac. I was never a fan of Mac because it is expensive, proprietary hardware, and not alot of useful programs for Macs. Thanks for the suspense, Sparticus!
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-06-19:
Yeah great review sparticus! This should make the news letter.
Posted by Sparticus on 2007-06-19:
Thanks for the kind feedback everyone... I forgot to mention I upgraded the batter to the 9-cell for $30 extra bucks... which is what gives it the extended battery life I quoted above...
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-06-19:
I've heard lots of bad about Levono, but your review is nicely positive. Good job.
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