Just got my T61p - Quick first impressions

I just got my t61p and was very excited to open up and play with it. Got to play with it for about an hour last night. I might do an indepth review later, but here are some quick first impressions for people deciding what to buy. These might change as time goes on, but I am just too excited right now....

1.) Machine came to me quick even with a 9 cell in the config
Ordered: 5/19
Shipped: 5/31
Arrived: 6/2

2.) Machine came to me in great physical shape. No dents, scratches, etc thing looked great, just as one would expect a new machine should. The fit and finish are great, everything just fits so nice together. There is a tiny amount of bulge where there is the ribbon cable for the LCD, but it looks completely normal. Infact you can only feel it if you move your finger across it. There is also a bulge on the whole bottom of the machine, but this looks like it was intentional and part of the design. Who ever assembled it did a real nice job.

3.) Hinges are wicked tight. Love it

4.) Now the big one - THE SCREEN IS BEAUTIFUL!!! So far I am very impressed. I can't believe it. I am not a photoshop person and I don't know anything about dithering(sp?) or even what it means, but I know what kind of screen I like. This is quite literally the nicest matte screen I have ever seen. Mind you I use a SONY XBRITE glossy screen for my desktop, so I know what a good screen looks like. The backlighting is even, the screen is bright, viewing angles are amazing. I was so worried about this, but I am really happy. Did Lenovo give me an old FlexView screen they had lying around, by mistake??? My hardware id is IBM 2887. It doesn't look like a Samsung or LG id that I am used to seeing. I can't believe the viewing angles are as good as they are. I don't get it

The WSXGA+(1680x1050) res is awesome. My only possible regret is not maybe going for WUXGA. Not sure, since I have never seen WUXGA on a 15.4" laptop.

5.) Thing is absolutely silent. Can't even hear the hardrive when it is accessed like crazy.

6.) Sound is decent, but could be a little louder, but overall not bad.

7.) Had Vista Business 64 up and running in 7 minutes. No crashes or anything. It is also very fast even though I only have 1Gb of Ram. I have used vista in the stores with this much memory and it was slow. Once again I am confused.

8.) The battery sits tight, no wiggle.

This is the first laptop I have owned and I thought I might have made a bad decision getting the T61p, but I couldn't be happier. I have used Dell Lattitudes in the past. They are nice and get the job done, but they seem so much more boring than the Thinkpad. If you have any questions please ask...

Thanks for reading.

 

wow Firesnake finally took the plunge! Are you the same guy who was going back and forth about getting a T61p and been on the forums longer than any prospective buyer? mostly back due to screen concerns if I remember right.. Glad it worked out for you and that the screen is great.
ps you wouldn't want a wuxga..its a bit dimmer than the wsxga+ and you know the adage - a bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush.

 

Yes, one and the same What can I say, I am very indecisive and this was my first laptop. Actually, I had all but decided to get the machine about around March but I was waiting for the 2 DIMM issue to be resolved.

 

Wow, congrats on the awesome laptop! I must say that if I was buying a laptop now, the T61p would be at the top of the running. I would opt for the WUXGA though my eyes can handle it. And what an amazing difference it would be, from me going from 17" WXGA+ to 15" WUXGA!

 

my impression of my t61p is the exact same, only my hinges suffer from the wobbly spot. my hardware id is the same, by the way.

over on the lenovo forums though, someone's mentioned that they had their hinges replaced with a different manufacturer (two different hinges) and it solved the problem.

 

Sounds like you got a good one!! Congragts! Do let us know which screen you got if/when you do find out the FRU.

 

nice work. happy for you snake. enjoy it.

get another gig or two and you'll probably pee your pants with excitement.

 

Agreed. Someone raving about a Thinkpad screen...unheard of.

 

I recently got my T61 with the WXGA+ and was planning to replace it with a glossy screen, but the screen is fantastic enough that I don't think I will need to after all.

 

Yeah, I don't get it. I saw a Z61m 15.4" WSXGA+ and a t61 14" WXGA+ and their screens, they were so so, not that good. The Z61m had to have the screen set to max brightness to be comfortable. The 14" one was better, but not great.

 

So you must know by now who the mfg. of the screen is...

 

How do you guys read the screen with a WSXGA+ screen. I have excellent vision (I really do) and the WXGA is just fine for me. My screen is amazing too, I can see everything from every angle I look at my screen. On top of that, this is when it is on literally the lowest brightness.

 

WXGA resolution is perfectly for me as well. My sis's HP NC6400 has a 14.1" WXGA, but w/ that resolution, I feel like I can't absorb as much information in one screen as I can with my WSXGA+. The test is equally as readable on my WSXGA+ as on that WXGA, but I can imagine someone having tremendous difficulty if my monitor was as bad as some who describe their problem's on this forum. It's just that someone who is raving about a WSXGA+ at this stage in the T61p's product life might be signaling some changes in LCD batches from either Samsung or LG which would be fantastic news.

 

Ok, so I found out the who made the screen.... LG

 

my screen is also LG.
do you notice any graininess?

 

@ ElKid - Thanks. Go for WUXGA. The only catch is what kind of quality display you get. It's almost like the screen res argument is irrelevant, it mostly depends on the brightness of the screen and the evennes of the backlight and then I think you can get used to anything. The main thing that kept me away from WUXGA is that I read a lot of people said the 15.4" WUXGA panel are pretty poor quality and they are at 175nit brightness. I felt that a high res screen with poor brightness could mean complete lack of usability of the screen. All the luck of the draw..

@supra97RX7 - I am sorry. Yea, I did read your comments both here and on the Lenovo forums. Once again quality control seems really off. My hinges are wicked stiff. Even with two hands the screen is hard to open, I love it. Was yours like this initially and then became loose, or was it loose from day 1? I will have to see how mine holds up.

@techboydino - I already got 4 Gb on its way And yes, my life is so dull that the added ram would cause me to pee my pants

@MobsterRobster - Yes, I remember your thread. You were worried about voiding the warranty. Not sure if you got any defenetive word on that.

@LenovoT61B - I had the same feeling when I looked at the high res display for the first time and was used to seeing 1280x800. I almost think this whole not liking the higher res thing is psychological. I have terrible eyesight. Once I realized how much screen realestate that I was getting and how fine the picture was, I loved it. I know for sure now that I would never go for anything less than WSXGA+ for a 15.4" panel. I might even try WUXGA next time. What I found with Vista was that the system tray and clock were real tiny, but the icons on the screen, folder names and control panel icons were very easy to see since they were bolded. As far as the system tray, you can hover over most items and it will tell you what they are if you can't tell from the icons.

 

No, I don't think so. Like I said I have only used the machine for about an hour, been so damn busy recently. Once I use it some more, I will post more detailed info and pics to help others. The one time I did notice some grain(or maybe a better term would be pixelation) was when I used a lower than WSXGA+ res image as my background. The lower res pictures looked like crap, naturally.

 

Congrats on the new toy Fire Snake!

And yeah, the LG WSXGA actually has very good viewing angles and decent color when tweaked a bit, I just wish they used only that panel on the T61's.

 

Congragulations!

I'm a mac partisan, but Thinkpads are awesome business machines.

especially love the keyboard and the build quality (they are built like a tank!)

one question, what's your screen size?

 

My full specs are in my sig. I have a 15.4" screen. Since I am mainly using this in the home, I didn't want anything less than 15.4".

 

Thanks! I still have so much to play with, I don't know where to begin. First thing I think I will try is to make the recovery discs. When I get a chance, I will also play with the screen calibration a bit to see how things look. One of the reasons I wanted the discrete nvidia card is to be able to play with screen settings like this. From what I saw, nvidia's control panel gives you much more than Intel's.

 

I have question!

post the pics of your new friend

Anyway, Congratulation!

 

the hinge was off from the first time i opened it. but supposedly, there were two manufactureres for the hinges, and someone on the lenovo forums had theirs replaced with the other kind. problem solved.

if my hinge gets horrible, that's the route i will take, i guess.

 

How would you go about doing that (changing the hinges)? COntact lenovo cs?

 

From what I read it isn't something you can just tighten yourself. I think you would have to send it to CS to have them replace the hinges.

 

Thanks. Yes I will. I am not sure if I should create another thread with my review or just add to this one.

 

There are two screws underneath you tighten

 

I would suggest adding on your full review & pictures into your first post in this thread & then ask a moderator to modify your thread title.

 

This tightening is to make the hinges more stiff/loose, yes?

 

From what I read, some people with the loose hinges tried this, but it didn't work.

 

Thanks. That is a very good idea. I will probably do that rather than start a new thread. So far as I use this machine more and more I am absolutely loving it. I don't know what issues/bad luck I will run into with the machine in the future, but so far not a single complaint. It would be hard to go for anything but a thinkpad next time.