Lenovo ThinkPad T500

After dropping my Gateway P7811FX accidently two feet onto a couch cushion and then having issues booting it up, I decided to reinvest into a Lenovo laptop, specifically the ThinkPad T500.

What is the build difference between say, the Gateway and Lenovo?

 

like night and day?

 

I like my T500. The main difference between the T500 and the P7811FX is the video card. I get approximately 3760 in 3Dmark06 (ATI 3650, P8600 CPU), where the P7811FX will get around 8000 or so if memory serves me correctly. I got a T500 because:
1) They ship with XP (I am avoiding Vista).
2) I like the track point on the keyboard vs the touchpad.
3) I get much better battery life. With the 9 cell I can go 5 hours or so using the integrated video card.
4) I got the 1200x800 LED screen. I like the larger text size. I also prefer mat screens compared to glossy screens. It is quite usable outside.
5) It plays most games I have quite well. Of course I have mostly older games, but it plays Halflife 2, Oblivion and Fallout 3 reasonably well.
6) Thinkpads are reasonably well built. Not as well built as when IBM made them, but then again they are less expensive.

My question to you is what video performance do you need?

 

Practically none. The only game I do play is World of Warcraft, which runs on any system pretty well because the specifications aren't that high. The only reason I went with the P7811FX at the time was because of the great deal I got at Best Buy. Had a known that an accidental drop on to a couch would cause booting issues, I probably would have bought the Lenovo originally instead.

XP Is also preferred for my classes, which the P7811FX couldn't do without missing some drivers like sound. All signs point to Lenovo.

 

Sounds like it is a machine for you! Lenovo's are able to take falls much better than other manufactures (not guaranteeing anything...after all everything has it's limits), but with the active HDD protection that stops the hard disk when in motion and the magnesium roll cage, Thinkpad's are built tough.

 

Two feet onto a couch cushion? So if I'm reading that right, it didn't even hit the floor and it quit booting?

An old friend of mine has a Gateway laptop. I don't recall many specifics about it, but it certainly didn't feel like a well-built machine. That, and the left touchpad key was broken, so he resorted to using the touchpad tap to left click. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

You should expect good battery life and a much higher level of ruggedness and durability moving from a Gateway to a Lenovo ThinkPad. The fit and finish may not be as solid as they were during IBM's days, but I feel Lenovo still has the upper hand against other brands and I have very little doubt that the chassis at its very core is still just as tough.

 

I am sure the machine was probably fine structurally but the harddrive arm probably damaged the discs from the impact.

 

Good point; the hard drive isn't going to park itself without something issuing the command.

 

Gateway is desgined for consumer market, it feels like plastic and cheap....
BTW, Gateway is owned by acer right now, acer is a very cheap build laptop's manufacturer

 

My personal opinion, but I have used quite a few gateway products over the years(monitors, desktops, laptops etc). Of all the brands/equipment out there, I really really dislike their products. They seem vastly inferior to products in their price range to me. I have one of their monitors right now and the thing literally takes 3 to 4 minutes to show a picture on the screen from when the power is turned on I really don't get this at all...

 

Sounds, like a hard drive issue to me.

Even so, that should not happen with a simple drop on a couch cushion (I do that all the time with my x200, and T40 before that).

 

I don't even get a POST screen or anything for that matter. Just a blank screen. I'm not an expert in troubleshooting laptops...but shouldn't I at least get the POST screen when I boot up regardless of the hard drive working?