My ThinkPad T61 arrived today! SOLID MACHINE

I have a project or two to finish before I can get to photos, but here is a review of my first impressions.

I had no time to really mess with it, so I opened it, and plugged it in and turned it on. Not realizing that I had not even put the battery in.

Booted up, the usual XP stuff, over pretty quick, and then I was staring at the map of the world desktop background that has been on every other TP I have set up for clients. Ok, did change a few settings, like a blue color for desktop background, make fonts and icons bigger for the old eyes.

Turned on my wireless network for windows updates. Many, as usual.

Liked the keyboard, not sure what brand it is. Liked the overall feel of the machhine. ALOT. No squeaks, out of aligments, or anything like that. Also QUIET. YES!

A pure business machine. Did a few updates for the ThinkPad utilities center, etc. Seems to work. I kind of like those utilities that come with it. So I am not going to reformat. However, I am going to defrag And I deleted a few useless programs, etc. It boots up very fast, T7300 CPU 4mb cache...nice.

Fingerprint was wicked easy to setup, way slick. Love it. Battery sticks out the back, but not sure how much I like it, but I like it better than my Dell D630 which sticks out the front

I have not yet put in my 2GB RAM chip yet. I had forgotten it only had 1GB as it is so fast. My desktop has been in need of a reformat for over 2 years, so although it is quite fast, I know it could be faster. The laptop, even with the crapware, is way lean and mean comparatively.

I intend to use this as my main laptop, my only laptop if the Dell D630 sells. See for sale area of this site for details.

If there are no suprises, and I suspect there will not be, I am compleyely in love and would recommend the machine to anyone. Highly. I was a bit nervous as I am an avid reader of this forum/site, and understand that it is a place where people mainly vent about problems and does not represent a fair sampling to judge quality. I am happy to say the quality is, so far, the same as any other ThinkPad of which I have setup over the years which have not been all that many but are all still working

thanks for your time, Dave

 

Dave,

In no time, you'll forget about the battery sticking out the back - in fact, I find it helps to keep a good grip when carrying my T61 out of the bag. Several of my coworkers are using Dell Latitude 630s and they absolutely hate having the battery sticking out of the front.

As far as being a "pure business machine", don't sell the T61 short. It can crunch spreadsheets all day long with the best of them. But at night, allow it to let down its hair and it's a great multimedia machine. (When away from the office, I'm using my it as full blown Media Center desktop replacement - it doesn't even break a sweat.)

Be sure and spend some time familiarizing yourself with the ThinkVantage utility - it makes routine maintenance literally a one-button process.

(And no, I have no affiliation with Lenovo whatsoever.)

Enjoy!

 

Well, there is a ThinkPad appreciation thread somewhere.

Aha! Here it is.

 

Glad you like it...the LCD on the ThinkPad is making my desktop jealous...looks like I'm monitor shopping now...LOL.

 

Yes, when I call a machine "Pure Business", it is a high compliment, rather than a put down I do not do too much else with the computer, but it sure has the power to spare feeling about it.

I look forward to spending more time with it. I really like the solid feeling of it as one of the best features. So many HP's and Sony's and Acer's do not give me that feeling Not too mention the Dell Inspiron series. FLIMSY I will say I am mighty impressed with my Dell D630 Latitude. Also a solid machine. The only reason I even bought the ThinkPad is becasue I am a computer nut with a credit card Dave

 

Sounds good. Glad you like it. i just ordered mine and am waiting. Please post up your config that you choose. What do you thing about the screen?

 

I think you will like your T61 even more if you do a clean install of XP.

I liked my machine at first but after a few days of using it. I got some random freezes. Don't know what caused it. Maybe to much bloatware from Lenovo?

After the clean install the machine runs waaaay better. Who needs the blue thinkvantage button anyway??

 

Yes, I like a fresh install, but the ONE BUTTON update all things utility kind of swayed me My config was T7300, 2.0 GHZ 4mb cache, Nvidia graphics, 1GB RAM, fingerprinter, Bluetooth, 100GB 7200 RPM Drive, XP Pro 32 bit, 14.1 1280x800 screen. I really like the screen. Better vertical viewing angle than my Dell D630, for sure. And side viewing is excellent. All in all, especially in view of all the horror stories, I am veyr satisfied with the screen. Bright enough, I like the resolution becasue eyes are tired. I have external monitors for the type of work where I might need higher res. Even those are only at 1024x768. Old eyes, like BVG icons

I kind of like the way the Vantage Button brings up a handy menu, so for now anyways, I will keep the stuff. I admit, that when I do MSCONFIG I damn near have a heart attack with all the JUNK loading )) Dave PS, I am used to the battery already. And I really like the power ulility on screen. Best I have seen.

 

If you really want to be impressed, just do a clean install. I was never able to fully recovery from all that junk my T61 started with, I got rid of _everything_ and it was still feeling a bit sluggish. Going to a clean image yielded a significant boost in overall responsiveness. Since you just got the PC, run the backup tool to make some DVDs, and in the time it takes you to try really getting rid of all that Lenovo junk, you can just put a new OS on there

Also, glad to hear you got a nice screen as my screen is pretty mediocore

Also remember that people come to forums to complain usually, so it seems like there are a lot of problems with everything. Sure some Thinkpads have problems just like everything else. I had a Vostro 1400 and a T61 in use at the same time. Some people even went so far as to say the new Vostros were "Thinkpad like in quality". I can tell you that Vosto was a pile of crap compared to the T61.

 

how long did it take for you to get it?

 

it usually takes 7-10 days

 

I got mine on EBAY from thinkpadusa and UPS ground from Oregon was about a week. If I had been smart enough to see where it was coming from, I would have paid for 3 day select Dave