New T60p Review

I've been looking for an upgrade to my trusty R50p and found what I think was a truly amazing deal on Ebay. Here's what I got, tell me what you think after you see what I paid for it:

(Laptop was brand new in open box with all the original documentation and accessories)

IBM T60p (T2500)
2GHz Core2Duo Processor
100GB 7200RPM Hard drive
2GB RAM 667MHz
15.4" WSXGA+ Wide Screen
ATI Mobility FireGL V5250 w/256MB (512 Hypermemory)
802.11 a/b/g/n Wifi
Bluetooth
WLAN
DVD-RW Recordable
Fingerprint Reader
9-cell Extended Life Battery
WinXP Professional

Price: $1,100.00 + $45.00 insured shipping

Did I do good?

First impressions:

Right off the bat, I love the new mushroom-shaped mouse pointer in the keyboard. Much easier to use than the old pencil eraser shape.

The laptop seems a littler flimsier, not quite as solidly built as the R50p, but still sturdy enough and very lightweight. And it fits in the same backpack as the older model with no problem at all.

Text and icons are too small for comfort with the WSXGA+ screen (thank god I didn't go for the WUXGA!) but can be enlarged with the fn/spacebar which is a very convenient feature so you don't have to reset the resolution in control panel.

The screen does show noticeable light leakage along the bottom during bootup, and seemed somewhat washed out with the default video settings. But there were zero dead pixels and a little tweaking in the ATI Control Panel improved the screen appearance to quite acceptable levels.

The screen is not as good as the Flexview on my R50p and I would have preferred getting the same kind now, but the deal was just too good to pass up and considering everything else the laptop has it seems like a reasonable compromise. The light leakage is not noticeable when any programs are running so that just shouldn't be an issue over the long haul.

The keyboard is standard IBM comfortable. A big reason I stick with the brand since no other laptop I've ever tried even comes close to it for comfort.

It seems to run a bit hotter than the R50p and is noticeably warmer around the right palmrest area under full load, but still quite acceptable and I imagine there are ways to adjust the heat output. Any suggestions for improvement in that area are most welcome.

Speed: This baby is just flat-out fast. It should easily be good for years to come as far as dealing with any application I might use on it. And with the /n wifi it's right up to date with the latest protocols, too.

World of Warcraft is just beautiful with the extra video graphics power, too, in case it matters to anyone.

So that's my story so far. I've had it for about three days now and am liking it more every time I use it. If anyone has questions that I didn't cover just send a reply and I'll do my best to answer.

And thank you to everyone at Notebookreview.com for being such a matchless resource. I spend countless hours combing the forums to get the latest and greatest help and information and I don't know what I would do without you.

 

Nice buy and nice price, eBay can be a treasure mine if you dig enough.

Glad that you got what you wanted and thanks for giving back to the forum with the T60p quick review here!

 

The R50p is better built in the lid section because it was made to handle the heavier QXGA option.

I don't think you'll find a better built IBM laptop lid. Not even the T61 with the roll cage was that beefy.

 

Wow...QXGA on a 15"? I'd rather gouge out my eyes!



Congrats on the new laptop.