R500 Vs T61

I am thinking to get a 15.4" Laptop from lenovo outlet
R500
Intel® Core™2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Business 32
15.4" WXGA (1280 X 800) TFT With Camera
2GB (2 X 1GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory
160GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Drive
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
Intel® WiFi Link 5100
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6.5 Hour Run Time)
No Bluetooth
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

T61
Intel® Core™2 Duo T8100 (2.10 GHz, 3MB L2, 800 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Business 32
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 X 1050) TFT
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory
160GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Drive
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6.5 Hour Run Time)
Bluetooth
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)

R500 is about 80 dollars cheaper than T61
I use it for download and web browsing and never bring it out. (no game on this machine)
The only different I concern between them is the resolution.
Is it a big different between them?
R500 is the latest model while T61 is the previous one.

 

I'd say go for the R500, since you don't game that Nvidia graphics is only going to suck up power, battery life, and create unnecessary amount of heat. Screen resolution is really a personal preference, go to a local retailer and see any 15" screen in person, check what resolution it is and see if you like it. It doesn't matter if what your looking at is a Lenovo or not, just need to see how the screen plans out.

To follow up on a mentioned point, the T61 listed will NOT get 6.5 hours of battery life. That is the quota for intel graphics and not nvidia. Also the T61 only has 1GB of ram (a con unless you upgrade yourself) which almost everyone knows is really not sufficient to run Vista.

 

Thank you!
I will upgrade to 3GB of ram so its not the problem.
Heat is one of the things I concern about coz I want the palm rest cool.
How about the T61 with X3100 and WSXGA+? OR R500 with WXGA?
The reason that I am keep asking about the resolution is because I may need to open few (3 maximum)word documents together.
I am worry that WXGA screen is not enough. (no external LCD)
But most of the time, I use this machine for downloading and watching movies. (will plug in a external LCD)

 

The 15.4" R500 is a bit clunky if you ask me. If you're not moving it much then perhaps that's not much of an issue. You can get WSXGA+ on the R500 and it's probably a better idea if you want to view multiple documents. If you're not gaming I'd get the X3100 card. It offer less heat and better battery life. The nVidia cards offered on the T61 are known defective. Lenovo will not help you if it's no longer warranty.

 

Regarding screen resolution, my R500 with the WSXGA+ screen is good, but it's the absolute highest resolution I'd feel comfortable using day in day out on a 15.4" laptop, and I have 20/20 vision last time I had my eyes tested.