R500 and T500

Hi guys, I am hesitating between these two machines. Are there any other differences than the weight and the casing between these two?

Ty

 

The T series has switchable graphics =)

 

I would not be using it anyway but thank you for the info.

 

Either the subject changed since I posted, or I totally read it wrong (my money's on the latter). Either way, my post ended up being irrelevant to the question at hand. Apologies.

 

The R500 weighs almost one pound more than the T500 (6.6lbs vs 5.8lbs). The R500 is also slightly thicker, 1.4" vs. 1.2" for the T500.

Both models feature the ThinkPad Roll Cage which is described by Lenovo as follows-

"The ThinkPad Roll Cage protects critical system components in case of accidents or jolts. A magnesium alloy frame that surrounds the ThinkPad notebook's internal components absorbs shock when the system is dropped or bumped – helping to reduce system failures and improving durability and reliability."

However, the T500 also has what Lenovo calls the "Top Cover Roll Cage". It protects the display screen in the same way as the ThinkPad Roll Cage described above. The R500 doesn't have this added protection. It is a more important feature to users who will be frequently traveling with their ThinkPad, which creates more opportunities for accidents.

Here's a bit of ThinkPad trivia that relates to the info above-

The R400 and T400 (and the 14.1" R61 and T61 that preceded them) are almost identical in weight and thickness. The R400 (and the 14.1" R61) includes the "Top Cover Roll Cage", which is standard on both T400 and T500.

This has always baffled me because the only difference in the 14.1" R61 and 14.1" T61 was the availability of one or two minor options (UWB and mobile broadband, I think). The R61 even offered the same discrete graphics option as the T61!

The availability of a few high-tech options is the only difference between the R400 and T400. Both offer a WXGA+ CCFL display upgrade, but the T500 also offers WXGA+ LED, too. Both models offer the same hard drive choices, including 7200rpm versions and disk encryption. But the T500 also adds 64GB and 128GB Solid State Drives (SSD) to the option list. The T400 offers the option of up to 8GB of RAM compared to the R400's 4GB maximum. The T400 also offers the option of Mobile Broadband and the Intel 5350 WiFi/WiMax wireless card. Finally, the R400 is only available with integrated graphics.

Moral of this story: If you don't need/want an LED display, dedicated graphics, a Solid State Drive, Mobile Broadband, WiMax and you can survive with only 4GB of RAM- chooosing the T400 over the R400 does nothing more than relieve your wallet of an additional $150!

 

R500 really seems to be the thing I need but I gotta figure out which OS and how muich Ram to put in it.

 

32-bit business Vista and 2 Gb of ram would prolly be enough...