Rec'd new t61 today...initial impressions

Just received my new 14.1 t61 today. Specs:
- C2D 8100
- NVS 140
- WSXGA+
- Thinkpad ABG wireless
- 6-cell battery
- integrated bluetooth/WWAN

The computer came with Vista Home Basic pre-installed, which I used for approximately 3 minutes. The first thing I did was throw in a 2gig DIMM to up my RAM to 3gig, then replace the stock HDD with a 7200rpm Seagate I had lying around and install XP. I slipstreamed SP3 and a bunch of drivers using nlite and everything went without a hitch.

Long story short, I'm extremely happy with the machine. I appear to have gotten a Samsung screen, but I have absolutely no complaints. I turned the contrast up *very* slightly in the display driver control panel, but the screen is otherwise crisp and bright. No dead or stuck pixels, no severe leakage... despite all the complaints about the Samsung screens I am perfectly happy with mine.

No complaints otherwise. The battery has a very, very slight wiggle. Barely noticeable. Right palmrest gets a little warm, but it's much better than my old Fujitsu s6231, which wasn't even that bad anyway. I went with the 8100 because reviews seemed to show about a 10% improvement in battery life over the 8300 and I wanted to do whatever I could to compensate for the discrete graphics. Seems plenty fast. The machine came pre-installed with Vista Home Basic but I only ran it for 30 seconds to verify that the machine powered on. Otherwise I have no interest in running that dog.

I haven't tested battery life yet. I will post later if others are interested.

Thanks Lenovo! My only complaint overall is that that standard aspect ratios are no longer available. Widescreen is the future though, I guess...

 

The T8100 and the T8300 actually have the same TDP of 35W.

 

this made me giggle, plus it's probably what i will be doing once i order a laptop lol

 

Congrats! I just got mine as well and I love it.

 

got mine the other week as well. had kudos and complaints.

samsung screen- although blue and reading all the negatives. i like it. once configured correctly in the nvidia control panel things started to look much better.

preinstalled vista - reformatted to rid bloatware and system seems to run better without all the additionals

i dont like the lettering on the keys. they seem so big and childish. smaller text on the keyboard would look more appealing.

when i close the lid there is a slight bend on the sides and at the back where the battery is. not a big deal

 

I think you will forget about the look of the keyboard once you begin to use it. It is the tactile feedback that marks it apart from the typical notebook keyboard.

 

Remove battery, use black elec tape to affix small section cut from business card in strategic spot (found by trial/error). Replace battery. No wiggle.

Glad you like it.

~John

R61, 14"Widescreen, T8100, x3100, XP