T500 or T61? Is anybody happy with the TX00 series?

My son is leaving to go to the U.K. in a few days, and I just bought him a T500. It should arrive today.

I decided on the new T500 because it has better, more up-to-date components, but the conservative side of me said to get the T61.

Now after reading the posts here on the T400 and T500 about crappy keyboard, bad thinklight, recovery not working etc.. I am freaking out and thinking I should sell it or send it back and get the tried and proven T61.

Any comments?

 

T500 is absolutely better than T61. Donot worry about thinklight and recovery, and the keyboard can be easily changed if you donot like the new model.

 

better how? I haven't seen any evidence of this.

 

The biggest thing to remember is that most people who bought a T400/T500 that works fine aren't going to seek out a forum and post about it. Chances are the majority of systems are fine and the systems with issues are greatly in the minority.

IMHO the keyboard is fine. Does it flex a little if I push down on it hard? Yes. Does it flex for me during normal typing? No. Does it have a good feel and work fine? Yes.

If you read through the threads, a lot of the issues that come up seem to have happened to a couple of people then get blown out of proportion. Two or three have had issues with using the recovery media; one of them figured out it was because of his error and it actually worked okay. I had no problems burning/using the recovery media to establish a factory image on a 2nd drive. Yes the user interface was confusing but it worked.

I can't speak to others experience with the Thinklight - if I tilt the screen way back yes it'll shine in my eyes. If it didn't it wouldn't illuminate the keyboard when the screen was in normal position. I don't know if some units have the light position off a little or what. Screen is bright enough the Thinklight isn't really needed.

 

T500 is more poweverful with Montevina, DDR3 memory, switchable graphics, which are all better than things in T61. The only regret for me is that the LED screen is not yet available.

 

Both T61 & T400/T500 are fine.

If you have newer owned a Thinkpad most likely you will not notice the 'crappy' keyboard people shout about.

If I were you I will get a new Tx00 series no second thought. As with everything, people only give feedback generally on the negative side of things. I should say T61 is a right choice but is an 'outdated' machine (although I've just recently replaced my T42p with a new T61), not because I did not liked the new Montevina Thinkpads, but because I had a budget and couldn't order a new Thinkpad from the US shipped to Mexico.

If the keyboard really bugs you simply replace it with old T60/T61 models as 2nd poster said.

 

I am very happy with my T400. The keyboard feels the same to me as my wife's T61 (though I admit this is my first Thinkpad). The Thinklight does shine a bit in my eyes, but I can't imagine ever needing to use it. And regarding the Rescue and Recovery discs not working: it appears to me that people simply don't know how to use them. There have been several reports here of people successfully using the discs to install onto a fresh drive.

I had previously been a Dell customer, and my T400 is head and shoulders above my previous Dell laptop. The build quality, size and weight, battery life, and price were exactly what I was looking for. Even the Thinkvantage utilities are impressive; usually I would remove software like that and use the Windows alternatives, but the Thinkvantage software is really good and offers more options for customization than Windows does.