T60... Help me decide!

I've been looking for the right time to buy a new Thinkpad. With all the sales going on, I was set on ordering in the next few days. However, I just found this on Lenovo's corporate perks site. Any cons? It's $1599 before taxes and shipping.

T60
15.4"
WSXGA+
1680x1050
ATI X1400 128MB
Core 2 Duo T7200
1GB 1 SODIMM
120GB SATA 5400
DVD Recordable
ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n
6 cell battery
Fingerprint reader
XP Pro

Height 1.13 in
Depth 10.0 in
Width 14.1 in
Travel weight 5.32 lbs

By the way, I'm assuming that this is the widescreen version? It matches up with the review I read here on this site today.

 

The con I see is that there's no flexview to make up for the extra bulk of the larger screen. To me, that was the only saving grace of the 15" over the 14.1". Portability is important to me, though, but not enough to lose the Ultrabay and the screen real estate necessary to go with the X series.

I'd suggest getting the 9 cell, though, as the larger screens eat up more battery.

I'm paying over $1700 for the t60p in my sig, so that seems like at least as fair a price. For the extra money I get a T7400, 9 cell battery, the Cingular WWAN, 512MB of RAM, and the FireGL v5250 (x1700 based, IIRC), but lose out on the DVD burner (CD-RW/DVD-ROM instead), the bigger screen, and the pre-n wireless.

 

I only do office work, mostly word documents and spreadsheets, so the flexview isn't necessary. As for the battery, I work long hours and rarely am I not plugged in. Besides, the 9 cell isn't an option. The only things I can customize are the amount of memory, the optical drive, software, and accessories. I'll upgrade the memory and hard drive later when needed. But for now, $1600 plus tax and shipping is my limit. I'm just worried that I might be paying too much. I've noticed that many of the models listed on Lenovo's corporate perks site are overpriced then "discounted" to make the buyer feel as though they're getting a deal.

One last question... any thoughts on the warranty? Here's what's offered standard:

Customer Carry-in Repair
Three years parts and labor (system battery: one year)

 

That's better than my warranty, since the price I got was less than EPP by more than the cost of the upgraded warranty (which can be upgraded at any time before it runs out). The only thing that needed warranty service on my T30 was a hard drive, which was one of a bad batch IBM got..that was about a year in. Everything is still going strong at this point, but it's getting long in the tooth and I want integrated WWAN, so I'm upgrading.

You can customize it more, but you'll have to call in. They can still give you the EPP discount over the phone. At the time I called, the sale prices were better than the EPP, though.

I think the price is pretty equivalent to what I'm paying, which I thought was good enough, obviously.

If you can get it more cheaply, I'd get a 14.1" with a docking station and an external monitor, along with the program UltraMon. That way you have more portability (and battery life) on the rare occasion that you leave the office while having more screen real estate when docked, and the software to easily take advantage of it. (UltraMon is the best program ever for manging multiple monitors!) I'd be within your budget were it not for the WWAN, which is a $200 option, and the p cost a couple hundred more than the base T60 I was comparing it with, so you could easily afford a decent monitor and a docking station to go with your laptop.

That said, it sounds like the widescreen would be fine for you, although I find a 17" or 19" LCD to be much more comfortable for working long periods of time. It's even better when you've got an extra screen...

Do keep in mind that if portability isn't that important to you, you can get an equivalent desktop machine far more inexpensively than any laptop, especially the Thinkpads, but based on your post count, I'd venture a guess that you already know that.

 

Thanks for your input. I was considering getting the 14.1", but the corporate perks site only offers a comparable model with WWAN that requires activation with Verizon. I don't need WWAN and won't be using an external monitor. I've seen other 15.4" models at stores and I believe it's just the right size for me. Nonetheless, I think I may wait till the widescreen models hit the regular Lenovo site just to be sure that I'm getting the best deal out there. According to the corporate perks site, shipping is only 8 to 10 days after purchase, so I'll have it soon enough. FYI, the listed price before the "discount" is $1999.

 

I saw the same model on the EPP site, except I can't tell if it has bluetooth. I called one of the rep and he said it is not an option. I find it hard to believe it wouldn't have bluetooth already. Anyone knows anything about this?

EDIT: Another rep just told me it has bluetooth. So I ordered it and the order confirmation email showed it has bluetooth as well.

 

mikemi... good to know. How much was the shipping?

 

Shipping is free (UPS Ground) but tax is about $95 for me...

 

Free shipping! But tax for me will be $133.92, unless by some miracle they don't charge tax in NY. Anyway, thanks for your input. I'm still considering whether I should take the plunge. I'm still hoping that the widescreen T60 will be listed on Lenovo's site before the current sale ends.

 

Is the widescreen T60 not yet there for sale? It may be listed with the rest of the Ts, just look for 'W'SXGA/WUXGA when looking at the screen specs.

 

If you don't care about graphics card something like the HP nx7400 offers good quality at lower price.

 

Is there a link to "corporate perks" website or is this something related to where you work? The price you got quoted is very good! I just placed an order for my T60 which is identical to yours (C2D T7200, x1400, DVD burner, 3 year warranty, a/b/g/N wi-fi) except its a regular 15" SXGA+ FlexView, 2GB of RAM, and 100GB 7200rpm hd. With our own internal corporate discount it came up to $1950. That was actually $300 cheaper than a same system configured and quoted from AMEX discount link, and close to $500 less than a config without any discounts. Also, for some weird reason the final quote came up with $0 taxes to NJ?!? Maybe because they count it as a business purchase rather than a personal? It should arrive in 2-3 weeks. I waited for widescreen announcement for over a month. Since there will not be 14" widescreen, decided to go with 15" which I have right now with my T42 (screen is the best!!!).

 

ZaZ... thanks for the input. However, I miss using Thinkpads. I feel that they're well worth the extra money. I don't really play games, but it'd be nice to play Tiger Woods on my laptop once in awhile.

twister... I'm getting it through my company's corporate perks site. I tried copying and pasting the link in a new window, but it boots me back to this site:

http://www.nextjump.com/?CFID=1364733&CFTOKEN=52524687

 

NextJump/Corporate Perks is nice, except when your company is doesn't do whatever it is they have to do to get the premium offers (most of the good deals fall into that category, including the lenovo, dell, toshiba, etc. discounts) unless you pay NextJump money.

The laptop I have on order was cheaper with the sale than with the discount, though. Apparently that's not the case for the widescreens.

BTW, if you work for a large company, you probably have access, and if you know someone who has access, they can "invite" a couple of people...

A lot of the "deals" aren't really deals at all, though. Most of it is just fluff. There is some good stuff, though (like the $1600 T60 widescreen).

 

I just tried to configure the T60 widescreen on Lenovo's site. It comes to roughly the $1999 with a lesser warranty. I guess the corporate perks site's offer is pretty good. Thanks all for your input.

 

Now, this is totally bizarre!!! I just went to configure a system just like I ordered yesterday with a discount, and came up with almost the same price directly without discount. 2 days ago price was much higher, and now seems that prices went down?

 

I haven't really noticed much discount at all (with 87445BU). Only shaved off about 10% off the base retail price (if I used EPP, or perks promotion). With the more expensive T60w (T7400+, ati fireGL, ...), there was only 15% discount.

Are we really getting any special savings on the T60 wides? Doesn't seem like we're getting any holiday deals on them