T61 15.4 widescreen vs T60

im trying to decide which one to get. im an IT major and care nothing for graphics cards and im trying to decide which one to get

T60 15.4 widescreen
core 2 duo 2.0ghz
1 gig ram (upgraded to 2 gigs after recieving)
80gig hd(im a external hd user when needed)

T61 15.4 widescreen
core 2 duo 2.2 ghz
1 gig ram (upgraded to 2 gigs after recieving)
80gig hd(im a external hd user when needed)


why im not sure if i want the T61
- i was told the t61 screen has horrible viewing angles and is dim.
-does it have the led light?(im a dj and its great for ethe keyboard at gigs)
-Crappy laptops speakers

why i want the T61
- Santa Rosa platform
- higher cpu speed for cheeper
- quiter/lighter
- s-video out and firewire ports (i dont currently use either but nice to have if i want to exspand)

Why im not sure if i want the T60
-older
-louder (fan is loud i was told)
-no firewire port
-heavery?

why i want the T60
-****Great screen (viewing angles)
-Great laptop speakers ( i watch alot of movies on it. im a college student)
-Has the led thinklight

What are you opinions on what i should i do?

 

Since you seem to be concerned about screen quality, get the 15" T60 with the Flexview... The IPS technology of this screen is much superior to (and much more expensive than) the TFT technology of the T61. Also, the SXGA+ T60 has 1.4 megapixels vs only 1.2 megapexils for the 15.4 wxga+.

For programming, i dont think the santa rosa platform offers much more power (none that you'll need). The T60 is mature and the early bugs are now fixed on the ones they ship currently; but with the new t61 there's bound to be problems like with any new product cycle.

I prefer tallscreen (T60) to widescreen (T61 15.4) for programming, so I can see more code vertically.

 

There is no S-Video out on the T61.

 

its looks like the T60 15.4 widescreen models that lenovo has on there website show a 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT does that mean it is the same screen as the t61 or do all t60 come with the flexview?

 

No only one model currently comes with flexview: Thinkpad T60 15" Model 2613, and you have to select the flexview option.

The T60 is pretty quiet, some people have complained about it but in general most people consider it to be one of the quietest laptops out there. Also, I wouldn't exactly call the speakers on the T60 or T61 "good."

 

The FlexView is a much better screen.

 

Does flexview just mean wider viewing angles? Or is it higher contrast, better color, and higher brightness? I don't really care about viewing angle, but I do care about color, contrast, and brightness.

 

it's better for all of the above,
except that the hi-res T61 screen and the T60 flexview are both 200 nits bright

dont underestimate the impact of a poor vertical viewing angle. Most ppl fidget around and rarely have their screen in the perfect viewing angle position.

but if you want widescreen, forget flexview it's not available in widescreen.

one reliable poster owns an older flexview and a new t61 wxga+ claims that the screens are pretty similar in quality.

 

The FlexView isn't brighter, but has wider viewing angles and is much more color consistent.

 

I am interested in this comment regarding T61 vs. T60 as well as tallscreen vs. widescreen for software programming.

I am a programmer focusing on Java web applications. I can see very likely benefits regarding using faster and quieter/lighter (cooler?) CPU in developing complex web applications on an application server. Besides, a programmer also oftentimes need to run many other applications at the same time too, not mentioning opening many windows. I could be wrong since I dont have either T61 or T60.

I am currently using Dell inspiron 9300 (17'' widescreen) and I do like it being widescren since I can open a IDE on left side and a browser on the right. Very convenient. However, I am not sure the same applies to 15.4'' widescreen since I dont have such laptops.

I am thinking about buying 15.4'' T61 and any input is very much appreciated.


Best,
David

 

Thanks for the information.
On a related note I wanted to know whether the 15.4" WSXGA+ screens are better than the similar(15.4" T61) WXGA(1200* 800) screens.
I always figured that the a WXGA (1200*800) screen would be better for me, since I like bigger and clearer fonts (most of my time would be spend on web browsing and spreadsheets and I wear glasses so i do not want to strain my eyes with smaller fonts on a higher resolution of a Wsxga+).
However I read somewhere that the WSXGA+ screens of T61 are more bright, have better contrast ratios and are therefore better for movie viewing etc..
Is that true..coz that might swing my decision..

 

what kind of input? sounds like you want 16:10 instead of 4:3

the T61 15.4" comes in 1200x800 or 1680x1050. Doubt you'd be happy with the former because it's not much real estate for tiling windows. The latter res is 128.6ppi. The question you need to answer for yourself is whether that res is too small or okay.

Java web development doesn't need T61 power. Doesn't even need the power available in the T60. People do hi-resolution video editing on those machines. A java ide, debugger, browser, editor etc (like IBM websphere) is only using a fraction of the resources. So i wouldn't worry about the CPU on one over the other. I'd worry about screen quality if you're sitting in front of the screen all day. Nothing compares to the IPS screen on the T60, which has been reportedly discontinued on the T61 due to supply constraints (all the good glass is going to more profitable HDTV's instead, lol)

 

Yes the WSXGA+ is 200 nits bright compared to 150 nits for the WXGA.

But, in my experience buying for other ppl, additional brightness and clarity doesn't compensate for smaller fonts in the case of ppl who want larger text. People who want larger text & fonts often are happier with that, and return the higher res for it.

Depends what you're doing. If you mostly browse the web, do email and surf, then XGA is often better. Web pages are designed for XGA and look best in XGA. They dont scale well to hi-res. Maybe eventually webpages will be WXGA (it took a decade to evolve from 800x600, lol)... but the days when websites are commonly designed for WSXGA+ is probably another decade away.

 

Thanks again.

That's quite a lot of difference. Maybe more brightness will help when viewing darker movies.My usage will be like 30-40% web/email, 40% spreadsheets, powerpoint and word, around 10-15% movies. No coding and no gaming. Does a higher resolution afford more clarity in movies and images?

I'm thinking an option might be to use WXGA+ and then use customized font size(like Cambria 11pt or something like that) and ask windows to always use your own fonts.(In internet options and accessibilty). In that case I guess the fonts will be larger for all web-pages.

On a side note seems like the new WXGA+ might be superior in terms of vertical viewing angles. I was going through the dell website where they compared the progressively increasing vertical angles with higher resolution ( from WXGA, WSXGA+, WUGA). Maybe that is true for Lenovo as well..