T61p 15.4" WUXGA First(and only?) Impressions

So I ordered a T61p for a friend on 7/12, around 2:30PM. It's here today, 10:30 AM. 34 days or so - not too bad on parts that had a 3-4 week "delay"

Specs:
T7300
2GB RAM (2x1GB)
Vista Ultimate
160 GB 5400RPM
15.4" WUXGA LCD
Quadro FX570M 256MB
WUSB/UWB
Turbocache

So I slapped a HDD in it that has XP on it from another T61(work machine) and it fired right up. Did some recognition, but no video card changes were required to utilize the video card. (Quadro NVS140M and FX570M are the same driver?) 1920x1200 is AMAZING on this screen. It's TINY, but god, I need one of these for work.

I find the 15.4" WS formfactor a bit... big. I don't see myself carrying it around and liking it. We'll see how my friend reacts though.

There was no flex anywhere I could find - not on the LCD, not on the wrist-wrest, not where the media card slot is, not on the keyboard.

He got an Alps keyboard which feels great. It does seem a bit.. high.. if that makes any sense. The keys look a little taller than I expected, but god is it great to type on.

The LCD is Samsung. God is it bright. Way brighter than my 14.1" T60 SXGA+ from work. No light leakage that I could see. Solidly put together.

So after porting it around a bit, I find it just a BIT to big to be a mobile machine. Portable workstation? Sure. The problem is(for me, anyway) that I tend to move around too much, and use it in too many places.. For example: Laptop @ the table during dinner, laptop on the couch while playing 360, laptop in bed, laptop on the crapper... (j/k) etc etc. Do I like the resolution and real estate? Yeah, but if I was just going based on that, I'd use my desktop. I like a laptop to be portable. Seeing this machine has sold me on the 14.1" T61p.

I didn't get to test speeds/etc since I was running a non-driver happy XP from another T61. No Turbomemory or wireless for me. Quadro card seemed fine, and doing a ton of transfers didn't heat up the 5400 RPM drive much either. Overall I'm VERY VERY impressed.

Feel free to ask any questions I might be able to answer.


Overall Ratings
Build Quality: 10/10 - Wow. Just wow. Not a creak on it. WAY better built than my T60p 15" IPS. WAY better.
Size: 8/10 - A bit too big for me as I said. See other reviews.
Screen: 10/10 - Drool. I say no more.
Keyboard: 10/10 - I wish I could steal it. I do.
Weight: 9/10 - A bit on the heavy side w/the 9 cell, but not too much.

 

ponicg, thanks for your initial impressions.

I'm glad you like the screen. I'm surprised you are impressed with its brightness. I thought Samsung tended to be on the dimmer side. What do you think of the viewing angles (horizontal/vertical)? How bad is the light leakage from the bottom of the panel?

 

The light leakage isn't a problem for me, unless you're watching a movie but it really isn't a problem.

I thought the screen was fine with brightness, I don't want to blind myself with other displays .

 

I tend to keep my displays set to 50/50 brightness and contrast, to start, then modifying them to get a good color representation. Full brightness/contrast don't matter much to me, aslong as when adjusted, they're good. That being said, this one on full brightness was fine.

As far as viewing angles, they seemed good, but I haven't fully tested. Once my friend comes over tomorrow we'll look into it and let you know.

 

Any graininess/sparkle on the screen?

 

Not a drop. Not in a full-screen putty term(white on black) or IE(black on white) or visual studio or office.

 

Has anyone tried 120dpi screen setting with Vista yet on the 15.4" t61p? My understanding is that Vista is a bit better than XP for font/icon scaling.

 

I believe a bit better is an understatement!

Didnt they attempt to close the gap a bit between xp and osx when it comes to the scaling stuff?

 

Well, the intent was certainly good. And I'll admit that was part of what I was thinking in ordering a 1920x1200 screen at 15.4" in the first place. But I haven't seen the scaling for myself yet at that size, so I was hoping someone else had. If anyone wants to try who doesn't know how, right click on the destop and select "personalize". Then on the left side of the resulting Personaliztion window select "Adjust font size (DPI)". Change it to 120 with the radio button. I think it will make you reboot.

There's also a "Custom DPI" button there. If you select that there will be a drop-down with three choices. 125% is 120ppi. 150% is 144ppi. 200% is 192ppi. I *think* 144ppi (they seem to use DPI --dots per inch-- and PPI --pixels per inch-- interchangeably) is the closest choice available for the real increase in pixel density compared to a typical lcd resolution at 15.4".

But, at the end of the day, of course it's what looks best to you. But I'd still like some "reports from the field" on the matter.

 

how heavy is the 15.4" anyway ponicg? and you said the size is too big? you think it'd be too big for a college student to carry around to classes? I'm still stuck between whether i made the right decision to order the 14.1" vs the 15.4" when the difference is really just the graphics card.
no WUSB/UWB/BT/Fingerprint reader on mine though =/

 

Wuzertheloser, I'll say this - I'd find it too heavy w/the 9 cell to lug around my house. To class? Maybe a different story, since it'd be on a desk/table, then in a bag, then in a desk, then in a bag... but then again I loved my 14.1" T40 for 4 years of college.... And I think it was fine. So I dunno, to be honest. What's your major anyway?

 

Are the blacks really black on the screen ? Or greyish ?

I saw a wxga+ on a t61, and it SUCKED

 

my major is bioengineering.
lots of bio notes and powerpoint notes. lovely.
i think i'll stick with the 14.1" then.

 

Wuzer, if you don't need that extra OpenGL power, why bother with the 15.4"?

 

bragging rights
in all honesty...i probably don't....so i'm sticking with the 14.1 inch and sticking to my desktop for gaming.

though i wish i had got the fingerprint reader...haha...but that would push it over my budget =/

 

Hey Im a CS grad student and Ive ordered the T61 with the 15" screen and a 6 cell battery, I expect to be doing a lot of coding

Is the 15" screen a good option in your opinion. If not, could I change it now (about 2 days after payment) to a 14" screen and how?

Thanks,
Auxin

 

I don't see why the 15" wouldn't be a good option. If anything, it gives you more room to code One thing I would recommend is the 9 cell battery, because the 6 cell does not offer the best battery life. Of course, this depends on how often you plan on using it on battery.

If you do change your mind, you could change it, but it would require cancelling your order and reordering. Also keep in mind that many orders are getting shipped quickly, and even if you cancel, it still may ship. (I ordered on Monday, cancelled on Tuesday, and my T61 shipped on Wednesday.)

 

I wanted to order the T61P as well but the WUXGA screen is waaay to small for my weak eyesight. Wish they could come up with a WSXGA+ soon since that would fit my requirement nicely.

 

Yeah no I was wondering in terms of portability. But if I gotta cancel my order to change that I am not gonna do that. Just hope it is portable enough.

Lets hope everyone gets as fast a shipping date as you

Cheers,
Auxin

 

nice review but...no pics = lies!

lol i'm just kidding

i'm curious now about this screen. must be awesome for documents and programming

 

You know, you could always increase font size.
Higher resolution is a good thing, it means more pixels, increase font size to make things have the same dimensions, and the higher pixel count will make things clearer.

 

I don't know about Vista but I increased the font size in XP and I was running into graphical anomalies here and there. For instance the address bar in firefox would enlarge causing it to overlap borders and look ugly. It also didn't have any affect on the text size in firefox. While firefox can increase text size independently, it's symptomatic of why increasing text size is somewhat messy. Not everything goes smoothly and many programs need some adjustment. I also found it kind of pointless because it felt like I was on a lower resolution so what's the the point? Why get the higher resolution and increase text size which perceptually makes it a lower resolution? That was my case anyway I can see a few instances where it would be nice.. a few.

 

It does not. For the same physical font size, the one at a higher resolution should appear "clearer".

Yeah, XP sucks at scaling.
I use linux, and fonts are gorgeous

I hear Vista is better at scaling fonts.

 

can someone make of you guys make a pic of the wuxga laptop. i'd like to see how small this resolution is. just a pic of the desktop or something else with a 1920x1200 resolution.
thanks

 

The picture attached is showing a 800 x 600 browser window in the native 1920 x 1200 resolution.

 

thank you. I'm still not sure if I should buy the t61p or the t61.

 

One more picture.

 

The resolution is amazing.... mine is wsxga+ (1680x1050) and i have to crank the dpi setting up a bit.

 

Hi all...my first post...

I own a T61P with all the cool stuff, including 15.4" WU screen...

I got the machine specifically to write code and do PCB design (which includes 3D modelling). So far it is great for both. I use Vista and have set it for max performance (so it looks old school) and I have done a few other things. Vista is not as fast as XP, especially when booting, but to be honest if you can live with that delay then everything else is fine if you do a few tweaks. I have had zero crashes with Vista using 'work' software, and everything I have needed to use has a driver available.

I would not want to use a 14" screen for coding, and the weight of the 15.4" is nothing, IMO. Comparing the Lenovo to a vaio R505EL with the docking station I own, the T61P is much lighter and I can do a lot more with it. I was using the 505 to code, do board design, and CAD. I also used a Dell laptop with a 14" screen. The 15.4" is much better for this app, IMO, and I take my laptop most places...it sleeps in the backpack beside (or on) the bed..that is how much I use the thing...that being said, I know many people who prefer the smaller screen version if they take their laptop everywhere. If you are not doing serious coding stand alone (as in, using this thing 24/7 without an external monitor), then I think the 14" will probably be just fine unless you plan to use the disassembly window and project manager while debugging. This is why I like the wide screen...I can have all three open at once without any of them encroaching on any other.

My T61P will be connected to an expansion port so that I can use dual 24" monitors while at my desk, so you can see that every inch of screen real estate I can get is worth the weight trade off for me...YMMV.

The backpack I use to store/transport the machine is not very large or cumbersome, but it is pretty well padded and comfortable. It is large enough for most college students to carry texts and so forth and still have a safe place to store/transport the lappy since the backpack is a Targus made for this application. I got the Lenovo version of the backpack because it looks nice. It is great as an overnight/weekend bag that I can take on a plane without checking, etc.

The text size is very small...maybe half the height of the text on the 505EL at the highest resolution. It is also extremely clear and the screen is bright enough to be seen under just about any lighting condition. I am not sure about the 14" screen, but if it is anything like the 15.4" screen then you will be delighted to use this machine for coding.

I am not sure which keyboard I have, so if anyone can help me in that respect then I would be grateful.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.
Kevin

 

So the taskbar is tiny?

 

I bumped the dpi to 150% in Vista Business x64, and for *most* stuff haven't had any problem in doing so. Some websites hate it (i.e. they don't scale), tho IE's zoom or FireFox's increase size is a suitable workaround.

It's not a perfect solution tho, but useable for me so far. It's a bit odd that the icons on the desktop seem to go back and forth between the bigger size and the default size. Not sure wassup wit dat yet.