Why didn't I get a ThinkPad sooner?!

I have my own business. I work at a big office supply store. I'm constantly receiving coupons for HP and Dell which I almost never use (except on a couple printers and flash drives). I tell people all the time who need something durable after hearing their needs ThinkPad or Latitude. (rarely toughbook, though some construction guy's stories and computers )

I'm going back to school again for a completely unrelated field and I needed a new computer to take to different job sites. x201 was the final decision after returning a god awful mistake of an Alienware m11x.

x201 is PERFECT. Seriously there is nothing more then I need nor want. That includes my model without a webcam as I can't have a webcam in the school I'm attending. It's solid, looks great, quick, professional, and I like the thinklight. I have a backlit logitech keyboard for at home and gaming at a friends place. Not something I need while working.


The fingerprint reader is truly a HUGE time saver for me now! There are so many sites I never want to save passwords to and now here it is. This is great.

 

Welcome to the "ThinkPad Fan Club". I had to go through just about every other brand before I got here. Wish I'd known sooner about these amazing laptops.

 

I wants me an X201!

 

Are the fingerprint readers pretty good these days? I opted not to get one on my X201 after seeing how often I need multiple swipes on my T60, but am starting to regret the decision after seeing that without the fingerprint reader there is no Thinkvantage Password Manager. It looks like an easy enough retrofit, so if the thing works 95% or better I think I'm going to add it.

Also, does the fingerprint reader necessarily power on the laptop, or can that be disabled?

 

My fingerprint reader has been great. Sometimes I have to swipe a couple times, but not a big deal by any means. I would go for one in a heart beat.

 

I use my thumb to sign in with, and sometimes it takes more than 3 attempts.

Which finger(s) would be best, if anyone has tested this?

 

I wish I had the money for an X201 for more on-the-go purposes, but I do love my T500. I have no regrets with not opting for the fingerprint reader, though, and I still wouldn't if given the option. To me, it's an unnecessary gimmick that's no more secure or convenient than typing a password.

 

Agrees with MidnightSun ^^^^

 

Just curious on why you didn't like the m11x? x201 looks nice, but I'll have to settle with my T400.

 

Really poor build quality. For school or just on the go it may get people by, but it wouldn't last long for me. Also fans were to loud and out didn't turn off the dedicated video cars all the time

 

The M11x makes no sense to me. Why put an ultra-low voltage CPU in a gaming laptop? To save battery? The Nvidia GT335M is gonna tear up the battery anyway. Low-voltage processors are usually pretty weak (case in point, the Atom). I'd need at least a 14" screen for gaming anyway.

I saw an M11x at Best Buy. Most of their laptops are awful, cheap, consumer junk. Many are built just for them and don't have the specs you see on the manufacturer's page.

 

You can't have a webcam at your school? Seriously?

 

This is common in schools that deal in things of a....patentable...nature. I'm guessing he's in some sort of engineering field.
Well, I don't know if it's common, but I've heard of it before.

 

Nah, I think he's a "spook" in training... to work for the NSA. He'll be monitoring your cell phone calls and emails soon. Careful what you say.

 

Weird. I'm at an engineering and science school too. Not a word about webcams or cellphone cams at all.

 

This is what happens when I listen to what people in fields I know nothing about tell me. I believe them when they say it's a frequent occurrence.

 

marlin: That's probably true about certain types of engineering. Especially fields that are heavy on the government contracts.... like nuclear engineering and satellite communications. Also, he may be in the military. I had to pass a rigorous background check before being trained in communications when i was in the Navy.

 

Webcam... American Pie...

Regarding school and webcam (some webcam can be flipped to the front)... it really depends on which schools. Some students have recorded lecture in which the Professor was swearing, making racist/sexist jokes, etc, and the department/uni got sued. It also has to do with copyright issues, etc.

 

Hehe. I'd think the tape recorders would be a bigger issue, but then again they probably banned those too.

 

in many uni they did ban notetakers for some years. But that is not really an issue nowadays, since many of the lectures are automatically recorded and posted on Uni internal website.

 

Professors caught putting their foots in their moufs... kind of funny

 

Video is becoming ubiquitous. There is a proposal before the city council here to put little video cameras on the shoulders of police officers to record all interactions with citizens. They already have them mounted on the dashboards of their cruisers.

George Orwell would be pleased (or maybe horrified, I don't know).

 

But on a serious note, lot of corporations ban laptops and phones (or completely ban the use of them) with cameras in some of their work-sites, factories and offices. Industrial espionage is a big business nowadays, these occur more frequently than stealing state secrets.

Although some research facilities for university are tightly guarded to prevent theft of research informations and the likes.

Most of the recent thinkpads that i have got doesn't come with cameras configured.

 

True. Some of the places I visit during the course of my work take my laptop and phone away at the front desk too. And, when I have to make presentations etc., they ask me to put it on a USB stick, which they take from me, scan it (I am guessing - what else can they do?), pull up the presentation or whatever document is required on their own machines and then I do my thing. The strange thing is they always ask me to bring my laptop with me, which they never allow me to use! And, I don't like using their machines - horrible Dell units (most of the time) they have.

 

I wouldn't hand my personal laptop over to anyone without a "chain of custody" receipt. They damage it, they will pay for it.

 

Ok so back to talking about Thinkpads so this means that webcams will never be standard on most Thinkpads, correct? Many companies will want to have a no camera option and that will probably be a dealbreaker if there is a camera (or no option to get rid of it). I suppose that's why you won't see any Mac laptops in many companies outside of marketing departments

 

Yes it would never become a standard, unless Thinkpads become Ideapads. My friend's work gives them special blackberry and nokia phones with a permanently disabled camera (physically removed).

 

Yeah, they always seem to do that...hand out receipts. My only peeve with all this is if they are going to take away the damn thing, why do they ask me to bring it in the first place.

And, more to the point, I would like to have my dark and sleek looking ThinkPad sitting in front of me and make a silent statement! Even that pleasure is sometimes denied!

 

Maybe your laptop is a collateral against something.

 

No...not really. Happens to everyone who visits these offices (and others offices like it).

 

I'm actually going to school for Massage Therapy. Because of the lack of clothing and nature of some discussions there are no webcams that we can have. Cell phones that have cameras need to be turned off and kept in bags as well I won't be able to have a webcam at the spa I might be working at either as some people choose to not wear clothes. I have lots of cams if I need one.

I am loving this laptop though. I bet it will last longer than my others as well.

 

I got in the fan club with the T60p series. Never going back.

 

Whoa that is totally unexpected, do you want to start your own business in this field? Given this explanation, i guess it makes sense not having video or audio recording devices.

 

And here I was thinking you were training to become a CIA spy or top secret govt scientist

 

Probably still is. Massage therapy is just a cover

Interesting point about the webcam ban as that could make things difficult for many students. It's almost impossible to buy a computer WITHOUT a webcam in a big box store (pretty much only business lines offer it as an option, and they aren't sold locally).

 

I actually haven't decided yet. Id like to work with rehabilitation or sport injuries, but I might have a job offer already at a spa that would be great money in a resort. I have a friend who works there.

Since my daily class materials are sheets, blankets, pillow cases, oil no cameras allowed

 

My experience tells me that this scenario is quite common in India. Especially when visiting government offices. Last time I visited a high ranking official at a government organisation in Delhi, I was asked to do the same as well.

Somehow I was glad, as you wouldn't have believed how dusty and dirty the office landscape was

 

okay bit of a side note, for those of you whom are needing laptops with NO webcam, most businesses and govt agencies ( here in the great white north atleast ) will be fine if you can prove the webcam has been REMOVED physically.

I supply a great number of laptops to the public and private sector and we pull the screen bezels off, unscrew the camera assembly and board, but leave the cable there. put a silver RFID sticker on the back of the hole for the bezel and put the camera assembly in a static bag so the customer can install it at a later date if/when they need the camera or sell it off.

look into your local school or business departments rules on webcam removal and disabling.

 

My experience mirrors yours - but only sometimes. At other times, I visit offices that are really swanky. But the security for one reason or another is quite tight especially when the offices in question are government/ ministry-related offices. Same is the case in IT-related workplaces. Kind of silly I think - the weakest link is always 'the human' and social engineering always seems to work best.

But I do miss using my ThinkPad - especially during presentations and when I want to take notes during a meeting. I have become familiar with the layout and the quirks of my machine that I find it difficult to use someone else's machine. Generally, I resort to using pen/ pencil and paper. Now, imagine that - I have a powerful laptop sitting in a security closet somewhere and I am using a paper and a pencil!

But to get back to the topic, when I think about it, I have no idea why there was a such a long hiatus between my use of ThinkPads. I still have my old one, which I will dig out one of these days and will post the specs here and ask the opinion of you guys if it is worth getting it back to working order - AFAIK, aside from the battery and the cmos battery, there should be nothing wrong with it. But it is old (say around 1996-2000). So may not be worth it. Since then I have gone through a Compaq (broke the damn thing), a Toshiba (works ok, but the hinges don't hold up) Sony Viao (died on me 1 day after the warranty expired; I still don't know what's wrong with it though I still have it); a low-end Dell, which I gave away; and most recently an Acer Aspire (voltage fluctuations got to it - I sent it in for repairs and will be getting it back this week sometime). But now I have this ThinkPad too, which I love! It's almost like a 'coming home' experience (though I did have problems as I documented elsewhere here on NBR).

Recently, I got IBM Service to come to my place (against the onsite warranty) and fix the creaks, which they did. It was a case of reseating the palm rest and keyboard and some adjustment of the card slot. Interestingly, while fixing the creaks, the service guy noted a flex on the keyboard (near the W, Q, A, S keys) and showed me why it (the flex) happens - he had taken off the keyboard and palm rest.

In the R400 in that area there is a flimsy metal frame that is attached on one side (about the middle of the keyboard) while on the edge (near the keys I mentioned above), it is free floating. The keyboard has nothing solid to rest on, which accounts for the flex. I also noted that the keyboard I have is the heavily perforated one. This IBM guy was shaking his head in disapproval and on his own volition wrote out a request for a keyboard replacement D ) which he said he would come and fix (under warranty; which means I don't pay anything) next week sometime as soon as the keyboard (with the solid backplate - yes! he knew all about it including the appropriate FRU number) ships in (apparently from Singapore! or so he said!)

Yes, I am still asking myself - Why didn't I get a ThinkPad sooner? (Maybe because I am an idiot?)

 

The perforated keyboard is okay, if there is sufficient support. But my friend managed to warp his perforated keyboard after one year on his T500, due to the fact that he use the laptop keyboard like a type writer.

 

From what I saw, there isn't, which causes the flex. I found that quite strange because there was nothing to prevent a support be included, which probably would have solved the problem of the flex, the need to save weight by using the perforated keyboard (assuming that saving weight was the reason for the design change) etc.

But who knows why and for what reason these things are done.

 

the support was added to the T400 laptops as per numerous complaints by users. I am not sure whether it was added for the R400. My R400 came with the solid plate keyboard.

The perforated keyboards on the T500, R500, W500 is okay, as they have more chassis support for the keyboard than the T400 or R400.

 

As of now, my R400 has a solid plate keyboard too! The IBM guy just came and fixed it!

Edit: If you remember, I had ordered for a replacement keyboard. I now got a note from them that I will no longer have to pay for the keyboard and that they will refund the money to me! It's all very odd actually...good, but neverthless, odd.

The new keyboard is slick. Typing is silent. It is VERY firm! No hollow noise of any sort and no flex either. The other thing is about that word "slick" that I used. What mean is that the effort required in typing is minimal. It is almost "liquidly" smooth. Of the three keyboards that I have used thus far, this one seems to be the easiest to use - especially while touch-typing!