Will the T61 Have these features?

The major thing holding me back from getting a Thinkpad are these issues:

DVI-Port - Sure, the dock has a DVI port, but what's with the crazy resolution cap? Only IBM out of all notebooks can't provide a DVI output capable of running a 22" widescreen. I still won't buy it until it can do that.

IEEE 1394 - Is it going to have a firewire port? If your business is music production, it's a necessary..

Decent video card - Can we expect 512mb?

Anyone who knows these answers, would love to hear them. I've been waiting three months to hear word about the T61 and now that it's starting to pop up here I have to shout these questions out. Thanks.

 

DVI if Lenovo stays true to it being for business I think I don't think you will see DVI on the laptop itself, at least not only DVI. The could put on both DVI and VGA but the vast majority of projectors are VGA.

IEEE 1394, unknown it could happen same with a card reader, the build of the thinkpads makes them costly so they cut these kinds of corners instead, true its only 5 dollars a notebook probably but anyway, the people who need firewire are a tiny part of the mass business market I think. USB2 is far more common for most things except digital video stuff. If you want a 6 pin port I think you haven't a prayer.

define "decent" I don't see buffer = good. The only business users who need good graphics are like engineers and so forth as far as I know. Playing games on a laptop isn't something I want Lenovo to think about with the ThinkPad line. They have FireGL they will continue to update it I'm sure each time they design a new model.

 

The FireWire is something that you can see on the Z61 series. As for DVI I doubt it as there are no lines out right now from Lenovo that have DVI. Only the docking stations do. Other laptops such as ASUS makes 15.4" similar laptops with DVI.

 

FWIW, the R60 has a 4-pin firewire port.

I'm still a little surprised that Lenovo doesn't have DVI on their laptops; it's not like you can't connect to a VGA display with a DVI port, you just need a simple pass-through adapter (like what the MBP has).

I don't have a DVI monitor yet, so the lack of it doesn't really bother me. I also have a PCMCIA Firewire card for when I really have to attach one of my FW HDD's to my laptop.

 

I don't think people like to carry these, dell puts both physical ports on theirs for that kind of reason, I can't tell you the number of times people I know have said oh I forgot my dongle, when they need to use the projector.

 

That's true, I guess.

I just don't know where the DVI would fit in addition to the VGA port on my 14" T60; the 15" might be another matter.

 

I'm perfectly content with DVI coming from the dock as opposed to onboard the laptop itself. I have a 20" widescreen at home where the dock is; why would I need DVI on the laptop?

And FireWire on a business laptop? I can't think of too many audio engineers who are using ThinkPads---or even Windows, for that matter---and I do have a few friends in the industry.

 

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I'd figure DVI and firewire should be availible on a high quality laptop, business or not. They aren't exactly new techonology either. Not even the dock has firewire (Like they can't shove it in if you're spending $300+ on the damn thing?) I also read elsewhere the DVI on the dock is limited in it's resolution this resolution is below the specs of my 22" widescreen.

Lenovo might as well tell anyone with a widescreen monitor or any decent sound card to screw off. And that's really what's happening to me. Sad when I want to spend $2500+ on one badly but am waiting around to see if this will happen.