business purchase: T61 vs T500

Advice appreciated:

We - small consulting firm - are about to replace T40s with new ThinkPads. We have a number of T61s currently in use. Usage is solely for business. We are looking into buying from Lenovo - either some T61s (speced nicely, refurbished, about $ 900-1,000, or new from another vendor for $ 1,200), or some T500s.

Cost is not the key driver. Rather:
- T61s mean we will all run on one model. Minor, but it helps
- We do not need the extra performance of the T500 per se
- Build and component quality matters a lot owing to extensive travel (the T40 has been stellar, the T61 has been a notch down). How does the T500 really stack quality-wise?

My impression is that Lenovo's cost cutting mode (see: Thinkvantage, etc.) could really impact component quality. In a nutshell, we'd rather take a solid refurbished T61 as opposed to a T500 with a hard drive failure 2 years down the road.

Thanks.

 

Make sure you differentiate between the S and p because they are two very different machines. With the p I was going to ask what peformance diffential other than memory?

 

with all the sales, new t500 are cheaper than comparable in specs refurbished t61 from what i've seen. and considering there will be probably a new intel platform in the fall, towards the end of the year t61 will become 2 generations old.

 

What s model are you talking about?

AFAIK there is not T61s or T500s.

 

i believe that is he using s to indicate plurality...

With the mag rollcage I would expect the t61 to one up on the t40, what problems have you been having with them quality wise?

 

I would probably get whichever is cheapest. For business purposes there is minimal differences between the 2. Yeah the t500 is newer tech, but I'm assuming you'll be using these for MS office, email and internet.

 

I believe the T500 are roughly equivalent to the T61 in terms of overall design and quality (it might as well be called T62).

Long term I would tend to recommend the T500. The switch to 45nm processors and switchable graphics (integrated and discrete) will cause the T500 to run cooler, get better battery life, and possibly cause less stress on components (less heat).

 

I agree that the substantial increase in battery life and cooler machines (though that's marginal) would be worthy nod to the T500.

 

The T500 does run quite a bit cooler than the T61, from what I've been hearing. Quality-and build-wise, it's pretty much identical to the T61. I would probably suggest the T500, as the price difference will not be very big, and the T500 has newer technology.

 

The only reason I would say t500 is that if your going to spend 900-1000 why spend it on old tech? For the same price you can get a well equipped t500.

 

thanks for the perspectives.

yes, there are good reasons to go with the t500. but as stated the benefit of an entirely identical fleet of laptops for a small company - especially considering the thinkvantage situation - cannot be underestimated.

and no, we do not need new generations/performance. ms office runs fine on 5+ year old platforms.

durability is the key concern. i have taken a t40 and a t61p entirely apart and the t40 simply was more solidly engineered. not that the t61 is bad.

but the t400/500 keyboard issue (now resolved I think) seems pretty indicative of an overall decline in component quality (sadly because I personally am on my seventh thinkpad).

 

Well for longevity's sake I don't think the keyboard issue is directly tied to your durability concern. Of course you might value the t61 keyboard. Can't you find a t500 and take a look at it? And then decide what to do for the company wide purchases? Perhaps seek a lenovo rep out if your company is large enough?

 

I would stick with the T61 so as to keep all your equipment the same. Great for component compatability for Cd-rom's, ultrabay adapters etc.

 

Actually, I believe the accessories tend to be identical between the 15.4" T61 and the T500.

I know they both use the same 20V AC Adapter (90w for dedicated models), share the same 6/9 cell battery, have compatible keyboards, and take the same 2.5" SATA hard drives. I also believe the UltraBay/CD-ROM is the same style (although there is a chance the T61 has the older IDE style port with a SATA bridge for the ultrabay HDD) and they share the same docking station.

So you shouldn't have any supply or sharing issues for the accessories. They certainly differ in motherboard and internal components, but it's unlikely you'd replace those in house anyway (you said a small business with <20 machines right?).

 

Yes, less than 20. The issue will go away if we do not pull the trigger soon since the selection of T61s will dwindle/die. We run CTOs and there are not a lot left. And for what it is worth the T40s are holding up ok and will last another 3-6 months.

 

How many actually experience keyboard problems on T500?

 

Is that really an answerable question for this thread?

 

Is that really a questionable answer for this thread?

 

I only raise the issue because when going from my T61p to my W500 I had to switch to a different ultrabay adapter for my hard drive and the CDRom/DVD drives are not interchangeable. I thought the T500/W500 would be the same in that regard which would make it less compatible. I know I rely on my ultrabay a lot for popping in a hard drive and doing a disk clone / upgrade etc.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

I think the ultrabay adapter is different between the 2 models. The other question, is could you swap HDD's between a T61 and T500 and still have it boot (without re-imaging the drive)? Not sure if it matters to the original poster, but something to think about.