buy the t61p...or wait for refresh?

Hey guys, I've been following the t61p for ages and decided to buy one for college this summer.

The news about the refresh of the thinkpad line made me wait a bit, to see wut the replacement t61p (or better) would look like.

But the delay of the montevina platform makes it seem as if the notebook will come out later...too late in fact cause school will have started by then.

I really wanted to buy a refreshed thinkpad due to the inclusion of monetevina and led screens.



My question is, should I wait and hope it comes out before I have to go to school (August 22). Or should I just buy the current t61p?


other random questions
(1) How much does an average t61p weigh?

(2) If I wait for the new line, but then realize I dont like it, can I still order a t61p using a price quote from before the refresh came out?

 

It's worth it though.....it's a well tested and powerful platform.

 

worth it to buy now?

 

They are really affordable right now so yeah I think the T61P is a great deal. The video card is one of the best in the market at least for relatively thin/quiet laptops. The prices will definitely go back up when the new ones come out.

 

On the contrary, I believe that the older versions of the T61 line-up will decline instead of fluctuating when the newer versions are released. This is usually common in the economy. When new consumer products appear, the older generation products are ridden via sales and huge price drops to allow a bigger inventory space for the newer products.

 

Yeah but you have to wait another possible 3 months. And I meant the prices will go back up for the equivalent laptop series. Eventually you won't be able to buy a T61p because all there will be are expensive T500P's

 

I'd wait. My thinkpad T61p has had lots of small annoying problems. Like locking up when I move it around or when I try to put it to sleep. Bios update did make things better but I still sometimes have the problem. Plus no DVI and poor battery life with the nvidia graphics card.

If you wait you will get LED screen (power savings), new battery (smaller with same or better life), onboard graphics + descrete graphics that you can turn off (power savings), and I believe digital video out.

Price will also always go down. Sure prices for T500's will go up to normal price, but you will likely still be able to find T61's for sale for even less. T60's were still available long after the T61 came out. If you wait you'll just have more options.

 

Here is a strategy:
1) Buy a $500-$600 laptop, R61, Asus 9", or Dell mini inspiron. (tons of them will be out in June)
2) Wait until Christmas, then deicide whether you want to upgrade to the new thinkpad or not. It should be cheap enough by then.

 

first of all thanks for the replies guys.

well, based on everyones opinons, I think i'll wait a little bit more for some more concrete news to surface...if it ever does. Does anyone have a tentative relases date for the new thinkpad lines?

I may do hyperq's suggestion and give my cheap laptop to my sister or something. Thanks guys

 

food for thought -

the t61/p had many issues when it came out. BSODs, issues with locking up, blahblah. these were fixed many months after it came out. in fact, if i remember correctly, the bsod/motherboard problem was only officially announced this or last month - and it was a problem with these laptops ever since they came out.

my only complaints with my t61p are that the hinge has a bit of play, though its extremely stiff when it's at resistance, and the screen isn't as good as a macbook pro (and i don't think anyone will match it).

waiting on the next lineup would be a great idea if you knew for sure that the next ones would be great from the beginning.

 

what are the t400 and t500 i've been hearing lately?
do they look the exact same as t61 except with ati cards and montevina chip?

 

Nobody knows if they look different or not.

 

DisplayPort, X4500, GPS, WiMax. Google "montevina wiki"

 

DisplayPort and WiMax are merely offered as part of the Montevina platform. It's up to the manufacturer whether they wish to include it or not.

I would hope they will be included, though.