x301 for $1199.25 and T400s for $1161.75 from MS Store

Microsoft store has 30% off select premium and rarely discounted systems.
http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Computers-Laptops/category/410


Lenovo ThinkPad X301 Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz 13.3" Laptop for $1119.30

Specs
SU9400(1.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 13.3in 1440x900 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN upgradeable, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, Win7 Home Premium 64

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Intel Core 2 Duo P9400 2.4GHz 14.1" Laptop for $1084.30

Specs
SP9400(2.4GHz), 4GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN upgradeable, Bluetooth, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, Win7 Home Premium 64

There are also some great discounts on other notebooks and netbooks.

After going through three days of mental torture as mentioned in detail in my other thread this is the least I can do for my fellow thinkpadians for their support through my turmoil.

I came across these deals an hour back. I would not have gone through the ordeal if I knew about these deals earlier.I hope this information helps some prospective buyers of x301 or T400s.

 

Oh wow, great finds!
If I only had money to burn

 

That x301 list price is more than $1599.... fishy.

 

It usually has a SSD if I am not mistaken.

Great price nonetheless.

 

Is this a good price for the T400s? I was looking at the X200 or T400, but the T400s seems like the perfect combination. Does anyone know how hard it would be to add extra insurance from Lenovo after the purchase?

 

You can get the T400s cheaper. $999 here, although with slightly less RAM. It's from AmEx Daily Wish, but I don't think you have to pay with Amex.

http://shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrar...AEA4BB4495A04C098DBEA8EBB87059AC&affinity=adw

Have fun.

 

You might also be able to stack coupons on top of this. I haven't tried because I ended up buying a different laptop, but worth a shot.

Also note the option to add a 2 year depot & accidental damage protection for $58. Nice price for peace of mind.

 

Thanks for the link! I had completely missed that one, although I've been looking for deals on Lenovo laptops for the last week or so .

 

Sure thing. I had been looking at them for a while... nice machines, great reviews.

 

If you don't mind May I know the reason you believe the list price of $1599 is fishy? If you configure a base x301 at the lenovo website which starts at more than $1600 after discounts it comes with 64gb SSD standard but you would have to fork out about $225 for the Ultrathin DVD writer plus $130 approx for the 6 cell battery and the total price of the laptop would be way over 2000$.

The only thing you would be missing in this case is if you are hell bent on getting SSD, as this model comes with 120gb HDD. But you can easily replace this with SSD (64gb) of your choice for less than 200$ and still end up with a great laptop at a bargain price as compared to buying straight from Lenovo.

Microsoft Store are able to sell these x301's at a cheaper rate is because these are custom made for Microsoft and as they stock it in bulk they are able to get good discounts from Lenovo. Also they come with 120gb HDD as compared to 64gb SSD which is standard on the Lenovo Website.I believe these are brilliant prices for fully loaded x301 minus the SSD.

I recently won a Brand New Sealed x301 on ebay at a great price of $1234. The specs are 1.4Ghz processor, 2 gb ram, 128gb SSD, Win Vista Home Basic, 3 Cell Battery. I have a thread on my purchase. The couple of things I lost out on are the new win 7 operating system, 6 cell battery and 6 months of warranty and a lot of peace of mind till the package arrived.

 

I can't seem to get a straight answer from MS Store re X301. The first agent said it was definitely a solid state drive. Tried again later and different agent said he thought it was traditional spinning. Y'all seem to be sure it's the latter, but the MS Store website doesn't indicate.

Thoughts?

 

I'm pretty sure it's a traditional spinning hard drive. As far as I know, OCZ is the main (only?) maker of 120GB SSDs, most other drives are 128GB. Lenovo does not use OCZ SSDs, it only uses Samsung, Toshiba, and sometimes Intel.

And, for that price, if it included a 120GB SSD... that would be a total steal. Not that this price isn't veryyy attractive

 

Yeah, but for those of us who are looking desperately for a slim 13.3 incher WITH an optical drive, it doesn't leave a lot of choices. Unless you have some inspiration, Midnight...

 

Why do you need an internal optical drive? An external one works just fine for the very limited times you actually still use it these days, and you get the advantage of not having to carry around an optical drive when you're on the go. Personally, I would actually prefer if my T500 shed its optical drive for more ports or simply to lose thickness/weight.

And if you do: this X301 is still a great deal - you can always upgrade to an SSD aftermarket.

 

Does anyone know how much the bing cashback program would give for the X301?

 

Incidentally Microsoft Store is not a participant in Bing Cashback program. I know it sounds funny they are not promoting their own store but you can still reduce the price by 6.5% cashback through Fatwallet. The percentage I believe will reduce after today i.e 31st Dec 2009. So make your mind quickly.

 

The same thing happened with me during Black Friday sale. I enquired on the phone and the support team said that it came with 128gb SSD. When I sent an email to MS Store asking for details of the hard disk. This is the reply I got from them which is untrue.

Dear Vijay,

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Store Customer Care Team.

I understand that you are inquiring about the Lenovo X301 2777-MSU Laptop. I can certainly help you with that.

We at the Microsoft Store currently have no information on Black Friday's deals, and I encourage you to check back for this promotion. I apologize for the inconvenience there. With regards to your inquiry on the Lenovo X301 however, you are indeed correct - the laptop comes with a 128 GB Solid-State Drive, as well as a free HP Deskjet printer while supplies last, and free shipping. Click here to find out more. You can also get a second copy of Windows 7 for less than half price. Details on this offer can be found here.

All promotional offers are limited, and we do not have a set date on when the discount prices end.

If you have any further questions or wish to place an order you may do so online at www.microsoftstore.com or reach us by phone, Monday to Friday 8am to 1am EST and Saturday and Sunday between the hours of 12pm and 8pmEST at 1-877-MY-MSSTORE (1-877-696-7786).

Thank you for using the Microsoft Store,

Sincerely,
Omer S.
The Microsoft Store Customer Care Team

The support team of MS Store I believe are not well trained and/or not educated about the product. They even seem to not bother about it even after writing them an email.

The exact specs of the machine are as follows which I found out through Lenovo warranty lookup with the help of product number 2777-MSU and Yes I am 100% sure it comes with 120 gb HDD.

Product support

Product: ThinkPad X301 2777-MSU [change]

Operating system: All [change]

Original description: SU9400(1.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 13.3in 1440x900 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN upgradeable, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, Win7 Home Premium 64.

I hope eric this will help you in your decision making process.

 

Was the x301 EVER built with a spinning hard drive? I don't recall that it was, and I don't know why it would be now.

I'm about to take the plunge. I REALLY wish someone had bought this so that we'd have confirmation on the drive.

 

@terrapin: The x301 was NEVER built by Lenovo with a spinning drive, thus the confusion. This appears to be a unique set-up for MS. Would also appreciate confirmation from someone who bought this deal, but all signs point to this being HDD, not SSD.

@midnight: I need an optical drive because of how my work does business. All the best slims (Toshiba T-100, HP Envy) are without it at the 13" size. Those with the drive are tanks (closer to 5 lbs). X301 seems to be the only one, unless others have ideas...

 

On the Lenovo US website x301 could only be configured with either 64gb SSD or 128gb SSD. Lenovo x301 with a traditional spinning hard drive with either 120gb HDD or 250gb HDD are avaible from some major retailers/stores.

 

Based on this, and the assumption that customer service was clueless, I'll pass on this system. If someone does get it, please let us know what you find.

 

The MS Store perhaps monitoring our convo. The website now declares the drive is indeed 120 MB SATA HDD (i.e. not SSC). Alas...

 

Price Drop on the systems 1119.30$ for x301 and 1084.30$ for T400s.

 

Those are some really sweet prices! Too bad they don't ship to Canada...

 

Now with the MS Store coupon, it's down to $950. Quite a price drop.

 

What coupon?

 

MSStore-PC-40%

 

Dou you guys think it's a great deal? I was thinking about buying a 301 but I don't know if I should take advantage of this deal or look for a refurbished model with 1.6ghz processor and a solid state disk (even if this could be upgraded later)

 

It was good enough for me, I pulled the trigger a couple of days ago (still waiting on shipping confirmation).

Will be curious to see how adversely the hard drive affects overall system "speed", and battery life.

 

It is only 960 now on microsoft store. you can find the coupon from logicbuy.com

So I think the price of $1234 you paid is really not a good deal, because you can get an Intel X18-m 80G (everyone knows its the best ssd) for 189 from Newegg right now. And to be honest, 3-cell is really not enough.

 

I've tried both ssd version and HDD version, the main difference is the boot time, SSD takes about 30s, HDD around 1min. for battery life and speed, to me , they are similar with slight differences. The HDD gets a 5.0 under Win7, not bad.

 

who has received their x301 from the microsoft store? Can you confirm if it has bluetooth?