[ltp] t61p vs t41p

[Chris Schumann]

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008, Jim Rockford wrote:
> I'm in the market for a new Laptop and would love to get a T61p, but I'd
> like to be instilled with some confidence that the Thinkpad T series
> hasn't gone down the tubes now that Lenovo is making them.  Any opinions
> from those who know the T series well.  Among my questions are:

I have a T60, so all my opinions are based on that. I have owned a 750P, 
600X, T41p, T42, 600E and a few more.

> (1) Is the T61p keyboard the same (in terms of the feel of the button
> presses, the tracker button, etc)?  Worse or better?

My T60 keyboard is good. Not 600X good and certainly not 750P good, but 
it's good.

> (2) Is the T61p as sturdy as the T41p (i.e. equally immune to typical laptop
> abuse)?

The T60 is MUCH more sturdy than the T4x models I've had. I hear the T61 
is about the same.

> (3) Does the fingerprint reader work reliably?
This depends on the individual a lot. You train it to recognize your 
finger, and it trains you how to present your finger.

> (4) Is Lenovo customer service of reasonably high quality?
It's still high. It's not as high as it was under IBM. IBM still does the 
warranty service, but they have new pressure to keep costs down.

> (5) No new complications running linux (i.e. wireless issues) with the
> T61p?  (I will run Fedora)
The WiFi LED started blinking recently after a driver update. ATI's driver 
is now very stable. Since you're looking at the T61p, nvidia will be they 
key. You might consider the T61 that ships with Linux, as it's on sale 
right now. It uses Intel graphics, which should have very good Linux 
support.

> (6) (maybe most important) Does the T61p run as *quiet* as the T41p?
My T60 is extremely quiet.

Check out forum.thinkpads.com and search there. There are a lot of 
stories, but most people are still fans of the ThinkPad brand. Lenovo also 
sells Lenovo-branded laptops, but I don't pay much attention to how those 
are perceived.

Chris