I’m pretty sure when Lenovo bought the Thinkpad line from IBM, they only were allowed a certain amount of time to continue using the “IBM Thinkpad” name on it; after a few years, they had to switch to the Lenovo brand name. They didn’t strangely decide to drop the IBM branding, they had to.
I ordered a ThinkPad X61t 18 months or so ago. The ordering process was one of the worst I’ve ever had, with lots of miscommunication, delays, mistaken cancellations, &c. They were absolutely terrible to deal with, and I’d never do so again.
But I really love the computer, so if you can get a Lenovo from someone who isn’t Lenovo (I think various resellers sell them), you’re good. Although then again, their warranty service is probably awful too; I’ve never had to deal with it.
I’d do it again, in retrospect, because it was the only way to get a high-resolution (1440x1050) tablet at the time; but since they don’t even offer it any more, I’d probably just get a Dell now.
I forgot about the high resolution bit, it was the other reason I was locked in to the X61t.
On the one hand, I’m really frustrated that now nobody makes a high-res tablet, and we’ve regressed back to resolutions I used to run my 17" CRT at. On the other hand, my eyes have now aged to the point where maybe 1440x1050 on a 12" screen is a bit too much anyway. So it works out in the end.
We’ve started having massive problems with some of the new ones they’ve released (mostly video related). Anything that can actually cause Vista to BSOD is not a good thing and this is with having them completely rebuilt with the recovery disks etc. They’re on their way back…
Yeah, their North American support is god-awful from having to deal with them when the national ISP I worked for paired with them in giving away Lenovo desktop PCs.
Their “RAM upgrades” to their PCs came uninstalled even when ordered at the same time with bad instructions for the end user to install it. Needless to say, it did not end well.
I finally got the tablet. All is forgiven. The Vista handwriting recognition has a nice interface - much friendlier than say Dragon voice recognition interface.
AH found it. Convert to handwriting tool. This thing is so awesome I am very tempted to get one of those affordable x61t’s or the HP tablet for myself (this lenovo is unfortunately not mine.)
My one real complaint about the x61t is the right palm rest gets far too hot. If you don’t need wifi or can leave it disabled most of the time then it pretty much stays at room temperature, but that certainly doesn’t apply to me.
Well, this is a PSA for those who may consider Lenovo. On their web site:
they say “ships in 5-7 days”.
You’d think that meant that I’d have it pretty quick right?
And when I contacted them, here is what they said that it does ship within 5-7 days once it’s made with no promise on how long it takes to make it!!
Man I am pissed.
Lenovo sucks.
Their consumer laptops are ok, but the Thinkpad T and X series are still very durable and mostly upgradeable machines with the best keyboards around.
Their customer service can suck at times, though.
I have a Thinkpad W540. The touch pad is the worst I’ve used in my life. In the past I got so frustrated with it and punched it so hard I broke the logic board behind it. Lenovo’s solution was to… mail me a box. This is my work laptop. Blew my fucking mind. I’ve always had onsite repairs with Dell laptops.
I didn’t tell them I broke it, of course.
I’ve been hearing good things about their gaming laptops lately, though they’re a bit pricey (As normal for gaming laptops)
Long time Lenovo user and corporate IT just bumped me from a T460s to a T490s. Quick review.
Really not a great laptop. First impression is ok because the screen is nice and bright and the keyboard remains good.
The audio is the worst I’ve seen since a 2004 Dell 15-inch $699 college-student special edition. My Pixel 2 phone has much better audio. It has two tiny down-pointing speakers behind a metal grill, under the middle of the keyboard.
It has two USB type A ports (down from 4-5). It also lost both ethernet and displayport. It has two USB type C ports, one of which is used by power.
Battery life is down and it runs unbelievably hot. It has an i5-8365u.
But it has a 4.7 rating on their website!
Doesn’t the T460s have the same type of speaker? Sound was never a high point of any Thinkpad (or any business laptop?). I have the T460s and T480s and I blew the speakers on the T460s (had the volume on high for one application and forgot to turn it back down for another) and had to replace them.
I think the newer X1 Carbons now have 4 speakers plus a woofer, but all the last few models had this same type of 1 watt speaker under the machine. They’re passable for watching the occasional Netflix show but music is out of the question. I have an older T430 with speakers on the sides of the keyboard and those sound pretty bad as well.
Headphones (or powered speakers) all the way.
How much battery life are you getting?
I use a T480s and I’ve had some definite quirkiness with this thing. I never use the sound though. Headphones are plugged into the docking station.
Sorry I wasn’t notified of your reply. I guess I’m not sure I paid much attention to the audio of the T460s because it was fine. Good enough at least for an audio call using MS Teams, while at home or in a meeting room without a headset. The T490s, audio becomes broken and ‘blown’ at about half-volume. Even the email notification sound is horrible.
Maybe my speakers or one of them is actually broken or blown out from the factory, but before I posted it, I did check a review which also said the audio is really poor, so it seems like it’s a true issue.
Battery life I went through the advanced settings and set them all for maximum life when on battery. I put maximum processor state on battery to 90%. It also goes into ‘battery saver’ mode when life drops to 95%. Doing all this, I seem to have doubled life from about 4-5 hours (under 2 hrs under moderate use), to a claimed 10 in the system tray, call it 7-8 real. But I’m also looking at a dimmer display.
Still annoyed by loss of ports. Two USB A not quite enough.