I just bought a T61 and I’m wondering if anyone is noticing some of the issues I am. I bought a T42 in the summer of 2003. It was a great computer, super thin, rugged, and reliable. Unfortunately, the gpu started going bad a few months ago, and it was integrated. Rather than spend $500 to replace the whole motherboard, I opted to buy a T61. I was concerned that the switchover from IBM to Lenovo would mean a drop in quality but the reviewers at Cnet assured me otherwise. Mostly they were correct, it is a good machine, but not without a few glaring problems:
It’s thicker, and noticeably so. I really liked the old svelte form factor. The 61 feel likes the 42’s chubby cousin.
I made the mistake of getting the WXGA+ (1440x900) model which is too high a resolution for a 14” screen. Everything is tiny! I hate having to lower the resolution from the native on an LCD because it makes everything blurry but I may have to do that. I tried increasing the font size with my web browser and OS, but the results are petty inconsistent. Frankly, I’m wondering why Lenovo even sells a notebook with a screen like this.
The keyboard light is not as effective as on the 42. Still does the trick in a pinch, but I find myself straining to see a bit more.
Vista. I rolled the dice and went with the newer and fancier and I’m paying the price. I’ve already had to make tweaks to get it to play nice with older webpages, but it still browses very slowly. Plus if you have Vista with your own antivirus suite, and Lenovo’s thinkvantage software there is a ton of overlap. I have three different programs asking me whether I want to allow this or that. I’m trying to turn a lot of this stuff off but that’s easier said than done. Hopefully SP1 will make a difference, but I doubt Vista will really mature for a year or two more.
It’s not faster. A lot of that is probably due to Vista, but I went from a 1.4ghz Pentium M with 768mb of DDR and and integrated gpu to a 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo, 2gb DD2, and a discrete video card with 128mb of ram, plus intel’s new turbo cache thing and it feels slower if anything.
There’s a strange high pitched noise that sometimes happens in sync with movements of the mouse. The computer will be quiet and then I’ll move the mouse and it will sound like the hard drive is whirring really fast. I don’t know if this is unique to my machine and for whatever reason it seems to be happening less frequently.
I’ve got a T61 as my work computer (and I’m using it right now).
I haven’t had any of the issues that you’ve been having and I can’t speak to the comparisions to the older version since this is my first laptop. And I’m running XP to boot.
The only problem that I’ve been having is that I’ll get a BSOD upon startup once every couple of weeks but I’m choosing to blame the company software for that.
I’ve got a Lenovo T61 for my work computer, but am running under XP. I’ve noticed the same thing about the screen resolution (everything is tiny!), and screwed around with font settings in the OS, which helps a little.
I like the build of the computer, and it’s been very stable. The only two issues I have with it are:
Sometimes, if the power cable comes unplugged the system crashes if I load a work-intensive (flash, etc) website. I actually seem to have solved that problem by turning off the low-power (longer battery life, poorer performance) setting.
Even though I’ve turned off the clickability of the touch pad, it still seems to want to select things occasionally. Minor PITA.
My new laptop (Lenovo X61 Tablet) has an even smaller 12" WXGA+ screen and I absolutely love it. I can display a huge amount of information. Everything looks crisp, not pixelated. Granted, I did have to increase the font size on some applications and some web pages, but that’s pretty simple to do. Maybe you just need learn to see the screen more closely, or sit closer to it?
I too got Vista and regret it, mostly because of its overly aggressive security features and the lack of any new features I use. But I don’t find it particularly slow. Although I use the “classic” theme instead of Aero, and have all the “visual effects” turned off (Control Panel -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced -> Performance -> Visual Effects -> “Adjust for best performance”).
What I’m really disappointed in is the quality of drivers and utilities from Lenovo. My X61 has a fingerprint scanner but the fingerprint login never seems to work right. The hard drive security (encryption) feature somehow caused me to lose all my data, and Active Protection (stops hard drive when physical shock is detected) caused frequent crashes. Fortunately it’s quite easy to format the hard drive and do a clean reinstall of the OS without these utilities. No need to even get the CD, just press the ThinkVantage button during bootup and it goes into a system recovery utility, which lets you format the primary partition, reinstall Windows and choose which utilities to install (if any). With all those removed, the system is pretty stable.
Other thoughts:
[ul]
[li]The keyboard is awesome. A true ThinkPad.[/li][li]It feels like a true ThinkPad too, very solid and well built.[/li][li]Mine is a tablet PC, and I’m completely sold on this concept. It was especially handy when we were working on some big documents at work, and I could hold my tablet PC like a book to read and annotate a PDF file document. Also great for sitting on the couch and surfing the web. The only problem is, 4 lb is still kind of heavy to hold and read like a hardcover book. [/li][/ul]
On a T61 right now. I use a docking station and full 19" monitor at work with it, along with full separate keyboard. and mouse. It is just the brains right now, as I am not using its keyboard or monitor.
When at home or traveling, it works perfectly with XP.
My only complaint is the wireless connection ‘meter’. I could be sitting next to the fastest, purest, bestest wireless connection known to man, and the meter will float between ‘no signal’ or ‘very low’. I could be surfing the net wirelessly at blazing speeds and it will still say ‘no signal’ and MAYBE report ‘low signal’. Even with my old T21 saying ‘signal stength high’ the new Lenovo could read ‘no signal’. I’ll bet 80% of my wireless surfing is spent with the meter on ‘no signal’.
I think the IBM/Lenovos are the ugliest and least sophisticated looking laptops around. I wish they looked better.
I dunno - I like my tools to look like tools, not fashion statements. I also like that I could probably bludgeon a Macbook to death with mine.
To the OP: If you want small and light with a reasonable docking station, an X61 from Newegg and excercise your downgrade rights to XP from Vista. Vista’s a pig in the best of circumstances, and apparently the Thinkpad utilities don’t play well with it.
FWIW, I’m running Ubuntu on mine with XP in a virtual machine, and both of them are positively snappy, even on the Intel graphics.
The non-tablet X61 models are 1024x768-only. For some folks, this is a problem, but for you, it may be a plus. Personally, it doesn’t bother me - I leave it docked most of the time when I’m at home, where I’ve got a real keyboard and monitor.
ETA: Don’t ever buy anthing directly from Lenovo. In the finest IBM tradition, you’ll usually save at least 20% by going through a reseller.
increase DPI settings in windows. (It’s right in the Personalization control panel, on the left.) 120 dpi should work fine, but you might have problems if you go higher.
zoom in your web browser. I’m not sure how good IE is at remembering this, but in Opera it works very well. (In Opera, Tools>Preferences>Web Pages).
You’ll find that using bigger fonts on a high-resolution display will make the text look much crisper and more readable. Your high-res screen was not a poor choice!
P.S. Keep in mind trying to read tiny letters will likely excercise your eyes and give you better vision (or at least slow down its regression). It’s also nice to have the extra screen real-estate.
They sell them for people like me who can’t get enough dpi. I have a screen which is 20% larger than yours but has 70% more pixels and I still can’t get enough. I run it on the default zoom which means my font looks like mouseprint
A lot of people, like myself, use notebooks paired with separate 19-24 inch flat-screen monitors as desktop replacements when not on the road. High onboard resolution means the big auxiliary screen looks great if used.