Lenovo ThinkPad T61 7658 Notebook

Great reliability, tough, fast, workhorse, but on my third set of NEW hinges (they last about 3-6 months max before they start to become wobbly bad design, every one of these I've played with has the same crappy hinge problem).

I like being able to swap out the memory, hard drive, keyboard easily by yourself. Since Lenovo took these over from IBM, the quality has been going down, but this one is still nicely made (again, except the damn hinges!)

I reviewed the Lenovo 3000 N200 Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 Celeron M 540 / 1.86 GHz RAM 512 MB HDD 80 GB CD-RW / DVD GMA X3100 WLAN : 802.11b/g TPM fingerprint reader Vista Home Basic 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) Microsoft Office Ready when I bought it earlier this year after my HP died. I had always been a big fan of the IBM Thinkpads and hoped that the 3000 N200 would be an economical replacement. Proving that you get what you pay for, I was very disappointed. I have subsequently wiped the N200 clean of Vista, installed Windows XP and gave it to my son. It works MUCH better under XP -much faster.

I had always wanted to get the T61 because... well, I like thinkpads. I like the feel of the keyboard. Their displays are crisp and beautiful and the build is solid and durable. But at the time, my budget just wouldn't allow it. But after a few months, I was finally in a position to upgrade.

I was a little hesitant since all my experience with Thinkpads had been while they were still being made by IBM. After my disappointment with the 3000 N200, I was concerned that the poor quality was indicative of Lenovo rather than just the model. But I decided to give the T61 a shot because frankly, all of the other brands out there (...cough... HP.... cough) are known failures that I had to try.

I'm VERY happy to say that the T61 is NEARLY as good as the IBM Thinkpad counterparts. The look and feel are still nearly the same. The display is probably the most similar to the old IBM thinkpads. The speed and all the Lenovo support features are excellent making recovery in the case of catastrophic virus infestation etc a breeze.

What isn't QUITE the same (and the reason I knocked a star off my rating) are a few relatively minor quibbles compared to the old Thinkpads. The keyboard doesn't feel quite as solid as I would like. The touchpad is smaller than usual -even smaller than the 3000 N200 (the one feature of that model that I actually prefer). In addition, the edge of the touchpad is very "prominent" so it is annoying when your finger is constantly bumping up against it. The case isn't quite as pleasing from a "tactile" perspective -it feels more plasticy. And finally, the finger print reader is not as good as the 3000 N200.

However, I can tell that the build quality of this system is substantially better than the lower priced models. In addition, it doesn't have the annoying "shiney" display which the 3000 N200 has and it runs MUCH quieter and cooler than the 3000 N200.

All in all, this isn't IBM's thinkpad but it is far superior to any laptop on the market today in terms of quality and it is truly worth the money.

BTW, my T61 came preloaded with Vista. I have subsequently come to the conclusion that XP is truly a better OS in terms of speed and reliability. Unless you can afford the extra 300-500 for 3gb of memory, "downgrade" to XP. Otherwise, you might as well stick with a used T41.

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A word of warning to anyone looking to purchase a T61 thinkpad. Stay away from any Nvidia GPU's. These had major overheating problems. If you have one of the defective GPU's the computer will eventually start overheating and fry itself.

Stick with the Intel 945.

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Let me tell you a story. A great many years ago, I had an IBM T30. That thing was a tank. It got dropped, battered, and abused. At one point it even flew out of a bicycle toddler trailer and into the middle of a road with very minimal damage. After the life that thing lived in my care, I sold it to a friend, who abused it for 5 more years before the motherboard gave up.

After that machine, I was sold on Thinkpads, and I saved up to custom build a T61. I ordered mine direct from Lenovo and had it customized... 4GBs of RAM, nVidia graphics, Windows XP.. Later on, I put a 500GB hard drive in it and Windows 7.

Lenovo carried on IBM's legacy with the Thinkpads. The quality on this unit is fantastic.

The casing is solid and reliable, all of the components are incredibly reliable. I've never had an issue with my T61.

This thing has been taken all over, dropped, stepped on, and battered. And it's taken all of this abuse with just one little piece of plastic breaking off. The lid hinges are solid stainless steel, the top is solid magnesium, the bottom is thick rugged plastic. This is one well built laptop.

The nVidia NVS Quadro graphics used to be able to play most games with ease. The most modern of games tax it pretty heavily though. Considering it's a business laptop and not really a gaming one, this is pretty good.

All features work well on it, including the kinda gimmicy keyboard light, which actually is quite helpful in the dark. Parts are readilly availble for it as well, so it's an easy machine to fix.

Lenovo's support is second to none. After reinstalling Windows on this machine, the only thing you need to download is the Lenovo update utility and it will take care of the rest. Never seen another manufacture do that!

The only things I've really had issue with is the power supply, which failed on me after a couple of years, and the sound card, which, like most modern systems, is this little Realtek thing that sounds terrible.

But, those are my only real complaints. This poor laptop has been through a lot, and it's been a tough little beast.

I would recommend this product.

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The day that I got the T61, I was a little skeptical. It came with Windows Vista Business and it was very laggy and unresponsive, although the PC itself was in great condition. I took windows completely off and put Ubuntu 12.04, since all I do on this is surf the Internet and word processing. I also took the liberty of adding 2 more gigs of RAM. It literally takes about 5 seconds to boot up, I cannot tell you how fast this thing is now. 5 stars all around for a great product!