Anyone taken a spin on the Lenovo 3000 V100?

Hey folks,

I'm considering purchasing the Lenovo 3000 V100 model through visaperks.ca with the DVD burner = model v100 27G with the duo core processor for 1,199. How does the Lenovo brand compare with the thinkpads, such as the x60 (which some on this website have told me to take a look at). Are there differences at all in quality etc in comparison to the actual thinkpads everyone seems to be quite pleased about? I also read further along in this particular section that the Lenovo company takes a painfully long time to get their notebooks etc out to the customer. Is this still the case, and if it is, how long can you expect to wait? My decision is between one of these laptops, or something from HP (DV2020) or a Toshiba (such as the U200).

Thanks a lot!

 

It is not as good as the x60. Lenovos are more consumer oriented notebooks. We have a review of the v100 on this site in the review section if you want to have a look. Perhaps the Asus W7j is worth consideration if you want something with a bit higher level of quality. I like the dv2000 or its Compaq twin the v3000, but again it is not a ThinkPad. They are much less expensive so it's a trade-off. I saw the u200. It was OK. Keyboard was a bit spongy.

Some CTO models can take a bit to arrive. They do offer preconfigured models which will ship faster.

 

If there is an Office Depot near you, see if you can go take a look at one.

I put my hands on one a couple of weeks ago. I do not recall if it was a V100 or C100, but I did not spend more than 30 seconds looking at it - only enough to be dissuaded by the keyboard, screen flex (was even able to flex the main body a bit!), and flimsy feel to the overall build. Just seemed a bit "toy-like" compared to everything else they had on the shelf (toshiba, acer, averatec, hp).

Edit - I just looked at some reviews here for the various 3000 series models.. and feel that I should add that I really do not understand the relatively high reviews for this series, but I am pretty hard over when it comes to reviewing electronics. I do not have much of a gray area . I agree with ZaZ in that "I like the dv2000 or its Compaq twin the v3000, but again it is not a ThinkPad."

 

thanks for the responses.

I'm gonna check out some of the comp sites right now for prices and I'll post back with my decisions so far.

The reason I was even considering Lenovo was because of the rather promising reviews I had encountered. I read every review I could get my hands on, including the one from this site, and cnet etc, and just general responses about the independent Lenovo series. They all seemed to say the lenovo 3000 v100 was pretty chill. But, I think I'll agree with both ZaZ and Mark7 that thinkpad quality will probably be much better, and same for HP.

****, if only I had a bit more money I wouldn't be in this dilemna.

I'll be looking up the Asus and the other thinkpad recommendations right now.

 

Wait, even if you mean $1199 CDN, you can almost get a T60 for that price in the US! (Probably not with a burner, though.)

And you know, the T60 only weighs about a half pound more than that thing if they both have 6-cell batteries.

Unless T60 prices up there are much higher, save up for the real deal, I say!

Chris

 

Its funny to see all the opinions coming from people who didn't even touch V100. Now I offer my 2 cents as a real V100 user.

I've used V100 for about a month. I also have 2 X60s in office and I've spent quite some time on them. Both are very good notebooks for work or study but none will do high-demanding games. I don't play games at all, so this is not a problem for me. The reason I choose V100 instead of X60 as my main laptop is because of the following points:

1. The built-in DVD burner, which is much more convenient than external unit.
2. The built-in camera, which is very high quality and great for video call.
3. The wide screen, which is a lot better than the narrow screen for programs I run most, such as VS2005, Dreamweaver, etc.
4. The V100 is faster on all the programs I used.

The V100 build quality is very good. The keyboard is very close to X60 (I actually type faster on V100). The mouse panel is not good but I use a Logitech bluetooth mouse most of time. The battery last about 4 hours for my usage, much lower than X60's 7 hours, but good enough for me. Although it's 1 pound more heavier than X60, the V100 is still very light and especially easy to carry if you have a big hand.

During my usage, I encountered 2 problems but I solved both. The 1st is a XP problem which happens when trying to hibernate a laptop with more than 1GB RAM ( I have 2GB). Microsoft has a hotfix to solve it. The 2nd is the bluetooth functions intermittently with my Logitech mouse. A newer version of driver solved it (I had to get the driver from another source because IBM's version cannot solve the problem).

Overall I rate V100 quite high and plan to use it for 2 to 3 years. I normally use a model for about a year before changing to another one. But this V100 makes me very satisfied so I'd like to hold it a bitter longer.

This is my first Lenovo computer so I don't know whether my unit is a typical case. So I suggest you to go to a store to use it for a while and compare it to other models and make your own decision.

 

The v100 I used had pretty decent build quality, just not as good as the x60 nor the W7j in my opinion. The v100 certainly has attributtes that would make a better choice for some than the x60.

 

When I reviewed the V100 there was a major problem with the mouse buttons, they were stiff to the point of unusable, but that was a pre-production model and since then I have used a V100 and the mouse buttons were just great.

The thing that makes me prefer the X60 is the pointing stick -- I have to have that. The build of the X60 is better and I do like the boxy feel of the X60 over the curves of the V100, but that's personal preference. The optical drive on the V100 is a big selling point, but with an ultraportable I'm willing to sacrifice functionality for a bit of weight, again that's a personal preference.

Yeah, the integrated web cam on the V100 was very high quality, I only wish it rotated up and down some.

 

The mouse buttons on the V100 are OK, but the panel is a bit small for my hand. Though not specified anywhere, the right edge and bottom edge of the panel can actually scroll page vertically and horizontally. I like this feature but the scrolling doesn't move as smoothly as I like.

I know many people are used to the pointing stick, but I'm not. I have to carry a mouse everytime I carry a ThinkPad. Otherwise I'll become very slow to operate the system.

 

wow

You guys are awesome...thanks for posting more info.

I have been checking out the x60/T42/T43 and the particular thinkpads Zaz recommended along with the Asus W7J and Z62J. Unfortunately their prices are creeping out beyond my budget limit at this time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for the price for the ASUS' with similar features to the V100 etc are around $1500, and that goes for the thinkpads as well. However, if I can find any out there for a similar price (even close to $1300) then I'll seriously consider forking over the extra cash. Of course, this is from the research I've been doing, and I may not know about particular sites/places to go to find the best deals. I have been looking on the sites that Zaz and others have recommended (ie. NCIX etc). But everyone is right in their claims regarding the quality of the thinkpads and asus laptops. Both seem much more substantial compared to the lenovo. But, the price and the size are really the sticking points for me.

Well, drmax88, you have pushed the v100 back the consideration pile. In the next couple of days my decision will be between lenovo, hp dv2020/compaq v3030/toshiba u200 (if I can get it cheaper elsewhere) or a thinkpad or asus if I can find one for $1200-1350 w/similar specs to the lenovo and hp.

It's been difficult trying to do research on laptops with my own dying computer. But, everyone on this site have provided tons of help to me in narrowing my search and decision making.

If anyone has any other comments, once again, please don't hesitate to post. I really do welcome/appreciate them.

 

May I ask where you got your bluetooth driver and if you can send me a copy? I'm having the same problem with Bluetooth dropping my Microsoft Wireless Presenter Notebook Mouse 8000. It's getting to be really annoying.

 

I got the bluetooth software from this link:

http://www.cell-network.com.cn/message/BT/890-57-305-5.1.0.1100.zip

There are newer version available, but this one works best and is very stable. No single problem for 2 weeks.