Best IBM and Lenovo Thinkpad?

In Your Opinion what is the best IBM thinkpad and Lenovo Thinkpad that was ever made?

 

Probably the IBM ThinkPad 701. The Butterfly keyboard was certainly innovative in its time, probably remains so in todays standard. It was so special its even being displayed at a Musuem in New York, and not many computer companies can boast that.

 

Definately the X301

 

the 701 or the r50p with the qxga screen ( 2048×1536 ), but I do love my x220 and T60 as well.

 

Do you have a favorite lenovo Thinkpad?

 

One of the most innovative would probably be the Thinkpad 701.

Recently the Thinkpad the really stands out would probably be the X301, or possibly the T400s for starting the line that made the X301 a bit more practical.

 

I would say the BEST Thinkpad that was made by Lenovo (I beleive they took over the IBM PC division in what, 2005ish ? ) is the X301. Beyond a doubt one of the BEST built laptops I have EVER used.

 

I'm quite fond of my Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (Intel Variant), it still runs fine to this day which is testimony to its engineering and hasn't had anything broken at all which is really good. A ThinkPad T400 with LED WXGA+ and T61 Keyboard Swap should be even better still as they share almost the same chassis.

My Lenovo ThinkPad R61e also survived being thrown to a ditch after a lorry smashed my car and still survives to this day now being used as a humble server, it's a great machine too. The X301 is another popular choice, its form factor and features makes it one of best ultraportables around which is why many are quite sad to see it go without a replacement.

 

IBM
T43p

Lenovo
T61p

 

I See The x301 is a fan favorite.

 

Not terrible fond of IBM ThinkPads (too many T4x series serviced) but I'd have to go with X41 tablet.

Lenovo ThinkPad, there are too many to list but I'd have to say x200 tablet or x61 tablet.

 

ThinkPad Reserve Edition (because it is clad in high quality leather), X300/X301, T60 and T61 with the intel GPU 4:3 versions. R400 and X61 with T9xxx or T8xxx CPU.

 

I'd have to say the very first one. Was the trendsetter of the bunch.

 

ibm, made in japan - 770z
ibm, made in korea - x24
ibm, made in china - t42p

lenovo, made in china - x300

as for 701, did anyone actually own one? while the keyboard is the nicest feature, the each key is so rigid u need six-pack muscle in each of ur fingers to get used to it. in fact, that was probably worst thinkpad keyboard to type. (again, certainly the nicest to marvel at)

 

I really loved my T60, roll-cage, 4:3 screen, decent processor. I'd still have it if the screen was brighter and led backlit. But without even a slight doubt X220 is the best TP I've ever used. Everything comes together in this machine.

Owned T41, T60, T400, X301, X200T, X201T, X61T, X220.

I wonder how many here have owned an X301. It was great from a design pov, but functionally was a huge let down. Probably one of the worst modern screens ever produced. Feeble processor (weak enough to notice doing even mundane things). So-so battery life. Unnecessary optical drive, and no ultrabay or possibility or ghetto fitting a slim hdd because of the eide connector. As a novelty it was good, but not much more.

 

The best Thinkpad has never been built, in my humble opinion.

Coming closest to the most preferable Thinkpad for my personal considerations comes the T6x generation of machines, but none of them gets it right on it's own. The T60 15" machine had the best display option ever with it's 4:3 BOE Hydis UXGA Flexview, but is severely limited in the amount of upgradable RAM and CPU. The T61 supports up to 8GB of RAM, has more potent but still cool runnig Intel graphics and much better CPU options, but crappy displays (and not mentioning this big issue with faulty nVIDIA GPU's).

Luckily the postives of both machines can be combined, leaving the negatives aside. I already built two T61+ machines, hosting a T61 Penryn mainboard with Penryn T9300 CPU and 8GB RAM within a T60 15" chassis containing a 4:3 BOE Hydis UXGA Flexview display. The result is a cool running machine with more than sufficient speed and a superior display, actually the best which was ever built into any Thinkpad so far. Adding an SSD instead of the WD Scorpio Black 750GB would probably result in pure bliss.

The leftover mainboard of the T60 has been transplanted into the 14.1" T61 chassis, resulting into yet another fully functioning Thinkpad amalgamation, so that no electronic components had to be pointlessly wasted. It has been passed on as an unexpected present to a now very happy young member of the family.

If Lenovo would build Thinkpads with similar characteristics i would probably become their customer again. The current Thinkpad offerings may contain faster and more modern components, but they have become to be severely lacking ergonomic displays. Nowadays speed and the latest innovations are the least concern for people using Thinkpads only as an everyday computing device. So my effort and money rather goes into recombining the worthy components by myself.

 

Lenovo still made T61's in 4:3, 15 and 14" laptops. It wasn't until T400/T500 did they seperate the 14 and 15".

Still love my T60's 4:3 SXGA+ screen.

 

I currently have 2 X301 in my possession. The WXGA+ on it is okay, it certainly isn't the crappiest one that ever graced a Thinkpad.

The processor on it is quite slow, but then again it is aimed at executives whom may only need to word processing, simple excels spreadsheet etc. The X301 chassis looked like it was capable of accepting the P9xxx CPU that graced the T400s Thinkpads.

Regarding removable optical drive on the X301, it is more to show what Lenovo engineers could cram into a superthin system, rather than actual utility. The X301 was simply a X300 with updated motherboard (and addition of DP), so it carried over much of the parts that was there on the X300 including the PATA drive interface. But the fact that the X300/X301 drive slot can be occupied by a weight saving travel bezel or a 3 cells battery made it more useful.

The T61 only had 14.1 inch 4:3 model laptops. I think the R61 had 15 inch 4:3 models.

 

Please note that the T61's 15" display size is different from the T60's 15" display size. There was never any T61 15" in 4:3 form factor available.

The T61's 15" was only offered as a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) wide chassis/screen, which was more or less equal to the T61's 14" display in height, but then adding some to the width. The T61's 15" only and exclusively had a form factor of 16:10.

The T60's 15" were mainly available in 4:3 form factor, with just a limited amount of 16:10 chassis/display sizes at the very end of their production period.

 

did you ever think of doing the qxga screen mod on the T60? ( 2048×1536 )

 

For IBM, I'm tempted to say the T42P 15" UXGA w/ IPS, but really, the T4x line in 14" SXGA+ was my favorite form factor.

For Lenovo, I'd probably answer the X201 if it was WXGA+, but I only had WXGA. So, I'll go with the WSXGA+ W/T500. The only thing that I disliked was that it had a SATA optical drive, but the advanced dock was still PATA.

I lied to Lenovo and got the old style keyboard by calling in a failure on my T61P. I think 1680x1050 is the sweet spot for 15.4", and the LG screen mine came with was great.

I still regret selling my old W500 for the W510. While I was happy with the 1080P high gamut screen on the W510 (happier than the WUXGA in the T61P, at least), everything else felt...worse. Thicker, new style keyboard wasn't as good, textured touchpad, crappy docking solutions.

 

Hrm odd, I saw on Ebay a 15" T61 with a UXGA screen, maybe I read it wrong or it was a T60.

I have a 14" T60, I think it tops out at SXGA+?

 

My T61 has a factory 15.4" screen, with a resolution of 1280 X 800 (WXGA) .

 

@MikesDell, you should change the LCD to the WSXGA+.

The X200s and X201s did come with the option of the WXGA+.

 

You can transplant a 14" T61 4:3 board into a T60, which gives you the possibility of a UXGA T61.

 

Might possibly have been some kind of T61+ Frankenpad like the one i have created by recombining a 14" T61 mainboard with a 15" T60 chassis/screen, as has been described before. There is an eBay vendor named shinyee who has earned himself some fame and good reputation for having produced and offered a few of such great machines on eBay.

Other than that, one would assume that eBay is the least reliable information source for exact technical specs of a given machine. I've made it a habit to ask the seller for the specific Product-ID/Model/TYPE of any offered machine, in order to check the real specifications on the Lenvo support website. I found it very necessary in most cases to correct the often wrong or simply incomplete descriptions given by eBay vendors.

The second best information sources after the Lenovo PDF's is probably ThinkWiki to quickly check such details:

thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T61
thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T60

 

I'd have to say that out of all the ThinkPads I've owned, I have three that have been the best, in my opinion.

First is my old T21. The fact that it's been rattled around for ten years and it still fires right up and works more or less perfectly is a testament to its durable design. It might have a Pentium 3 800MhZ processor and 128MB RAM, but it still works and I break it out from time to time.

The second is the T60p I regrettably sold. Great UXGA IPS display and a decent amount of power, although I do like to game and the V5250 just didn't have the oomph I like. It's not a dedicated gaming system by any means, but I like something that's a decent 'do it all' system.

My current T500 is that system. Rock solid durability, with the same overall feel of my T60p in a widescreen format. Good WSXGA+ resolution, and the switchable graphics provide a great balance between battery life and power. The HD3650 GPU also gives enough grunt for mid-level gaming, which is perfect when I'm on the go. It was the machine I reached for on a recent cross-country trip, and it didn't let me down.

 

Thanks for all the opinions, I've learned a lot just reading this tread

 

I've given some thought on upgrading the screen on my T61, but then again, how much better is the WXGA+ ? Is it really worth the effort to get a new screen ? I'm no graphics designer, and I think the screen is OK (even though I think the LED screen on the X301 blows it away), but other then that, I'd probably keep what I have.

 

I still have mine. The screen seems massive compared to today's standards.

 

MikesDell did you mean WSXGA+? No point in going 1280x800 to 1440x900, might as well go 1680x1050. I'm going to assume you'd need to change out the LVDS cable anyway. Or you do what I did with my T60, and you just buy the entire top LCD portion. I went from 14" XGA to 14" SXGA+for 60 shipped from Ebay. It was a straight swap, done in 10 minutes.

 

You shouldn't need to swap the cables going from WXGA to WSXGA+ on a T61. It's the same for the T60 as well. The cable is the same regardless of the resolution.

 

Wow, this thread makes me feel old. I was going to say the 760XD!

Still will, actually. The 760's were beautifully compact and study machines. For Lenovo, it would be the T61/P.

 

what's your definition of "best"?

the last W series with the most powerful chip is the "best" IMO because it's the most powerful.

Most people here seems to define "best" in another way though.

 

In this case, most excellent/favorite.

True but some people will disagree.

 

+1 for the T61, in my case it's a [mid 2008] rig with 1440 x 900 (16:10) screen, 2.4 Ghz T9300 processor, 4GB RAM, 120 GB Intel 320 SSD (with Middleton's awesome SATA II BIOS (getting 259 Mb/s read, 136 Mb/s write speeds on CrystDiskMark running Win 7), also added StarTech's 2x USB 3.0 ports in the ExpressCard slot (80 Mb/s read and 24 Mb/s write CDM speeds on my 16GB Patriot Supersonic Express Flash Drive if anyone's curious). Also using the 2504 docking station to run a 1080p external monitor, works flawlessly with Ultramon. Overall its just a great machine with easily upgradable and fixable options.

 

For lots of people a Thinkpad is primarily a tool, meaning that it is actually an extension of (and meant to support) one's own capabilities and requirements. And just like a Porsche or Lamborghini actually makes a miserable choice for a useful car, the last generation Thinkpads are not really as useful anymore due to a rather unequilibrated feature set. While CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. may have increased in speed, the remaining important human interface features like the display leaves lots to be desired due to the reduced screen height. I really do not see any progress at all with a vertically challenged 1600x900 standard display in comparison to a 1600x1200 IPS/Flexview display. While more processing speed probably wouldn't hurt at all, the absence of suitable screen dimensions rather is a nuisance for quite a few people's personal and professional needs.

For this very reason, instead of buying one of the shiny new Thinkpads, like many others i have resorted to combine the best of breed features of the T6x generation Thinkpads (15" T60 4:3 new UXGA IPS display & chassis containing a T61 mainboard with T9500 CPU and 8GB RAM), in order to remedy this situation. Luckily the T6x generation is still modern enough to be updated with standard SATA hard disks and even an SSD, which would even be of more use than just pointlessly increasing computing speeds. I am really glad that my computing requirements don't rely on processing power and multimedia capabilities, and having already made sure to have suitable replacements in case of failure, i look forward to use this machine for many more years to come.

 

I am primarily a business class user of my laptops. Productivity and reliability are the characteristics my machines must inhabit! rumbero has made a valid case regarding the loss of vertical height and the subpar screens that many consumers have had to compromise with. I have been fortunate enough to have owned and used older ThinkPad models 600X and R52.These older TPs, in my experience, have left a lasting impression on me in terms of detail and engineering.

Solid is the word that comes to mind.

My favorite machine so far is a model that was not mass marketed by Lenovo even as a CTO model. It is an X200 with a transplanted PVA screen. While it is far from perfect it reminds me that I have made a wise decision when it comes to my schedule as a student and the occasional videos I watch on my machine during leisure time. It's footprint is a blessing for the times it is crammed into my book bag among my textbooks, it's CPU is adequate, and the ergonomics of the full-sized keyboard make typing up papers and notes easy and pain free. The video is also adequate for outputting to my 23" monitor when the occasion calls for it. Aside from a fan that I had to replace this X200 is also proving itself to be one of my favorites so far