Buying a T500--any reason to wait till Jan. for T510?

I don't have to buy a computer right now, but it seems a good time to do so with Windows 7 coming out. Besides, I would be able to leave my HP at home for my wife to use for email and Facebook (eight grandchildren ).

But I've been scouring the threads and saw that the ThinkPad 510's are to come out in January 2010.

Reasons to buy now:

1. Whatever changes are made to the system probably won't affect the speed of what I do. My usage is not processor intensive (research/writing, internet/email, occasional movies).

2. My guess is that I can get a T500 for a better price now than a newly-released T510 in January. I configured the following T500 at Lenovo CPP for $940.78.​

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400
Windows Vista Home Premium
15.4" WSXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator x4500HD with vPro
4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN)
9 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Depot Warranty
Additional 65W AC Adapter​

Would I be able to come close to that price with a 510 with similar specs in January? My guess is "no," but longtime Lenovo observers would have a more informed guess.​

3. There is always a new update around the bend. Buy what you need now.​

Reasons to wait:

1. Perhaps the T510 will offer a WSXGA+ TFT, w/ LED backlight. I am concerned about the fading of CCFL over two or three years.

2. Perhaps there will be some excellent deals on the T510 to get them moving (one can hope! ).

3. Three months isn't that long to wait when the need is not pressing.

4. Perhaps the screen will be centered. I understand that it is off-centered to accommodate the wi-fi antennae.​

Any input is welcomed.

Thanks,
Bill

 

I've long been a proponent of the "if you don't need it now, wait" philosophy. What will the T510 pricing be? Impossible to know. Probably a little higher for the first couple months, but maybe not much so. Even if, you'd then be getting a newer generation system with an inherently higher resale value if that makes sense in your usage.

The screen being not centered thing is something I wondered about before buying my T400 since I do tend to notice stuff like that. You know what I found out? I focus on the display panel not the bezel. In other words, it's never been an issue.

 

If you can wait, it won't be for just 3 months... you most likely won't be getting the T510 in your hands until end of Feb or early March. Plus it will most likely also be much more expensive than your current specced out T500 and there is a very low chance of having a WSXGA+ LED screen. As Lew said, if you can wait, then wait... you should buy it when you need it.

 

There will always a better machine tomorrow and you will be waiting till your hair is grey, this is how the industry works.

Anyway, the current T500 are priced competitively because they are nearing their end of their lifecycle, and T510 wouldn't be anywhere as cheap when it is first released, maybe after half year of release you might get lucky..... but the heavy discounts are usually reserved for end of life machines.

Regarding screen, who knows it might has LED backlight, but the colour reproduction could be worse... it is a sort of gamble.

Also, off centered screen.... if you are using your laptop for the purpose intended, does it really matter all that much? The new generation could have their screen moved to symmetry line like the T400s have done, or it may not.

So if a deal is worth getting then why not..... if you are only after the latest and greatest machine..... you should be like me, buy a new laptops every half a year.

 

i've made the decision to wait for the t410
i'm planning on buying a new laptop but the one i have right now still serves my needs ok
so it is worth it to me to wait
if the t410 comes out and it wasn't worth waiting for
fine, i'll just get a t400 from the outlet

but if i bought a t400 now
and the t410 comes out in a few months with a better screen at a manageable price
i'd kick myself

plus, arrandale looks very nice for a laptop platform

 

Manageable price is debatable. The machines take a few months before they get down to "discounted" pricing.

 

To be perfectly honest, I'd probably angle towards buying the T500 now unless you were sure you could flat any increased price of the T510 when it comes out. My particular reason why is because you stated you aren't a heavy power user. Unless you're heavily into video editing, coding, and/or gaming, any improvement in power isn't going to be all that noticeable.

I actually started a thread here not too long ago to the same effect, if it was worth bumping up from my current T60p to a W500. The general consensus was not really, and I ended up picking up an X60s for the better battery life I was looking for. At the end of the day I'm satisfied with my choices, and I'm confident that all the notebooks I currently have will be able to do their jobs adequately a few years down the road. Only then will I be on the prowl for a newer model.

 

i mean you can predict what the pricing will be, since Lenovo/IBM have been doing the similar pricing cycles in the last few years...... just like the four seasons....

 

I just wish my hair would stay in! You're right--you never catch up with technology.

Every three years or so will have to suffice.

Good points have been brought forth. Thanks to all for posting.

--Because I have only one computer and it's a consumer model at that,
--because I can leave it at home so my wife can keep up with our daughters and grandchildren (do I sound old or what?),
--because a spec'd out T500 seems like a great deal right now,
--because having a T500 will mean that I have a backup in case something happens to my main computer, and
--because so much about the T510 that would matter to me is unknown,​

I will probably keep tweaking the configuration and order this week. I would wait till the 22nd if I could be sure to get this deal and have Windows 7 pre-installed.

Bill

 

hey can you comment a bit on the pricing cycles? i'm interested in knowing the approximate price of the t510...

 

Usually the new laptops in their first couple of months of release (maybe 3 to 5 months) are usually at their full price (well they will tell you it is on a 10 per cent discount), and for the time between the initial release and half years before the phase out, you will get various deals each week that changes... so usually you get like 10 to 15 discounts on top of the 10% discount (so total of 20 to 25%) on their websites (not including the coupons).....

Then for the last couple of months, you do see some extraordinary deals popping up here and there (like extra 20 to 25% off not including special coupons, so that is 30 to 35%), which you couldn't possibly resist if you have been following the pricing of these laptops and wanting to buy one. Then maybe just before the laptop is phased out and maybe one month into the release of new laptops, Lenovo will start cutting the price of older thinkpads by extra 5% to 10% (so you are effectively getting nearly 40 percent off RRP or 50% if you are really lucky). But usually by then, there is very limited model options and waiting time for shipping can be up to a month.<---- not really worth it in my opinion, and sometime they will cancel your order.

The discount is a marketing strategy, to draw buyer into buying their laptops (obviously if you are some Russian billionaire where money is not a concern then you wouldn't care about discounts).

Just like cars when a new model is first released it will be full priced, since there are some people whom just have these new models regardless of cost, they don't care whether they get the free upgrades down the road.... or if the buyer is a fleet operator (they get heavy discounts anyway).... then it reaches the stage where you are trying to lure in your potential buyers whom can do without buying a new car or that particular model, but if the price/deal is right they would still buy them.... this is where your free upgrades and discounts are useful.

This how Australian car and laptop market works, not sure if this is the case in USA (one would think so, as this is pretty much where these ideas originated from, since USA is a much larger consumer market).

 

Take your current config and save it as a quote. Lenovo will then honor that quoted config & price for 30 days even if the price later changes. You cannot make any changes to a quoted configuration though without it being repriced. To save as a quote go through the checkout process and near the end, at the bottom of the page, is a checkbox to save as a quote. Make sure you print a copy of the page, it doesn't always email it right (maybe they fixed this though). There is no cost or obligation to saving a quote.

I would definitely wait until after the 22nd to see what pricing is with Win7 preloaded. It'd save potential headaches on reinstalls, plus you have the benefit of the recovery partition and all being set up with Win7 presumably. With a saved quote from right now you can then compare any price differences against the utility of having Win7 preloaded and make an educated decision.

 

Just quoting for truth, those waiting to buy a new model ThinkPad upon release will have to pay up. Higher end new processors from Intel are always expensive out of the gate. The best deals on ThinkPads of course come when they need to clear out inventory and the accounting department decides that having inventory on their books is more expensive than getting rid of laptops for a fire sale price. Witness the fact X61 Tablets were sold new for $600 last February ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=353188) when they decided they were sick of having them in the warehouse. I've talked to product managers within Lenovo and what lead_org says is exactly how they operate.

Often if you wait to buy new technology and then the day arrives, you do a side by side comparison between the new and the old, then look at the price and quickly decide the old model is by far the better deal.

 

This is also how smart people buy cars.... run out models usually represent the best saving for a new car (most of time now they include on road cost and even third party insurance, while you also get couple of thousand dollar upgrades).... or those just coming off leases....

 

Thanks; that's great advice. I'll do that.

Lead org, Andrew, and Legendary, and others--your advice makes sense. Sounds like now is the time for the better deals.

Bill

 

Hey thanks for th great info!!i will wait till the release of the new gens, if they're too expensive, then i'll buy the t500..

 

Speaking of good discounts, I ordered a T500 today at the cpp site. With an additional AC adapter, not including sales tax, the price was $845.16 ($1578 - $732.84 in discounts plus 10% coupon). It was cheaper than a comparably configured R500.

Whatever the T510 turns out to be, I doubt it would make much difference in how I work and will cost a good bit more for a while.

Bill

 

did you go for the switchable gpu or the integrated one?

 

he got the Intel integrated gpu.

 

Jumping in late here, especially since Bill reports having already ordered a T500. But another reason to order a T500 NOW rather than wait for whatever the T510 may be, is that there's a good chance the T510 may use a 16:9 screen, with fewer MP and less vertical height than the current 16:10 screen.

 

SL series have already made the jump.. and Dell Latitude are moving in that direction, who knows the rest of thinkpads will do to either this or next release. But the 16:10 days are nigh, like the old 4:3.

 

Yes, I went with integrated because nothing I do has very intensive graphics requirements. In the past I've spent extra on hardware that I thought I might be glad to have gotten sometime in the future and ended up never using it. I decided this time to get what I needed. We'll see how this turns out.

I suspect that 16:9 will be the most noticeable external change in distinguishing the T510 from the T500. You guys know more about what Lenovo does than I, but that's my guess. It seems that multi-media considerations are driving everything in the notebook computer world.

Bill

 

Not multimedia reason that is driving the change of LCD form factors, but rather a question of costs. The 4:3 is a wasteful format in LCD production, while the 16:9 allows the manufacturers to produce the most number of LCD panels from a single batch. LCD format change is driven by the supply side, when the large LCD manufacturers stop manufacturing LCD of certain spec, the laptop companies have to procure enough to be put in storage, so that it can last them till a model change.

This is also why some new thinkpad laptops have LCD that was made 2 or 3 years ago.

Lenovo is facing a losing battle in many ways, since it can only do so much, before it is no longer feasible to use 16:9 inch LCD.... when 90% of other laptops are using 16:9 inch format LCD.

 

If Lenovo is using LCD's from 2-3 years ago, does that mean that my new T500 will be from the bottom of the barrel as they try to use up all the 16:10's?

Bill

 

Heh, I thought all normal ThinkPad screens are from the bottom of the barrel.

(Ok, I will shut up now.)

 

I guess it will be time to save some bucks and later get a full spec 'ed T400 before 16:10 Thinkpads are long gone, jeez, I though the 4:3 story will not be repeating again.

 

the LED LCD are produced recently, the CCFL LCD can be in storage since the T61 days and some are produced bit later. But these screens are not like food, it doesn't just go off. As long as they are kept in the recommended storage environment they are okay.