Can I see your used Thinkpads?

Hey guys...
I'm wondering how the T60,T400,T500s are standing up to everyday use.

I mean like Keyboard wear, palm rest wear, plastic pitting, etc.
Thanks.

 

Besides the dirt, the its black coating is the only place that shows some usage. But it's all black so it's barely noticeable.

 

it doenst get shiny or anything? im more concerned about the trackpad and palm rest. si nce i can replace the keyboard very easily.

 

The keys on my used T61p have been fine so far, there is a sliver of shine on the left click above the touchpad, and the touchpad is used so infrequently that it isn't shiny at all either.

 

Nothing is shiny here. I've never seen a shiny palmrest but I have noticed some heavily used keyboards that you might call shiny. The keyboard is everywhere on Ebay for 50 bucks but I don't type that much and I try to wash my hands very often.

 

I'd say my R60 is at least a 9/10, though it doesn't go out a ton.

 

ok. im gonna be ordering a new t61 keyboard anyway.
i used my dad's old T30, and it was so much more solid than the T400... lol

 

My 1.5 year old T400 doesn't show much wear. The only thing is the keys are a bit shiney (only visible in direct light) but that is fine with me because I have oily skin so it is to be expected for me.

 

The only gripe i have on my 1 year old W500 is the scratches on the palm rest due to the screen bezel and also sometimes when my watch goes against it when i'm typing. Other than that my Thinkpad looks relatively Thinpad-ly.

Is there any techniques i could use to remove the scratches?

 

My T61 ( a little over 2 years old) still looks like the day I took it out of the box. The keys show VERY little use (they are EVER so slightly starting to get shiny, but you can barley notice anything at all). Everything else is 10 out of 10. I've taken this laptop with me to Kentucky, Arizona, Connecticut, and Ohio for trips, and has been through 4 differnt airports, and she still looks like new

 

t400s user, slight shine on some keys on the keyboard (and certain positions on the spacebar), slight shine on the left mouse button for the trackpoint, but thats it. palmrest doesn't look any different to when it was new

 

"My T61 ( a little over 2 years old) still looks like the day I took it out of the box"

So does my t61p.

Renee

 

My X30, which I bought in June 2003 and have served as my main machine ever since, is still in good cosmetic shape. There are quite a few shiny keys (and one particularly shiny spot on the spacebar), the corners on the LCD top cover are also shiny, and I lost a few rubber feet, but that is about it. The palmrest, in particular, shows almost no wear at all. (I did get the palmrest replaced under warranty in 2005 due to cracked plastic, so that particular piece of the machine is relatively new.)

The machine no longer looks like the day I took it out of the box. But it still looks the same as it did in 2005, which I think is pretty remarkable. ThinkPads age well.

 

Got my T61 in the summer of 2007, so it's been about two and a half years. It's still kicking I use it probably about 6-8 hours a day as it's my "workstation" at home. I used to carry it to school and work with me every day but got a netbook recently so it's just sitting on my desk.

Things that've broken:

(1) The CPU fan got very loud and rattly soon after I bought it. I lived with it for a year until it became unbearable, then replaced it. It took about 1 hour to replace (I took my time) and cost $40 or so.

(2) The screen has a line, about 1cm long, of dead pixels. They're not dead actually, they're just dimmer than the others. It looks more like a smudge than anything else and annoys me when I think about it, but if I ignore it I don't notice (it's at the edge of the screen so it's no big deal).

That's it actually. It's gotten shiny at the corners of the chassis. Lots of the keys have a shiny feel (although the letters haven't rubbed off, hmm). Interestingly, the wrist rest areas have NOT gotten shiny correspondingly - maybe the keyboard is made of different material? All in all, I'm very happy with the laptop - I desperately want a T410s (it resolves all of my complaints about the T61, i.e. weight, which isn't too bad for its class but lighter is better right?) but can't justify spending $1500 for saving ~1 pound. I took for granted the great keyboard and the matte screen that thinkpads have but every time I play with a friend's mass-market glossy screen/crappy keyboard laptop, I realize why I like my Thinkpad.