Difference in quality of Workmanship?

I bought my T61 in last September. It's an OK laptop but I　am not very impressed by the build quality.

My roommate just bought one recently. I see a huge difference in the quality of workmanship...

Should I break mine into pieces and claim the 'accidental damage protection'?

 

Yes, you should smash it and claim it accidental. /s

But before that, what exactly is the difference that a few twists of a screwdriver couldn't fix?

 

What's the differences in build quality that you are noticing between his new notebook, and yours ??

 

Is your notebook working, and does it do everything you want it to do?

 

I too would be interested in a more detailed assessment of the "huge difference in the quality of workmanship."

 

I'm guessing some peeps are a bit miffed that ThinkPads aren't actually built from unobtanium or something.

As if all other brands of laptops are built from carbon reinforced plastic and magnesium these days. Can't please everyone all the time it seems.

 

the palm set over the hard drive...

mine is flimsy. I push on it, I can see it bend. The one my roommate just got is very solid. there's no way to push it down.




mine screams when I pick it up by corner. his is fine...

the lid on mine doesn't close tight. his does.

 

it does, actually.

I am just 'whining'...


one thing, i have a keyboard pattern on my LCD and it's hard to get rid of...

 

My palmrest has a bit of flex, just didn't really bother me that much. You can remove it and try to reinforce it from behind with a bit of electrical tape or piece of foam. Basically try to support it underneath so there is less flex.

 

Hello,
I'm having the same issue with my new T61p. If I tap my table so that the table shakes a bit then pieces of plastic on my T61p vibrate and make sound. I don't think it should do that. It seems like certain areas of the laptop are solid and some are not.

Any ideas on what I should do?

 

Stop tapping the table?

 

I don't know if it has anything to do with workmanship. It seems more like quality of manufacturing. I think there are a lot of 'complaints' about the palmrest.

Mine also seems pretty flexible and the right side of my keyboard bounces when I press it. Not the keys, the keyboard itself is not supported underneath so when I press it, it gets pushed down a little. It seems the right tab on the palmrest doesn't fit perfectly into the slot it's supposed to go in so it doesn't push the keyboard down so that it's supported by the frame underneath. I tried re-setting the palmrest and I can push the palmrest in perfectly when it does not have screws in it, but when I put in the right most screw it somehow pushes the right side of the palmrest so that it doesn't fit correctly.

But, these are all cosmetic issues. I could easily fix it by taping a shim under the keyboard so that it is supported from underneath.

I agree that a lot of people hear that T61s are built solidly and are surprised at the plastic feel they have. People think built solidly means the entire thing is made of magnesium alloy or some metal. In reality T61s are built solidly inside, the outside (at least on the palmrest and keyboard bevel) is made of cheap, thin plastic. If you ever took off your palmrest you'll be able to see how insanely thin fragile it is. It's only solid if everything fits together well and there is no space between the plastic and magnesium frame underneath.

The bottom of the laptop and lid on the other hand seem really solid.

 

The one (bought last December) I have in my office suffers from the same shortcomings
I tried to put a thin foam underneath the palm rest but it hardly helped...

 

I have noticed this also. There is perceivable movement of my entire keyboard when I press hard on the the down-arrow and right-arrow keys. It is not egregious, but it is there. I still really like my T61 though.

 

True, but that was an example. Sometimes it happens if I just tap the touchpad with a certain force.

 

If it has improved then it's about time. I think the t6x series laptops are some of the worst laptops ever branded with the thinkpad name. They had one of the best brands in the t4x series and imho destroyed it with the t6x. I know exactly what he's talking about, the thing just looks and feels cheap. I know it's lenovo not ibm, but i'm pretty sure the t6x was designed by ibm, the times where close of the cutover. In any case at least at that time the companies where still pretty much tied together.

I've had countless thinkpads and my t6x was the worst. I'm not the only one who thinks so. I've spoken with numerous corporate pc purchasers who thought they where buying a new t4x and ended up getting screwed. From my point of view they have been generally thought of on the same par as a gateway/acer/etc in the corporate world.

just for bias sake, i am a former employee of ibm. But I'm not one of the thousands who where layed off 1-2 years before retirement (without a bridge), or had my pay cut. I left on my own because of the way the company has changed in the past 3 years. The t61 being a perfect example of the general course they where/are heading.

sorry, that's the end of my rant.

 

Other then the little bit of keyboard flex that I mentioned earlier, I am pretty impressed with the build quality of my 2 week old ThinkPad. The chassis seems very rigid, the latch and hinges seem robust, and the whole package feels solid. It certainly compares favorably with the Dell Latitude D620 and D830 that I also use regularly. It would appear from some of the posts here that there is some unit-to-unit variation in build quality though.

 

i may have been a bit hard on them. I along with others where very disappointed in them with the t6x. That's not to say they haven't fixed those issues recently and the newer ones are nicer. I haven't seen a new one in quite awhile. When i buy my next laptop I still will go to them first, but if I don't think they've improved I'll take my business elsewhere.

 

fotd,
What were the things you did not like? If you were to get a laptop now that was of high quality which brand/model would you go for? I have looked and looked and each model from each company has some kind of problem...

Dell = graney screen
HP business = bad customer service and screens that go out
SONY = horrible warranty service
etc.....

 

Fire Snake, did you check out ASUS?

I have no experience with it but the M50 seems like a nice laptop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=229282

Well, I've heard complaints about ASUS too. I don't think there is any laptop without complaints.

I still recommend the T61p.

 

hi,


Asus is not a good Example for built quality. I owned one
and it dies severel times (DVD, HDD, Cardreader, Mobo).
I got my money back after a year and some support weeks and bought a Thinkpad R60.

Now i´m totally happy und wouldn´t change it!
Most people, i know, from forums in US and Germany simply loves
their machines.

Software and hardware are top quality!

But maybe, some chassis are felt flimsier as others

 

My T61 flexes if I push on the palmrest. Just keep in mind that it's not really a problem, because the palmrest isn't actually part of the structure holding the laptop together - it's just a cover over the magnesium frame.

 

palmrest flex could be fixed by unscrewing and taking it apart, then re-seat it. it works on mine.

 

It didn't help in my case. I'm thinking about putting the extra foam sheet between the chassis and the palmrest.

 

I hope we all do realize that these are mass produced laptops made in large buildings staffed by ordinary people. Lenovo doesn't employ Oompa Loompas and nor do they manufacture hand-built supercars. You should expect some product variation. In some cases it's worse than others but I think you should gauge product quality on the average of quality, not just choice cases.

Sure there's flex in my palmrest too and the battery jiggles in it's socket but I don't think it's enough to detract me from the overall quality of the machine. The laptop in my sig is the first Thinkpad I've owned but I've had my fair share of Dell's, HP's, and Sony's.

 

I have HP nx8220 (almost three years) and a new T61p. I have choosen ThinkPad because of a more than positive experience with my wife's Z60t (two years old).
The T's palmrest not only flexes (about which I initially thought that it had been designed purportedly for a greater comfort) but also creaks during normal typing!
All, Zs and Ts, and HP are mass produced laptops and the former is still in excellent shape. Neither HP nor Z60t behaves in such way...

 

I had quite a few dell's before this t61.

the dell's are solid, although a bit bulky.

 

I went to Office Max and saw some ThinkPads there. The ones on display were really built a lot better than mine is. There was no creaking or bending anywhere. I could make the palmrest flex a little if I pushed really hard on it. I was really surprised at how much more sturdier they display models were compared to mine.

I have no build complaints about mine though. It's good enough. But now I see that there is a big difference in build between machines. Perhaps over time the machines will break in. In the end they all end up the same, replaced by a newer model.

One thing I did notice is that Toshiba notebooks feel very cheap. Most of the Toshiba keyboards were very mushy and had a lot of flex. The HP/compaq notebooks were pretty good though I would not trade my T61p for any of them.

And even more off-topic. I see now that the Thinkpad screens are dimmer than others. The ones on display were noticably dimmer than any other brand up there. Still, Thinkpad's display is good enough.