First Thinkpad With Windows 7 Release?

Salut!

I was wondering about which Thinkpad(s) was/were the 1st released with Windows 7? And when?

Being curious here.

 

I think the T400/T500 (and probably the X200 and W500) were the first to receive it. There was a version of the T400 and T500 labeled Windows 7 Enhanced Experience. I remember it was quite the fuss that existing owners would not get the benefits of it (even though nobody was certain how much better the Lenovo EE would be than just a custom install of the OS).

It did not last long, because next January (so about 3-4 months later) the new T510-T410-W510 was announced. Those were probably the first models that were also designed with Windows 7 in mind.

 

I did some reading through using google, found out there was 2 versions of T500, one with Vista, the other with Windows 7, felt weird to me as I thought a User installed Windows 7 when it was released back then.

Seems as you have said, T410/T510/W510 are the first "official hardware" to support Windows 7 fully.

 

The Tx00, Rx00, Wx00, and X200 series were the first to support Windows 7, although they were all initially released with Windows Vista. I got my T500 with Windows Vista, before upgrading to Windows 7 a year later.

At first, the Tx00 and Wx00 series had issues with switchable graphics in Windows 7 (the discrete GPU would be enabled after resuming from sleep), however, this was later resolved through driver updates from Lenovo. Overall, I'd say they run W7 just as well as the Tx10 and Wx10 generation, which was released with W7 installed.

 

So GPU problem fixed with a simple driver update, good to hear.

 

Actually there are some issues with the latest switchable graphics drivers from Lenovo. There is a conflict between Windows 7 SP1 or Interner Explorer 9 and the Intel graphics driver. Actually the conflict is with an update that those applications install.

The Intel graphics driver from the switchable graphics package is old and buggy, and causes problems with some of the newer updates to Windows. Firefox 4, Skype, Live Messenger and Mail and other applications might also be affected. There should be another driver update from Lenovo shortly, hopefully.

If you want to read more about this topic head over to Lenovo forums.

 

What about the models with Nvidia GPU, particularly the T510 with Nvidia NVS 3100m switchable graphics?

 

@lenardg: Interesting. Have not heard about/experienced these issues, but that's probably because I haven't bothered upgrading to SP1 yet.

Those use entirely different switchable graphics drivers--it's Nvidia's Optimus dynamically switching graphics--so it will not be affected.

 

The T400, T500, W500 models were being sold with Vista in the months before Windows 7's release, with an option to receive a free upgrade to Windows 7 upon release.

The upgrade DVDs would be mailed to the customer once it was officially released.. and I believe this offer was valid till sometime in July 2009?