I pulled the trigger on a T61...

...and shall therefore be jointing you all from here on out as of shortly after June 7th.

I've been searching high and low for a notebook with good performance, battery life, portability, and durability to replace my now-sorely-missed Compaq v2000z I sold back in January since then, and I finally found one in the T61. The R60 and dv2000t had been my previous choices, and with an unexpected infusion of cash, and the release of a new 14.1" widescreen T-series with nVidia dedicated DirectX 10-capable graphics and Santa Rosa Core 2 Duos, the time seemed about right.

Here's what I ordered:
Lenovo ThinkPad T61
-Core 2 Duo T7300 (2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB L2)
-1GB DDR2-667 RAM (will add another 1GB from Newegg for about $100 less than Lenovo wanted)
-160GB 5400RPM HDD
-nVidia Quadro NVS 140M
-1GB Intel Turbo Memory (it's useless now, but once the driers are there, this should be a good boon to boot/load times.)
-WXGA+ (1440x900) 14.1" LCD
-DVD+/-R DL
-ThinkPad (as in, non-Intel) a/b/g/n WiFi (which I've heard is an Atheros chipset, yay!)
-7-cell Li-Ion battery
-Windows Vista Business 64

I took the plunge for 64-bit Vista primarily because I plan to keep this notebook forever (4 years at least), and I have a copy of XP Pro to use until the bugs are ironed out of Vista (assuming that ever happens).

Anyways, I'm quite excited! ThinkPads are excellent machines, and after recommending them to so many people, it's nice to finally be getting one myself. Expect a thorough review once I get it (assuming NBR isn't flooded with them between now and then) - I'm especially interested in the NVS 140M's performance, as I'm an engineering major and therefore a workstation card is great, but I do like some gaming on my free time, so this should be - interesting.

 

I did a review of my T42 after it I had it for like nine months, we'd expect no less from you. Congrats on the machine. Having owned three of them, they are great machines.

 

Congrats, within the next few days I too am hoping to pull the trigger on a T61

 

I'm leaning towards the T61 as well, but I want to see more info about the Dell D630 first, seeing how there are rumors about a better screen and better battery life.

 

the d630 i think will have better battery life because of the integrated graphics card, of course u can also opt for the integrated x3100 for the t61, but i would rather get the dedicagted gpu on the thinkpad and grab the ultrabay battery. hmm does anyone how heavy is the ultrabay battery?

 

I think my next notebook computer (in 2 or 3 years time) will be a T series Thinkpad, Ive always wanted to own one since the T40 came out.

Is there even a slight chance Lenovo will offer a glossy screen option?

 

Congrats. I was about to do the same but then I pulled the OTHER trigger (i.e. killed it) on the T61 because of its really dim screen. Now I'm just waiting to get a good deal on a macbook.

 

Congrats on the t61, you've made a good choice. I just wish they would be a little faster in getting out these computers. I ordered mine last friday and I'm starting to get anxious.