Field Trip to See ThinkPad Notebooks at Office Depot (pics)

A coupleofweeks agoit was announced that Office Depot would startselling ThinkPadT43 (see our T43 review)and ThinkPadZ60t (see our Z60t review) notebooks online andfrom their bricks and mortar store.Thiswould be the first timethere's been a major push of ThinkPad notebooks into retail stores in over 5-years. So on a slow Friday afternoon we decided what better to do than go and harass some Office Depot employees andtake pictures of the new ThinkPads on display?

On the left the ThinkPad T43, on the right the Z60t --notice the marketing text was cleverly hidden by both ThinkPad notebooks and checkout the cool "Office Depot" logo integrated into the fish tank screen saver (view larger image)

The Z60t and T43are the only ThinkPads on display at the moment, but they were quite prominent and had their own end of aisle display. The fingerprint reader in our humble opinion is a minor feature of the T43 and Z60t series, but as you can see in the images below the display designers didn't think so. A giant fingerprint and geeky "Security made simpler,p@$$w0rds at your fingertip " saying was emblazoned on a sign beneath the two fingerprint reader equipped ThinkPads.

ThinkPad display in Office Depot, they're really playing up the fingerprint reader aspect for some reason(view larger image)

The price on the T43 configuration available was actually quite reasonable, $1,449 for a nicelyconfigured machine (1.73GHz Pentium M, 60GB HD, fingerprint reader, 15" screen, 512MB RAM, XP Pro, 802.11b/g):

$1,449 for the T43, not bad for the available configuration (view larger image)

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad Z60t was priced at $1,999 and we didn't feel it was as good a deal given the fact it had similar specs to the T43 but was $500 more. Plus if you check Z60t prices online they're much cheaper. But the Office Depot salesperson told us they'd be having sales in the future. We promised not to tell anyone about that though.

ThinkPad Z60t on display at Office Depot(view larger image)

We asked if there would be any stock of the ThinkPad X41 or the ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC machines and the friendly Office Depot folks said "yes" there would be, apparently when they come in they will go beneath where the T43 and Z60t currently are. We hope that doesn't mean the big fingerprint logo would be chopped out.

Overall it's great that people will now be able to walk into a national chain retail store and see ThinkPad notebooks on display, many potential buyes hear great things about ThinkPad notebooks but don't have access to seeing what all the fuss is about. Also, some people still just prefer to buy from a store you can walk into and that wasn't an option for ThinkPadsuntil now (although there were a few smaller bricks and mortarretailers with ThinkPads over the past 5 years, they were few and far between).

So if you live in the U.S. then next time you pass your local Office Depot stop in for some paper clips, and maybetoss aThinkPad in the cart while you're at it.

T43 purchase label thing with specs (view larger image)

ThinkPad Z60t purchase label thing with specs (view larger image)

 

Nice undercover work, Agent abaxter

I really wish laptops were not secured onto tables at B&M stores, because sometimes I want to pick it up to 'feel' it up more!

Of course, there is the security issues...

 

well, i think their concern is along the lines of people wanting to do more than just feel a laptop up but they possibly might fall in love and elope with it (without paying).

okay, that kind of talk is just wrong.

 

Lol!

I'm going to go to OfficeDepot soon, I want to check these out...I've never had a 'true' hands-on experience with a ThinkPad, about time I did!

I'll just have to remind myself to walk into that store peniless...as a matter of fact, if I walked into any computer store with a credit card, that would be the end of me.

 

41st and Broadway? I was just in there yesterday doing some z60t scouting. Having a hard time deciding which way to go. Do you know if Office Depot will be getting any z60m's in the future?

 

They actually did not indicate any time frame for the Z60m or if it would be available in store, for right now here's what they plan to offer:

ThinkPad T43
ThinkPad X41
ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC
ThinkPad Z60t
ThinkPad R52

 

holy toledo that Z60 is epxensive! I think it would be hard to justify the Z60T over the T43 unless one has a strong preference for widescreen.

 

You are usually going to may more at B&M plus you have to pay tax.

 

I might have to stop in at mine and check out the body of the thinkpads. Been quite a while since I have laid my hands on a modern one.

 

Does Office Depot Canada offer these laptops as well? The Z60m looks real nice.

 

I don't think at the moment they do, but the word is that they will "soon". Best thing to do is simply call your closest Office Depot store and ask them directly.