Lenovo Thinkpad R61i - Any Good?

[Norrad]

While I love my Acer for gaming and general graphic intensive programs, I find it very limiting in the battery department. Also it is very limiting in the fact that it cannot run any other operating system other than Windows. Ubuntu installs but almost none of the hardware will work.

I'm looking for a no-thrills notebook to go on the road with me. Something that will handle all my programming needs and have battery life to spare and I came across the IBM ThinkPad R61i with following specs:

Lenovo ThinkPad R61i-7732A51

Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz

160GB SATA150 5400rmp

1GB PC2-5300 DDR2

Disc Drive DVD-RW

Intel Graphics Media X3100

14.1" WXGA

4 cell Li-Ion Battery

All for under 30K

What do you guys think about Lenovo notebooks?

[nikster]

Thinkpads have an excellent reputation for quality so no problems there.

A 4 cell battery is not going to last long at all, if you care about this sort of thing. Maybe 2h max, more likely less. Ask about a larger battery - thinkpads usually have multiple battery options, one of which will be a long lasting one, maybe 8 cell or something. And there may be a drive bay battery option.

1GB RAM is a bit weak too. I'd go for more... RAM is cheap.

Edited May 25, 2008 by nikster

[sibeymai]

Nickster, can't agree more. I'm still using my R50 which I bought 4 years ago. Never had a problem with any of the hardware. If you're travelling outside Thailand try to get a model with 3 year international warranty.

One thing, once out of warranty, if you do need to replace some hardware, genuine IBM parts will not be cheap. However, OEM are readily available.

For example, I had to replace the screen in mine recently due to accident. IBM price for genuine 15" 1400x1050 XVGA was 45,000Bt. Pantip was 6,000Bt including labour.

[slackula]

I have had two Thinkpads, one when they were made by IBM and one from Lenovo, an R60e.

Both have been rock solid, not the prettiest out there but very well made, I couldn't see any difference in build quality between the IBM and the Lenovo. Think of the Land Rover Defender of laptops.

My current one runs Slackware very, very nicely, all the things I need work fine (I don't use bluetooth so I have never bothered trying to configure it). The WiFi works with the (closed) drivers from Intel so no need to mess with Ndiswraper or anything else, it is easy to access acpi to throttle the processors for better battery life, 3D acceleration was a breeze with the on board graphics (mine is Intel 845) and because things like the buttons to dim the screen or mute the volume are hard wired there is no configuration necessary to use them. The ThinkLight is a nice touch, especially on aeroplanes and the trackpoint rocks my world because I hate trackpads.

When I didn't have a wireless access point I used the computer to forward my wired connection over its WiFi card to the other computers in the house with a 6 line bash script and the FireStarter firewall. I couldn't get an XP Pro machine to do that with hours and hours of fiddling.

Overall I couldn't be happier with it.

PS: One useful place is the ThinkWiki site, dedicated to Linux on Thinkpads.

[Gary A]

I have two of them also. An old Thinkpad 600 that has finally given up after about seven years and a fairly new Lenovo T43p that has never missed a beat. If the T43p holds up any where near as well as the old Thinkpad 600, my next one will be another Lenovo.

I bough it at the same time as a good friend of mine bought a Toshiba. I told him the Lenovo had a three year international warranty and his only offered one year. His screen died when it was thirteen months old.

[Samuian]

I work with a R52 for almost 4 years now... NOT one miss!

Battery last's 90 min. max. 2 hrs.

[Norrad]

Thanks guys, so I can't go wrong with IBM. I fully intend to upgrade to 2 gigs of Ram and I'm thinking about buying a spare 8 cell battery.

[Shah Jahan]

I have had a Z61m for the last year and a half - works without a hitch

only problem was about 3 months in- the screen started to give out- I was very impressed and surprised that with a few calls- it was replaced in an hour wait in Chiang mai Pantip with no charge - in US I would have had to mail it and pay express fees and crap like that.

It also does very well for the hot climate as well - my old Benq sometimes almost burns to the touch in the afternoon.

though 1 1/2 years is a bit long for a windows install so I am thinking about ditching XP and going for Ubuntu and most likely will be like a new computer.