Can't believe the T42 is more than three years old and is out of the extended warranty already. It's still a toddler! Little G, my youngest son, isn't even 3 until December!
And so it's time to spec out a new laptop... (boo hoo hoo, crocodile tears)
One of the reasons I liked the T42 (14.1" LCD) was b/c it was so darn thin at just a tad over 1". The T-series seem to be getting ever so slightly thicker w/ each new line.
I fancied the 15.4" T61, but Lenovo support informed me that that measures in at 1.4" thick! How can Apple have 15" and 17" MacBook Pros that are just 1" thick?
The T61 only came w/ widescreen LCD's until just a few days ago, but the standard aspect ratio cost more. Since HDTV LCD's are 16:9 aspect ratio, it's cheaper for them to manufacture laptop LCD's to the same ratio.
From a Lenovo blog, they personally preferred the integrated graphics over the discrete nVidia as it gives well over one hour extra battery life for business use. But I want to drive the ThinkPad at it's highest resolution (1440 horiz. on the T42), and drive an external 24" LCD monitor at high res as well: Dual head display in extended desktop mode. More screen real estate = better work efficiency. Lenovo customer support said the integrated graphics only runs 1280- not good enough.
So here's the configuration I'm looking at:
- ThinkPad T61 with nVIDIA Graphics - 1 Year Depot Warranty
- Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
- Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Professional
- *No Vista for us yet. Lenovo dude said Micro$oft will disallow XP pre-loads sometime next year.
- Display type: 14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ Camera
- *Wonder if the camera is like the one on the Apple laptops?
- System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)
- Total memory: 3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
- Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
- Hard drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
- *The largest 7200RPM HD is 100Gb? I say more space wins.
- *Apple offers a 160GB 7200RPM HD. C'mon Lenovo, bring it!
- Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim
- *A Blu-Ray disc drive would be awesome... later.
- Wireless card: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
- Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN
- Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery
- 3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day
- Extra Battery: ThinkPad Advanced Ultrabay Battery
Any suggestions?
Not that it matters since IT only lets us get Lenovo or Dell laptops, but a similar MacBook Pro is only $2573.00. It has the same CPU as above, only 2Gb of RAM, a 160GB 7200RPM HD, and the 15" screen, and AppleCare.
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