Stuck with a Stinkpad!

24/10/2007

Grrr, much to my dismay, this big company IT only gives out 3 flavors of laptops. All through Lenovo!

So after much cribbing and whining about not wanting it, I got my Thinkpad T60P from work. I am pleasantly surprised how much crap factor from N300 series seems to have carried over to T60P – one would have thought this was still an IBM-Thinkpad brand.

Here’s a quick review of my Stinkpad:

- Keyboard rocks. I have to admit it, it is one of the best keyboards I have used.

- The 15.4 LCD screen sucks, more so because the native resolution of this screen is 1680×1050 pixels. At that resolution everything seems ant-sized. If you increase the resolution, the fonts seem smudgy! One would have thought they would put in a better card and a more sensible native resolution (1440×900 anyone?)

- My Thinkpad came without a screw! Would you believe it? This morning I was trying to latch the laptop onto the docking station, and i turned the laptop around to examine it. Surprise, surprise, a screw is missing :) .

- The laptop doesnt detect it is on a docking station. Docking station needs to be replaced. I am not surprised.

- Does NOT get HOT at all! (Apple are you listening?!)

- Does not make a sound. I like that!! I hate noisy laptops; fortunately this is not one of them.

- Seems sturdy, at least for now.

Overall:

A much decent effort than the disastrous N300 series, but leaves much to be desired. Not exactly what I would call a great “corporate” laptop, but I could do with it. Definitely more hype than it is talked about. Overall, a definite testament to Thinkpad’s declining quality.

I just wish I could use my MAC on the corporate network :(

There are 7 comments in this article:

  1. 24/10/2007Laptop Reviews » Stuck with a Stinkpad! say:

    [...] Stupendous Man wrote an interesting post today on Stuck with a Stinkpad!Here’s a quick excerpt Grrr, much to my dismay, this big company IT only gives out 3 flavors of laptops … over to T60P – one would have thought this was still an IBM-Thinkpad brand. Here’s a quick review … I was trying to latch the laptop onto the docking station, and i turned the laptop around to examine [...]

  2. 24/10/2007Daniel Savard say:

    I just received my Thinkpad T61p last Friday and the screen refused to light on. I called support, I had to send them via e-mail all details about my order since they are not able to get it themselves with my order number, customer number, customer phone number, customer address or anything else. I finally sent all details after scanning them. I was expecting a replacement at worst on Tuesday. Still waiting.

    I called IBM Support for this with my reference number, they told me Lenovo is supposed to call me. I gave my cellphone number to make sure they reach me I don’t want to suffer any delays due to a ping-phone game. This was Tuesday. Still waiting for their call.

    Today, Wednesday, I called again IBM Support, they gave me the Lenovo replacement approval number (Tuesday they just say me the replacement was approved) and the phone number to reach Lenovo directly. I called Lenovo and asked what is going on with my problem. I was told they were waiting for me to call them!!! And now I am supposed to receive a e-mail from their website with instructions on what I am supposed to do to have my Thinkpad replaced. An hour later, still waiting for this e-mail. Will call them back tomorrow.

    It is really a shame I have not read this blog before. I don’t want to think about the kind of support I will get if eventually I am running into a problem with my Thinkpad.

    Last time IBM/Lenovo is getting my money.

  3. 26/10/2007Naoshad Mehta say:

    I just got my T60P Stinkpad a week back and its by far the worst laptop I’ve used till date. Bad docking, makes too much noise, feels flimsy and all I use it for these days is run bugscrubs :) . I’m going to stick to using my Macbook Pro at work. I just hope that Leopard doesn’t screwup too many of my work related apps.

  4. 20/11/2007Daniel Savard say:

    To keep everyone informed. I finally got a working Thinkpad. Then after a while I decided to test everything, including recovery process. Big surprise! I bought a Thinkpad with Windows Vista and I got Recovery CDs for Windows XP. So, I ended up with a downgrade to Windows XP and I will have to wait 3 days until I am finally getting the Windows Vista Recovery CDs. Thanks Lenovo! My business is down for three days.

    It would not be polite to write down here how frustrated I am to have done the mistake to buy Lenovo products. That’s just incredible that level of poor quality.

  5. 20/11/2007Supremus say:

    Hey Daniel,

    Thanks for coming back again – jeez, this is really pitiful! But frankly I am not surprised. When I sent back my laptop to get it fixed, it came back with a bunch of papers about what was fixed. Turns out, they didnt even test and see if they had fixed the problem. So I am not really surprised – I frankly recommend Dell small business line (d820s and d830s are awesome) if you are looking for a good reliable laptop with none of such crap.

  6. 20/11/2007Daniel Savard say:

    Supremus, I bought a Dell to my daugther. And to had to my previous post. I must say I didn’t returned the recovery CDs shipped with my first Thinkpad and I am just finishing testing this set for recovery and they are also Windows XP recovery CDs instead of Windows Vista. Clearly this is not single error, it seems they are not shipping the right recovery CDs with their machines. So, the customer is paying for Vista, he is getting XP on the CDs. And the worst, in event he is in a urge to recover because something bad has happen to him, he will end up with the wrong OS. I just cannot believe it!

  7. 20/11/2007Daniel Savard say:

    Oups, to add rather than to had. English is not my mother tongue, sorry guys and gals.