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Thinkpads.
XX55XX
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My very first computer (which I got in 1999) was a used IBM Thinkpad 600. When it broke in 2000, I asked my father if he could source an IBM service manual so that I could fix it. He did, but I couldn't fix it, and ended up buying a Compaq Presario desktop. For the next nine years, I used desktop computers only.
When I was shipping off to college in 2009, I bought a MacBook Pro out of curiosity. It was a good machine, but a part of me wished I gotten a Thinkpad instead. I would say that over 70% of the students at my university used MacBooks - and while I also saw a lot of HPs and Dells, I didn't see very many people using Thinkpads in particular.
Last summer, I sold my MacBook and got a Lenovo Thinkpad T420. It's still my workhorse machine and is one of the most solid notebooks I've ever had.
Maybe when Ivy Bridge releases in June, I might get my hands on a T430s...
What are your experiences with Thinkpads? Perhaps the best thing about them is their retro 1990s aesthetic.
When I was shipping off to college in 2009, I bought a MacBook Pro out of curiosity. It was a good machine, but a part of me wished I gotten a Thinkpad instead. I would say that over 70% of the students at my university used MacBooks - and while I also saw a lot of HPs and Dells, I didn't see very many people using Thinkpads in particular.
Last summer, I sold my MacBook and got a Lenovo Thinkpad T420. It's still my workhorse machine and is one of the most solid notebooks I've ever had.
Maybe when Ivy Bridge releases in June, I might get my hands on a T430s...
What are your experiences with Thinkpads? Perhaps the best thing about them is their retro 1990s aesthetic.
XX55XX on
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It was a servicable machine, but pretty shit if you wanted to really do anything on it.
Though I think that was the UTS department limiting us more than anything (like removing the goddamn lisence for windows media player so we couldn't use DVDs on the damn things so I had to waste an afternoon helping the English department download VLC.)
I've always had good luck with Acer. Cheap, reliable machines. I do like the look of thinkpads, though.
Mind you, I don't do any gaming, I use it for work stuff from home and on trips.
That said, their customer service over the last few years has really seemed to go downhill, and from what I read when I was shopping for a laptop two years ago, the build quality has suffered as well.
Lenovo's service still sucks (had to deal with them last summer for a custom order), but the build quality has greatly improved since the IBM acquisition, from what I hear. The latest models are all very solid.
Best laptop I've ever purchased.
It had a fold-out butterfly keyboard:
I eventually sold my 701 on eBay, and kind of regret it now.
These days I just use a Macbook, but Thinkpads were definitely legit back in the day.
I LOVED that notebook. I never owned one, but my uncle had one, and I was so jealous. I am posting on a T410s right now (my work machine) and I love the quality feel and low weight (this is the first laptop I have had at work that I actually bring home on a regular basis).
I like Macs, but they aren't for me. Great construction and styling, enough power and an OS that doesn't get viruses or break much. Pretty much what most people are looking for.
I'm pretty sure that a macbook pro with a win7 partition would have been a better machine for most things, though. Probably cheaper, too.
Even Alienware has less of a markup than thinkpads.
Yeah, they have a ridiculous rep with businesses that has built up over years and years. That's what brand awareness gets you.
hasn't tom's hardware done cost/ feature/ spec breakdowns of macs and think pads compared to other brands and found them good values for their feature sets? am i misremembering this?
All I know is the last 4 times I was considering buying a laptop (over the last 3 years or so) I always checked the comparably loaded Mac and it was at least 1.5x as much and on two occasions (including the most recent) twice as much for the same specs.
edit: Thinkpads were about 1.5x as much as what I ended up buying in each case. The most recent being a fully loaded 14" Alienware with a core i7 a few months ago.
My boss at my last job had a really small (like almost netbook sized) thinkpad with that problem. Turned out they had put such a shitty hard drive in for the system drive that it bogged everything down into uselessness.
As for the cost, eh... well. Like apple they don't really have a "low end", so you're going to pay more. Unlike apple though they do have a high end, apple has no actual high end laptops.
We use HPs and toughbooks and a few thinkpads at work. High end HPs with quadro GPUs, fancy RAM, dreamcolor IPS panels, for CAD/CAM work easily cost over 5 grand when you start upgrading them, and they do get higher (we've got some over 7 grand) so when you think about it thinkpads aren't all that bad for a "professional" machine. When people look at apple thinkpads and compare them to other consumer laptops there is always a "holy crap" moment because you are paying more for the same but getting a better built product. If you want sticker shock though look into actual mobile workstations.
Also thinkpads are the business/executive notebook out there. Kinda how macs are the hipster/blogger laptop. There is a reputation that goes with that, if you're an executive and serious about business, you get a thinkpad end of story. For us it's HP elitebooks for the normal people, macbooks for the graphics department, toughbooks for the field people, high end HP workstation laptops for the IT folks and like the CEO and head of legal have thinkbooks.
A lot of people swear by their keyboards as well and they are good. Where other companies keep tossing snazier and snazier shit at things and changing things up, thinkpads have stuck with what works, an understated look, 16:10 resolution if you want it, and a keyboard that is top notch. Those things matter and people will pay out the ass for them.
These are our higher ends we use
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4673/hp-elitebook-8760w-color-so-dreamy
That configuration is a little over 6 grand and they get higher. They are nice, but we all threw a collective shit fit when they went from 1200p to 1080p, 16:9 resolution can suck my balls. If they made a 16:10 version of it and charged even slightly less than a grand more for it we'd be all over that in an instant. Pretty decent mobile workstations though, amazing build quality, and the premium support on them is amazing.
For personal laptops though I prefer ASUS. I've always loved their products and the quality is great. Their support sucks ass though. But ASUS has always been a brand for tech heads and people who fix things on their own. if my work laptop breaks I'll just drop my daily back up image on another one, and HP will take care of overnight shipping both ways, it's back two days later.
Function key doesn't seem like it would be that big of a deal, but trust me, if you're used to your control key being there like it has been for decades, having a different key there basically ruins your entire computer using experience.
Indeed. It's like how Macs make the Home and End keys fucking useless.
I'm pretty sure they expect them to be for business users where the IT department will build a corporate image for them.
the windows key is a goddamned productivity-killing blight.
oh - hey! - who has priority now?!
These days I pretty much pick between two brands when it comes to laptops: hp (preferably business) and Acer. Acer just about always wins the bang-for-the-buck stuff on the low to mid range, even though their customer support is really awful. Reliability can vary by model, but again, they're budget laptops. HP stuff comparatively is cheaper than Sony, much cheaper than Apple, and still really well engineered. I've loved their recent aluminum-bodied stuff enough to buy one of the dv7 series.
I've got an ASUS G73 and a zenbook for my personal stuff along with a voodoo envy 133. ASUS is great for home stuff, well made and not badly priced.
Lately though I've been mobiling on my Transformer prime 201, waiting for the 701.
I find them to be eminently reliable, and have a minimum of bloatware. Their customer service leaves something to be desired, but honestly, I don't really need it often enough to worry about it.
Do you guys have a corporate image? That might be why. The last place I worked at had over 1k people in the main office and far more globally. We used Dells and while reliable, we had corporate images for the 3 desktops and 3 laptop models we gave full support to. As the IT officer there none of that was stock and all custom built, which helped a lot when dealing with them. It's much the same where I'm at now. The only things that aren't IT customs is if you chose an iphone and ipad over blackberry/android products, and with that we tell you full in advance "yeah, that's on you but don't expect much help when it panics". Oddly enough, the android and BB devices have less issues. We just don't have enough control over them to back them with anything other than "trust in Steve Jobs".
Ultrabooks are shaping up to be a headache I do not want. Since the first couple dozen requests we've had for them are for field works and boils down to "my laptop is to heavy and I hate working in the field with it" and I'll be damned I've I'm going to start issuing ultrabooks instead of toughbooks to field workers.
Also Dells gold customer service is on site next day or they pay shipping both ways 3 day swap out, that's not bad. Only Dell and HP have that level in the US. Granted it costs a bit, but it's worth it. With either company we can get the part within a day regardless and my techs are fast enough to do the swap, run the tests, and get it out to the end user within 10 mins of that finishing, so it's not bad at all.
The only better support we have is all the HP UX servers. But at the cost of those, I wouldn't expect anything less than a blowjob from them.
I get exactly what you're saying. Even though we use Dells here, the first thing I think of visually when I think laptop is a black Thinkpad looking thing.