Lenovo Laptops

[yak.h'cir]

I'm currently deciding whether to get a new laptop now or wait till September. I can get by fine without one until September, but if there's not much likely to change between now and then I might as well get one now!

I'm currently looking at;

Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (Santa Rosa)
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 CPU (800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache),
2GB (2x1GB) RAM,
160GB SATA 5400RPM Hard Drive,
Dual-Layer DVD Burner,
nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M 128MB Graphics,
14.1" Widescreen LCD (WXGA+ 1440 x 900),
Bluetooth,
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi,
Windows Vista Ultimate, 5.3LB

Currently retails for just under 900 pounds over here. Is there a general opinion on these laptops?

I'll be using the laptop for a fair amount of photo processing and a little gaming here and there. I travel a bit so size is a limiting factor. Will the graphics limit me here/should I be looking towards a better model?

Thank you for any thoughts!

 

[kbc]

No, that's a pretty good spec. At work, we've ordered 2 Lenovos and although completely different model. They are well built and very solid, they came with nice screens too!

14.1" is a good middle-ground for what you want it to do, especially at 1440x900. 13.3" might be portable but the resolution would be limited to 1280x800, which may be a little small for photo processing - I've opted for the new Dell XPS M1330 however. Although you can always hook it to a larger TFT. I can't comment on the graphics card - I've no idea about the one configured in your quote.

The T7300 is the best value for money Santa Rosa core at 2.0GHz, T7500 is rated at 2.2GHz but is considerably more expensive and has the same L2 cache as the one you mentioned. For £900 including Vista Ultimate? That's one hell of a bargain! You could always consider a 7200RPM hard drive just to make it that much faster. What battery size are you getting with this?

 

[yak.h'cir]

Good to hear! Thank you for the reply.

I think I'll be going for the 9cell. I take it that this one sticks out the computer a little bit (which would obviously be a shame)...

I've just been doing some reading and it seems a new model is just about to be released which ticks all my boxes! T61p which has an upgraded roll cage, much better graphics card and UWB (wireless port replicator!!!!). It's due for release on July 17th so I imagine it should be easy to get hold of one come September.

I think this one will be worth waiting for so I'll be sticking with the original plan and exercise some self control until then.

The bargain price is most likely due to my current location (Canada), I've yet to look up what it costs back home in the UK!