Cheap(?) Lenovo X61s

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| Many people on this list seem to be big fans of the ThinkPads.
| RedFlagDeals posted what sounds to be a very good deal today (valid
| for about a week):

This looks like a very good deal.

I suspect that they will be gone well before the week is up.

| http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/alldeals/#e36236
| 
| One laptop ($570), one tablet ($700), both with 12.1" screens, and
| very light.  Price comes with a low end configuration and XP, but at
| least it has a Core 2 Duo LV.

I bought an x61t this summer.  Mine is higher end than the $700 model
(larger battery, longer warranty, higher resolution screen, blue
tooth, ...).  For what it's worth, here are my thoughts.

At the price of the x61s, why buy a netbook?

- the x61s has a larger screen with more pixels

- the processor is a lot more powerful
  + more speed
  + x86_64
  + virtualization hardware (note: most reasonably-priced Intel-based
    notebooks don't have this)

- x61 supports 4G of RAM; netbooks top out at 2G typically.

- The box feels much better built than any netbook that I've tried.
  I've not tried that many.

- I've upgraded the RAM and the hard disk.  Not too hard.  That isn't
  true of all netbooks

On the other hand, a 7" netbook is qualitatively smaller and lighter
(too bad about the bezel).

When Intel introduces more appropriate chipsets for netbooks, I think
that they will be a lot better.  The power used by current chipsets is
out of whack.

Other things:

I'm not sure if battery life is as good as you'd like.  Mine has a
bigger battery so I cannot say.

I don't (yet?) use the tablet capability enough to justify it.  This is
probably my fault -- I haven't spent a lot of time to make it more
useful (eg. fussing with something to make the extra physical buttons
work).  Maybe it is more useful in Vista.

My notebook seems heavier than I had hoped.  The large battery is
partly to blame.  I suspect (don't know) that the tablet capability
adds weight.

Installing Linux was mostly easy.  Lots of others have already done
it.

I like the trackpoint mouse-substitute much better than I expected,
but I had fairly low expectations.  My (adult) kids both prefer
trackpoints.

The screen isn't as bright as I'd like.  I don't know if that is
because:
- I've not adjusted it properly in Linux
- the provision for stylus sensing (a coating?) makes it dimmer
- my particular unit is defective

Dealing with Lenovo was pretty bad.  They shipped the wrong notebook
to me not once, but twice!  It took weeks to get the right one.
Actually, they took my order but oversold that model so they gave me a
much better one instead (x60t became an x61t); that was sorted out
before the first (wrong) shipment.  So some of their mistakes are in
the customers favour -- they are not evil, just inefficient.

I found that I was ordering from a call centre a few hundred metres
from my home.  I didn't even know that it existed.
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