New Thinkpad T60

I recently replaced my Dell Inspiron 8100 with a Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad T60. It's been a few months, so I thought I'd share my experience.

One thing I really like is the community behind these machines. All over the net there are zealots and enthusiasts obsessed with Thinkpads. Lenovo also blogs about their PCs. They write about the design of their products and discuss improvements that they are considering based on community feedback. Cool.

A little on the specifics:
1. Noise
My Dell sounded like a 757 getting ready for take-off if I was doing anything CPU intensive. The Thinkpad never gets above a "wurrrr" sound...it is amazing quiet even during hardcore CPU/Graphics/Hard drive usage.

2. Speed
Yeah it's fast. The Intel Core2 Duo's are incredible.

3. Ergonomics (Keyboard/Mouse)
Everyone goes on about the touchpoint mouse...and for good reason. I didn't think I'd ever use it, but I will not go back to using the trackpad now. The keyboard is also very nice. It's always hard to talk about the feel of a keyboard/mouse, but the keyboard just feels like how I would want it to feel. Very nice.

4. Display
This is one area that I think is a bit lacking. I wish it would just get a little brighter. In a very bright room the display appears a bit dull. Side to side with an HP home entertainment series laptop it gets blown away. But it is still crisp and in most lighting situations it is sufficient.

5. Form factor
It's all business. This thing wasn't designed for the japanese schoolgirl. I like it (the computer, that is)... It is amazingly sturdy for a laptop. The display is on sturdy metal hinges - and by looking and feeling you know it's solid.

6. Battery
I splurged for the 9-cell and I'm getting about 3 hours 10 minutes out of it. Some will say that you can push it to 4 hours...but that would be on the lowest brightness setting which I can't stand.

Overall I'm very happy with the purchase. It was a slight more expensive than a comparable Dell unit, but I'm counting on this laptop to see me through a few years at least.