- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Slight decline in build quality"
Pros: Still probably the best available
Cons: Weight? Nothing else of significance
Summary: I used to sell used govt surplus laptops by the hundreds and IBM were the best survivors by far. Tied for second and third best were always Apple and Toshiba. This new Lenevo, to me seems to show only a slight downturn in overall build qualtiy over the old IBM's. The plastic seems to be nearly identical, screen hinges are now larger but are no longer steel but aluminum. The case can be slightly flexed on this unit, rather than feeling like a cement brick like the T-30. This could be becuase it's quite a bit bigger and the flex is more noticeable, but at any rate it is still quite firm feeling all around, certainly nothing that concerns me. The keyboard is still excellent but the trackpad is smaller than the T-30 and I felt it needed to be bigger. The clickers are not as nice feeling as the T-30 either and are not as nicely shaped, the lower clickers are not as precise on the click feel.Some nice touches that we have become accustomed too on the IBM's are absent like the red stripes on the clickers, no stress ridges on the bottom surfaces, the power supply looks and feels a bit cheaper than the T-30 unit. Despite these very "picky" observations, I like this laptop alot. The screen is at least as good (brighter too) as my Ti-book, it runs quiet and cool under all conditions. My only real complaint is that if feels quite a bit heavier on my lap. That... and the fact that I have grown fond of OSX is why I think I'm going to trade it in on a new Macbook pro. Seriously though, if you don't mind an extra pound or two, you can't go wrong with this unit, I think it's still clearly one of the absolute, best-built notebooks you can buy.
