last comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ujtrHvOTk

sirsinger wrote:Don't forget that this includes a 3 year warranty from Lenovo. That alone is usually a $80 retail upgrade from a 1 year. I've also always had great experiences with any warranty repair from Lenovo and typically get my laptops back within 72 hours of shipment. (Always keep the hard drive, unless you want it erased.)

P.S. It's an LED screen, not an LCD as written by poster above.

PPS: All "LED" laptop screens and TVs are LCDs with LED backlights.

Lenovo Thinkpads are generally the best. They will outlast any other given brand at the same price point. Having said that, this one's a little long in the tooth...

Yuck. L-series? No rollcage, no thanks. It's like buying a tank with aluminum plating.

These laptops are tanks. If you like to toss your laptop bag around without a care in the world, this is the laptop for you.

Randycpu wrote:PPS: All "LED" laptop screens and TVs are LCDs with LED backlights.

Yep. Only in latest technology articles have they played with individual LEDs as the screen. The pixels are still LCD controlled with a white LED bar illuminating the screen instead of a fluorescent.

The light in my laptop (different brand) is at the bottom of the panel and like most is diffused upwards.

pkphilip wrote:This one is a budget (or cut-cost) version of Thinkpad. I would say the price is warm.
Even the Thinkpad line has different trims as well. The X, T and W series are the best of the best. Then the Edge and SL line, and finally the L line.

Wasn't there also an R-series for a while?

Edit: according to Wikipedia, the L series replaces the old R series

'In the box' section wrote:Lenovo ThinkPad L512

hmmm.

Randycpu wrote:Lenovo Thinkpads are generally the best. They will outlast any other given brand at the same price point. Having said that, this one's a little long in the tooth...

Not quite so long in the tooth as the T60s last year, but then, the T60s were off-lease refurbs (more vetting but lacking the swanky warranty) for less than half the price, came with a docking station, and were T-series instead of L, as mentioned above (if that really makes such a difference?).

Dhraakellian wrote:Wasn't there also an R-series for a while?

Still is. They're the weenie ones, though not quite the red-headed step children that the Edge "Thinkpads" are.

Overall, the best computer deal I have ever seen on Woot! I own an IT business and I always recommend Lenovo Thinkpads as the best laptop you can buy. Don't confuse these with the cheaper Edge or G lines of Lenovos. This Thinkpad is much higher quality and is almost bullet proof. Of the hunderds of laptops I have worked on, never have I had a Thinkpad fail. HP, Dell, and Gateways are garbage compared to these. I don't need a laptop, but I am tempted to buy one at this price. Well done Woot!

Shinespark wrote:Yuck. L-series? No rollcage, no thanks. It's like buying a tank with aluminum plating.

Still a great deal though. The roll cage design is genius, but it will cost you twice as much. Does everyone really need the added strength for double the price? I think not. At least these are 10x better than the Edge series at about the same price.

"built like a tank" "spilled water on it and it still works"...well, considering my experience, get it in writing. My college age twins each had a ThinkPad, and at different times, different circumstances, both had cats that tipped over glasses of water nearby. Fried both laptops. The company wanted $750 each just to open them up and fix them, not counting parts. I'd pass. One can replace laptops cheaper than that.

Pfft, get this trash out of my face. I don't get out of bed for anything less than a T-series laptop.

For the discriminating consumer, this won't cut the mustard. May I point out:

* The keyboard layout isn't true Thinkpad. Though it has angled keys, I doubt it's the same quality in terms of rigidity and response.

* The chassis is made of plastic, not coated magnesium.

* Though I haven't cracked it open, I'm guessing that the L Series isn't as tech friendly on the inside. With the T-series, every part inside is replaceable and (somewhat) easy to access.

* Most importantly, I don't see a keyboard light! How am I going to type in dark conference rooms without a keyboard light?!?

Be a snob like me, say nay to Lenovo's cost-cutting attempt!

<3 my thinkpad, and the warranty is amazing.

I had this one break twice (was the same issue, ended up being a faulty logic board) which at first was annoying, but when I called the warranty service both times they overnighted me a box (for free) with another box inside to overnight my computer back to them (also free) and had it back to me within two days.

Usually anything involving computer repairs is a real headache, but that experience was great.

They also don't feel cheap like most other laptops these days and the trackpoint is great once ya get used to it- I can't even use touchpads anymore.

gobaers wrote:
* Most importantly, I don't see a keyboard light! How am I going to type in dark conference rooms without a keyboard light?!?

You're supposed to be looking at screen instead of the keys as you type.

gobaers wrote:Pfft, get this trash out of my face. I don't get out of bed for anything less than a T-series laptop.
...
Be a snob like me, say nay to Lenovo's cost-cutting attempt!

I like the cut of your jib!

Shinespark wrote:Still is. They're the weenie ones, though not quite the red-headed step children that the Edge "Thinkpads" are.

Mines an edge. They get a bad rap. Besides the faulty logic board which could happen to any computer regardless of price, it's been amazing. Very sturdy, has a trackpoint, solid feeling keyboard, etc.

It was 539 and came with a i5-2410M, 6gb of ram, 15.6" antiglare screen, and a 320 gb 7200 rpm hd.

Remind me what makes edges so bad?

does this come with Microsoft Office?

My R60 is still working just fine for me after over 5 years, and I got it from the outlet. Have had zero issues, only modification was an extra 2 gig dimm. The plastic body has been just fine (and I'm not particularly gentle with it).

Dianrez wrote:"built like a tank" "spilled water on it and it still works"...well, considering my experience, get it in writing. My college age twins each had a ThinkPad, and at different times, different circumstances, both had cats that tipped over glasses of water nearby. Fried both laptops. The company wanted $750 each just to open them up and fix them, not counting parts. I'd pass. One can replace laptops cheaper than that.

Yeah, we spilled "water" on our IBM built back in college... the fuzzy, fermented, hoppy kind of "water." So, we took it apart and set it out in front of the window in the sun, and 2 days later, we were back in business.

Hmm, maybe your twins were telling the truth and it was really water!

kaznoinam763 wrote:does this come with Microsoft Office?

Free office suite here.

That is to say, my guess is probably not—or a trial version if anything.

Then again, I tend to gleefully reject the Microsoft EULA on any computer I purchase and gleefully throw in install media for my current favorite Linux distro, so I don't have the most experience with what usually comes preinstalled.

edit: erm… what they said:

ThunderThighs wrote:No, it does not. It may come with a time-limited trial but not the full package.

Aaaanyway

In terms of LibreOffice (forked from OpenOffice after the Oracle buyout), it's not exactly the same as MS Office, but the two do have fairly relative feature parity, strengths, and weaknesses, depending what you're looking for. (And at least one commentator seems to think that LibreOffice Writer comes out ahead of MS Word.)

Oh, and did I mention that LibreOffice also happens to be Free, both as in free beer and free speech? It's even in the name!

I have had two components replaced on my old R60, battery (reasonable), and the cooling fan. However that is virtually nothing for the amount I've used it.

nomadxxi wrote:I let the baby bang the crap out of the keyboard, no need to worry.

Wrong.
There *IS* need to worry.

I am an IBM/Lenovo repairman.

I recently had to do some work on an Lenovo Thinkpad because an annoying toddler tore one of the keys off the keyboard, and also dropped the laptop off the counter and put a dent/crack in the corner of the keyboard bezel and knocked the LCD cable loose. The owner told me previously, his kid had cracked the LCD too.

PEOPLE!!! NO, your kids are *NOT* cute when they do this kind of stuff!!!
If you can't keep your kids from getting their dirty paws off your important stuff, then keep your important stuff away from the kids so we (and you) don't have to deal with preventable damage!

note2001 wrote:Hm. Tempting - I have a girl starting college in the fall and this will certainly hold up to the transport and abuse better than my son's HP ever did.

My sister annihilated her T60 and its two replacements. Now she's got an X201 and the screen and keyboard both have been replaced. All repaired under warranty.

I have no idea.

Dhraakellian wrote:Aaaanyway

In terms of LibreOffice (forked from OpenOffice after the Oracle buyout), it's not exactly the same as MS Office, but the two do have fairly relative feature parity, strengths, and weaknesses, depending what you're looking for. (And at least one commentator seems to think that LibreOffice Writer comes out ahead of MS Word.)

Oh, and did I mention that LibreOffice also happens to be Free, both as in free beer and free speech? It's even in the name!

I wish for the day when Microsoft office is outclassed by open source alternatives like libreoffice in acceptance and design like how Firefox is to IE. However as of right now Microsoft office is superior to libreoffice in every aspect.

Libreoffice is not even a viable replacement b/c still consistently has trouble rendering word and excel documents correctly which can cost grades and money for students and businesses.

Save time, money, headaches and buy Microsoft office from your school or workplace which almost always offer licenses for free or for deep discounts.

note2001 wrote:Hm. Tempting - I have a girl starting college in the fall and this will certainly hold up to the transport and abuse better than my son's HP ever did.

Note that the specs do not mention a webcam. If you plan to Skype, I'd check this out.

No HDMI port = Dinosour

I see many are lauding this deal...and if its at all at the same level as the Lenovo X120 I bought on Moofi a couple weeks ago, then go! Very impressed so far with it, its quality build and the punch for the $$ paid.

I had one of these for 6 weeks and completely hated the design. The power charger on the side was/is a horrible design for a laptop. Over the weeks, it kept bumping into things and I can already tell that the charging unit connection on the mother board was already starting to become loose. The laptop is not light at all and is a bit on the hot side if you do a lot of things on your 'lap'

note2001 wrote:Hm. Tempting - I have a girl starting college in the fall and this will certainly hold up to the transport and abuse better than my son's HP ever did.

I have a T510 and commute to school. The size is huge for travel, but it is worth it! I carry it with me most everyday even though I have an iPad as well. I have 1.5 years left on my warranty, no need for it yet.

My husband chose the T510 for me over the Dells. He 'built' it on their site and the SATA drive was a must. He had a Thinkpad at work, dropped it down the stairs and was still able to recover all of the data from the hard drive.

As part of his work he does data recovery for his clients. After that event, he insists on SATA drives for everyone in our family when he helps them purchase a laptop.

He has a Thinkpad at his current job as well. Not sure on the model. I know he would love one of his own for personal use. Just poor timing for the budget or I would snatch this up in a second!

sirsinger wrote:
P.S. It's an LED screen, not an LCD as written by poster above.

Actually it IS an LCD screen with an LED backlight (as opposed to a CCFL backlight). The distinction is very important because you can now buy monitors with millions of tiny LED's and no backlight. Sony is going with LEDs in its line of professional video monitors. We might as well start using the correct terms now.

I have a Thinkpad Edge E520 with very similar specs (in fact almost the same). I also use a T410 for work. It is by far the best laptop I have ever owned. The battery life is just awesome, it doesn't get extremely hot on my lap and the keyboard is just excellent.

The one thing I don't like is, the function key and CTRL key are in a different location.

Another selling point - it has Windows 7 Professional, not just the teasing home edition!

A new Thinkpad with a 3-year warranty? When I'm in the market for a laptop investment? That can also play Skyrim, albeit at low settings?

Sold. In for one.

This computer has more horsepower than all of my others combined (two netbooks and a desktop from, like, 2007. Seriously, it has an AGP slot).

it does not have an hdmi port.that makes it a no no.

albuquerquemat wrote:Note that the specs do not mention a webcam. If you plan to Skype, I'd check this out.

Webcam: Low Light Sensitive

I love how Lenova sticks to their guns with their ugly design, because it works and works well. I love the Thinkpads and I'm goign to ask my wife if I can have it!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-246-328

Don't know if there's a huge difference between these but this one seems to have better specs for the same price

sightpicture wrote:Or is it LED backlit?

Your right- it's LED backlit. OLED screend are really uncommon, and a screen that size would make this leptop about $2000

Is this the L512, L520, or the T520?

My company offers 2 standard laptops to the employees, both Lenovo models (T520 and the T420S). They're indeed built like tanks.

I've had experience with the Thinkpad line going all the way back to 1997 as a use (pharma field sales rep) and then as a reseller rep.

I was interested in seeing if quality would suffer when IBM sold to Lenovo, but it would appear that this is one example where things did not get worse when a division was sold to another company.

This is a KILLER deal. We're still paying out the nose for these.

D