Lenovo laptops

[Beirut]

I have a chance to get a second-hand Lenovo 0763-C5U with 1GB RAM, XP, and an extra battery for $600Cdn. I've never heard about this brand before, but the reviews, which say it's a ThinkPad knock off made in China, also say it's a very good machine.

Anyone know about these machines?

Thanks.

(* It still has two-years on the warranty.)

[Lemur]

I'm pretty sure Lenovo purchased IBM's laptop division a few years ago, so it isn't a ThinkPad knockoff, it is a ThinkPad.

[Beirut]

So that's a thumbs up from you as far as quality goes? Because I need a new laptop; my IBM 500Mhz ThinkPad with 64 whole megs of RAM ,running Win98 is getting a bit antiquated.

[Lemur]

ThinkPads are supposed to be solidly built, and I haven't heard anything to contradict that lately. Sounds like a good laptop. Although you might get a better deal from an American source, since our dollars are now worth slightly less than the peso.

[Ramses II CP]

Lenovo is a somewhat popular business model in the US. My wife's company has a full battery of them. Generally the video card they come with is, at best, crap or at worst shared, but otherwise it's a solid little machine. Many of them come with a fingerprint logon system that can be a fast, useful addition.

[Whacker]

His Holiness the Great Prosimian is correct. Lenovo is IBM, and IBM still holds a decent sized share in what they sold off, and Lenovo can/still does use the IBM brand(s) and logos.

In terms of hardware, it used to be better 3-4 years back, but then again most other things were in general. I'd say the quality is about 80-90% of what it used to be, which isn't bad. Also you have to remember that 0% of the Stinkpads were built in house, all components were sourced from 3rd parties and assembled by IBM before it was spun off.

On the hardware itself, Thinkpads are not going to be cutting edge at all. It's going to be older, the video cards are going to most always be generic Intel graphics, or extremely low end ATI/Nvidia solutions.

The real strength behind Stinkpads was/(still probably) is the support that you get with it. The drivers are generally slow to be released, but they are almost always going to be very stable, and the known bugs/problems are known about beforehand. Replacing hardware is generally extremely fast and well executed, if you call in a problem and it's determined to be hardware related, you'll get a replacement part ASAP depending on your support plan. This is strongest for large contracts where companies used to buy large inventory and support from IBM/Lenovo, because invariably depending on the size, they'd increase call center capabilities directly along with the contracts, or sometimes even dedicated people to the contract.

For home/personal use, it's going to be ... decent. Nothing terribly special, but it's definitely going to be better than say Dell.

Beirut, my bottom line is that deal is a decent one, you shouldn't be disappointed if you jump on it esp. with the extra battery (provided the batteries aren't already junk and can only hold a 20 minute charge. Just don't expect to be playing any games on it.

[Beirut]

Thanks guys.

The laptop is just for writing and some surfing. I only need a video card that's good enough to play movies once in a while and make the web look good, but it's actually preferable that it's not good enough to play games. Too distracting for a weak willed sot like me.

The machine comes with a dual core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a second extended life battery , a nice case, two years left on the warranty, an absolute ton of software, a wireless card, and the seller is a very reputable fellow (and I know where he lives), so I'm pretty sure I'm going to jump on it.

[TinCow]

My wife and I both own Lenovo 3000 V-series laptops that are about 4 months old. They perform beautifully and we are very fond of them. (Though we did have to instantly wipe them to clear Vista and all that other pre-installed junk off of the HD.)

[Papewaio]

IBMs PC arm was sold off to form Lenovo.

Its the same manufacturers with a different badge.

[Beirut]

The guy is keeping his Lenovo. I can't buy it.

For now I'll keep banging away on my 500Mhz IBM Thinkpadasauraus. (Did I mention it runs Win98 and has 64 whole megs of RAM?) I'll look into a new, bottom of the line Toshiba after New Years. I think some will go for about $500. Bummer part is they all come with Vista now. Gah!

[Lemur]

Just a thought -- that 500mhz laptop might feel mighty spiffy if you formatted it with a Linux distro ...

[TinCow]

Bummer part is they all come with Vista now. Gah!

Don't let that dissuade you. Mine came with Vista and it was completely formatted and a fresh copy of XP was installed on it without a hassle. The Lenovo website has every piece of pre-installed software available for download for both XP and Vista.

[Xiahou]

These seem pretty cool for the ultra-low end budget laptop buyer.

Super small, hours of battery life, and a solid state drive. If Im ever in the market for a laptop, I'll be looking closely at this guy.

[Beirut]

These seem pretty cool for the ultra-low end budget laptop buyer.

Super small, hours of battery life, and a solid state drive. If Im ever in the market for a laptop, I'll be looking closely at this guy.

I coulnd't get your link to work, but I checked out ASUS and if you mean this thing, it looks perfect!
http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...07&modelmenu=1

[Xiahou]

I coulnd't get your link to work, but I checked out ASUS and if you mean this thing, it looks perfect!
http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...07&modelmenu=1

Yup, that's it. I've heard they'll also take an XP install, if their Linux install doesn't work out for you.

Obviously, it has some limitations, but for the portability and price it seems pretty great to me.

[Banquo's Ghost]

The Asus is a lovely thing, to be sure. I had a Sony Vaio CF1 sub notebook for some time and its portability was a great asset.

I hear on the rumour mill that MacWorld 08 may see the launch of a small factor, solid state drive sub-notebook Mac. (Where's the drool smiley...)