Lenovo's ThinkPad T500 gets previewed

Now that you're well acquainted with the specifications of Lenovo's ThinkPad T500, there are only a couple more hoops to leap through before pulling the trigger or calmly placing the mouse on the ground and walking away. Here to help you inch closer to one option or the other is NotebookReview, which has procured one of these rigs and given it a thorough inspection. Fans of the trademark design (read: plain, simple, boring / beautiful) will find oodles to love, and build quality (overall) was seen as satisfactory. Unfortunately, a good bit of flex was noticed in the keyboard, which could be a serious issue for fans of previous units. There's plenty more discussion where this came from, so head on down and give the full writeup a look if you're remotely interested in bringing the T500 into your loving abode.

[Colin Potter @ Aug 20th 2008 2:04AM]

why does it have a self destruct button that can be pressed so easily?

[Jon @ Aug 20th 2008 2:05AM]

I can't believe they skimped on a keyboard.

Shame on Lenovo.

[msalivar @ Aug 20th 2008 2:26AM]

They'll fix it, just wait til the *01 models. I'm sure it's just a mounting issue, and one which can probably be fixed with some spacers in key positions under the keyboard. Some of that foamy double sided tape, maybe.

[Fara @ Aug 20th 2008 8:27AM]

Nah, they skimped on the backplate for the keyboard,making it lighter. However, you can just switch they keyboard to the old T61 one. Kevin (writer of the preview) did just that.

[Kyanges @ Aug 20th 2008 2:13AM]

I almost can't see the reflection in that screen. *Sniff*. I'm so happy.

[bebop @ Aug 20th 2008 2:17AM]

Thinkpads seem to have lately transformed into a giant black pillow with this itty-bitty keyboard in the middle.

[msalivar @ Aug 20th 2008 2:24AM]

Well, consider that the X200, T400, and T500 all use the same, full size keyboard. Unfortunately, until you get a big enough chassis to house a numpad (at about 17"), there's really not much to do. Maybe on the 15" they could have moved the arrow keys, home, insert, etc to their more natural position. I doubt it would be worth the extra manufacturing costs, though.

[zargon @ Aug 20th 2008 9:08AM]

Actually, the X61 uses a slightly compressed version of the keyboard that the 14" and 15" T61's use. I don't see this changing from the X200 line.

[msalivar @ Aug 20th 2008 10:02AM]

No, it did change. They took full advantage of going widescreen and were able to fit the full size T keyboard in.

[eatbuckshot @ Aug 20th 2008 4:12AM]

D: where's the WUXGA

[Hwalker84 @ Aug 20th 2008 11:03PM]

Why is this thing getting Previewed (meaning its not out) when I have two of these sitting in my office for almost a week now?

[JoeStalin @ Aug 20th 2008 7:56AM]

LED Screens. That's what I want to know all about; I'm tired of having the most awesome business laptop in the world only to have a mediocre screen with shitty brightness.

[Mark @ Aug 20th 2008 8:41AM]

I can't wait until they go back to standard resolutions, then I can go back to buying them again.

[Jeff @ Aug 20th 2008 10:20AM]

I used to buy Thinkpads exclusively but with the lower quality plastic, weak mouse buttons and weak trackpad Lenovo uses compared to REAL IBM Thinkpads and the fact they run Vista now, I'm going to stick with Macbooks and Mac OS for the forseeable future. I created an XP virtual machine under VMWare fusion and it RUNS faster under the VM than it does on the native machine!!! One of my engineer's said that's because XP/Vista use a very small IO buffer but MacOS X uses a much bigger buffer.

P.S. Do you think the Chinese are putting anything in these boxes that allows them to remotely spy on us or steal or data?

[Not again @ Aug 20th 2008 4:35PM]

Jeff,

Are you that guy David that was discriminating Lenovo in the other thread ? ah yes I guess you are.

lol poor you, Lenovo makes one of the best laptops out there. It seems like you're the only one moaning here. Even computer experts like Cnet, laptop magazine and that guy who did assess the X300 are praising Lenovo for its strict high quality build and , sorry Lenovo is a privately owned company, they don't do those low life things.

Anyway back to the topic, I really hope Lenovo can actually be the first to make a laptop with a truly LED screen.

[C4IV5 @ Aug 20th 2008 11:30PM]

I will buy when they make it up to the T1000 model.