[Thinkpad] Thinkpad E or L series thoughts/experiences?

[Robert Terzi]

I'm once again in the position of needing to recommend a laptop for a relative with a limited budget.  While a used T-series makes sense us to Thinkpad fans, it's not something she would consider.

The E and L series at first glance seem to be in her budget and comparable to what she's looking at in Best Buy/Microcenter.  It checks off some of her wish list items like physical buttons and a numeric keypad.

Looking at the current front page deals on lenovo.com, the starting price difference between a T580 ($980) and an E580 ($540) is $440.

I haven't dug into the details yet to figure out where the cost differences and quality differences really kick in.  I'll be doing some research, but I figured some of you might have already done the analysis and caught some gotchas I might miss in my first pass.

Thanks for any insights you can provide,
--Rob

[STeve Andre']

Post by Robert Terzi
I'm once again in the position of needing to recommend a laptop for a
relative with a limited budget.  While a used T-series makes sense us
to Thinkpad fans, it's not something she would consider.
The E and L series at first glance seem to be in her budget and
comparable to what she's looking at in Best Buy/Microcenter.  It
checks off some of her wish list items like physical buttons and a
numeric keypad.
Looking at the current front page deals on lenovo.com, the starting
price difference between a T580 ($980) and an E580 ($540) is $440.
I haven't dug into the details yet to figure out where the cost
differences and quality differences really kick in.  I'll be doing
some research, but I figured some of you might have already done the
analysis and caught some gotchas I might miss in my first pass.
Thanks for any insights you can provide,
--Rob

I wouldn't get either series.  Lenovo has come out with cheaper laptops
because
of Dell and HP.  The low end units are in general, crap.

Think about it: that $440 savings has got to come at the cost of
quality.  They're
shaving every penny they  can, and that hurts the reliability of the
machine.  I
had two of the "i" series thinkpads and they each required several trips
inside to
fix things like broken connectors.  The 1480i had a buzzing sound on the
audio
which I eventually (mostly) fixed with some capacitors, but it wasn't fun.

The quality of all hardware is diminished.  All.  Lenovo is still better
than just about
everything else however, which is why I still like them.  But buying a
cheaper unit
is worse than a used thinkpad, I think.  Sorry.  Only a few of my
friends have ever
listened to me, and many have had various disasters over the years.

--STeve Andre'