Re: Still has various faults
When I purchased my T61 in November, there was an option for both 14" and 15" 4:3 displays.
I haven't really had an issue with where the ports are. I do engineering and programing work on mine, so don't really need the "consumer" functions like audio/video. Most I have had plugged in are the usb programmers and software dongles.
It does have firewire, and there is DVI in the expansion port on the bottom.. Bummer that the docking bay that brings it out is another $300. (There is probably even Line In on that port.. There are a lot of pins...)
I went with the cheaper integrated graphics.. Not really because I'm cheap. (heck I bought a T61) but the battery life goes down pretty fast with the nVidia chip. That being said, I dropped the CD-RW/DVD (didn't even want the dvd burner.) for an ultrabay battery and put the bigger 7cell main battery in. Which gives me ~6hours off the plug (with moderate usage (eg only 1 radio on, display less then 50% brightness, audio muted, processor speed set to lower)
The really great feature that ElReg missed was that the thing isn't loaded with piles of crap software. (Who needs 300 sample games that expire in 20 days?)
My complaints?:
The 3 button mouse I have yet to actually get to be three buttons.. The Middle button just makes the thumb-knob act like a scroll wheel.. Handy, but not a middle click to be seen for that mouse button. Only way that I have gotten a middle click is to remap the lower right mouse buttons to middle click.. Bah.
My only other complaint is that the display brightness adjustment takes 2 hands.. (Fn on the Left, Pgup/Pgdn in the top right.) Hard to dial the brightness down when settling down in bed to finish that late night C code.
Huge Benefits?
Lenovo still publishes complete teardown directions to get to every little piece internal to the laptop, Including clear directions on how to replace duff parts.
For me, the Battery life.
And that it's small enough (14" widescreen) to fit easily in my pack.
Things that would be cool to add..
Using the Intel Turbo Memory. (which is useless in XP) as just a spare gig of flash storage, handy place to drop movies so they don't access the HD when watching. (Better battery life)