It has tons of unglamorous but very handy features, such as a REAL keyboard which is pure joy to type on rather than a trendy & toy-like "chiclet" style keyboard, a rough-textured touchpad which is actually a joy to use even for someone like me who normally hates touchpads and prefers external mice, the famous red rubber pointer stick for precise cursor control, etc. The anti-glare matte screen is gorgeous, I think I will never go back to a glossy screen again.
One unexpected bonus: the speakers flank each side of the keyboard sound GREAT! No, they wouldn't come close to the output and stereo separation of external speakers, but for onboard speakers they are more than good enough to supply some low/moderate-volume background music. Of course, the tradeoff is that there is no numeric keypad...which some folks may miss but others may prefer.
Unlike the Apples and most "ultrabooks" or even the cheaper "ultraportable laptops" this baby is ingeniously designed to be very easily taken apart and have individual components upgraded or replaced by the end user like the DVD drive, primary HDD, slot for an optional SM Drive, etc. Instead of having to ship it back to the factory to have such upgrades/repairs done by the manufacturer for an arm and a leg, you can just buy the components for pocket change at an Amazon or Newegg and do it yourself in a heartbeat. Beautiful!
So basically, while having all of the ease of use that any Windows 7 machine today provides, Thinkpads are ideal for those users who like to tinker or are willing to learn how to DIY stuff (and it's very easy, really...that's what Google and YouTube are for). I got mine from Lenovo direct with a sale/discount code found on dealnews dot com for about six hundred fifty dollars including shipping and taxes. Just put in a Samsung 830 Series MZ-7PC128N/AM 128 GB 2.5 Inch SATA III MLC Internal SSD Laptop Kit with Norton Ghost 15(a hundred twenty on sale from newegg) and an extra Corsair 4 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9, did a clean reinstall of Windows7, and this thing is now stupid fast...10 second boot up times, everything is lightning quick. Also got a Lenovo 40Y8725 Thinkpad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapterso that if I want to have the best of both worlds, I can use the DVD bay for the original 500GB hard drive to bring along massive data and media, on top of the 128gb Samsung SSD for the OS and applications.
If you want a sturdy and practical TOOL rather than a ditsy TOY to show off and impress ditsy people, Thinkpads are the way to go!
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Heads up on the T520 -it does NOT come standard with an eSata port as advertised on the Lenovo website. Lenovo.com shows pictures of the T520 which clearly indicate an eSata port on the left side near the front, which they also describe as a USB/eSata combo port. I just purchased a T520 direct from Lenovo, with the 2.5 Ghz Corei5 2520M with the standard Intel HD3000 graphics, but without the additional discrete graphics upgrade. Instead of a USB/eSata combo port, mine came with a USB only port. At casual glance it doesn't look like a USB only jack but actually looks like an eSata port, until you either try to plug in an eSata cable or look really closely where you'll see little plastic stubs on the inner sides of this larger than normal port which prevent an eSata cable from being plugged in. According to Lenovo tech support the T520 does not come with an eSata port unless you order the model which has the upgraded discrete video hardware. This is apparently noted in the details of the PDF tech spec which is downloadable from their website. In other words, Lenovo is falsely advertising the T520, as the pictures which show the eSata port do not indicate that it is an upgrade option, and then hiding behind the fine print in a separate support doc. Very misleading and very disappointing. Otherwise, it's a decent machine, just completely lacking in a high speed external port for data backups.Best Deals for Thinkpad T520 15.6" 500GB 4GB
I paid $535 for a refurb, a much needed upgrade from my T61. The I5-2520M @ 2.50 GHz CPU and 8 GB memory make a huge difference as I no longer have to shut down the machine every few hours because I run out of memory. Also, I got Win 7 Pro 64-bit and a 500 GB drive and I needed a firewire port to transfer digital video from the camcorder, but don't have USB 3.I have 3 USB 2 ports and they are ALL on the left side. That's particularly inconvenient for me since we have two people sharing a table, with the printer and other accessories in the middle and I'm on the left side. The T61 had USB on each side.
I was very surprised to see the LOW resolution on the T520.
My T61 (5 year old model) fit a lot more on the same size LCD and I had ASSUMED that they were all the same or better. This is causing a bit of a problem as I often cannot see the entire drop down menus in certain applications without resizing windows and/or scrolling. So now I'm in the market for an external monitor.
For the money it's definitely a great notebook and I've been very happy with the support at the Lenovo support forum in the past. After 5 years of owning T61s I've never had to ship one in for repairs. The first one had a motherboard failure in 1/09 and I replaced it with a refurb T61.
Over the years I went through several fans, keyboards and a track pad (spilled a glass of tea) for the T61. First I salvaged parts from the old T61, then I had to purchase parts and they were inexpensive and while I'm certainly not a technician, I had no problem switching out parts myself and cleaning the dog hair and dust out of the fan periodically with the help of free how-to videos online.
I live in the high desert without A/C or swamp coolers, my computer is on all day and I use it extensively. Last summer I had overheating problems with the T61 a few times and I started raising it off the table a little and a USB fan helped cool it.
I LOVE the feel of the new keyboard. Don't know if it's actually a different mechanism from the T61 keyboard or whether the old one just got worn out, but this keyboard is fantastic!
I'll be very happy if the T520 holds up as well as the T61.
I like the discounts for the refurbs and bought the 3 yr SquareTrade warranty (cheaper at Amazon than at SquareTrade). Also, I noticed some 1 star T520 reviews at Amazon regarding Lenovo repairs (or NON repairs), so I think the warranty is an good investment as my personal experiences with SquareTrade have been excellent.
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