I don’t have it, but I’ve heard a lot of raving comments on the ThinkPad. (Also, they seem to work well with Ubuntu if you’re up for that :)

Lenovo is a good brand but you have to consider the tech specs of the device. Make sure that processor speed, RAM, HDD size, optical drive meet your requirements.

Unlike other companies, I am yet to hear anything bad about Lenovo. (if that helps at all)

Lenovo is the Chinese manufacturer for IBM. I am using one right now.
They are fine. I am not demanding and certainly don’t load up the computer with role playing games.

I have a ThinkPad and love it. I work for a tech company and our laptop choices were between a Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo. In the course of about a year I tried all three..because both the Dell (and I had 2 Dell laptops in that time) and the Toshiba laptop had major failures and after the unreliability of both of them (and considering I have a high-travel job where I truly needed a dependable laptop) I took our IT team’s advice and got a Lenovo ThinkPad (I have a nice small X220).

The main reason to go with Lenovo, for me, was their Solid State Drive hard drive. I had 3 massive HD failures in a short period and losing my work data & pictures sucked.
Solid-state storage drives (SSDs) use Flash memory rather than traditional magnetic storage. So they are lighter than traditional drives, use less power and offer improved performance (faster boot times, faster access to stored data). And since they have no moving parts, solid state drives are considered less susceptible to damage or breakdown.

In addition to the SSD hard drive our internal IT support team told me they see failed Dells and Toshibas and HPs every day of the week but it was rare for them to see a Lenovo (even an older one) with a problem. Their anecdotal observation that the Lenovos are more dependable was enough for me.

Now, after all that strong praise I will offer two caveats:
1. Lenovo is not IBM anymore. It’s a company that bought the Lenovo line/name.. So, if you think you’re buying American or buying an IBM product… well, not so much. You can google that for more details..but really, they’re like all other computer manufacturers out there—made in China with components from all around Asia.

2. I had 2 problems with my new Lenovo laptop – first was bad memory right out of the box. (Which caused non-stop blue-screen of death until I took it out, then got replacement RAM)..and about 6 months in I had massive mother-board failure. It was sudden and dramatic—and nearly every component (because it’s one connected internal component including the fan, etc.) had to be replaced. They had a Lenovo/IBM tech come to me, in person, and swap it out with new parts in less than 24 hours. The service was excellent…but still, two major issues with my new laptop in the first year.

They’re not made by IBM. Lenovo purchased IBM’s PC business back in 2005 (1). The ThinkPad’s are (or perhaps ‘were’ at this point) based on the IBM IP Lenovo purchased, the IdeaPad’s are an in-house design.

If I was looking, especially for college, I’d probably check out a IdeaPad Z series which are basically meant to draw in new multimedia users who are looking to save money. I’d definitely check out a ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

The two things I always liked about ThinkPads were the keyboards and their durability. Haven’t really had extended experience with them recently but that’s probably where I’d start if I was looking at them.

Thanks for your opinions so far!
@wonderingwhy I took their little PC Finder test, and my result was an IdeaPad z580. I like the specs.
However, it uses Linpus Linux…which is odd, because I thought that Linux was opensource that anyone could install.
Does anyone know anything about Linpus Linux and how compatible it is?

@Aesthetic_Mess Hopefully someone else can give you some user insight but for whatever this is worth… Linpus is a custom build based on Fedora/Gnome and has been around for about a decade now. It’s got some proprietary stuff in it and is supposed to be light weight for systems that would be bogged down by standard builds. This probably means it’s fast but may be less feature rich than you’re hoping for. I’ve no experience with it that I can recall, but Acer used/uses it a good bit and it’s been tasked to handle tablets, ultra-mini’s, e-readers, tv’s, etc. I’m not certain of this but I suspect you could install Ubuntu if Linpus didn’t meet your expectations, probably at the cost of some speed.

My sister has one that she seems to like. It hasn’t given her any trouble, has decent specs.

I like them. All the laptops in the family ( mine, my brohters, my old one, my grandfathers…and the two my dad uses for work) are pretty awesome!

I picked up mine for $299 at a sale at BestBuy. 64 bit W7, 4GB DDR3 , 320 HD, Dual core intel processor 2.2GHZ

It also has face recognition technology and a fingerprint scanner.

My old old laptop was a toshiba, while it was not a bad choice, it certainly was not as durable as the Lenovos.

NEVER BUY ACER. My brothers old Acer broke within months of purchase.

Budget issues?

A preowned Mac is far superior to any new Windows machine.

@Crashsequence2012 That depends on what you want to do with it. Windows machines tend to offer more power for the price. I don’t know how much of a difference the pre-owned aspect changes things.

More power…

A Hummer H1 may be more powerful than my tweaked Integra but that’s NO guarantee it’s going to provide a more gratifying driving experience.

I was unlucky, but not surprised. Mine was on a special close-out sale. I bought one brand new, still in the box, but it wouldn’t hold a charge, so I took it back and exchanged it for another one.

The one I have now won’t play any videos or YouTube. It simply freezes up a few minutes into the show and won’t play it.

It also had page loading issues. I get most of my magazine reading done while waiting for each link to load. I have used it for several years.

I recognize that this is a lemon, and not all are like this.

P. S. My new laptop, a Toshiba, was delivered Tuesday, and I’ll be switching over to it as soon as it has been programmed. I’m really lucky to live with a computer professional.

@Crashsequence2012 Like I said, that depends on what you want to do with it. I wouldn’t take an Integra, no matter how tweaked, on a deer-hunting trip because I need something with more ground clearance in order to get to my campsite. And I’d not pick a Mac for a gaming machine because of the prohibitive cost of such a thing, compared to a PC counterpart that’s just as good and much less proprietary.

Using a Mac might be a gratifying experience (I’ve used ‘em before, but found no gratification in it), but most people don’t buy computers to experience the OS.

@Aesthetic_Mess Why would they not be able to install it by default if it’s open source? Anyone can install Windows too, yet it still comes preloaded on many laptops.

That said, Linpus is not one of the popular distribution and thus less likely to be satisfying for you. If it comes preinstalled you can expect it to fully work, with the added bonus that in that case also about every other Linux distribution (such as the most popular one, Ubuntu) will also be fully compatible.

As for @Crashsequence2012, recommending an Apple device when @Aesthetic_Mess clearly said that to be beyond the budget is not really helpful…

They are Shitty

I have been more than impressed with the Asus products I have had and both my notebook and desktops never had hardware issues in the 5 years I owned them. That said I recently saw a new Toshiba notebook with a digital hard drive that was wafer thin, feather weight and is up and running in less than 10 seconds…almost instant. Just dazzling performance and I want one!

Lenovo is a big brand and I think you should go for it

@Crashsequence2012

Why do you say Mac is superior? If you mean security wise then today any windows pc is a lot safer than macs.

I think that’s a good one..