ThinkPad T Series

History

IBM introduced the T Series as part of their ThinkPad brand in 2000. The laptop was meant to cater to users working with multiple networks and in different environments. This resulted in the development of the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem. From the time of its inception, the series was designed to balance speed and mobility. Despite a 14.1” screen, similar to desktops at the time, the titanium composite body on the laptop was designed to keep the weight as low as possible. Users were also given options to swap components for mobility, like a DVD player, writeable CD drive or numeric keypads.

The ThinkPad T20 was released by IBM as the successor to the ThinkPad 600 laptops. Despite the weight of 2.1 kg (4.6 lb), the T20 had a 14.1-inch (360 mm) screen making it the lightest laptop offering with that screen size. With the addition of an internal 8x DVD-ROM drive, the weight remained as low as 2.4 kg (5.2 lb).

In October 2000, the ThinkPad T20 was upgraded and released as the ThinkPad T21 laptop with the Intel Mobile Pentium III (800 MHz) CPU. The 14.1” TFT display offered a higher resolution of 1400x1050. The hard disk space offered was a 32 GB – high for the time.

Further minor refinements were made to the T2X series resulting in the T22 and finally in 2002 with the T23 a Pentium III-M 1.13 GHz "Tualatin" having 128 MB RAM and a 30 GB hard drive.

The ThinkPad T30 was released in May 2002, with options for the Intel Mobile Pentium 4-M processor with the Intel 845MP Mobile Chipset. Additional options included the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 video controller with 16 MB graphics memory, a 14.1” TFT display with a resolution of 1400×1050, and 1 GB PC2100 RAM. This was complemented by a 60 GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, making it a powerful laptop.

Announced in March 2003, the ThinkPad T40p represented the first in the T Series’ ‘performance’ class of laptops. The ThinkPad T40p offered ATI Mobility 9000 with 64 MB VRAM, a 14.1” TFT display with 1400×1050 resolution, a maximum of 2 GB PC2100 RAM, and a 60 GB hard disk. The design was followed by the T41 and T41p and the T42 and T42p (ATI Mobility 7500, 9600, and FireGL T2), with almost complete parts interchangeability, except for the fan (normal or p-series), keyboard (14.1" or 15"), screen (14.1" or 15"), and screen inverter.

Launched in April 2005, the ThinkPad T43 and T43p laptops were the last T Series laptops manufactured for IBM. The major improvement was a move to lower-cost DDR2 RAM and a bus speed increase from 400 MHz to 533 MHz. The CPU also was the first to have the XD bit, making it the first Thinkpad that could run Windows 8.0 and 8.1.

In December 2004 Lenovo of China announced the acquisition of the IBM PC division including the ThinkPad brand (at the time, 40% of the PC division was working in China.) ThinkPads were being made by Lenovo's arch-rival Great Wall Technology.

Lenovo released the ThinkPad T60 and T60p laptops in February 2006. While designed by and manufactured by Lenovo, the T60 and the T60p still featured the IBM logo on the machines. In May 2007, the T61 and T61p laptops slowly phased out IBM logos in favor of the ThinkPad logo. It also was the first T Series notebook to adopt widescreen resolution as a mainstream option; the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio screens was also offered as an alternative at the time but mass industry adoption of the widescreen standard meant that it was the last ThinkPad of its kind to use the 4:3 standard.

The naming convention for the T Series was changed by Lenovo following the release of the ThinkPad T400 and T500 in July 2008. The Txxp models (like the T61p) were replaced by Lenovo’s ThinkPad W Series laptops. Designed as mobile workstations, the W Series grew to become Lenovo’s line of performance-oriented laptops. The T Series remains Lenovo’s premier line of laptops, aimed at corporate and enterprise users.

Specifications

Recent 15" models available from Lenovo are:

Recent 14" models are:

Reviews

PCWorld said that the ThinkPad T20 “packs a bigger screen, a more comfortable keyboard, and a larger set of useful features into a smaller package than any of its competitors.” The Web site epinions.com said that the ThinkPad T20 was “worth the wait” giving it 4.5 stars out of 5.

In a review of the ThinkPad T60, Notebook Review called the T Series laptops the “flagship of the ThinkPad brand”, aimed at corporate professionals. Some of the T Series characteristics as listed by notebookreview.com include durability, security, usability, and performance.

The ThinkPad T410 was awarded 4.5 out of 5 stars by Notebook Review upon release. The review noted the centering of the screen, eliminating the thick bezel on one side and the thin bezel on the other. The review indicated that the pros were the speed, battery life, and wide selection of ports. The cons were minor distortions on the screen when flexed, and the high pitched fan. WIRED also reviewed the T410 laptop positively, saying that “Lenovo’s thoughtful ThinkPad is a near-perfect machine”.

The PC Advisor review of the ThinkPad T510 called the lack of alterations to the traditional design a good thing. It also highlighted the professional appearance and ‘sturdy build quality’, indicating that this makes the laptop stand out from others in the market.

The T420 and T520 laptops were different from their predecessors mainly through an upgrade to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors. The T420 received a total score of 85% from the Notebook Check web site. The fan noise was noticeably reduced, as indicated by a reviewer from PCWorld. The T Series laptops, the T420, the T420s, and the T520, have been lauded for their battery life – up to 30 hours with a 9-cell battery slice.