If I wanted to walk into a shop and walk out with a Thinkpad (X61), where would I go? And would they give a discount for cash?
Thanks for any tips.
Try K-Mall near the Main Station (there is a IMB/Lenovo shop on the ground level), or the Rainbow Mall on Bade (at the corner of Jinshan/Zhongxiao), possibly some other shops along Bade / at Gunghua market.
No idea about discounts though.
I’ve posted a few times before about a place I have used, and have recommended, and other people have been very happy.
It’s on Bade Rd, South Side. from the Xinsheng corner where the bottle wall/mural is walk past the TKEC 3c and a few more stores until you get to one with a fish tank in the doorway.
Usually, it’s crowded with people trying out laptops.
I always deal with a sales girl “Kay” who is the best price I have found, and also provides legitimate OEM XP Disks and manuals with each machine in lieu of Chinese (if you prefer of course)
I think it’s called “Computer Art” or something like that.
[quote=“Rascal”]Try K-Mall near the Main Station, or the Rainbow Mall on Bade (at the corner of Jinshan/Zhongxiao), possibly some other shops along Bade / at Gunghua market.
No idea about discounts though.[/quote]Thanks Rascal.
Anyone seen a shop with a decent range of Thinkpads? I’m interested in a particular model of the X61, so a shop that just has one or two may not have the one I want.
[quote=“Truant”]I’ve posted a few times before about a place I have used, and have recommended, and other people have been very happy.
It’s on Bade Rd, South Side. from the Xinsheng corner where the bottle wall/mural is walk past the TKEC 3c and a few more stores until you get to one with a fish tank in the doorway.
Usually, it’s crowded with people trying out laptops.
I always deal with a sales girl “Kay” who is the best price I have found, and also provides legitimate OEM XP Disks and manuals with each machine in lieu of Chinese (if you prefer of course)
I think it’s called “Computer Art” or something like that.[/quote]Cheers, Truant. I’ll go there and see what they have.
Has anyone seen an actual Lenovo shop anywhere? I think I read about one on Zhongxiao East Rd, but can’t remember where.
I edited my post above after you quoted me and before I saw yours, there is such a shop in the K-Mall.
I edited my post above after you quoted me and before I saw yours, there is such a shop in the K-Mall.[/quote]Great, thanks.
I just picked up an X61 thinkpad in a store in BaDe road. The model is CZ3 and they threw in an extra 1GB of memory for NTD40,500. Selected that model as it had Vista Business rather than Premium. They can offer whichever model you want, and they usually arrive 2 mins after you decide which you want (as there is a warehouse closeby which supplies all the stores).
Not sure if that is a good price or not, I paid cash and my batering skills are not the best, if it was then the store’s address is BaDe Rd., Alley 43, #24 1F, not sure of the name but it had a thinkpad logo outside and all the staff were wearing thinkpad shirts. The alley is the one that runs from BaDe rd to the temp shops, its about half way down.
[quote=“joesax”]
Has anyone seen an actual Lenovo shop anywhere? I think I read about one on Zhongxiao East Rd, but can’t remember where.[/quote]
There was one in 101, next to the Starbucks.
I went to the shop Rascal mentioned, in the K-Mall.
[quote=“Connel”]I just picked up an X61 thinkpad in a store in BaDe road. The model is CZ3 and they threw in an extra 1GB of memory for NTD40,500. Selected that model as it had Vista Business rather than Premium. They can offer whichever model you want, and they usually arrive 2 mins after you decide which you want (as there is a warehouse closeby which supplies all the stores).
Not sure if that is a good price or not, I paid cash and my batering skills are not the best, if it was then the store’s address is BaDe Rd., Alley 43, #24 1F, not sure of the name but it had a thinkpad logo outside and all the staff were wearing thinkpad shirts.[/quote]Sounds reasonable with the memory upgrade.
I got the CZ2 which normally comes with Vista Basic, but mine has Vista Business. I also got an extra 1GB (making a total of 1.5GB) and a few accessories. I paid 38,500 cash.
I actually like Vista a lot so far. It was accessing the hard disk quite a lot, so I disabled the Aero graphics and automatic indexing. And I’m going to try to find an SD card that’s compatible with the Readyboost feature, which should save some power, make everything even faster, and cut down further on hard disk access.
[quote=“Buttercup”]
There was one in 101, next to the Starbucks.[/quote]That one’s closed. It’s now some kind of fancy financial services place.
I thought they came with 1G as std from Lenovo, so you would end up with 2G? Though you never can tell.
[quote=“joesax”]I actually like Vista a lot so far. It was accessing the hard disk quite a lot, so I disabled the Aero graphics and automatic indexing.
[/quote]
Yea, I found the HDD was very active when i first got it and was transferring lots of stuff over, which got me worried. Activity is much less now. I still have the indexing feature enabled, it is nice being able to find things fast. There also seems to be a lot of services running which don’t really need to be (or at least I don’t need), especially the thinkpad services, though i am not really great in knowing what to start/stop to better optimize the system.
And as you say, the vista experience so far has been a pleasent one.
I thought they came with 1G as std from Lenovo, so you would end up with 2G? Though you never can tell.[/quote]The CZ2 comes with 512MB, and in fact has Vista Business as standard, not Vista Basic as I said.
I’m liking the scroll key/pointer combination. It’s actually a lot easier to get used to than I expected. It’s good not to have to move my hands between typing and selecting/moving/scrolling.
I bought a model with Vista Business, but got the guy to change it for XP. If you pay for the business OS you can change back and forth between Vista and XP and Chinese and English OS for 3 years. Just have to take the laptop to their service centre.
Great machines.
[quote=“jacktorrence”]I bought a model with Vista Business, but got the guy to change it for XP. If you pay for the business OS you can change back and forth between Vista and XP and Chinese and English OS for 3 years. Just have to take the laptop to their service centre.
Great machines.[/quote]
Actually I thought that was a one time selection, but good to hear. One question thou, why change it back to XP ? I am enjoying my Vista experience thus far.
[quote=“Connel”][quote=“jacktorrence”]I bought a model with Vista Business, but got the guy to change it for XP. If you pay for the business OS you can change back and forth between Vista and XP and Chinese and English OS for 3 years. Just have to take the laptop to their service centre.
Great machines.[/quote]
Actually I thought that was a one time selection, but good to hear. One question thou, why change it back to XP ? I am enjoying my Vista experience thus far.[/quote]
Good question.
The hard drive crashed on my Compaq laptop a couple of weeks ago, so I’m about to replace it. I read an Aug 10, 2008 review in PC World of top 10 ultraportable laptops and the top 4 are all Lenovos (in order: Thinkpad X200 which has a 9 hour battery life, Thinkpad X61, 3000 V200, and Thinkpad X300), so I was happy to see all you guys are Thinkpad fans. I’m pleased, too, with the prices you paid. The review says X61 is listed at US$1,558.
Incidentally, the number 10 model in that review is a Sony Vaio, which is apparently a great computer but only gets a number 10 ranking due to its absurd price: $3,500. Get real.
So, I’ll likely buy a Thinkpad too.
I just mentioned to my wife that I’ll likely have Vista now and she instantly recoiled: “NO! Don’t. It’s still too unstable.” Does she know what she’s talking about, or should I go with Vista?
I read yesterday that Microsoft Taiwan has stopped offering XP altogether, so you can only get Vista.
Looks like you are half right, though I’m not sure exactly what it means. They’ve stopped selling XP, but one may downgrade from Vista when buying a PC (but not when buying a laptop?). :s
[quote]July 31, 2008
Some 62 percent of PC users in Taiwan would like Microsoft to continue selling the XP operating system, according to a poll released by the Consumers’ Foundation yesterday . . .
The poll was announced about a month after Microsoft stopped selling XP in the market. Almost all new personal computers found in the market are bundled with Microsoft’s new OS, Vista. . .
As Microsoft has over 98 percent of market share in Taiwan, it should not misuse its market position, the foundation said, urging Microsoft to respond to such user surveys.
Microsoft, meanwhile, said while it has stopped selling packaged XP products in the market, it will continue to provide technical support for XP until 2009 and security maintenance support until 2014.
The company also said not all PCs in Taiwan are bundled with Vista, citing as an example Asus’ Eee Box, which still uses XP.
Microsoft further said users may choose to downgrade the OS when getting a PC bundled with either Vista’s flagship or business versions[/quote]
link
Edit: apparently this is what you read about (from yesterday’s news).
[quote=“sandman”]I read yesterday that Microsoft Taiwan has stopped offering XP altogether, so you can only get Vista.[/quote]You can’t buy Vista as a standalone product off the shelf any more. But companies such as Lenovo are still allowed to sell computers with the XP “downgrade” option.
Vista’s good, though, especially with Service Pack One. For an individual who’s buying a new “real” PC (i.e. not an underpowered netbook such as the Eee PC), there’s very little reason not to use it. It’s got some real advantages over XP.
Mother Theresa, from what I’ve read, the X200 is better than the X61 in every way except one: the aspect ratio and size of the screen. The X200 follows the widescreen fashion that everyone’s doing now. This saves manufacturers money as wide screens are cheaper to make. However, people aren’t going to be watching many movies on a Thinkpad, and for document editing the squarer screen of the X61 is probably a bit better. The X200’s screen does have a higher resolution, though.
The only other thing that would make me slightly cautious about buying an X200 is that I’d want to make sure it still had that famous Thinkpad build quality. I haven’t heard anything to suggest otherwise, but there’s always the nagging feeling that Lenovo might be tempted to cut corners now IBM aren’t looking over their shoulders. Personally, if I were thinking of buying an X200, I’d wait a couple of months to see if users reported any problems.
My X61’s doing absolutely fine - so it should do after only three months. I’m hoping it will last as long as the old X40s. I know people who still use those as daily work machines without any problems.
I have been using an R40 for the last 4 1/2 years as my daily workhorse and have been very impressed with it. I only just reinstalled the XP OS a few weeks ago which is incredible going considering the amount of stuff I’ve installed and uninstalled on it over the years. My next laptop will probably be an IBM.