Lenovo ThinkPad T61p

I use a thinkpad t61p. I've had it since 2011 and it still runs just a good as it did when I bought it. Its extremely modular, rugged, and has fantastic linux support. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it's battery life is pretty sub-par but most places that I use it have power outlets so it hasn't been an issue yet. It also has the best keyboard that I have ever used in my life by far.

I still use my T61p quite regularly. These days it's only really a thin client for RDP into work and some admin tools & toys, but the 1920 x 1200 matt IPS screen is unbeatable and the keyboard is still lovely.

In England the nub was referred to as the nipple. I had a series of think pads. I think the last one was a t61p running Lennox and it was truly glorious. I can't remember if it was that model or an earlier one which had a battery known as the tumor which stuck out the back. You could hibernate the laptop and swap in another battery and turn the laptop back on and keep working without rebooting. Everything since then for me has been MacBooks or Dell laptops. Neither brings me as much joy.

I don't have a lot to add other than I'm still using a T61p several times a week. It's got by far the best screen[1] I've ever had on a laptop and the keyboard is also lovely. It's running Win7 and I only use it for RDP onto work. The battery is screwed, perhaps lasts 10 seconds so just enough to cover quickly moving it. [1] 1920 x 1200 and very matt. It's just stunningly clear and easy on the eyes with great colour rendition.

I just went through this a couple of weeks ago, looking for a personal laptop to do some independent work on. I'm a huge Thinkpad fan, and both of my desktop keyboards are Thinkpad USB trackpoint-only keyboards, so that should tell you something about my biases... Anyhow, I wasn't looking for something particularly portable, my work laptop is an X200 (pre-trackpad) which is the perfect travel companion. Unfortunately as others have noted the X-series is plagued by minimal resolution, so I wanted something with a much larger screen. We issue X230's and T430's at work, so I am very familiar with them. I'm not a huge fan of the 430s, it's size I want, but they don't offer it with a FHD IPS screen. So I ended up buying a T61P with the 1920x1200 screen off ebay for $230, and put 8G RAM in it (unofficially supported by the 965 chipset, check thinkwiki.org for more information). It's in near perfect shape except for loose hinges! Installed Xubuntu 12 on it and everything works wonderfully. All the secondary channels are lousy with T6x's, spare parts are plentiful and Thinkpads have the BEST factory repair manuals bar none. So pretty damn happy for <$400 invested. If you wanted to run dual/triple monitors, take a look at the Advanced Dock, you can install a PCI-e? card in it. Right now my ghetto "triple" head setup is my x200, t61p, and t60 ($50 with the 1400x1050 IPS!) all running synergy, so I can at least have multiple reference sources open on the x200/t60 while working on th

My 15" Lenovo T61p is well-made, durable, has a 2-3hr battery life, and gets ~60fps in counter-strike. I've had a Dell Inspiron series for 4+ years (still running), and the T61p outperforms it by a lot in terms of durability, weight, and overall handling and processing. One of the first cons I had with not just the lenovo laptops is the 'fn' key placement. The T61p has it at the bottom left corner, where the 'ctrl' is supposed to be, so i had to get used to that when i copy+paste, but its not that big of a deal, I got used to it. ALWAYS get a graphics card even though its another ~$100-$150 add-on because its worth it.And although SSDs are so much better, but ~$400-500 for 320GB doesn't seem to be worth the cash right now, but if you really want one, buy from Adata :D

Thinkpad T Series I can swear by them, their powerful, built very sturdy and feels like a beast, not a plastic toy. Also their quite strong, I've dropped mine countless times, twice down the stairs without any problems. And their keyboards are quite nice for long hours of work. I am on my 3rd T series, T61p at the moment and looking to buy another in a few months. Also Google around for coupons/deals they always have them, you can stack them very nicely. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

Will you be doing ANY mac work? If you're just going to be running everything in Windows anyways, you can get more machine for your dollar by buying another Dell or a Thinkpad. I use Mac, Linux & Windows at home; most of the development I do is Windows based though, so I use a Vista / Ubuntu dual boot laptop (Thinkpad T61P. I LOVE it.) for when I need to go on-site.