good British review from expertreviews.co.uk


http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/1284346/lenovo-thinkpad-l520

This is a terrible deal. I paid $570 for an Acer Aspire 5750-9422 i7 quad core with 4gb Ram, 500gb HD 8 months ago. I would skip this deal.

Ack! I love Thinkpads and all (they are all I will buy) but 1366x768? That's a fuzzy, low rez crime.

I just sold my i7 T520 with a Full HD screen (1920 x 1080) for $739.

Caveat emptor for such low resolution...even with the legendary (and often controversial) Lenovo design.

vinniechu wrote:This is a terrible deal. I paid $570 for an Acer Aspire 5750-9422 i7 quad core with 4gb Ram, 500gb HD 8 months ago. I would skip this deal.

ThinkPads are exceptional, especially the keyboard. They are well built, water resistant, durable, and functional. They are well worth the premium.

That said, I got a similar spec X220 a little over a year ago for about the same price, so it's not a GREAT deal. A good deal if you're looking for a basic laptop that won't let you down.

Since Amazon bought woot, we should have to hell off a lot more careful about what we buy

vinniechu wrote:This is a terrible deal. I paid $570 for an Acer Aspire 5750-9422 i7 quad core with 4gb Ram, 500gb HD 8 months ago. I would skip this deal.

Thinkpad's are mobile workstations meant for productivity. If your shopping for a laptop based purely on specs, then this isn't for you.

The Lenovo Thinkpad (formally IBM Thinkpad) is priced a premium because of it's design. Excellent keyboard, Durable Design, Bio-metric Security measures, and tons of function keys make the Thinkpad stand out.

It's a lot like buying a apple laptop. Your not buying it for the specs, but for the design.

Poor resolution, minimal RAM, relatively small hard drive- not sure which is worse the deal price or the listed MSRP. Would skip this unless you have an unhealthy obsession of Thinkpads.

mbnva wrote:Since Amazon bought woot, we should have to hell off a lot more careful about what we buy

Are you sure? Can anyone at Woot confirm that Amazon sets prices? Do they "suggest" prices? Do they overrule anybody at Woot on prices??

ThunderThighs wrote:We are an INDEPENDENT subsidiary. That means we run as an independent business. We have a "long arm" relationship with Amazon.

They don't give us their discards to sell.

They don't set our prices. Do you really think I call someone at Amazon to get the price lowered at 1am when you guys find a better price? I don't think so. You have no idea how many times Amazon has undercut our price the night before we launch a sale. We wish we could coordinate that stuff.

If we want something from Amazon stock, we have to buy it just like any other business and they don't make it easy.

We have our own team of buyers. I attend buying meetings weekly to keep up with the products just for you guys.

Good enough?

Wow - thanks for the candor, much appreciated. Competition is good.

I cannot imagine anticipating Amazon pricing - for fun add 3 or 4 popular and not so popular items to your cart... then refresh (browser reload) your cart several times/day and across several days. The price is often constantly moving, sometimes pennies and sometimes dramatically. Over the past 3 weeks I've seen a tax software pkg move between $29 and $54 and half way back.

gotseven wrote:Thinkpad's are mobile workstations meant for productivity. If your shopping for a laptop based purely on specs, then this isn't for you.

The Lenovo Thinkpad (formally IBM Thinkpad) is priced a premium because of it's design. Excellent keyboard, Durable Design, Bio-metric Security measures, and tons of function keys make the Thinkpad stand out.

It's a lot like buying a apple laptop. Your not buying it for the specs, but for the design.

I'm an old-school Thinkpad fan myself, but it's worth noting that the brand has definitely been diluted since the Lenovo takeover. I'd still swear by the T and X series as no-nonsense business warrior laptops, but these "green" L series and the Edge ones I'm not so sure about.

This has poor resolution and low memory for a high price tag!

Sorry woot, I adore you, but this one's a pass!

I love how the design of the think pad hasn't changed in over 20 years.

My first laptop was a black and white think pad with Windows 3.1 installed on it. It looked exactly the same as this one.

I'd have to agree with the others about this being simply outdated. I see Thinkpads on sale on a regular basis but computers with better specs can be purchased at $400, even less with a good deal. Stores like Office Max, Office Depot, even Best Buy have been having sales that meet that statement. While these may not be Thinkpads, I'd rather pay the extra $100+ on a no qualms warranty.

ThunderThighs wrote:We are an INDEPENDENT subsidiary. That means we run as an independent business. We have a "long arm" relationship with Amazon.

They don't give us their discards to sell.

They don't set our prices. Do you really think I call someone at Amazon to get the price lowered at 1am when you guys find a better price? I don't think so. You have no idea how many times Amazon has undercut our price the night before we launch a sale. We wish we could coordinate that stuff.

If we want something from Amazon stock, we have to buy it just like any other business and they don't make it easy.

We have our own team of buyers. I attend buying meetings weekly to keep up with the products just for you guys.

Good enough?

Sucks! Who was the genius who sold out to Amazon?

vinniechu wrote:This is a terrible deal. I paid $570 for an Acer Aspire 5750-9422 i7 quad core with 4gb Ram, 500gb HD 8 months ago. I would skip this deal.

I don't think you can compare the build quality and performance of the Lenovo to that of the Acer. Even if the Acer has better spec's. I think in the long run you would be much more satisfied with the Lenovo brand. JM2C

birdoprey5 wrote:Poor resolution, minimal RAM, relatively small hard drive- not sure which is worse the deal price or the listed MSRP. Would skip this unless you have an unhealthy obsession of Thinkpads.

an unhealthy obsession of Thinkpads?? I’ve been an IT Tech Support Technician since before laptops ever existed. The first laptops we ever purchased were IBM Thinkpads. To this day, I can pull one off the shelf, plug it up and it will boot. These are 15 – 16 year old systems, how many Dells or Toshiba’s that old can do that? These systems have had a hard life, in the hands of a Sales force that beat the crap out of them. The company I worked for bought out several company’s that we inherited Dell, Toshiba, Acer and HP laptops, all that were constantly dying and we would replace them with a new Thinkpad. They are built like tanks and can stand up to abuse, unlike most of the laptops built today. The T and X series Thinkpads are excellent systems and for my money, that’s what I own.

As others have said, this isn't a great deal, but I bought one of these (direct from Lenovo) for my father about a year and a half ago and he is very happy with it.

For those comparing this to other brands, especially Acer, this machine's build quality and durability is worlds better than most of the cheaper machines you'll find out there. You are correct that it doesn't have the best specs or the newest processor, but if you need a machine that is high quality and will last a long time, nothing does it better than a Thinkpad.

Why don't you give the manufacturer's model #'s? For instance, is this a 423946U?
I'd like to be able to compare EXACT models when researching your deals.

If it had the rollcage I would probably buy it. I prefer the T or W series to the L series.

I bought a HP i7 last June from woot for 650$ and it has a 17 inch screen with bluray..

This deal isn't worthy of woot

Is this 32-bit or 64-bit?

I have software that runs only on 32-bit and have been searching for a Windows 7 32-bit.

As compared to the ACER, remember, you are getting a longer warranty.

looks like something from the late 90's

amoraluv wrote:looks like something from the late 90's

Yeah it does look frumpy, the thing is that I'd suspect that you could still have a functioning Thinkpad from the 90s, and quite frankly something that robust appeals to me. Though what I'd do if I wanted a Thinkpad (and I'm typing on a W530 right now) is go here: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/na/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/Lenovo:EnterStdAffinity?affinity=barnesnoblegold

To the Barnes and Noble affiliate link and get a new Thinkpad ~20% off, if you wait for a sale on the model you want. I got mine with a screen upgrade and the wireless receiver upgrade, and it was 1k USD before taxes.

aliusa wrote:Sucks! Who was the genius who sold out to Amazon?

Maybe the genius who started Woot,built the business and is now worth many,many millions of dollars. Sounds like he/she had a very good plan.

Support informed me this is 64-bit.

No good for me.

I need 32-bit.

I hate to say it folks but seriously... STEER CLEAR of thinkpad. I am ashamed of woot right now. Woot, how dare you?! Thinkpad is GARBAGE! ;-) You're welcome.

toniob wrote:Support informed me this is 64-bit.

No good for me.

I need 32-bit.

You do realize you can install the OS in 32 bit mode, or use the virtual mode to set one up inside it, right? You're going to be hard-pressed to find a modern machine that'll come configured with only the 32-bit version of the OS, mainly because it'll limit the amount of usable RAM (among other issues).

I have owned many laptops in my day, including a Thinkpad and I must say, the Thinkpad out lasted all of them by far. The specs might not be that great but it is certainly durable.

birdoprey5 wrote:Poor resolution, minimal RAM, relatively small hard drive- not sure which is worse the deal price or the listed MSRP. Would skip this unless you have an unhealthy obsession of Thinkpads.

I have an unhealthy obsession for Thinkpads and ANYTHING Lenovo......but I'm restraining myself this time.. THIS TIME!! HA HA!!!