Lenovo Thinkpad T500 15.4-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 6.3 Hours of Battery Life (Windows XP Pro)

by Lenovo

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 14 x 1.2 inches ; 5.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002SG7LWY
• Item model number: 2242-8QU
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,795 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 18, 2009

Product Description

The Ultimate Business Tool. The ThinkPad T500 notebook is designed to enhance productivity and change the way you work. To begin with, the 15.4" LED-backlight widescreen display helps to lower power consumption and delivers brighter colors. The T500 also comes equipped with a range of technology that includes an integrated camera, DDR3 memory modules, new DisplayPort technology and a wider Touchpad for improved ergonomics. Equally reassuring is the fact that the T500 enjoys award-winning service and support and comes with an industry-leading warranty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Serious issues for presenting DVDs, December 2, 2009

By 

D. J Stemke "Argo" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lenovo Thinkpad T500 15.4-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 6.3 Hours of Battery Life (Windows XP Pro) (Personal Computers)

I am a college professor and have generally been happy with the computer. All that changed when I wanted to show a DVD to my class. On the computer screen it was great. But when hooked up to a projector (or even other monitor) it gave a copyright error and shut down. The computer is running XP BUT IT IS NOT AN XP ISSUE. It is a Lenovo issue after I did a little searching on the web. This is a major complaint that they will have to fix.

The only way around this is to extend the computer to two screens, reconfigure the size and I have other issues from that. Ergo there are better options out there for the price.

On the positive side the battery life is tremendous.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary Problems, November 2, 2011

By 

Kevin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenovo Thinkpad T500 15.4-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 6.3 Hours of Battery Life (Windows XP Pro) (Personal Computers)

This laptop features an array of intuitive technologies, such as a fingerprint scanner to log in plus secondary mouse keys for convenient finger placement. However, there are several prevalent issues that even the cheapest laptops on the market address.

-The screen driver must be made out of play doh, because it fails about every two weeks and causes Windows to seize and inevitably shut down.

-I've gotten the blue screen of death several times for no reason. I was running anti-virus software in conjunction with the school's VPN and not doing anything risky and it still crashed (once just seconds after printing a 19-page lab report, the file of which was lost in the crash along with dozens of other files).

-The USB port was never quite in line with any of my devices (which work fine with my other computers), resulting in bent and broken hardware after futile attempts at forcing an ipod wire into the port. Keep in mind, these USB components should have been compatible.

-Wireless connectivity is flaky at best. The On/Off switch often slips to the "off" position for no discernible reason and it has trouble recognizing networks and submitting passwords. The computer is about two years old and recently has taken to not recognizing any incoming wi-fi signals.

-The keys do not light up, a minor issue I'm aware, but instead uses a light next to the web cam above the screen to light the keys. I should not have to progress in my explanation of how incredibly absurd this is, but, in true Lenovo fashion, a bad idea met worse execution, warranting further explanation: The light is undeniably and laughably dim. In typical nighttime darkness with screen brightness turned all the way down, the light still doesn't make a noticeable difference on the visibility of the keys, as the screen's dimmest setting projects far more light onto the keyboard.

-The "Go back/forward one page" buttons are straddling the arrow keys, which is by far the worst place they could have put those buttons. I actually took them out after a period of inadvertently backing out of my internet pages and subsequently losing my work.

-The screen and picture quality are both terrible. At the risk of editorializing, matte finishes are useless for people who do the majority of their work indoors under normal lighting; the colors become blended and saturated and it gives me a headache after a while. That being said, outdoor use (which matte finishes are designed for) is also next to impossible as the back light is too dim for the display to be readable in normal daylight. Glare reduction or not, if I can't read the
screen, I can't use it. There are benefits and disadvantages to both screen types, but Lenovo managed to incorporate the inapplicabilities of both types, ending in an almost entirely useless end product.

These issues cannot simply be chalked up to a lemon among an otherwise well-performing line, as several other students in my college got these computers through the school at a discount and we all have the same problems with it. Advertised for $1,700 back in 2009, it was about the same price as a mid-level Macbook pro and high-end PCs (I got this computer for much less and still regret not paying full retail for something else) and for the quality, it's like dropping Ferrari money on a Chrysler. I was thinking about selling mine, but I'm not so cruel as to wish this atrocity on anybody. I'm never considering a Lenovo product again.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JUST GREAT, March 12, 2010

By 

S. Santana - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lenovo Thinkpad T500 15.4-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 6.3 Hours of Battery Life (Windows XP Pro) (Personal Computers)

NOWADAY I'M PLEASED WITH THE LAPTOP, BECAUSE IS WONDERFULL.

THIS LAPTOP HAVE A GREAT PERFORMANCE.