hi,
this is a big investment for me but i am torn and hope you experienced members will please assist me. i hear great things about the t43p and yet the new z60m is all the rage. i need to do graphics/web work and lots of charts and research for business and have a multitude of windows open and programs running all the time. Dependable and capable is what i need and compatability. people i work with use the t42 & t43p. i am liking the z60m but the t43p i am looking at has a 3 year warranty and the z60m a one year. i see where the z60m is state of the art w/new technology and was talked out of the t60 by our computer systems tech as he says the dual is cool but a lot of software programs can't work with it yet..i do like the sleek titanium and have to travel with it on the fly but the t43p generally costs a lot more. I admit i am not as experienced as i wish as this is a BIG deal to me and I hope you will all help me out as I have to get a system early part of this work week and feel pressed. Honest reading is fine and research but it gets a bit overwhelming at times without practical exp!! some stuff you read can't be trusted when you are a novice.
Thanks All You Guys are The Brain!! Happy new year let it be healthy, safe and prosperous for all and your loved ones!

I don't know if it would help, but here's my personal perspective.

A few days ago I returned a brand new T43p (2668Q2U) for two reasons. First, Lenovo screwed up badly with the shipment of the extra accessories (1GB memory chip and spare power adapter). UPS lost the shipment and Lenovo held my money hostage until they resolve the issue through a long and protracted bureaucratic process. They wouldn't ship me a replacement nor give me a refund so that I could buy the parts from somewhere else. Second, Lenovo made the T60/p anouncement, and that added fuel to the shipment screw-up fire. So I returned the whole system.

That was a tough decision because I really liked the T43p when I played around with it. I can tell you without equivocation that it's one of the finest notebooks money could buy. Everything looked and felt simply fantastic. The keyboard is a pure indulgence to your fingers, the screen is a pleasure to behold -- it simply exudes quality and class.

But for what I paid, I can get a much more poweful T60p system. Most likely it will cost a little more and I will have to wait till the end of February, or even later, to get my desired specs. In addition, I really don't like the changes to the look of the T60/p. They copied everything from the Z60 series (keyboard, trackpoint/touchpad buttons, and the infamous Aspirin buttons). I like the look of the T43p much better.

If you don't run multiple programs at the same time or don't use graphics applications that use parallel algorithms (most 3D apps do), you'll get by just fine with a single-CPU sysem. But there's no question that a dual-CPU system will make your overall experience smoother and more responsive. For example, web browsers use many threads to make connections to the web server and download several parts of a web page simultaneously (HTML, CSS style sheets, linked JavaScript files, images, etc). Even Word processors use background threads to spell- and grammar- check your document as you type. But a high-end single processor switches back and forth between these execution threads so fast that you won't notice any difference in most office productivity apps.

Personally I'll be using the notebook to develop heavily-threaded server-side applications, so using the Core Duo makes a significant difference.

If I were you and couldn't wait for a T60/p, or it were outside my budget, and I had to choose between a T43p and Z60m, I would go for the T43p, even if it has only one core. For business use, ruggedness, portability, durability, and peace of mind, you can't go wrong with the T-series.

Stay with the T series. They are proven whereas the Z isnt yet. Plus you know the Ts will hold value better than a Z.

Same regards valid for me, stay with the T43, or wait for the T60p until end of february, remember Vista is coming by the mid of the year and it will come hungry of resources.