Personally, I think the only draw back on the Lenovo T's is the screen quality -- for the price, it would be nice to get a higher quality display. Nonetheless, the Tx10s, are very nice.
Incidentally, got a L412 for a relative last week for $683 CAD ... opted to stay with the base i3 330M (sure the i5 would be nice, but not worth it for them, nor needed), 4GB ram, 160GB 5400 (yeah, that sucks, but will be moving them to a SSD in a year's time I imagine -- when they are more economical ... in the meantime, their having a hard time using up 30GB in their current system, so no biggie), Intel 6200, 6 cell, blah blah blah...
Thought it was better equipped and priced then anything at the time. Dell is the other obvious candidate for me when it comes to laptops. The rest? Meh -- why bother: build quality or price wise, they ain't worth ...
L series, BTW, replaces the Thinkpad R series. L series also replaces SL, but, in fact, is itself really an updated SL -- with the new intel platform, displayport, keyboard and docking (supports all new series 3 docks -- nice!). So, the L series becomes the entry enterprise thinkpad. And the IdeaPad slips into the role of SMB, which the SL was originally intended for.
If you need extra durability (rollcage, higher quality plastic and build), lighter weight, thinner, and higher cpu configs, then the T's would fit the bill. But if its going to sit on the desk, with some light travel duty, then the L would do great. As would some of the Dells.