What to buy, X vs. T?

[yak]

I decided to make the most of my new purchase (including UltraBase) and ended up buying a 24" HP IPS monitor (connected via DisplayPort) and haven't looked back. I can live with the 'inferior' ThinkPad [X200s] screen when I'm working away and get the benefit of a stunning display when I'm at home working. I've now pretty much rounded things off with the ThinkPad USB keyboard and have a perfect working environment wherever I am.

When I read that I had to double check if I wasn't the one who wrote it. I'm in almost the same situation. I use an X200 as my only machine, with HP IPS monitor and ThinkPad USB keyboard for desktop experience. It's my all-rounder for work (software development), Internet and multimedia. Its not-ULV CPU is plenty fast for anything I throw at it. The ergonomic external monitor setup gives me a lot of screen real estate and is easy on my back during long work hours. I can snap it out of the UltraBase anytime and take all the work with me anywhere, without having to sync my work between desktop and a laptop. It's small, light and with the AFFS mod it's a pleasure to use on the move. I have an external HDD for automatic backups of my work. I love everything about this setup.

In my opinion, if you don't need a powerful GPU, X series with a good monitor is the way to go.

[Yossarian1]

I started out looking at used and outlet offerings but here I am now looking at spending more than $1k+ on a new Thinkpad.

X201 is offered up to the i7, but even though my X40 has served well the screen is smallish.

T410s offers light weight in a 14" screen but only the i5 (why?) and battery life not as long as an X.

I was going to order the X but....

Someone said that a T410s with more battery and no optical would be great. I think a 13" screen would be the sweet spot for a lot of people, but only the X301 and that looks like it needs an update.

BTW, looking at other brands to keep options open.

[dr_st]

T410s offers light weight in a 14" screen but only the i5 (why?)

My guess is due to heat dissipation. The T410s chassis is thinner than the X201, and the i7-620M is probably too hot for it.

[Yossarian1]

I stumbled across a link to the Microsoft Store online discounting last years T400s 50%! Since I've had trouble making up my mind, that discount did it. For $774+ tax I'll give it a try. It's shipping now, should be here any day.

Thanks to all who've offered advise.

[ZaZ]

I've usually gravitated towards the larger machines for the better resolution, but since I've got my X200, I've lost most interest in having a larger machine. While the resolution is nice, the lighter weight of a smaller machine trumps it for me, even for just around the house. Congrats on the machine.

[Yossarian1]

I've usually gravitated towards the larger machines for the better resolution, but since I've got my X200, I've lost most interest in having a larger machine. While the resolution is nice, the lighter weight of a smaller machine trumps it for me, even for just around the house. Congrats on the machine.

We'll see if the "s" is light/thin/etc. enough for me, it is replacing a X40 afterall.

It's all personal choice of course, but I wanted a bigger screen than the 12.1", I just wish the X300/X301 was more robust, you can get the i7 in a X201, but only a 1.4/1.6Ghz in the X3xx.

X201 specs in the X3xx package would fill a gap in the Thinkpad line, no?

[ZaZ]

Well the X301 is a much thinner machine. You've got to take heat dissipation into consideration. Given that it's mostly a corporate travel notebook doing mostly internet, email and office, the LV CPUs probably offers more than enough oomph for its intended users.

[doktorek]

When I read that I had to double check if I wasn't the one who wrote it. I'm in almost the same situation. I use an X200 as my only machine, with HP IPS monitor and ThinkPad USB keyboard for desktop experience. It's my all-rounder for work (software development), Internet and multimedia. Its not-ULV CPU is plenty fast for anything I throw at it. The ergonomic external monitor setup gives me a lot of screen real estate and is easy on my back during long work hours. I can snap it out of the UltraBase anytime and take all the work with me anywhere, without having to sync my work between desktop and a laptop. It's small, light and with the AFFS mod it's a pleasure to use on the move. I have an external HDD for automatic backups of my work. I love everything about this setup.

In my opinion, if you don't need a powerful GPU, X series with a good monitor is the way to go.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but I've seen your mod photos and gotta admit the screen looks awesome and I started to look around for x200 ccfl. I see you have a T60 machines too. Do you run any virtual machine(s)? I do soft. development as well on my T60, running up to 4-5 virtual machines (servers and clients). I was wondering if that would be possible on x200. I want to switch to a smaller laptop and buy an external monitor.
Do you find overall x200 machine power comparable to T60 when it comes to programming?