Thinkpads Forum

I been spending alot of time comparing the two and have a decent understanding of the technical/portability trade-offs of both. More importantly, I'm not sure about the 'soft' comparables, i.e. if I could personally get used to the X41's 12" screen and lack of trackpad or whether the T43 (w/ 14" screen) would seem too bulky after a while.

I was curious to find any of you who have had a similar X vs. T dilemma, which laptop you finally chose and your personal experience thus far.

Thanks much

P.S. I'll be ordering my TP from school--as such, I don't have the option of either the X32 or X41 Tablet

i have a sony ultra-portable with 12 inch screen. to put it shortly, it is a toy. its fun for trips if you want to hop on wifi and check internet. its not good for much else.

if you are going to be working on your laptop, if your job performance and/or school performance is going to be contingent upon the work you do on your laptop, buy a real work computer. Im sure the 14.1s are fine, but I opted for a 15 inch and have no regrets. i realize the x is nicer than my sony, but, its still not going to be a good choice for someone who say: has to type lengthy exams in short amounts of time, or has to remote into servers with multiple windows all over the country/world to do their job. the T42 15 inch is decidedly not bulky, despite what i hear. it fits in fine to any laptop bag and in any working area. i swapped out the optical drive for the extra battery and battery life is now sufficient to carry me thru most any situation in which I cannot access AC power.

thank you for the response, i was in the same boat as the thread author. either ultra portable or t43. now it seems that i shall be opting for a 14" t43.

In my family we have (or have had) both the 14" T and 12" X series: T43, T40, X41T, X40, etc.

I myself am using the X40 (soon X41 Tablet), and I have gotten used to its size such that when I now use the 14" T43, it feels HUGE! In my case I've been able to use the X40 for real-world everyday use, which I still find impressive. But admittedly I'm also proud to show off how the X40 is actually smaller than a sheet of paper


P.S. I've also been comfortable using the X40 with the UltraBase (with Multi-Burner Plus) for optical drive needs -- including taking the portable UltraBase with me when I need to. Though now I'm not sure if I will be able to be as comfortable with the X4 Dock for the X41 Tablet

Also, have you looked at the X32?

It's kinda like a T42 with a crappy graphics card (16MB Mobility Radeon 7000) and an X series (but slightly bigger than the X40) chassis.

You can in theory fit a new hard drive such as 7K60 or 7K100 into X32.

That is, IF there is no BIOS lockout problem similar to that of T43.
For details, see:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=11059

There isn't such a problem, because it's a problem specific to the T43's SATA to PATA chip. As the X32 has an older chipset that doesn't NEED a SATA to PATA chip to get PATA, it's not an issue.

I use the X40 for my everyday needs for over a year...the 12 inch screen doesn't bother me at all. Like some of the previous posters, I look at the T4x series and marvel at how bulky and heavy it feels!

go for the T

'nuff said

pphilipko wrote:I use the X40 for my everyday needs for over a year...the 12 inch screen doesn't bother me at all. Like some of the previous posters, I look at the T4x series and marvel at how bulky and heavy it feels!

depends what your everyday needs are i guess... if you need to work on it for a whole day, odds are that you're better off with a "real" laptop. if your everyday needs are just checking your email and reading /., an x series is fine
personally, i second what someone posted above. ultra portable laptops are nice as 'toys', not for real work.
besides, it's not like you can categorize the t4x models as being 'bulky' :p

tehsoul wrote:if you need to work on it for a whole day, odds are that you're better off with a "real" laptop. if your everyday needs are just checking your email and reading /., an x series is fine
personally, i second what someone posted above. ultra portable laptops are nice as 'toys', not for real work.

Oh boy. *groan*

I've had my X40 for a year, but maybe you can tell me whether any of the following classifies as 'real' work, just in case I'm totally deluded:

1. Traveling around the world three times, during which, and using the X40, I gave four guest lectures and three conference presentations
2. Finished writing/editing a book, including using Photoshop and Illustrator to manipulate the images.
3. Written several articles for academic journals
4. Processed heaps of data using SPSS 13 (stats software)
5. Written and delivered numerous lectures using Powerpoint.
6. Designed various internal websites for teaching purposes (using FrontPage 2003)
7. Generated numerous client reports using Harvard Chart XL and various other apps

So, in short, this X40 is being used for lots of 'real' work and it handles it just fine. It is often on for 12 hours a day, and sometimes attached to an external monitor/keyboard.

So, ultraportable laptops are not at all toys - they are targeted to market segments which you may not have thought of, mate!

I had a T43 which I returned for an X41. It hasn't arrived yet, so I can't give any advice.

However, I wouldn't choose the X41 if the laptop is your main computer. I've got a nice desktop that I use for gaming, and so the X41 doesn't need to be powerful/DVD-burn-capable.

@ DavidNZ: okay, after reading your post, I might have been too hasty drawing conclusions
I guess after all it's still all a personal choice (as with everything, isnt it?)... I couldn't see myself coding in visual studio.net or intellij for extended periods of time on such a claustrophobic screen, while there might be others (such as yourself) having no problems whatsoever with it.

my new advice: get whatever peels your banana!