who's moved on from T43 / T42? recommendations please

[anchoman]

Back to the OP ... I have recently done exactly that. Long-time T42 user for writing and light office apps, for which the 4:3 screen and low heat load (i.e. fan off) was perfect. Recently moved day-to-day operations to a T520 and am finally reasonably happy (see signature for other experiments). Turns out a 16:9 screen is not so bad if it's big enough. The T520 is a bit clunky (maybe more than a "bit"), but I don't move it around much, using an X200s for travel (could never open a 14" 4:3 screen in coach anyway). It runs very cool, the screen quality is acceptable, has a similar keyboard layout, and runs all my legacy apps in a VM very nicely - almost like having two computers. YMMV, but wish you the best for the transition.

[alfio]

thanks all for the ideas

anchoman, good to hear it is possible to move on and not suffer too badly.

my solution was to send my T43 in for the SATA mod. got it all back together and am loading it now, all seems well and i'm glad to have my machine back. once i finish typing my dissertation, i will retire the T43

[systemBuilder]

I've been kicking around the same thoughts concerning my T40p. Flash laden websites are killing it.

Isn't that funny, Flash-Laden websites were killing my employer-supplied Thinkpad T420 i5-2540, and they were nuking our Lenovo Y580, i7-3630QM, both are 4-cpu machines that peak at 3-3.5 Ghz operation.

The problem isn't the laptop. The problem is Flash itself.

Install Chrome (which suspends Flash programs by default), or install "Flashblock" utility in Firefox and IExplorer (which lets you click on flash presentations to display them, like movies.) Problem solved !!

[systemBuilder]

I got to inspect a colleague's personal T420s last week. It seriously reminded me of all of our T42's. It had the great keyboard, and was thin like a T42, with a rubberized magnesium case - a blast from the past! Plus, it has the LED backlit display which frankly kicks a compared to standard T4x displays.

The problem with the new thinkpads is the idiocy of a 14.6" 16:9 screen, my personal laptop has one, and that's only 85 square inches of real estate, whereas our T42's with 14.1" screens, have 101 square inches of real estate. Also, the new multi-touch scratchpad has an orange-peel surface and isn't as 'slippery and efficient' as the pricey touchpads on the T4x/T6x series. Almost everything today is more cheaply made ...

If I had to upgrade and money were no object, I would buy a T520s for the extra screen real estate, and the good keyboard. Guess what? Lenovo NEVER MADE THAT MACHINE! That would put us out of business in this forum!

So a T420s is the closest thing you can get to that T43 in a modern machine. The battery would not be appreciably better than a T43 (the 9-cell battery on T420 and T520 is UNREAL @ 8 hrs operation, sometimes.) You MUST buy a 1600x900 screen because the viewing angles and black levels are POOR on a 1366x768 screen. I would recommend nothing newer, no T530 nor T430, because you'd lose the greatest keyboard in the history of mankind (as long as it's an NMB from Thailand, that is ... )