X40/41 vs. Dell X1

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Rax · #1 Post by **Rax** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:52 am

I've been a thinkpad user for a while, but I'm looking for a new ultraportable.

Right now, I'm kinda stuck between a new X40/41 and a Dell X1.

The dell isn't quite as fast, but it has a 3-1 card reader, is widescreen, and comes with bluetooth and 60gb hard drive for a lot less than the IBM. Also, it's got the new intel chipset, which only the X41 has. And the Dell is a rebadged Samsung machine, so it's hopefully free from Dell quality issuses.

But, I've been a TP user for a long time now, going from an A22, to a R40, so I do like the thinkpad style and build quality.

Any other thoughts or help on choosing one over the other?

Thanks!

#2 Post by **K. Eng** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:01 am

You'll probably want to type on the Dell to make sure the keyboard isn't as awful as some of Dell's recent stuff (particularly the D600/600m type machines).

The X41 has the fingerprint reader. As far as I know Dell machines don't have this yet.

mattfromomaha · #3 Post by **mattfromomaha** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:21 am

I haven't personally worked with the Dell, but the X40 is amazing. Flawless. Gorgeous. Yes, I salivate over it...

joprodse · #4 Post by **joprodse** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:15 am

I'd go for the thinkpad. All Dells I've tried are just awful when it comes to buildquality. They squeek and feels like they are going to fall apart just looking at them. The ones I've tried (some Latitude machines) also had a terrible keyboard. But heck they really are cheap so...buy two of them and keep one as a spare

admsteiner · #5 Post by **admsteiner** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:26 am

Having not seen the Dell I can't give you my opinion.
The X1 is a new model and thus any problems with it haven't yet become apparent. I must say that I am *very* impressed with the Inspiron 700m. It has a solid feel to it, its nice and small, the keyboard is good.

Whether the X1 will be similar I wouldn't know. I know the previous Inspirons and Latitutdes (including the Inspiron 300m) don't fall into the "good" category.

--Adam

Leeper · #6 Post by **Leeper** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:40 pm

I have both the X1 and the X40 in front of me now.

In my mind the two are close but one does not replace the other.

the X1 is nice and small and gets very good battery life (I don't have exact numbers yet but it seems significantly better than the X40). The wide screen LCD is cool but the quality of the screen seems to keep bugging me, I can't nail it down yet but it seems to be a bit off vs. the IBM. The built in card readers are nice (it is not a 3-1) there are separate CF and SD/MMC slots, it has firewire and bluetooth. I am missing a PCMCIA slot, without it I can't use my GPRS card to get on the net. The biggest disappointment for me about the X1 is that there is no stick mouse on it, I hate the track pad and have started to carry a wireless mouse along with the X1. The X1 is the best of the Dell laptops I have seen, even though it is being OEMed from Samsung by Dell.

The X40 is classic ThinkPad with everything where it should be. It does not seem to have the battery life of the X1 but it is not missing by much. The build quality is better than the Dell and the key board is nicer to use (a bit more full size than the Dell). I wish the X40 still had the CF slot but most things are going SD so in a couple months I will probably not miss the slot. Overall the X40 is a bit larger but would probably be the one I would spend my money on vs. the X1.

Any other questions let me know.

lanes · #7 Post by **lanes** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:01 pm

Leeper wrote: ...it seems significantly better than the X40...

Leeper wrote: ...it is not missing by much...

You are writing two different things about the battery life...

Leeper · #8 Post by **Leeper** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:06 pm

I don't have real numbers yet. Just going by feel but the X1 is better than the X40 both running thier larger batteries but not by a huge amount.

It might be that I push the X40 harder than the X1 however.

#9 Post by **daeojkim** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:44 pm

If it was not for the service, construction, and ease of part availability and user maintainability of X40, I would take the X1 (Samsung Q30) any day.

It only weighs 2.5 lb, high resolution wide screen, less than 1" thin, built in everything for most users, excellent battery life, tiny power brick. This is the kind of notebook I was looking for, too bad I do not have the $$$ right now to get one

Leeper · #10 Post by **Leeper** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:47 pm

The X1 power brick is tiny but the wall side cord is way to big. Takes away from the overall small sized brick.

roibm · #11 Post by **roibm** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:21 pm

thinkpad... why not x31? faster than the x40, costs less, better battery.... weights more.

basilio · #12 Post by **basilio** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:36 am

I just checked Samsung website (Korean one). Dell X1 looks the same with Samsung Q30 which is lightest among 12.1" (1280x768) wide screen models to date. It does not have any fan

, so it should be very quiet. CF and SD slots are included, but PCMCIA slot doesn't exist. 2 USB 2.0, 1 firewire.. 1.8" 4200rpm HDD.. external CD or DVD.. The LCD panel may be Samsung's.. I don't know about battery life. Pretty interesting. No Samsung notebook in the U.S. However, Dell X1 looks like Samsung OEM notebook.

Does anybody know about keyboard of this X1 ? If the keyboard is comparable to IBM's, I may seriously consider this Dell X1..

Orbitz · #13 Post by **Orbitz** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:35 am

The X1 is a regadged Sammy Q30. The Q30 has gotten pretty solid reviews and a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't touch a Dell with a 100' pole are considering the X1 because they believe there would not be the normal quality issues that many complain about with Dell products since Sammy is involved.

I thought I read somewhere that battery life with the stock battery is only 2 - 2.5 hours...with the extended battery (which stick out like the one on the X4x) is 5 hours or so.

rayfranco · #14 Post by **rayfranco** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:03 pm

Im not sure what is going at Cnet and ZDnet, but they have changed their rating creteria.

The X40, as of 2 May 05, is rated at 5.2 out of 10, while the X1 is rated at 7.0 on the new rating scale.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/ThinkPad_X ... ml?tag=top

feejeean · #15 Post by **feejeean** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:05 pm

www.notebookreview.com has a comparision between X41 and X1

emorphien · #16 Post by **emorphien** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:18 pm

THe X1 is just some rebadged samsung, and it looks promising.

edit: After reading reviews and looking in to it, I'm very interested. I can get it with the 60gb drive, DVD burner, base RAM and 3 yr on site + Complete Care for $2100 with edu discount then add a gig of RAM later. The sealed keyboard, lack of fan and especially CF and SD card readers (the only 2 i want or need) really are appealing.

Well maybe if I don't get the T it'll be between this or the 700m or something.

NihilDeNominibus · #17 Post by **NihilDeNominibus** » Tue May 10, 2005 10:28 am

emorphien wrote:THe X1 is just some rebadged samsung, and it looks promising.

edit: After reading reviews and looking in to it, I'm very interested. I can get it with the 60gb drive, DVD burner, base RAM and 3 yr on site + Complete Care for $2100 with edu discount then add a gig of RAM later. The sealed keyboard, lack of fan and especially CF and SD card readers (the only 2 i want or need) really are appealing.

Well maybe if I don't get the T it'll be between this or the 700m or something.

Of course, the hinges will suck compared with IBM. Sadly, IBM is the only company that makes good hinges.

emorphien · #18 Post by **emorphien** » Tue May 10, 2005 3:04 pm

NihilDeNominibus wrote:
emorphien wrote:THe X1 is just some rebadged samsung, and it looks promising.

edit: After reading reviews and looking in to it, I'm very interested. I can get it with the 60gb drive, DVD burner, base RAM and 3 yr on site + Complete Care for $2100 with edu discount then add a gig of RAM later. The sealed keyboard, lack of fan and especially CF and SD card readers (the only 2 i want or need) really are appealing.

Well maybe if I don't get the T it'll be between this or the 700m or something.

Of course, the hinges will suck compared with IBM. Sadly, IBM is the only company that makes good hinges.

This is true, but since I can get it with a 3 yr on site warranty, I can just get those replaced before the end of the warranty. They did that on my Inspiron 8100.

I'm also helplessly fascinated by the Panasonic Toughbooks.

lilserenity · #19 Post by **lilserenity** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:18 pm

I'm gonna stick up for my D600 here, and not because I am in delusion. Yes the D600 is made by Dell. It is also worth noting that I am a big ThinkPad fan but... anyway - it comes down to cost.

Anyways, some simple answers:

I do not know about the X1 in particular -- and in fact in this case I would probably recommend the X40 as it is a sweet laptop.

The more I hear anecdotal evidence on Dell laptops, the more I begin to think I really did get a good one

Is the D600 keyboard as good as the Thinkpad ones.

yes and no. It is a **lot** firmer than the one in my T23 which had some bounce in it particularly on the left hand side. The D600 exhibits none of this. Did the T23 have a better key travel than the D600, yes. But marginally.

One thing to note is that compared to some laptops, the D600/610/800/810's have bar the Fn key placement, a windows key and a popup menu key a layout that is very much like that of the ThinkPad series. Thankfully the win key is not obtrusive and the popup meny key is shoved well out the way thankfully above F9 and left of Prt Scr.

Also, you do not have to press Shift to access Num Lock as you did on the T23 and every other ThinkPad that I have used, in my book that is a bonus for those Alt + 0169 etc. moments.

The build quality on my D600 is actually very good and I can see this lasting a long time and I am notorious for really beating laptops, not in an abusive way but I sure use them hard.

As for the X1 I cannot say as to be perfectly honest the D600 is the first Dell I have owned as I have been true to ThinkPads all the way through till now (I would have bought a T40 if one of a similar spec as this D600 arose at a similar price), but the X30 and X40 that I have tinkered with are simply wonderful machines.

When I am in a proper job I am personally hoping to purchase myself an X30 or 31 for the moments when I do need some real portability.

As such, I am tempted to say that the ThinkPad offers better small notebooks, although I think it would be best to try out both for extended periods to see which you prefer.

As for my D600, I am very very pleased, I think it's important to be balanced in such affairs..

(FWIW I got a SXGA+ D600 (1400x1050), 512MB, 60GB 5400RPM, WinXP Pro, Pentium-M 1.4GHz, CDRW/DVD, Floppy, 32MB ATI Radeon 9000-M, Centrino-Intel 802.11b Wireless, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Modem, AC Adapter, 6 cell battery, and carry case for £490 brand new, an amazing deal in my book, I'm just glad the machine is proving to be a good purchase!! When someone finds me a T40 brand new of that spec for that price any time soon, be sure to tell me

)

PS: If I could afford a t40 of that spec, I sure as hell would have it over the Dell.

Orbitz · #20 Post by **Orbitz** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:59 pm

Hehe Dell must be smelling blood

About 2 weeks ago, I called Dell to get a qoute on an X1 just to compare to the X41 similarily equipped...Dell just called me back (maybe they do this all the time...I have never had them call me before) and offered to shave off $273 from the original qoute. So the fully loaded X1 (60gb HD, 1.25 gb ram, Dbay DVD / CDRW, extra 6 cell battery, 3 year all on-site with accidental damage coverage, free case and overnight shipping went from $2196 to $1923. Shame I don't have much confidence in their product.

X40/41 vs. Dell X1

X40/41 vs. Dell X1

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