Thinkpads Forum

The annoucement came today. Part no. 43R1818. But I'm confused. It says this is an Embedded Verizon EVDO option for certain X61 and T61 and X300 models, but then in the release under prerequisites it says it needs an available PC card slot. Huh? Can Anyone shed some light on this? Is this really a mini-pci kit or just another EVDO PC card option. I can see the benefit in this if it is a PC Card that is entirely embedded in the card slot (no out-hang) and uses the internal antenna. The benefit in this would be to allow moving the card into other compatible Thinkpads without having to do an ESN switch.

I'm sure some would say to use any PC Card unit is the same, but not having anything sticking out of the laptop would be pretty cool-with the added benefit of using the service with another compatible Thinkpad.

Re-reading the release and looking at the specs, the size of this allegedly EMBEDDED card is 4.6 inches in width-pretty much gives this away as a standard PC card. Since a standard completely internal PC card slot is only about 3.5" deep, this would mean that this card is about an inch longer and would stick out by that much, making this to be no better than any of the commonly available cards today at a much lower list price.

Keep moving. Nothing to see here.