Thinkpads Forum

I am looking for a replacement of my trusty (but rusty) T41. The X230i caught my eyes. In Germany, it is available at a good price, for around 800 EUR (ca. 1050 USD incl. VAT). It is light weight, it has good battery life, and it has sufficient power. I also looked at the T4xx. But they are clunky, especially compared to my current T41. The X1 Carbon looks awesome, but it is very expensive over here.

I am worried, though, about the palm rest of the X230i. On my T41 the palm rest is ca. 90 mm deep (3.5 inches), and that's just OK. From years of use, there is visible abrasion, and it shows that I rest my palms at the very bottom. Now, obviously, the X230i palm rest is much shorter, much too short! So I wonder:

When typing, is it comfortable to rest the palms on the table, in front of the machine? Perhaps it is helpful to put a gel pad on the table in front of the laptop? What is your experience?

I type a lot, and several times I had mild cases of RSI. Fortunately it always went away by itself. Certainly, I do not want to compromise on typing comfort. And also I do not want to compromise on size: I carry my laptop around a lot, and I use it in crammed places such as in airplanes, buses, metros.

I am peeved that they do not make 4:3 or 5:4 machines anymore...

feklee wrote:When typing, is it comfortable to rest the palms on the table, in front of the machine? Perhaps it is helpful to put a gel pad on the table in front of the laptop? What is your experience?

For me, it's actually better to not have a palmrest because most laptops' palmrests get warm and I would rather keep my palm on the table.

feklee wrote:I carry my laptop around a lot, and I use it in crammed places such as in airplanes, buses, metros....I am peeved that they do not make 4:3 or 5:4 machines anymore...

I would think that "shortscreen" laptops are easier to use on planes and buses. BTW, what 5:4 laptops have you used? All the ones that I know of are at least 13.7" and are very heavy. My Dell Inspiron 7500 (15.4" 1280x1024) weighs 9.43 lbs and I wouldn't want to use it on a plane!

pianowizard wrote:most laptops' palmrests get warm

That is not an issue with my T41.

I would rather keep my palm on the table.

Do you own an X2xx ThinkPad?

feklee wrote:I would think that "shortscreen" laptops are easier to use on planes and buses.

14.1" 4:3 has been the sweet spot for me. Note that the bezel on the T41 is much thinner than on current T series ThinkPads. Today a lot of space is wasted, and you get clunky machines with small screens and short palm rests.

BTW, what 5:4 laptops have you used?

There have been T2x with 14.1" SXGA displays, and when you see them: That is a lot of screen real estate, and in quite a compact housing. I never owned one.

Manual typewriters, IBM selectrics, and a generation of PC's and a decade of notebooks enabled touch-typing without palmrests.
(Ahem).

But for the OP, worry not.

The Thinkpad design team (heaven help us if its "engineering") is working overtime to make the non-optional palmrest and touchpad tall enough to land a C919 on, while trying to figure a way to shrink the keyboard beyond its remaining six chiclety rows. Just look at what they did to the Edge Twist.

feklee wrote:I am looking for a replacement of my trusty (but rusty) T41. The X230i caught my eyes. In Germany, it is available at a good price, for around 800 EUR (ca. 1050 USD incl. VAT). It is light weight, it has good battery life, and it has sufficient power. I also looked at the T4xx. But they are clunky, especially compared to my current T41. The X1 Carbon looks awesome, but it is very expensive over here.

I am worried, though, about the palm rest of the X230i. On my T41 the palm rest is ca. 90 mm deep (3.5 inches), and that's just OK. From years of use, there is visible abrasion, and it shows that I rest my palms at the very bottom. Now, obviously, the X230i palm rest is much shorter, much too short! So I wonder:

When typing, is it comfortable to rest the palms on the table, in front of the machine? Perhaps it is helpful to put a gel pad on the table in front of the laptop? What is your experience?

I type a lot, and several times I had mild cases of RSI. Fortunately it always went away by itself. Certainly, I do not want to compromise on typing comfort. And also I do not want to compromise on size: I carry my laptop around a lot, and I use it in crammed places such as in airplanes, buses, metros.

I am peeved that they do not make 4:3 or 5:4 machines anymore...

I just picked up an x220, and noticed the palmrest IS pretty short, noticeably short. I also have RSI, but is hasn't bothered me too much yet WRT the palmrest. The trackpad is a bit of a pain, since I'm always swiping it accidentally, so I turn it off. It's weird having a full-size keyboard (from the T/W series) in a sub-notebook, but the 16x9 screens allow it.

For travel, the 16x9 is great. For day-to-day use, 16x9 is awful. It's tolerable in 27" 2560x1440, so I can have 2 items side-by-side at the same time, but in 12.5" 1366x768, it's like looking through the top half of a window. Blech.

plympton wrote:For day-to-day use, 16x9 is awful.

I am worried about this as well. Heck, perhaps I should go with something like a T420s - just found a good offer. The display will still be small compared to my T41, though. Thing is, I rarely use an external screen.

The T420 is really bulky, lots of plastic, and it's thicker than my T41

I went from a 14.1" T-42 to the 12.5" X220. Had the same concerns before I bought.

I put my X220 several inches from the front edge of the table or counter that I am using it on. I tend to rest my mid forearms on the table or countertop edge in addition to using the palmrest. I find this position fairly comfortable as long as the table edge is not sharp.

As far as the display goes, I put the taskbar on the right side (vertical), so that there are no taskbars on the top or bottom. Gives me an extra 1/2" of vertical real estate. On my browsers, I also try to minimize the menu bars where I can to show more of the web pages on screen without scrolling.

Overall, I am quite happy with my X220. The small size is great for travel. I got the Premium HD IPS display for great resolution and color. The T-42 really looks "old school" when I pull it out now. The T-42 still works, but I hardly use it.

Since the front end of the X220 and X230 are tapered off on an angle, if you have a big hand, the end of the palm would rest on the table. If you are really fussy about that then get a gel palmrest.

If you are used to the screen on the T41, you are probably better off with X2x0 machine with IPS, the T420s and T430s HD+ LCD would cause other problems.

After using my X220 for over a year now, i don't think there is any other ThinkPad that could match for screen quality, battery life (14 hours+ with slice) and portability, i loved the X220 so much i bought my gf a X230 for her to use, since the Macbook Air battery life was too short for her.

GomJabbar wrote:I went from a 14.1" T-42 to the 12.5" X220.

Hah - thanks for first hand experience!

As far as the display goes, I put the taskbar on the right side (vertical), so that there are no taskbars on the top or bottom. Gives me an extra 1/2" of vertical real estate. On my browsers, I also try to minimize the menu bars where I can to show more of the web pages on screen without scrolling.

I already do it almost like that on my T41, and I would prefer more, not less, vertical space. By the way, I am talking about absolute space (e.g. lines of 10pt text). The X230i would be my primary machine, in use every day from morning till evening. As said above, I rarely use external screens.

lead_org wrote:Since the front end of the X220 and X230 are tapered off on an angle, if you have a big hand, the end of the palm would rest on the table.

Well, I guess I would have to try that out. Just like I once bought a MacBook Pro Unibody and didn't like ergonomics after some months (usage of the MacBook Trackpad forced my upper body into an awkward position - I missed the TrackPoint in the end).

If you are really fussy about that then get a gel palmrest.

Phew, something else to carry around. My perfect machine is just: screen, keyboard, palmrest. Every unused square inch of plastics is a waste.

the T420s and T430s HD+ LCD would cause other problems.

What problems? The disadvantage of the X series screens is low resolution. With the T4xx I can get a screen with 900px vertical resolution, which is good when working with graphics. For text, resolution is less important: Absolute text size is what my eyes care about.

After using my X220 for over a year now, i don't think there is any other ThinkPad that could match for screen quality, battery life (14 hours+ with slice) and portability

I see in your signature that you also own an X1 Carbon, which to me appears to be the only sane ThinkPad at the moment. How does the X220 compare to that?