Thinkpads Forum

I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I'm undecided on the X series. I'm coming from a T43 that I used every day, for hours on end. It served me well and was a complete workhorse. I'm currently undecided on the X series and the T series. I'm not sure how I'd like the size of the X300 over a T. Can anyone help me with this simple turned huge decision?

I'm concerned with the processor, graphics, size drive, etc over say the T400. Can anyone put my mind at ease and explain to me that it's a great computer that is perfect for what I need? I'm using it heavily for internet, .pdf, and docs. Not really for movies, but virtual tours will be viewed. Real estate activities actually.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, but reading and listening to what's been said on each of the series is confusing the hell out of me.

Thanks in advance.

Hi KD, I beleive the X's are all extremely capable machines.
My application use sound similar to yours.
I've been running an X41 for 3 years, it's a single core 1.6Ghz
I'm approx 40/60 mobile vs desktop usage and I'm about to upgrade to an X301 with 128 Gb. Here are my thoughts on a number of the key issues you mentioned

Storage
I've found that for moderate email/document creation & storage that personal filing space hardly accounts for more than 12Gb (over 3 years) out of the nominal 60Gb ( 53Gb usable) available on the X.41 disk, however i'm almost out of space!
The reason is the IBM Rescue & Recovery (a life saver) facility causes a large slice of available disk space to be consumed.
Bottom line is my next PC will have a 128Gb SSD, ie thsi willl be more than sufficient storage capacity.
CPU performance
1.6GHz single core on the X41 has been adequate for MS Office application use, Email, Web etc, so I feel that a dual 1.4 Ghz X301 will offer substantial performance increase.
The Solid State disk offered on X300/301 will play a big part in performance increase. With Zero latency disk I/O the whole file system will run much faster. The evidence is the boot time from power on to browser launch of 30 secs on an X300/301 vs approx 4 mins on the X.41 today!

Screensize
Screensize is no issue at all if driving a PC projector for a presentation. If you're presenting to folk huddled around the 12.1" screen, it's a bit of a joke but 1:1 has been no probs.... 14 or 15" probably won't make a big difference in these situs either! For email or work on the road, it's big enough.. typing this from my home workstation, I use the X41 docked and connected to a 17" LCD and separate keyboard.. very convenient works a treat!.
In this mode of working either X41 or X301 becomes just the engine powering the desktop .. which in my case will soon be a 24" Dell screen.
Screenres.
I beleive the X301 LED screen is much hgher quality than I've been used to. Most write-ups and reviews seem to support this.

General
The main benefit of the X series is that they are ultralights and are thrifty on battery. If you're mobile, they're really convenient to travel with... if you're used to travelling with a T43 you'll notice a big difference and your arms will eventually get back to normal length.
Hope this helps ....in my opinion, unless the application demands serious horsepower.. why carry all that weight?

Given the usage, the hard drive is probably the biggest performance bottleneck. The SSD on the X30X will give superior performance, though you certainly could get one on the other machines.