Think you can answer my Thinkpad questions?

[PaulKhanna]

Hello,

I'm about to boost China some more by purchasing an X201.

I'll be mainly using it for word processing (don't laugh!), and as such, it's the keyboard that draws me to it, in addition to its utilitarian design. Thus far, I've planned the usual things that a Shakespeare needs (8 gigabytes of RAM, Intel i7 620m CPU, Solid State Hard Drive!).

Now the other stuff.

1) If I don't want the fingerprint reader (fear of rival writers chopping off my fingers to access my work), and if I take it off the spec, will I get a nice smooth laptop surface, as if it never existed, or will it be a plastic cover that tempts small children to extract? I have read that on the tablet version, it maybe the latter.

2) What about the same thing with regards omitting the webcam; will it look like it never existed, or will it be a covering?

3) If I did go for the webcam, I notice that the screen will have an Ultraconnect 2x2 antenna set up. Does this have to be matched by the 2x2 Intel LAN Adaptor?

Most important question here:

4) Does having an Ultraconnect 2x2 antenna behind the screen (as opposed to a 3x3 set up) have a bearing on 3g Mobile Broadband reception?

In my experience, 3g strength out and about is the most important thing for mobility. I'd be happy to ditch the webcam and go for the 3x3 screen option if it helped 3g signal strength.

Thanks in advance to anyone who stays calm and answers these seemingly mundane questions.

Write on!

Paul Khanna

[ThinkRob]

1) If I don't want the fingerprint reader (fear of rival writers chopping off my fingers to access my work), and if I take it off the spec, will I get a nice smooth laptop surface, as if it never existed, or will it be a plastic cover that tempts small children to extract? I have read that on the tablet version, it maybe the latter.

No idea about the tablet version, but for the non-tablet X200-series, there are separate FRUs for the palmrests with the fingerprint reader and for those without.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Not ordering the fingerprint reader on the T410 gets you a smooth palmrest, whereas on the T510 you get a palmrest with the space cut out but a plastic filler (doesn't seem to come out easily).

I also don't quite see why you'd need 8GB of RAM for word processing. It's a fair bit more expensive.

[EchoFox]

Friend of mine's got an X200 with the fingerprint scanner, whilst my X200 doesn't. Where the scanner would be on mine, there is simply a flat surface. No sign that anything else should go there.

Again, mine lacks the webcam, and although the slab of plastic where it would go is there, it's flat and it actually looks pretty cool. It kind of tessellates with the UltraConnect groove things.

Not sure about the 3G questions.

[Bánh mì]

You really should get the reader. If you dont use it you can deactivate it. Its an important security device and not astethically unpleasing at all. Not sure what you mean by Shakespere. I think you are saying you are not a quant jock but a poet type. If so, then you may not need the 620M and something like the 520 or 540 would suit you. I reccomened the 540 CPU which hits the sweet spot. I have that on mine and can say running W7 and XP in XP mode at the same time I have no issues and its fast enough for me to do all my intense Excel spreadsheets and multitask across OS'. There are some posts here about 3G and which Intel card to get for WIFI. You'll have to search for them.

[ThinkRob]

You really should get the reader. If you dont use it you can deactivate it. Its an important security device and not astethically unpleasing at all.

It's an *entertaining* "security" device, but I wouldn't exactly call it important. As far as deactivating it if you're not going to use it... Yes, you could do that -- but if you know you're not going to use it, why bother getting it in the first place?

[EchoFox]

Yeah, I had the fingerprint scanner on my T43p and although it was neat to use every now and then, if it didn't accept my print after at least the first two scans, it had reached the point where it would have been substantially faster to just type in the password, which is what I usually did anyway.