Thinkpads Forum

Long story short, I wanted a small, ultra portible computer. I bought a used X30 and I am very happy with it.

I've been tempted to buy an S30/31 for a while, but due to the difficulty getting one, and price, I went with the X30.

My girlfriends sister is going to Japan for a month. I'm tempted to have her pick one up for me. They seem to run about 40 - 50,000 yen. Which about $450 US.

Is it really much smaller? All the picks I've seen make the S30/31 look a lot smaller than an X-series, but according to IBM, the size difference is minimal.

Yes there is a the rarity, but I am also worried about the CPU speed. My X30 is underclocked and runs most of the time at about 500mhz. So I think the 600mhz processor of the S30/31 should be ok.

Overall, I know this is a thinkpad forum, so we're biased. But given the spec, should I just be happy with my X30 or possibly look at something else (like a 10" Fujitsu?).

The 600MHz PIII S30 is similar to the 600MHz PIII 240Z XGA model in several respects (same CPU, same screen resolution, same 3.2 lbs), but the latter is quite a bit cheaper and so you might want to consider getting that instead. However, I heard that the S30 battery lasts super long, something like 8 hours. I don't think the 240Z extended battery can last nearly as long. Also, I think the S30 has two USB ports compared to just one on the 240Z.

I have an S30 and am very happy with it, with a couple of important exceptions.

With 256MB of RAM it tends to thrash the hard drive swapping things in and out if you've got much running. The hard drive is also rather small at 20 GB, and slow.

I use Debian -- see http://aglet.net/s30/ -- on mine, together with the occasional WinME boot for Word purposes. I need to try some more recent kernels to see if ACPI power management now works properly.

I've never used a computer of that sort of size that was so usable. The key spacing is rather tight, but the feel is excellent, and I like having the extra keys (page left, right), katana, etc, to map to other functions. Build quality is superlative, butt he piano gloss top is rather easily scratched.

I bought the extended life battery, and find that when I'm on that I can get a proper working day out fo the machine. It probably helps that the screen is physically rather small, reducing power loss from the backlight.

Everyone that's ever seen it has asked what it is, and where I got it.