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I was thinking of writing this as an in-depth review, but I guess we have more than enough of these, so I will write small reviews from 4 different perspectives:
1) A fictitious, thinkpad newbie, home user.
2) A T40 user, uses it as his sole business/home PC.
3) A T23 user, same as (2).
4) An X31 user, thinking of a "desktop" machine to complement it.
I can personally account for 2,3 and 4 as I use a T40 and an X31 while my gf uses a T23. As for the newbie bit, I can recollect from my mom's reaction when I visited her a while ago. Here we go then:
1) Hello everyone, I am Stav's fictitious friend, Bob the Builder. I got this laptop because Stavros suggested that IBMs are really good laptops, and I believe what he says. Therefore I bought it for a very good price from his friend James, a very nice bloke.
It arrived today at my house. I opened the box, and... wow! This laptop is light and slim! I like the black, looks understated. That pointy thingy doesnt look too useful, but thats not a problem as I will use a mouse. Started connecting printer and other external stuff on it before I turned it on. Hmm...lets see..WHAT?? NO Firewire?? Just 2 USB ports???? I can't believe this!! [censored] you IBM! No printing until I get a hub, I guess
. Turned it on. Windows was loaded on it. Screen looks very nice, letters are a bit small though. Stavros told me I can change that, I might try it later. Immediately installed World of Warcraft in order to check gaming on it. Started it, graphics card seems to be handling it fine. Sound is not too loud though, I will have to use my external speakers. The keyboard is very nice, better than my MS one. I like this.
Been playing around a little with it. Quality seems very nice, no creaks or anything, and I like the little light on top of the screen. It is very quiet as well, my old desktop sounded like an airplane compared to this. Performance is nice but I still cannot believe it only has 2 USB ports.
Verdict: I like it a lot, looks like a sturdy albeit light machine, performance is nice, screen is lovely. NEEDS MORE PORTS. I was also told that IBM has the best support, should I need it. Thanks Stavros, good suggestion!!!
2) Hi everyone. I'm Stavros, and bought this laptop for the superior gfx card/SXGA+ combination to my XGA T40. I use the T40 as my sole machine, and take it to work and back every day.
Initial feelings are mixed. I got a machine that looks EXACTLY like the T40. Turned it on and started playing around with it. The keyboard is not as nice as the T40 and I dont like the touchpad, so I exchanged them for my T40's keyboard and trackpoint-only palm rest. While I was on it, I replaced the drive with a 7k60. Gotta love the 7k60, a very fast drive. Quality seemd on par with the T40, the gap above the drive is a little smaller, never bothered about it anyway. Still no firewire.
The screen is gorgeous. Brightness is pretty much the same, colours seem more vibrant on the T42. Me loves SXGA+. Seriously. I can open firefox, thunderbird and still have space for a terminal or two. Graphics card installed relatively painlessly on Linux (T40 was a breeze), but boy is it fast. Especially on OpenGL applications and games, 1400x1050@9600 is faster than 1024x768@7500! Impressive. The higher res is also very nice when coding, as I can open more windows on Eclipse while working at the main window. Nice. System-performance-wise, I don't think the upgrade is worth it. The CPU + memory doesn't give the an obvious ooomph over the T40's 1.5 (both have 1 gig) when compiling and the drives are the same, so cannot compare them.
Verdict: I love the screen. It's amazing. The graphics card is much faster as well. However, I think that if I could find a cheap SXGA+ T40 or T40p I would take it over this one, as apart from the gfx+screen it is not at all an upgrade to my T40. I also cannot understand why IBM doesnt add a firewire port on it. Still a great machine though, the new gfx card and screen reinforce its role as an all-in-one machine that is fast both on the desktop and on the road. If I had an SXGA+ T40 or T41 though, I wouldn't even think of the upgrade.
3) Hi everyone, I'm Vicky, Stav's girlfriend, and he gave me this T42 to review. Since I spilled coffee on my 600X I have been using this SXGA+ T23 and I love it! I have seen Stav's T40 before, so the laptop's appearance didn't make any impression to me, I like how slimmer than the T23 it is though. Looks more flimsy than my T23, I would probably be afraid to carry it in my bag. The dual pointing device looks nice, but I only use the trackpoint anyway.
Turned it on and started playing with it. I dont play games so I am not particularly impressed by Stav's claim that the graphics card is better. Opened my usual applications: Firefox, Word, iTunes, PowerDVD. Doesn't seem to be much faster than my T23. However, Autocad seems to start much faster and redrawing is also faster. I guess it is the new graphics card, but my workstation is still much better for the job. This one has inbuilt wireless, so I dont need that bulky card I had for the T23. Nice. Keyboard is pretty much the same. The screen seems brighter, but the sound is still as bad as the T23. USB2.0 is also much nicer, no need for another external card. Still no firewire though. Why does Stav's X31 has firewire and this one doesn't? Weird.
Verdict: Nice laptop, but I dont see any major advantages over my T23. I would only recommend the upgrade to people who play games or need faster graphics.
4) Hello everyone, I am Stavros and bought this T42 in order to see if it can complement/replace my good old X31, so I'll get right into action:
For a machine with an optical drive, this is slim, very slim. Quality seems ok, but the X31 is still the best computer I've used. Doesn't have firewire, why not? The 1.7 doesn't look much faster than my 1.6 on the X31. Upgraded the drive to the 7k60, looks snappy as always, especially on Linux. The SXGA+ is SWEET, looks much nicer than the 1280x1024 desktop LCDs and has proper 4:3 dimensions. The 9600 is a nice graphics card, but for a desktop replacement I'd want something more. The keyboard is a little bigger than my X31, typing is on par with IBM quality.
Tried lugging it around, feels a lot heavier than the X31 than it really is. I don't know if everyday commuting with it would be acceptable, if it were to replace the X31. Also, it is nice for a desktop replacement, but for the same money I can build a nice Pentium-M desktop with much faster graphics and bigger drives. Laptop drives really need to get bigger, 60 gigs is simply not acceptable for multimedia use.
Verdict: I can think of it as someone's sole machine, but I wouldn't keep it along with the X31. The screen is amazing, but all in all the X31 + SFF desktop looks like a MUCH more attractive combination. Plus, the X31 is a [censored] fine machine and I am not going to part with it. Ever. Well, maybe for the X32. or the X33, or the X34. You get the point.
I hope some of the people belonging in one of these categories found the mini-reviews useful. If you have any questions or suggestions please let me know.
Stavros
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