Differences between X20 series and X30 series

[chanbru]

Hi you all!
Recently I had a change to buy either a X30 or a X24. Unfortunately for me, a newbie in the X series, I didnt notice much improvement in the X30. However, the price of the X30 was US $150 more than the X24. Could anybody tell me the major improvements that I was not able to see? Another question: Is it worth paying more for the X30?

Cheers!

[kingofthehill3]

I own a Thinkpad X30 and my girlfriend has my "old" X24. I'll try to give you a short overview:

- the X30 has two memory slots for up to 1 GB RAM, the X24 has 128 MB onboard and one memory slot (max. 640 MB)
- the screen brackets of the X30 are much more robust
- the X30 is a little bit smaler than the X24
- my X30 has a keyboard with 104 keys, the X24 only has 102 keys lacking the "< > |" key (which sucks using linux)
- the X30 has a parallel port for printers
- the X30 has a firewire port
- the X30 has a microphone port
- the P3-M 1.2 GHz cpu of my X30 is a bit faster than the 1.13 GHz of the X24
- my X30 had an Hitachi 40 GB HDD, the X24 had an Hitachi 30 GB HDD
- my X30 has WLAN, the X24 had not. I replaced the Mini PCI card in the X24 and placed two antennas in the case. The signal quality is acceptable, but the built-in solution is much better
- the original battery of the X30 had 4400mAh, the battery of the X24 "only" had 4000mAh. But there are also replacement batteries for the X24 with 4400mAh.

In general I like the X30 case more than the X24 one, because it's more robust and modern. But of course this depends on your personal taste. You may also look which of the two thinkpads has built-in bluetooth and which battery is in a better condition.

I can't tell you if it's worth paying 150$ more, but if you have more questions... just ask

Marcel

[aceo07]

My X22 has a microphone jack and the <> | keys. I have 640MB ram and I'm not even using a Windows XP swap file. Running smooth.

From what kingofthehill3 wrote, I wish I had firewire and internal WLAN. The firewire could be the alternative to using slow USB1.1. Internal WLAN would be nice since it's a pain to carry a PCMCIA wireless card.

Would I pay $150 extra, I'm not sure. Paying $150 more and then getting upgrades might cost more than what a new laptop from dell or somewhere else might cost. Of course another brand laptop would not be a thinkpad or an X series..

[chanbru]

Thanks to you all !!!!
Too bad the X30 is gone. I'll keep an eyeon ebay and see if there is any for sale.