Why do people here get the T42?? Need help choosing

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tseeee · #1 Post by **tseeee** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:27 pm

I am thinking to get a T42, just like the rest of the people here. However, I'm having a hard time choosing between this and an ASUS M6N. I just need people to convince me enough to choose the T42 over the ASUS. I guess my question is...Why do you guys get the T42 instead of the other laptops (e.g. Asus, CL56, AOpen...even toshiba, sony) when those other laptops could possibly have better specs for cheaper price?

For me, the reason why I want a T42 is: mobility (light and good size), reliability, and most importantly, the professionalism.

Binglehopper · #2 Post by **Binglehopper** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:31 pm

if you've ever held a thinkpad before, you'll see why most people think they are the best built laptops in the industry (which is a big reason they're more expensive).

plucky duck · #3 Post by **plucky duck** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:40 pm

That's part of the problem though, IBM doesn't have shops where people can you see, touch, and feel it for themselves.

Logi7 · #4 Post by **Logi7** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:43 pm

plucky duck wrote:That's part of the problem though, IBM doesn't have shops where people can you see, touch, and feel it for themselves.

not in canada

.. anymore

i dunno about the US

took me a while to find a shop that carried them

atlacatl · #5 Post by **atlacatl** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:48 pm

plucky duck wrote:That's part of the problem though, IBM doesn't have shops where people can you see, touch, and feel it for themselves.

It adds to the mistique - As only cool people own ThinkPads - If you want to be cool, get a ThinkPad and be like us

On a serious note, I have had a couple of laptops in the past and the ThinkPad is the best laptop, bar none.

I originally had a Dell Latitude D600. I returned 3 and kept the last one - But, I wish I had not. I passed it down to my GF and I got myself a ThinkPad T40p. Buying it was a good descition. I can almost gurantee that if you get a ThinkPad, you will not regret it and will defenetely feel the extra money you pay for the machine, is actually worth it...

rhema83 · #6 Post by **rhema83** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:55 pm

Actually you can go to computer stores like J&R to have some hands-on experience.

I actually chose my T42 over Toshiba Tecra M2, Dell Inspiron 600m / Latitude D600, HP nc6000. Here are my opinions:

T42 - pricey, plain design, lack of firewire, fast RAM, great graphics, first-class support

Tecra M2 - GeForce FX GO! 5200 has been factory-underclocked and needs heavy tweaking to get it to perform at 80%, keyboard arrangement is weird, big HDD and a lot of RAM, good support

Inspiron - slow 266MHz RAM, notorious Dell support, but cheap

Latitude - slow 266MHz RAM, whimpy 32MB graphics card, notorious Dell support, and not really cheap

nc6000 - heavy, overpriced, bad experience with HP, poor customer service

tseeee · #7 Post by **tseeee** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:00 am

atlacatl wrote:
On a serious note, I have had a couple of laptops in the past and the ThinkPad is the best laptop, bar none.

Can you elaborate more on why you like it and why you think it's the best?

atlacatl · #8 Post by **atlacatl** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:18 am

tseeee wrote:
atlacatl wrote:
On a serious note, I have had a couple of laptops in the past and the ThinkPad is the best laptop, bar none.
Can you elaborate more on why you like it and why you think it's the best?

Sure. I feel I should get a free one from IBM for the free publicity

1. The size of the machine feels just right. It's defenetely thin - 1" - There are other vendors with comparable sizes, so this may be a minor +. However, the X40, to me is probably the perfect size. I don't have one, but I've seen them - When they come up with a more powerful CPU, I'll probably get one.

2. No crashes - The D600s use to crash every other day - Quite anoying.

3. No heat - The machine gets hot on the bottom, however, there is no noticeable heat on the palm rest - The right side is the warm side - I think it's the hard drive, some people say it's the graphics card...It's get a bit warm with lots of drive activity, so, the winner is: the hard drive...

4. The keyboard is one of the best I've used in a laptop.

5. The screen on my T40p is very descent. Good contrast and sharpnest - I have the 1400x1040 - The T42 (15 inch - Ultrasharp) should be even better - Too big for me. The 14.1" is just about right.

6. The wireless worked from day one - No problems with different routers.

7. The main for me, is the battery life.

The 6 cell battery lasts around 4 hours - Usage varies, but, ussauly typing and wireless use.

With the 9 cell, I can almost go all day - I've gotten 7+ hours of use - Typing and wirelless on.

No other laptop that I know can do this - Ok, unless you add a huge battery, which is not very portable...

8. The IBM support is fairly descent. I've used them a couple of times, and so far, it's being an ok experience...

9. I personally like the black color and the rubbery feel of the lid - Minor, but I like it...

10. A very solid machine.

I've heard the T2X were better built, however, I don't have a T2X, so I can't compare. So, to me the T40p has a very solid built.

The bad (The machine is not perfect, yet):
1. Creacky palm rest - However, I fixed it and it is now creak free.

2. The 5 second pulsating fan - It's not that bad now, with the new BIOS - I've heard the new machines don't have this issue - Your mileage may vary - Note that the fan is only noticeable if you are in a really quiet place or you have bionic ears...

3. The price - Not a cheap computer, but, like I said - I feel the money was well spent...

4. I get the footprint of the keyboard on the screen - I've had this issue with a couple of laptops - Maybe it's just the way I carry it around, cause I've heard some people around here, don't have this issue.

To solve the problem, I have an eye glass cleaner cloth I bought for 10 bucks and sized it to the the screen. Foot print gone...

I hope this helps...Very subjective, though, I think it should give you a going reference point from a satisfied (And cool) ThinkPad owner...

Hangfire · #9 Post by **Hangfire** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:02 am

Great review atlacatl!

All very good points. I've owned several laptops in the past but nothing comes close to my ThinkPad. I guess you really need to own one to understand...

lophiomys · #10 Post by **lophiomys** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 8:35 am

some minor additions from my experience:
+ the wonderful keyboard layout without the Windows keys
+ the trackpoint (I know: nowadays also on Toshiba and Dell)

- minor, but irritating noise issues (pulsating fan in R5x,T4x, trackpoint movement noise in speaker on 600x, noisy HDD in 760E)

I can support atlacatl's review.
IMHO Thinkpads - even the R-Series - are most favorable compared to other brands I used,
i.e. Latitude XPi, Latitude CPi, Maxdata Pro 6000T, Compaq n1020v, Maxdata eco 3200X (what a nightmare: it's a stove and hairdryer in one unit).

Only the old Dell Latitude XPi would IMHO be comparable to the Thinkpad feeling: sturdy built, not getting hot, and some nice little details modern notebooks are missing today

charge indicators on the battery itself, and you could change the battery on the fly (means without shutting down)
and it was black...

Binglehopper · #11 Post by **Binglehopper** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 8:47 am

everyone had some really good point about IBM notebooks. you do pay a premium, but in this case, you DEFINITELY get what you pay for. but talk to bill (the moderator of these forums), and he'll hook you up w/ a good deal i'm sure.

the only other laptop i've owned is a fujitsu S series, which I think is an awesome laptop. have had it for almost 3 years, and NEVER had a problem. in fact, i would've bought another if i could've gotten the S series with a SXGA screen.

but whenever i recommend laptops to people i only recommend IBM and fujitsu.

hope this helps.

andyk · #12 Post by **andyk** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 9:35 am

Check out what 8000 other people also say:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1623706,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1625329,00.asp

"IBM: Notebooks

IBM's decision to go against the prevailing trend and provide tech support only through domestic call centers seems to have been an important factor in Big Blue's continued success. No competitor comes close to the company's tech-support ratings."

tseeee · #13 Post by **tseeee** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 3:17 pm

It seems like IBM is better than those Dell, Sony, Fujitsu, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, etc. But did anyone ever played with those talked about in notebookforums.com...like Asus, Compal, Aopen, acer? here is the link:

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=22187

Guest · #14 Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:17 pm

One thing I notice that you never hear in reviews or in the quotes of consumers in the reviews is talk about the hardware on specific machines. What i mean is the parts that could or do break are not covered under warranty so no consumer can complain about it. For example how easily a hing broke or a keyboard broke. This type of damage may be considered consumer damage and not covered. Fine BUT for me that is where quality comes in. For me that is really the most important. A broken LCD or hinge after a year on a computer that can still turn on is pointless to me. I could care less about a company that could fix parts like these also. Hinges and more should not be falling apart breaking or cracking under normal wear and tear.
(For this I am mainly talking about the external devices that I touch. Internal devices I would assume of course is under warranty (fan, hd etc).

jsmit86 · #15 Post by **jsmit86** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 1:06 pm

lophiomys wrote:some minor additions from my experience:
+ the wonderful keyboard layout without the Windows keys
+ the trackpoint (I know: nowadays also on Toshiba and Dell)

The only Toshibas I still see with TrackPoint are the Tecra M2 series, and they are difficult to find at retail. (No CompUSA, CC, BB, etc..)

Are there and current Dell with TrackPoint?

lophiomys · #16 Post by **lophiomys** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 4:29 pm

Are there and current Dell with TrackPoint?

Before I finally bought a R50, I had to call Dell Sales to clarify what a TrackStick is.

Hidden somwhere deep in the Product Specs:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/product ... e=5#tabtop
Input Devices
87 key U.S. Layout
Dell DualPoint pointing device (both Touch Pad & Track Stick)

and a picture:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/product ... b=viewstab

It seems Dell is not keen to actively promote this feature.

Chun-Yu · #17 Post by **Chun-Yu** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 4:10 pm

lophiomys wrote:It seems Dell is not keen to actively promote this feature.

Most likely because the Dell implementation is absolutely horrible. Actually, I find the ALPS brand pointing stick AND touchpad to be far inferior to the Synaptics that IBM/HP/others use (iirc, Toshiba also uses ALPS). Synaptics touchpads are much smoother and don't have weird quirks like ALPS ones do. Also, the Dell pointing stick is very tiny and wears down very quickly.

RoadHazard · #18 Post by **RoadHazard** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 5:36 pm

It's interesting to see some people don't like trackpoint. But for me, the trackpoint is one of the reasons I chose the Thinkpad.

Daniel · #19 Post by **Daniel** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 8:06 pm

As mentioned earlier, IBM support is top notch. I don't see other companies overnighting parts that you WANT (not need) when necessary. Especially flexing keyboards, slightly loose batteries, etc.

blackatom · #20 Post by **blackatom** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:47 pm

i was debating between the cl56, the T42, and the asus m6n non widescreen. A friend of mind bought the cl56 for 1600 bucks or so, it felt too cheap, was thicker and heavier than i wanted (6 pounds, 1.17"). I never saw an asus so i had to trust forums and from what i heard the LCD's weren't very good but i was interested in saving money building my own. Then i started looking at the t42 after reading this forum. My buddy got a job at booze alan hamilton and T40's are standard issue over there. So i went to his house to check it out, and i was sold. It's everything you want in a laptop, 1" thin, 4.5 pounds, good GPU, long battery life, SXGA+ on a 14.1" screen. Expensive yes...but weigh that extra expense over planned life of the laptop and it's not that bad. Everyone where i work gets issued Dell laptops. Now they all hate dell after seeing the t42.

Get the t42, you have a 30 day money back guarantee. So just buy it, if you hate it, return it, you dont' need a store for that. I have no plans on letting this thing go.

Why do people here get the T42?? Need help choosing

Why do people here get the T42?? Need help choosing

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