Question about T42

[borgit]

Hi, I am considering to buy the T42. I read some reviews which state the T42 has horrible battery power, in the range of 2.5 hours, is that true?? Also, i heard some bad stuff about the 15" flexview displays, specifically that it has slow refresh leaving a trail and causing ghosting. Is the 14" inch display better in this regard? Also, one last question, how come you have so few options to customize a thinkpad on ibm's site. For example, it does not allow you to choose a 1.8 cpu with a 14 inch display. Thanks for any info.

[Hangfire]

My 15" Flexview is perfect!

[Flightvector]

The battery life was one of the top 5 reasons I got a T42, otherwise I might as well have wasted my money. Where did you see this figure anyway? Most reviews concur with the 4 hour battery life that I get. No laptop review would or should test the battery life on full load since that is never typical in use or expected. So there is definitely nothing you need to worry about there.

About the Flexview, the ghosting is not noticeable unless you play a fast first-person shooter in a dark, high-contrast, map. I can tell ghosting would exist in normal use, but you need to look for it closely on the LCD, it isn't because you can readily notice it. It doesn't appear in movies in any real manner either, I have seen Dell Lattitude LCDs that had such bad ghosting that you couldn't even focus on a single frame, it was horrendous. But the Flexview is as good as any very strong desktop LCD, the response rate ratings are not proportionally indicative of anything. The Flexview is the best notebook LCD I have ever used, I don't know why it always initially gets pounded. In fact, I would not be surprised if it outstripped any Sony or Toshiba brite LCD. I can use it to edit my Nikon's color levels in photoshop and to pull out detail is curves and unsharp mask (I am quite a picky tweaker when it comes to my photos). The offset color-shift and less detailed contrast of the 14" would make it unuseable for my photo work.

The Flexview and the 14" are not on the same level in my book. Viewing angles are excellent, and the resolve and contrast in color detail is as good as in a CRT. There is some shadowing when dealing with an abrupt vertical light/dark interface, which may turn away those who are highly aesthetic about their displays. But frankly, you should be concerned about size first, anyone who choses a 14" for ghosting (I don't mean shadowing) does not seem rational, you can't game well enough on a T series that this would be justified, and if you can notice the ghosting, you couldn't be much happier with the 14".

Almost everyone who has a Flexview says it is much better than the 14", and those who decide to go back to the 14" do so primarily because of size issues and would get a 14" Flexview in a heartbeat if it existed.

You can't get 745 T42p with a 14" since the Flexview is considered the better screen; a FireGL with 128Mb is packaged with a Flexview since quality is more important than pure gaming in a T Series in terms of a workstation focus.

[mrbjr]

Most of what Flightvector says is my feelings as well. I love the Flexview, especially after I fine tuned the settings available in XP to my viewing preference.
You can get a 14.1 T42p, ie 2373-KTU and it is a fantastic machine as well.

[borgit]

The extended 9 cell battery, does it stick out of the back of the laptop, or is it the same size as the 6 cell battery? Also, does it add considerable battery power?
thanks.

[MrBeta]

The extended 9 cell battery, does it stick out of the back of the laptop, or is it the same size as the 6 cell battery? Also, does it add considerable battery power?

It sticks out from the back of the laptop a little bit, but it doesn't bother me at all. When the screen is up you can't even see it, and when the screen is down, it's kind of convenient for grabbing the laptop quickly. It does add quite a bit of power, too. If you do regular work (ie: not playing a DVD movie) it will last up to 7.5 hours or so (real world shows about 6-7 hours).

I can highly recommend it - you can go virtually all day without plugging in the laptop, and the tiny extra weight is definitely worth it.

[sktn77a]

I noticed that my 15" T42 only has 1 battery lock/catch on the back (at the side of the battery) and the 2nd lock/catch in the middle has been dropped (my T40 and T41 have 2 locks - one at the end and one in the middle). I wonder if this makes it a little more "iffy" carrying the T42 by the battery?