SL500: the first two weeks (product review)

[akorn]

Hej,

I'd like to give potential buyers of this laptop (or one in this series) a little bit of guidance. Below, I therefore give a personal account of pros and cons with this machine.

The specs: 2 GHz Core Duo, 4GB RAM, matte WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen, Vista Home Premium, WWAN

Reason for this model: This is bought as a portable family PC, so performance is not so important. However, I definitely wanted a matte hi-res screen. If you want that, then your choices are surprisingly few, at least in this price range (around 800 Euro).

The good:
* I own an X61s which I carry to and fro work every day. It's great with its 1.3 kg. But now that I sit in front of a 15.4" screen with 1680 pixels, I notice how limited my 12" 1024-pixel virtual estate on the X61s is. It's ok on the go and at work I have a stationary screen to hook it up to. Screen brightness is as good as on my super-light super-bright X61s. Evenness of brightness and viewing angle is probably somewhat worse (one notices during e.g. boot-up), no surprise given the larger screen.
* Keyboard is sturdy, even though I read threads complaining about the changed keyboard layout: like on my X61s, the Fn key is all the way to the left and Delete is third from the right. It has a Win key which I use to bring up Vista's neat search field.
* The red "i" (eye) in the Thinkpad logo on the lid: it lights up during operation and blinks calmly while in Save-to-RAM mode, like the Terminator eye or a similar feature (in white light) on Macbooks. I happen to like it, even though it is not business-like.
* Sound is ok (lacking bass), not sound levels are insufficient in Media Center DVD viewing (where the DVD drive humms like a swarm of wasps), but in WinDVD and VLC (freeware cross-platform player) both these issue are (somehow? magically?) better: the DVD runs more quietly and sound can be cranked up to (sort of) 200%.
* Fingerprint reader (love it for logging on ever since I got addicted to it on my X61s). Don't use it otherwise, though.
* A nice set of software on top of Vista: Roxio Creator, WinDVD, Acrobat Reader; McAffe came along as well, but one could choose not to install it. Good solution!

The bad:
* I was tricked to believe that this machine has a 7-in-1 card reader. In fact, it only has an SD-card reader. Bummer!
* Network connectivity: unstable, until I updated the WiFi driver via intel.com (see http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=71914).
* The design: the shiny lid will show all your finderprints. The wedged edges make plugging in USB devices a little fiddly, on the other hand the USB plugs prodrude 1cm less (short ones, e.g. for certain BT mice, would be completely hidden from view).
* Camera did not come with a utility to configure it, but in both Skype and MSN Live Messenger such features can be configured, so no worries.
* Battery power is known to be limited, no issue for our home use. The Lenovo tool does not allow me to specify at what percentage to recharge the battery upon availablilty of AC power, a feature I like on my X61s which, I feel, optimizes the battery life (full charging cycles).

Overall:
I do not regret buying this laptop at all. It runs quitely and all installs have worked so far. The screen is no Flexview (as on my late A31), but the virtual estate of the WSXGA+ is superb. I'm glad I had a choice of surface finish: I still prefer a matte screen over the glossy type.

Hope this gives you an idea of where the strengths and weaknesses of the SL series laptops lie!
akorn

A31 - X61s - SL500: form follows function

[wswartzendruber]

Can it take a beating?

[akorn]

One correction on my above review: it is a 7in1 card reader after all. Got fooled by the fact that the MS Pro adapter (similar to SD in its form factor) that came with my 4 GB M2 micro card does not fit. One needs to put the M2 into the MS Pro adapter and then that into the long MS Duo adapter. The slot, however, looks just like an SD card reader (like on my X61s).

Can it take a beating?

That's hard to tell without dropping it which I'd rather not do deliberately
I do believe that some compromises were made in the SL series, but it does, e.g., have active harddisk protection. I guess it lacks the T-series roll cage..., but then I spent way less for this machine than I would have for a T61.