ThinkPad T42: As with any TP the build quality is perfect, nothing creaking and a solid feeling screen... with most laptops if you poke the back of the screen you can see pressure marks, but the t42 has a magnesium and titanium case so its very durable while light. The Active Protection System is very clever, it knows when the laptop is shaking or falling and stops the HDD which prevents data loss, and is also very cool if you manage to get some games like trackball to work with it!
This model is 1.7Ghz Pentium-M, 1GB PC2700, 80GB and a Mobility Radeon 7500 (not for games but still better than the intel/sis job you get most of the time). This isn't the "p" model so it has a 1024x768 screen but that doesnt really bother me but some people might find it a bit restricting as 1280 is becoming the norm nowadays.
The only problem someone will have with this TP is that if you get a model with the Mobility Radeon 7500 you will NOT find working Vista drivers. Not a problem for me as I'm an XP/Linux user :). OH and it has run every linux distro I can think of beautifully.
This machine was about £1500 when it first came out, now for a good spec model expect upwards from 250. I reccomend instead of buying a cheap new model go for a TP from a couple years ago as you wont get bits falling off and it will last you a long time.
IBM/Lenovo support is top notch as you'd expect, and the battery MaxiMiser utility is very useful and will stop you shelling out for a new battery after a year, battery life isn't amazing but it will give you a decent day's use as long as you don't play games.
Build quality, performance, linux support, power-saving options
no vista drivers depending on graphics card, no win key so some shortcuts like win+R arent possible
Reviewing a 2003 model.
Pentium-M 1.7; 1GB DDR; 80GB IDE; Mobility Radeon 7500; 802.11b; DVD-ROM
Owned for 3 years.
I love my R31 thinkpad. Its very rugged and yet not heavy, and the thing chugs along without needing anything more than an occasional treat like the additional RAM which I put in myself. As someone who had endless crashes with my last laptop, a Toshiba Satellite, I really recommend this one. It comes with XP Pro as standard, and if you annot IBM enough they will send you a recovery disc! Techtronics gave me a good price at the time - check them out. I have not needed to explore their aftersales services because my laptop is in perfect working order.
I bought a refurbished Thinkpad 600E and six years old everything is still working fine except the trackpoint mouse but not a big problem as I plug in a ps/2 mouse. Shame about the internal winmodem which doesn't work in Linux and doesn't work that well in windows. I bought a hardware modem (external serial) and internet access is quite fast now (faster in Linux than in Win98). You can upgrade the memory to more than IBM say. IBM's linux online advice was long winded and didn't work. Had to search net to find solution to get audio to work in Linux but I found it. My next machine will be a T series! But no higher than T30 as this is the last real IBM manufactured one!
R31 - Good solid, reliable no frills thinkpad which I travelled with for 3 months around the other side of the world. These are quality, risk free machines.
Owned for 1 year.
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