T H I N K. Review on IBM ThinkPad T42

My first acquaintance with laptop was a company provided IBM Thinkpad T30. It was one of the latest at that time, 4 years ago. Hence, had provision of most of the features with a very good RAM, 1GB. And

more of my interest was a DVD player. After all the pros and cons of a desktop or laptop, I decided to have a handy laptop. Had a choice of Sony Vaio, HP and Dell. Somehow, even after realising that Thinkpad is much costlier than the others, I was always reluctant to leave away Thinkpad from the race. As they say, once the Tiger had tasted the human flesh, gets addicted to it. If you have used Thinkpad once then you are sure to go for it again if affordable . I knew that others are dummy choices but the price of 1700 dollars was stopping me from making that to place or not to place that order. In the meantime, through known sources, got an oppurtunity to avail a discount and voila, got a discount of 500 dollars on a select T42 ThinkPad, one of the popular models in the T-series of Laptops. Immediately, I placed the order which was customised to have an additional 512MB RAM to make it 1GB worth of RAM. When I received my Thinkpad, I was so happy to have made such a decision.

Ok, lets see what have I got in my Thinkpad T42.

It is a Lenovo Thinkpad T42 2379 M 735 1.8 Ghz 14.1 TFT Laptop. Lenovo is the chinese company which bought over the IBM PC division couple of years back and hence now called Lenovo Thinkpad. Thinkpad was a brand popularised by IBM for a particular range of laptops but now Lenovo manufactures and markets them.

There are quite a series of Laptops in IBM, Z-series, R-series, T-series, X-series.T-series Laptops are the most robust, popular and well supported. X-series being the latest is designed for managers on the move and who need to make instant presentations. It is also popular among women as it falls under the notebook category with 12 inch screen. X 60 is the latest model which has standard RAM of 256 MB but less sturdy than the T42.

Colour and Shape T42 is one of the sleek Laptops I have ever seen. It instantly catches your eye. In Thinkpads, fortunately for me, there is no choice of body colour other than Black, otherwise I would have searched for a Red one like all other possesions of mine. The cornered rectangular look of ThinkPad makes it more gracious and gives it an executive look.

Monitor As I have to constantly work on softwares which needs more memory, chose T42 with its standard 512MB RAM(additional 512MB cost me 100 bucks). The processor is an Intel Pentium M(mobile technology) with a processor speed of 1.8 Ghz, one of the max in Lenovo T series. I had two options of selecting either the 15.1 inch or the 14.1 inch screens. Laptop looks good if it is small. So chose the 14.1 one. There is not much difference between the 15.1 T42 model and the 14.1 T42 model.

Battery Lenovo claims that its battery life is no less than 4 hours. I have yet to let my TP last for more than 3 hours at a stretch.

Some of the built in devices are:

Stereo Speakers - I compared the output and quality of sound with my friend’s DEll Laptop. Thinkpad’s is much better. Even he could not deny.

wireless LAN Antennas - Two UltraConnect Wireless Antennae are provided in strategic positions for optimal reception of signals.

Fingerprint Reader - Available with select models of Thinkpads. This is the provision to log in to your Operating System or BIOs using your fingers. This technology is again patented by IBM. Helps you not to keep remembering and entering your password every time you log in. Instead register a finger for logon once and swipe that finger next time onwards. Isn’t that easy and great? Now that is what I called technology.

ThinkLight - Just the light when you need the glow. Imagine sitting in a bus or a plane in between two other passengers and you want to work without disturbing others. ThinkLight is another patented technology by IBM which helps the light situated on top of the screen to focus in such a way that all the keys are reflected without disturbing any other part or being(living). Cool technology.

WeightThe laptop weighs just under 5 lbs(less than 3 kgs?) which is much better than a child’s school bag but is sturdier(more sturdy(?)) than many.

Harddrive SpeedThe harddisk capacity is 60GB (standard) which I felt was more than sufficient at least for now. The hard drive speed is 5400 RPM which is perfect if not excellent for a Laptop. There are many models with 4200 RPM for lesser price but are not worth for Laptops. Ideally, 5400 RPM is advised. 7200 RPM will be much dearer.

TrackPoint

Another patented technology of IBM, Trackpoint is a red capped movable joystick sort of piece placed at the center of the keypad which helps to navigate across the screen easily. There are three removable red caps provided for the type of user using this feature.

Softwares provided alongwith Thinkpad:

IBM Access Connections

Helps you to manage differents places from where you connect to the internet. Lets say, sometimes you connect from Home through Modem, sometimes from Office to Ethernet and at other times through wireless when travelling. All these type of connections can be stored and activated as required. I have 16 connections based on the various commonly places from where I access the internet.Lot of other configurations can be done using this.

Rapid Restore

You can Backup your data using this software as and when you decide you want to instead of being provided with recoverable discs by manufacturer. One thing to be taken care of is that first time data restoration is free and second time onwards, Lenovo charges for the restoration. Nevertheless, a very nice way of backing up.

Access IBM

Last and not the least, this is the F1 of Thinkpad. For anything and everything related to your Thinkpad, search here before picking up the phone. This software has some visual representations which will make things clear even for layman.

All is good about Thinkpad except for few things like the MS Office that they charge almost 50 bucks extra for MS Office. Another is the battery life which is much less than the claim inspite of using the Battery maximiser option. The service and support warranty is 3 years which is pretty good compared to others.

Same laptop an year back in bangalore was being sold at 124000/-. I came to know it has come down quite a lot. If so, worth a buy for a long long time. Biggest drawback is this doesnot have a DVD writer which makes it costs look little higher.

keep T-H-I-N-K ing.

@Sarvesh

The trouble with everyone of us is that we don’t think enough. Thought has been the father of every advance since time began. I didn’t think has cost the world millions of dollars.

-Thomas J Watson