Hello,
Winter has turned into Spring, the snows have retreated to the peaks
of the mountains, and with their passing a young(ish) man's thoughts
turn to purchasing a new ThinkPad.
I have been switching between two laptops, a Ricoh Magio sub-note
(essentially a slightly-upgraded ThinkPad 235) quick jaunts and a
770X for when I need to do some serious writing whilst on the road.
However, the laptops are starting to feel their age, and even after
a disk wipe and fresh OS install are slow running today's applications.
My primary usage for the new computer will be writing (documentation,
email, et cetera) so a good keyboard and screen are a priority. I may
use the machine for a some development work (mostly InstallShield-type
stuff) and even use it as a dumb terminal for connecting to networking
gear.
In order of importance, here are my considerations:
o A two- or three-year warranty.
o Price: Between $1,000 and $2,000, preferably closer to
the latter.
o A good-quality keyboard--at least as good as my old 770X's,
which has been my benchmark for keyboards.
o A bright, sharp screen, preferably 1280x1024, although I could
use a 1024x768 display. I won't be doing any presentations, so
wide-angle viewing isn't an issue.
o The less it weighs, the better. My ceiling here is 7lbs--about the
weight of the 770X. The Ricoh Magio weighs about 2.3lbs, which was
really nice for those "run over and look at the router" visits to
customer sites.
o At least a20GB hard disk.
o At least 256MB of RAM.
I'd like a ThinkPad with the following built-in. If need be, I will
carry around PC Cards, but it would be nice if I didn't have to.
o V.90 or V.92 56Kbps hardware (DSP-based) modem.
o 10-100 Fast Ethernet.
o A FireWire (IEEE-1394) port. One of the ways I backup and transfer
data around is using a 2.5" hard disk drive mounted in an external
FireWire case.
o A 9-pin RS-232C serial port. Preferably with enough space around
the connector for to plug in a cable with a large shell.
o A WiFi (802.11b) card, or at least the option to add one later. A
built-in antenna would be nice as well.
And here's a list of things which are not important considerations:
o Battery life: Most of the time the computer will be running on AC.
I may have to run it off of batteries once in a while, but that
shouldn't be for more than two hours.
o USB 2.0: USB 1.1 is fine.
o CD-RW/DVD combo drive. A regular CD-ROM drive is fine. Or a CD-RW
drive or a DVD-ROM drive.
o Processor: Anything I get will be faster than my current laptops,
so I'm not too worried about processor speed.
o Video: Ditto. Occasionally I play a video game, but nothing that
requires massive amounts of 3-D acceleration and memory. Also, I
won't be doing any video editing.
o ThinkLight: I'd rather have a keyboard with glow-in-the-dark key
caps.
I looked through IBM's web site trying to figure out my best choice for
a replacement, but the array of laptops there is just, well, confusing.
The G- and R-Series ThinkPads have been ruled out since they only come
with a one-year warranty and don't want to pay the considerable premium
required to upgrade the warranty. I'm also suspicious of the build
quality on them.
I am also uninterested in purchasing a refurbished unit or a unit on
eBay.
Looking around, I found two similar models, at least to my reckoning:
T30 - P4M 1.8GHz, 256MB SDR, 40GB, DVD, 14.1" TFT, 16MB ATI SVGA,
56K modem, 10-100 LAN, RS-232, 2xUSB, 5.7lbs, 3YR warranty
<http://www.pcconnection.com/scripts/productdetail.asp?product_id=291498>
A31 - P4M 2.0GHz, 128MB DDR, 20GB, CD, 14.1" TFT, 16MB ATI SVGA,
56K modem, 10-100 LAN, RS-232, 2xUSB, 6.8lbs, 1YR warranty
<http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?lang=en_US&catalogId=-840&prnbr=2652PEU&langId=-1&prmenbr=1&shoptype=D&cntrfnbr=1&partNumber=2652PEU&storeId=1&cntry=840>
and was wondering if anyone who has experience with both could provide
a comparison.
Also, does anyone have any suggestions about other models which might
be a better fit for my needs?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
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Received on Thu May 1 11:10:16 2003
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