My Thinkpad i series is almost as powerful as my desktop computer. It has a DVD drive and a bright XGA screen which is very useful for viewing movies. The Thinkpad lets me use the whole screen to display the movies, so I think this is a better deal than those portable DVD players with tiny screens. The battery lasts pretty long, and one charge will get you through one in-flight movie of your own with some extra time to spare... but not enough time to finish another movie. The DVDs play very well as long as the disks are kept very clean. Otherwise, the movie sometimes freezes due to fingerprints on the disk.

The Thinkpad works well as a desktop replacement for road warriors, but it's on the heavy side. My computer bag with all the accessories weighs around 10 lbs, but I would rather remove other things from my luggage than leave my Thinkpad at home.

The modem is built-in, so you would have both PC card slots available for expansion. The Trackpoint takes a little time to get adjusted to, but it allows you to keep both hands on the keyboard. I still feel more comfortable with the Trackpads instead, but I can see the virtues of the Trackpoint. The keyboard is very large and comfortable, and is suitable for typing for long periods of time. At the top of my Thinkpad has a little light called a Thinklight. This light shines down onto the keyboard from the top of the screen for typing in the dark, but you're better off just learning to touch type instead of poking at keys in the dark. I guess it was a thoughtful touch for people who work in the dark.

With 64 mb of RAM and a speedy Celeron processor, this notebook does its job confidently, and I am very happy with it now. When I first purchased the Thinkpad, I was not so happy. I had a few problems with it because there were several driver updates and software patches that needed to be fixed before the Thinkpad worked well. There were no problems on the hardware, just the software. All of these fixes are readily available on the IBM website, and the technical support staff will ensure that everything will go well. Once all the updating is taken care of, it becomes a wonderful computer with an excellent technical support staff to help you if things ever go wrong. IBM's standard warranty also includes pickup and delivery of the Thinkpad if the repair needs to be completed at a service center. It's a reassuring feature, but I doubt I'll need it.

If you are looking at the Thinkpad i Series, i would recommend it. The only suggestions I have are to try out the Trackpoint mouse to see if it suits you, and to check the Thinkpad website for updates before using the computer.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1600
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 401-500
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6