ThinkPad 1562: IBM's low-cost performer
Written: Dec 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Windows 2000 pre-installed & it works, fast, no technical problems
Cons: not the famous IBM ThinkPad quality in all aspects
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| ptiemann's Full Review: IBM Thinkpad i Series 1562 |
IBM has re-arranged their product line of ThinkPad notebooks with the A20 as the does-and-have-it-All model, the T20 a targeted at the Traveler (lighter) and the new X series for those who demand the smallest machine (X-?).
To compete with in the low-price segment, they keep their i-Series. Since I telecommute, I was given the i1562 at work. The company paid about $2250 for the base package and added 128MB of RAM for $140. The processor is a 500 MHz mobile Intel Pentium III.
Good Features
The ThinkPad 1562 came with Windows 2000, Microsoft Office 2000, Norton Antivirus, Quicken and some smaller software tools. Apparently a license for Windows 98 is included as well, but I never touched it. A nice thing is that because Windows 2000 was pre-installed, I didn’t have to worry about getting drivers for the Multimedia components of the computer as I had to on the Hewlett-Packard that I have at home.
The screen is 14.1 inches and I run it in a 1024x768 resolution, high color mode. The display can be read from quite a wide angle. If you want a bigger screen, get an external monitor! (Or, if you need to burn money, buy the 1592 model.) On an external monitor, the 1562’s built-in ATI graphics card can display up to 1280 x 1024 pixels @ 256 colors.
A cool feature, typical IBM: The keyboard illuminates when the light conditions require it. That would be very useful on a flight through the night when you don’t want to disturb your sleeping neighbor. I haven’t taken it on any flights yet.
The following components are built-in as usual: CD-ROM, 56k-Modem, Track point “mouse” and a sound chip.
Fast
The machine works fairly fast. I also work with a Dell 500MHz PIII, which has 256MB RAM. One would think that these two systems work at the same speed since they have the same processors. Wrong. I am not sure what the reason is, it could be the chipset or a problem with the level 2 cache, but the Dell desktop is significantly slower than the notebook. (The 1562 has 256 KB level 2 cache onboard)
During the last weeks I wrote a program that performed 80,000 operations per second on the ThinkPad but only 50,000 on the Dell desktop. This program didn’t do any disk or screen I/O – it performed only in RAM. Weird, hmm? Even my old 300MHz notebook did 60,000 operations per second, so there is a serious problem with the Dell machine. My point is that I am very happy with the ThinkPad 1562’s performance.
IBM does offer many options to save battery lifetime (with little success). The hard disk is quick unless it fell in sleep (power-saving) mode, no surprise.
Not-Good and Problems
· The keyboard has special function keys for instant access of certain web sites, but I don’t get them to work.
· The built-in speakers are not as good as the ones of the T20 (we have two of them at work as well). In fact, I would say that they sound cheap.
· The batteries… last 2 hours at best, and that’s being nice. Often not even 1.5 hours, depending on type of activity. It is a help that the battery recharges in about one hour. But even if I charge it over night, it will be empty in 1.5 hours. Yes, I am aware of all the possibilities to conserver energy.
· The 1562 comes with one battery by default, if you want to use this machine on trips especially flights, I recommend a second battery and charge it before you leave.
· With almost 8 pounds this is by no means a sub-notebook. But then again it has features that rival many desktops.
· The lid is not very stabile. I am actually able to umm ... bend it :-)
Conclusion
This is not as much a perfect machine as some other ThinkPads are. But other than those $3000+ models this one is in the low $2000 segment. You get what you pay for.
The ThinkPad i1562 is a versatile machine with both the power for developers and the multimedia capabilities for presentations.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2250
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 401-500
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
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ptiemann
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Member: Peter Tiemann
Location: Capitola, CA
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