Thinkpad Tradition
Written: Apr 24 '02
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Pros: Quality, Speed, Graphics
Cons: Software, Standby mode, lack of restore disc
The Bottom Line: This can replace your desktop, or can be your mobile work and play station. It's tough, and comes from a good company.
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| Gambit624's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad A30 2652 (TV013UK) PC Notebook |
This being the first laptop that I have owned, I didn't expect it to be this good in handling graphics. However, it came with a Radeon card that had 16mb of memory on the card, so it didn't take away from the physical memory. The number of colors that it outputs to the TFT screen is very good, but when you hook up a monitor, it gets better. Out of the box, it worked beautifully. Booted up fine, swapping out drives is a snap. It has several ports in the back for adding USB items, Printer, Modem, network and other items (no keyboard, though I purchased a port replicator to handle that for me).
For a 933, this is a fast computer. It doesn't seem to hit any bumps in the road. It crunches through everything I've put it through so far, and comes back for more. The additional 128mb of memory I installed helped as well in that area.
Included with this computer is a AC adaptor, and some not very detailed manuals. (The manual I got with the port replicator was about 12 pages, but only one of them was in english!!) There was no system restore disc, as they put the restore on a partition on the Harddrive, which cuts down your HDD space from 20gb to around 17 (a guestimate, based on the installation size of Windows XP) You can remedy this by calling IBM for a disc through Tech support. There wasn't much in the way of software installed for this system. It includes a certificate to get Lotus Smartsuite and Notes just by calling a 1-800 number.
At times, when the computer goes into standby, it locks itself up,and you have to re-boot the system. I've noticed that it most often happens when you close the screen up.
It does have a standard laptop keyboard layout, and the keyboard can be lit up a little when using it in low light situations.
The laptop itself can be considered a middleweight. It's not cumbersome or bulky. The ac adapter can be slighty bulky, and it is hard to wrap up the cord.
All in all, this is a good laptop at a good price. The Thinkpad line of laptops have consistently won award after award over the past 10 years. (In fact, the top of the line A30p was in PC World's top 3 for Notebooks in the March 2002 issue). This is a perfect laptop for both work and play, and may even replace your Desktop.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
Gambit624
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Location: Columbus, OH
Reviews written: 100
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
With a limited budget, I just want to find the best products for my family.
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