IBM Thinkpad T23 - the ideal Laptop?
Written: Jan 20 '03 (Updated Jan 20 '03)
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Pros: Great Power/Weight, excellent Keyboard, robust, available ports
Cons: Poor 3DFX, not a good game platform
The Bottom Line: The T23 has the optimal price/weight/power configuration. A great business machine but don't plan on also using it to play your games on.
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| mpwa's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad T23 2647 (2647GNU) PC Notebook |
I must admit I was dubious about moving up from my old Toshiba Tecra 550 to the IBM but I must admit to being pleasantly surprised not only with the power but also the look and feel. At around 6 pounds this is pretty much my ideal weight/size for a laptop.
I have always liked IBM keyboards, I would rescue the old heavy ones from the dumpster whenever an IBM PC was disposed of. In line with IBMs ability to make good keyboards, the T23 has one of the most comfortable and positive feeling laptop keyboards I have used.
With it's titanium case, the machine has taken quite a bit of abuse and come through with flying colours. I found that food (especially powdered donuts) has a tendency to adhere to the case as do sticky finger marks!
The "Trackpoint" mouse pointer (aka eraser head/swizzle stick) is much more positive to use than the more traditional touch pad. It's cursor movement control has one annoying direction sensing feature. I found it had a tendency to keep going in one direction even if I removed pressure - you have to hold off for several seconds for it to figure out you are at rest. I believe there's a way to adjust the pressure control but it wasn't immediately obvious.
Offering an IBM customized 16MB 3D Supersavage video subsystem IBM obviously doesn't target mobile gamers as potential customers. The only significant shortcoming with this machine is that it has compatibility problems with many 3D games. IBM has tweaked the S3 Super Savage IXC video subsystem that renders it incompatible with many Direct-X 8 and 9 reliant games even though it ostensibly satisfies the hardware requirements. What I would have liked to see here was a upgradable/replaceable video subsystem that could accommodate either an nVidea GeForce Mobile or ATI Radeon-Mobile chipset in 32MB or 64MB formats.
Even with the latest Direct-X some games that install OK but crash as soon as the 3D engine loads include: NeverWinter nights, Dungeon Siege, Tribes 2, Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Ultima Online 3D, the EA Games Sports series such as NHL 2003 Unreal Tournament 2003 (though you can run it in server dedicated mode).
Some games that do work: Age Of Empires, Age of Mythology, Warcraft 3, Fallout Tactics, Ultima Online 2D, Half Life.
I found the battery life to be acceptable though use of the DVD or CD for any extended periods seriously reduces it. I was barely able to burn a single full CD on one battery charge.
With a bright decent sized display (yet not on the godzilla scale of the Dell 8200) it's a perfect balance between viewability and portability (so long as you don't want to play too many 3D games).
The price is higher than the competition such as the larger and more powerful Dell 8200 P4 platform. My price did include a 30G drive, 512MB of RAM and the CD/RW upgrade.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1949
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
mpwa
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Reviews written: 15
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