Think Pad Super Star!
Written: Sep 06 '02
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Pros: Rock solid dependability
IBM Support Tools
Cons: Wish I had bought the CD/RW option
No airline charger as standard option.
The Bottom Line: The support and update tools are better than anyone on the market. I know, I have used the competitions!
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| rickdude2002's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad R31 (265788U) PC Notebook |
I have had my share of laptops, from the first clunky 80 mhz unit I bought a generation ago through every major manufacturer that has come along. This laptop beats them all and in this review I will state why.
The Laptop itself
I had bought mine in Singapore on a business trip. I got a 1.1 Ghz unit, upgraded with 384MB RAM, DVD ROM Drive and external floppy drive, loaded with Windows 2000 and Lotus SmartSuite. It has a 40GB Hard Drive which is very quiet as well as a TrackPoint mouse and the ThinkLight, which is a light over your keyboard you can turn on in low light conditions like on night flights on airplanes.
The 14.1 inch LCD is 1024 x 768 resolution with good clarity and brightness. It will support external display monitor output at 1600 x 1200 resolution.
There are two memory slots for memory expansion. You can load a maximum of 1GB memory on my unit. The base memory is 128MB. I upgraded to 384MB (recommended).
Two other neat things are a built in IBM 56KB modem which is a rock solid configuration (I used to use their PCMCIA cards in other manufacturers units) and a wireless 802.11b modem built into the frame of the unit. It has an autodetect feature you can turn on or off manually to detect 802.11b wireless networks, which comes in great in airport wireless lounges like Singapore Chiangi! No cable juggling, just open, turn on, watch for the symbol to appear and you are surfin wirelessly!
You could get by with the free version of SmartSuite and save documents in MS Office format, or you could also load MS Office like I did and live in both software worlds. The choice is up to you.
The display is large and clear. The refresh rate supports very clear CD ROM video with no problems. I did not test it on games yet.
Reliability
A common problem with any laptop is a generalized lack of service and support. I have a lot of experience in this area since I was a VP of Customer Service and Support in the technology arena. Dell, Gateway, NEC, Sony and many other laptop manufacturers have their failings, and they normally fall into these areas:
You aren't sure where exactly to go to find the latest and greatest drivers for your unit. Often you have to match cryptic serial number and / or model numbers based on production runs and where and when your laptop was manufactured in order to get the correct one. If you don't, then you risk incompatibility problems where the laptop will not boot and you are the lucky person that gets to reload ALL the software on the machine from scratch or worse yet, some inconsequential BUG pops up when you do certain things on your laptop, such as hitting Control H on a rainy day once in October and it does not appear again for a week, sometimes a month later.
You may think that it is a virus or worse yet a hardware problem, but most likely was caused by a version incompatibility issue with the inner workings of your laptop, i.e., the motherboard doesn't want to play well with the software. You as a novice user may get frustrated and want to send it back but you have all your files located on your trusty beast so you just "deal with it" which is no fun in itself.
The other problem is you load a piece of shareware or maybe you were browsing at a computer superstore and get a nifty piece of software you just couldn't resist buying, so you went and purchased it. When you load it, problems begin and you end up reinstalling ALL your software to get rid of the pesky problems that surface with that "too good to be true" piece of software engineering you paid all the hard earned bucks on.
How IBM deals with this is sheer genius
The IBM laptop has two GREAT features that you will find very friendly. In fact, so friendly you will wonder why the other guys never got it through their head to help their customers like this. They are a Product Recovery feature and Config Safe. They work as follows:
Config Safe - Every time you install a new piece of software, the IBM ThinkPad pops up a Config Safe display and asks you if you want to save a copy of your configuration as it is before you install the new software. You can roll back to the state of your laptop as it was BEFORE you installed the new software if something goes awry. Sheer genius.
Product Recover -
If you really have problems, such as a laptop that gives you the blue screen of death when you boot incessantly with no relief, you can switch power off, back on, then as it boots hit the F11 key. You follow the onscreen instructions and it will restore the software on the machine all by itself. Pick the options you desire, it will do the rest. No fumbling with diskettes, no agony. It knows what to do.
Product Support is a Breeze -
Each and every laptop comes with a great user manual both on your windows desktop that explains every feature with callouts. It ALSO has a button on the keyboard marked THINKPAD you can hit and it will bring up the same feature sets. The Product Support info is on the main menu if you look there too! I found the Tech Support number in 3 clicks and they answered with a real live professional person in 3 rings! Nirvana. I had a question on why did their battery meter run at 98% constantly and got a professional answer, it was actually more accurate than any meter I ever had, because it measured the real drain when you plugged in and used the laptop in real use. I checked against user groups and it was true.
You also have a great owners manual with your laptop that covers most usage errors in explicit detail. But as we all are sometimes faced with new things, a quick phone call to support will give you access to free advice that not only is friendly, it actually makes sense.
The laptop has a updater on your start menu that will connect to the IBM website, compare your machine to its production run metrics, obtain the latest and greatest drivers including MS Office updates, and then ask you if you would like to have them installed. You have the choice to select which ones you would like to install or discard. I did a Bios upgrade and it did all the work with no pain whatsoever on the first try! Sheer genius!
Recommendations if I were you
Get the CD/RW drive. It's an option and you can burn CD backup disks. Real handy if you are a fanatic on backing up. They didn't have it in stock at my shop I use in Singapore when I bought mine.
The other thing is I wish IBM would include an airline laptop charger cord with their units. With more and more airplanes offering in the air charging I hope they are first on the block to do this for their customers.
The bottom line
A great laptop. Sure it is not quite as sexy looking as a Sony and sure it isn't got the name recognition of a DELL, but I can tell you for ease of use, support and tools that come standard I am a believer! Just go TRY one, then BUY one! You won't be sorry.
Enjoy
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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rickdude2002
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