Ultralights vs. Nice & Lights
Written: Feb 11 '02
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Pros: Solid in every way
Cons: outdated video card
The Bottom Line: The BEST mix of portability and performance for its time.
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| Thomcat_V's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 600 E (26453AU) PC Notebook |
As a preface to this review, I prefer ultralight laptops (4 pounds and under) and so have significant experience with Thinkpad 560s, Omnibook 900s and Sojourns, and Toshiba Porteges [most reviews available on epinions of course]. This is my first foray into a two-spindle machine.
I bought the IBM Thinkpad 600e (366 Pentium II, 64mb ram, 6.4gb hard drive, 13.3" XGA TFT display at around 5 pounds) for my brother as an upgrade to his HP Omnibook 900. He mentioned he wanted the convenience of a built-in cd-rom. I wanted to get him a machine that was as light as possible and had a 13.3" screen (versus the 12.1" SVGA display on the HP Omnibook). I also wanted to stay with IBM as I've gotten nothing but exceptional service from them. The Thinkpad 600e seemed a natural choice.
I also picked the 366mhz Pentium II model as it uses the same power-saving advanced .18 micron manufacturing process as all the latest P3 models. My brother would be using it mostly for productivity/connectivity applications so a 500mhz+ machine would have been a waste of extra money.
As such, the 600e did not disappoint. With a few software tweaks of my own, I was able to get 3.5 hours+ from the machine at maximum performance settings in Windows98 with the default battery.
Speed and responsiveness was acceptable, though the video card is a little outdated and could not drive 2D games at the display panel's native 1024x768 resolution smoothly. The video chip is not 3D enabled so you can forget about even trying those type of games or applications. A slight shame that IBM's engineering team did not mate the significant power of Intel's 366mhz processor with a suitable video card. Thus, the Neomagic 256AV chipset was the limiting factor in performance. Performance on non-game applications was perfectly fine.
The 13.3" display is perfect in the sense that is just the right size for the 1024x768 resolution. I always found the 12.1" 800x600 displays of the Thinkpad 560/e/x, early 570, HP Omnibook 900/Sojourn to be too big for such a small resolution. What I mean is that the icons/text/overall display appeared to be too big relative to the lcd panel size. I realize that these settings can be adjusted in Windows, but requires too much tweaking and time and generally results in a unsatisfactory display as most applications are designed for the default Windows font settings. Don't even get me started on the Sony VAIO 1024x768 10.4" displays which made me squint so hard it gave a headache after 15 minutes.
The ultraslim-bay is a nice touch. With it you can swap in a cd/dvd-rom drive, floppy, extra battery, zip drive, blank weight-saver, etc... The machine also comes with an external drive bay so that you can use the floppy and cd-rom at the same time. Very nice.
Personally, I found the extra pound of the 600e to be very noticeable vis-a-vis the ultralights I had been used to. To people who are used to dragging around 8-pound bricks...uh 'desktop replacements' it will feel like a helium balloon. The machine is also significantly thicker than what I am used to at 1.4" when closed. Yeah, I'm spoiled. But I spoil myself so I feel no guilt.
The keyboard is SUPERB. The BEST I have ever used. My petite hands actually typed faster and more comfortably on it than on my full-sized desktop Dell ultra keyboard. WOW.
All the ports (parallel, usb, vga, serial, etc..) are built-in which is great because you never know when you'll need them (ahem...Sony, ahem...Toshiba). The winmodem is built-in and the phone jack is flush with the laptop so there is no easy way you can accidentally break the connector unlike what I've seen in Toshiba's early Portege models. The modem did not connect at the usual 49k+ speeds I am used to, but was acceptable.
The trackpoint is GREAT. I am biased in this regard as I hate to use touchpads. Anyone who's ever had to travel in high humidity regions will know the limits of these type of devices as moisture keeps the pads from reading the static on your fingers rendering them useless. IBM Thinkpad trackpoints are far superior to any other trackpoints from other manufacturers (Toshiba, Acer, certain Sony and HP models, etc...). I don't know why (call it a trade secret), but they are.
I bought the unit new and have had two problems with it. I kept getting an error on boot (I was still able to use the machine fine) and IBM's Easyserv service picked it up and got the machine back to me within 3 business days. They replaced the keyboard as well as all the rubber feet on the bottom of the unit(!) and the error no longer appears. Also, to this day I cannot get the machine to always come out of hibernation cleanly. I'm not too bothered by this as I just put the thing into standby and that's good enough for me. My previous Thinkpads (360, 560 and 560x) hibernated with no problems.
In summary, this is a very good machine. Solid, beautiful and efficient. BUT it is not perfect. I would've liked something a little lighter and slimmer. If those things aren't an issue for you (don't know if they are for my brother yet), this is the best machine in it's class (except for the T20 if you can find one for a reasonable price).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 13
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
Thomcat_V
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Location: Berkeley, CA
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 3 members
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