Best Laptop I've Ever Used!!!
Written: Jun 20 '01
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Pros: Fantastic Video Card, enormous hard drive, built in everything!!
Cons: Kind of heavy compared to other IBM's.
The Bottom Line: Incredibly simple to use for the beginner all the way to the full on admin! Wonderful hardware, reasonable price!
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| rmacdonald's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad A21p 2629 (2629P14) PC Notebook |
I have been working at Clarent Corporation as a Unix Systems Admin for nearly a year now. Most of time is used up attending to our many servers, however also spend my time helping out our internal users. Originally when I first came to Clarent they originally were using Dell's (for price only). After MANY months of issues involving our notebooks I finally convinced them into to moving to the IBM line. I have worked at other companies in which we have done the same thing, always to be 100% satisfied with the IBM's! I have used MANY versions of the Thinkpad line, and have yet to find one of better quality. My first IBM was a thinkpad 1400, followed by a 570, 770Z, 600E, 600X, and lastly a T20. I have more than impressed with both the 570 (which I also have a review for) and the 600X. Both of which were most than treats to be able to use, however NONE compare to my A21P.
My favorite quality of this IBM versus many of the others I have used is the amazing new ATI Rage 128 video card. This is the first laptop in which I can easily run 1600x1200 resolution at over 85hz and not have any problems, or flickering. The over 15" screen is simply beautiful and crystal clear. I am an avid gamer, and have actually completely given up my true desktop, and have COMPLETELY to using my A21! I absolutely can not say that about any other laptop I have used. The 3D capabilities of this machine (which I am using to type this) are truly wonderful.
Another fantastic advantage to the A21P is the integrated pci bus. Onboard Intel 10/100 nic and (with add on I have) built in 56K modem, there is simply no reason to add extra cards. Yet at the same time with the port replicator (also one of my great add-ons) there are even more expansion available. Unlike any other replicators I have used, you now have a secondary CD-ROM bay, as well as 2 more PCMCIA card slots.
Dvd playback on the A21P is much more rewarding than any other laptop I have used before. The ATI card (famous for great dvd decoding) does a flawless job playing my favorite movies. Most other laptops (except the 770Z with the DVD decoder board add-on) have a tough time playing DVD's. Software decoding is just a simply terrible way of playing movies. Hardware DVD decoding is incredibly better at not missing frames, or garbling sound. I also have the 4x4x16 CDRW available for the A21P. This is the first time I can say that I have been able to burn a CD on the go! It does a great job, never once seen a problem such as a buffer overflow error, or the like.
Support from IBM has ALWAYS been the best I have ever seen. Much better than the other "big boys". Most repairs are done without questions and are usually shipped to you next day air. Generally I have had the system back in 2 days from the time I have sent any of them out (which was very rare) to be repaired. Driver support has always been an easy one. IBM now even has an "auto" update utility that you can run to update your system on the fly (even BIOS updates!!).
It seems that every modern operating system also work flawlessly on this system. I am currently running 2 OS's on my A21P (Win2000 Pro, and Red Hat Linux 7.1). Fitting both of them on my system was a completely simple task (even with all my programs!), as the system comes with an enormous 32GB drive. I spend my entire work day using linux on my laptop. This was the simplest install of linux I have ever had. Not a single driver was not available or hard to configure. When I head home I pick up the games (mostly 3D first person shooters, or race games), and am utterly impressed by how well the system scales to play them.
All in all this is by far the most pleasant experience I have EVER had using a laptop. I am yet to find any flaws in this design. I applaud IBM for their fantastic work and would be completely willing to recommend this to my closest friends.
Good job IBM!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3900
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
rmacdonald
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Location: Peyton, CO
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
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