Best Available Notebook Today - Maybe
Written: Aug 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: size, weight, screen, design, keyboard, port count, warranty, and heck, "It's a Thinkpad".
Cons: price, processor speed, lack of direct cdrom connection (need ultraslimbase for that).
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| Coffee_Kid's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 570E (26445BU) PC Notebook |
As a webdeveloper, I need a notebook in my work to be able to transport our web based files and work to my clients on demand. This also means I need a good package that is capable of displaying our work in a good fashion.
But after living (and struggling) with an Acer 391T P166 for about 2.5 years, it was time for me to upgrade.
I had a shopping list of features I wanted. Above everything else, I wanted an ultralight. I was tired of lugging around a 7 pound machine (once you added papers, my power supply, some CD roms and big case, I had a 15+lb package). I wanted a huge screen, which normally isn't equatable with an ultralight. I wanted a killer keybaord (again, something normally at odds with ultralights). I wanted something fast with tons of memory. I wanted a lot of hard drive space. I wanted something versatile, and I wanted something a lot more reliable than the Acer (both the machine and the company) proved to be.
I did some heavy online research, and came up with the product I ended up buying - an IBM Thinkpad 570E PIII 500. There really wasn't any other choice.
The IBM isn't the lightest ultralight out there (I used a Sharp Mebius for a week and really liked it except for a few limitations), nor is it the fastest (what with 505 Vaios out there at 700mhz and faster), but it had everything I wanted. a 13.3 TFT screen and one of the brightest and best ones I've seen; a nice solid feel to it thanks partially to the carbon fibre outer case; just a few grams over 4 pounds (1.9 kg for youse metric heads out there); IBM's keyboard which is the best in the industry (and has more vertical travel than my old Acer!!); total customization options via the ultrabase (which I also bought); and of course IBM's stellar warranty plan, probably the best in the industry.
I've had this notebook for a month now, and there is not one single regret with it. Here's my current setup with it, and the associated pluses (and some minuses, which do not equal regrets).
Machine itself, with 12gb hard drive, PIII 500mhz, 128mb ram, 13.3TFT, tiny power supply, li-ion 3 hour battery, carbon fibre shell, tons of ports including serial, monitor, parallel, usb, ps2, headphones, line out, mike in, 2 pcmcia slots, more. Of the above listed stuff, I only wish this 570E came in the faster intel chips, and had the speedstep system, but I imagine the 580 series will have that. I can't believe how many ports they managed to fit into this 1 inch thick case. The battery life is rated at 3 hours, but like a lot of IBM's literature, it is understated - I've gotten as much as 4 hours of wordprocessing use out of the unit (tuning the screen brightness down to the lowest setting), and about 3 solid hours while using the harddrive intensive apps like photoshop or imageready. The external AC adapter is tiny. The 12GB drive is nice and responsive, though only a 4700 rpm drive (running ATA-66). Having two pc card slots is rather unique in the ultralight world, along with all the ports it has.
Ultraslimbase (includes second usb port, midi port (!!!), three slots for ultrabay options), purchased with the following: DVD 6X Ultraslim drive, 2nd li-ion battery, Zip Ultraslim drive, and the floppy drive (came with the computer, but can fit in the ultraslim base). The ultrabase is the thing that makes the 570E a "convertible". Snap it on to the bottom of the computer (it hot docks) and poof, you have a fully functioning desktop replacement computer weighing in at around 7.5 lbs total, including battery and DVD or DVD and floppy installed. Not too shabby. With the second battery, the 570E will give you over 6 hours of computing time. The Ultrabase has a built in midi port, unheard of on notebooks, and has some nice speakers built into the front that sound awesome when you are in front of the unit, but sound tinny to everyone around you. The ultraslimbase, at around $100, is a highly recommended purchase if you buy a 570E.
The 570E "System" isn't cheap, though 570E PIII450s are in the clearance channels right now and can be picked up for around $2700 or less, with a 6gb drive and 64mb of ram. I paid a lot more for mine, but it was worth every penny. Used with the Targus Slimline SL200 portfolio case, you have a nice 6.5 package to carry around (4lbs for computer, 2.5 for the case) that looks very spiffy, and is very light, lighter than most notebook computers on their own.
If there are things I don't like about the notebook, they are minor. For instance, the floppy drive can direct connect to the notebook without the help of the ultrabase, but the cd rom and dvd roms cannot. This should have been possible, but the designers didn't do it. The case, while 1 inch thick, is still pretty big length and width wise, limiting your ability to find a nice slimline case that it will fit into - I originally bought the Targus 560 Slimline Case system (incl. both a tiny portfolio case and a bigger bag that the portfolio slips into) and my 570 didn't fit. I also wish the processor was a bit faster, but it is not a big deal - it is fast enough for what I need it to do.
I'm running Windows 2000 on it, though it came with both WinNT 4 and Win2k. No problems so far, except for one device not working (a Lexar USB Media Reader). IBM's support is fantastic, and with the 3 year, 72 hour replacement warranty, its the best in the business (Dell's could be the best, except it isn't transferrable).
This is definitely the purchase of the year for me - I can't recall when I've been happier with a purchase. It has the best of both worlds in the notebook arena - ultralight status, but desktop replacement options.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Coffee_Kid
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Hey, I may be the CoffeeKid, but I have other interests as well... :-)
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