The Perfect Balance
Written: Jun 11 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Balance of portability and power
Cons: Expensive, hard to find
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| syc's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 600 X (6005FUK) PC Notebook |
I've owned and used many different notebooks from many different manufacturers. Maybe it's because my first notebook was the Thinkpad 700C, but I find myself continually coming back to the Thinkpad series. My current notebook is a Thinkpad 600x Type 2645 with 320MB RAM and 12GB HD.
My main priorities in a notebook are portability, power, reliability, and features - in that order. I need a notebook that is portable enough that I can and will carry it everywhere with me. I also do quite a bit of heavy development so I also need some horsepower. Finally, with as much usage as my notebook receives, and with as much as I rely on my notebook, reliability is a big factor.
First, portability. Although there are many notebooks that are much smaller than the Thinkpad 600, I believe they sacrifice way too much in usability and power. The ultra-portables (I've had a Toshiba Portege) have chiclet-like keyboards, low-contrast screens, poor battery life, poor expansion capabilities, and too many external peripherals. On the other end of the spectrum are the full-size notebooks (or so-called desktop replacements). With the Thinkpad 600 series, you basically have one flexible bay that you can use for a CD-ROM, DVD, floppy drive, second battery, second hard drive, or Zip drive
(there are probably some other devices out there as well).
I find that with even the slightest bit of planning, I will never use a floppy drive (as a matter of fact, I'm not even sure where it is right now) so that one piece of peripheral I'd rather not carry with me. The ample 12GB frees me from needing a second hard drive or Zip drive. That leaves me with choosing between my DVD or my second battery - a pretty simple decision depending on my travel time. To be honest, I will often leave the second battery in and carry my DVD drive...since it's hot-swappable, I just pop it in if I need it. I also occasionally carry a pcmcia based hard drive (those MP3s really add up!). But no matter what, the single ultra-bay provides me with with all the power I need from a full-feature without the useless stuff (why be forced to carry 2 more pounds for a floppy?).
Second, power. I don't do anything incredibly CPU intensive like 3-D rendering, CAD, infinite loops, etc.; but I do use a lot of programs at once, and I do serious development (primarily with Java and Visual Basic). I have an app server and SQL Server 7.0 running on this notebook, and it works fine. I've found that over time, I've started to not care as much about PC Mag benchmarks so much as I care how long it takes for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or my IDE to open. As long as my wait is around the 2-3 second mark, I'm okay. The Thinkpad does that for me perfectly. I've seen various reports that there are faster notebooks, but they don't give enough extra speed or power to warrant their use.
Third, reliability. I use this thing about 12 hours a day non-stop. I move it around constantly, My dog licks it now and then. It's just killer. But the most important thing to me is IBM's service. I haven't had any need to send this one in for any reason, but in the past, when dealing with IBM's notebooks, I've had top-notch service. I've had a notebook picked up and returned in 3 days! 3 days! I figure that just enough time for it to be picked up next-day and sent back next-day with about 4 hours for a technician to fix it up.
Finally, features. I'm going to lump a lot of things into this category because the Thinkpad really shines in this area. It's keyboard is absolutely the best keyboard out there. The Trackpoint is still better than other Trackpoint-like devices and it features a third button that functions as a scroll button (addictive once you get used to it on the desktop). Windows 2000 automatically recognizes all the devices (other than the DVD drive) as IBM-specific devices and enables their built-in features (like Press-To-Select on the Trackpoint, suspend, hibernate, etc.). Nearly every OS runs on it - I've had Windows 98, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Linux on this - and every device I own (DVD hardware PC cards, printers, scanners, digital cameras, PC Card hard drives) works flawlessly with it. I've heard that even BeOS runs on this (although probably not too well). It's also got 4MB video which is rare with anything other than the monster notebooks (i.e. Dell Inspirons). There also dual-monitor support where you can use an external monitor as a second display device while continuing to use your LCD. It's incredibly easy to shop for since most stores carries IBM equipment. And lastly, I have to admit, it's just damn cool. The sleek matte black exterior feels great in your hands. It's solid design comes across just handling it. I'm proud to open this notebook on the train, airplane, or in a coffee shop.
How about some short-comings, you say? Well, it is pretty expensive. It's also hard to get being all sold out half the time. I also don't like the port covers because they seem like they will just break off over time (they are like plastic covers that bend at a plastic pseudo-hinge) although I haven't actually head of it happening. The screen isn't as large or as bright as the larger notebooks. Windows 2000 also crashes on me on occasion due to what I believe is a bug in IBM's audio driver. Lastly, IBM's hardware tends to be atypical. Instead of using what all the other notebook manufacturers use, IBM has to be a rebel (at least it's not Microchannel). That would normally be terrible, except IBM has shown a commitment to decent drivers, support, and rallying third party support as well.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
syc
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Member: Sean Chou
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Half-heartedly recovering gadget geek.
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