This isn't your daddy's IBM!
Written: May 10 '01 (Updated Nov 21 '01)
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Pros: Fast, clear and bright screen, thin and lightweight, a classic!
Cons: Premium price, monolithic and expensive technical support.
The Bottom Line: Great product! Pricey but lightweight and small. Out of production now, but still available. Did you really want to spend $2800 on this? Get it on the aftermarket!
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| amarand's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad 600 X (6005FUK) PC Notebook |
A trip down memory lane...
I was issued my first IBM Laptop during my first UNIX systems administration job in the early nineties. The unit was big, bulky, very expensive and difficult to support. The older, smaller viewable-screen (I still had to lug around the extra plastic though!) had to be viewed straight-on, or not at all. Sound support was limited, no internal CD-ROM drive. Windows support always seemed to be lacking, and everyone complained about them crashing all the time.
Did I mention they were big, bulky and expensive?
The beginning of a new era?
Just as the firm decided to shed their original full name of International Business Machines for a smaller, more tasteful IBM; so did they lose a few extra pounds and the original waistline that was so characteristic of the original monolithic company. They weren't the only game in town, and had to prove they were a worthy opponent.
The machine!
The unit I now have (and am reviewing here) is the 2645-8EU, manufactured in 05/00. Most people will tell you, spring for the extra memory and get at least 128MB. Anyone running any version of Windows will appreciate having at least this much executable and disk caching space. You could probably run this laptop comfortably with 64MB under Linux, but this is a Microsoft world for now; so let's focus on the majority of the current and future customers who purchase this laptop that are strongly encouraged to run Microsoft's resource-hungry operating systems and applications. If you need more, for say graphic arts work or lots of large matrices of customer data, you can blast the memory all the way up to 576MB, which is more than enough for any laptop!
Memory and Storage
As configured, this laptop comes with 128MB of memory, as mentioned before. The majority of the 600X units come standard with the 12GB hard drive (the 3EU and 7EU units excluded, having only a 6GB drive...still plenty but not excessive). This leaves you with lots of space for Windows, Linux or both if you so choose. My personal preference is to have both operating systems share the same drive (cut in half) and dual-boot between them. While it's great using Linux for all that it's good for, there are many things you just can't do at work without Microsoft.
Processor and Cache
While there is a new model that comes with the 650Mhz. Intel Pentium III processor with the new SpeedStep technology (the 5FU and the 9FU), this unit has a Princely speed of 500Mhz (the lowest of the line, the 3EU/7EU has 450Mhz). They all come with 256KB of on-board cache, which can be useful; and a 100Mhz processor system bus, which you will certainly notice coming from the previous generation laptops.
Look at that screen!
The most impressive feature, for me, is the display: a 13.3" TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display capable of displaying at a resolution of 1024x768 pixels at a whopping 16 million colors! Not only does this screen look great head-on, but it's still readable from any reasonable angle. It doesn't react like a Trinitron desktop monitor, but it doesn't have to. If you have this unit on your desk, you can connect it directly to that type of monitor anyway with the included SVGA HD-15 connector on the back. This screen is a great improvement over older technologies, where viewing from any direction other than straight-on made most of the brightness and contrast disappear before your eyes. Great for security, bad for collaboration, or having this as your second unit on your desk. With this display, it takes quite a bit of angle before you lose visual.
It's a love-hate relationship with The Nib.
They say it's a pretty intuitive interface...but I'm not sure if they've really improved on the TrackPoint controlling device over the years. I'm inclined to say "no." Not that it isn't an "enhanced" feature to have "Press-to-Select," where pressing inward on the stick is like a mouse-click, it's just a pain sometimes when you want to move the mouse, and you're getting sporadic mouse clicks. I'm not sure if you can disable this feature, but it would be nice if the option were available. Does anyone want to read the manual for me?
Update (11/21/01):
Some people don't read comments (I do religiously for feedback), so I figured I would include the following very helpful comment from my fellow Epinion writer:
Turning Off Press-to-Select by Ben.Meyer
Press-to-Select is an optional feature on the IBM ThinkPad 600x. Follow these directions in order to disable the Press-to-Select feature...proceed to the
Control Panel / Mouse / TrackPoint tab /
press Advanced / uncheck "Enable Press-to-Select"
Also, in the Advanced TrackPoint options one can change the sensitivity of the Press-to-Select feature, which may prevent unwanted clicks.
They're better than chiclets!
The keyboard is pretty average as far as laptop keyboards go: 85-key "full-size" keyboard with palm rest. Oh...is THAT what they call that extra space? Someone else reviewed this laptop negatively and stated that they should have incorporated a Windows-key. Might have been a good move, but IBM still has the "we're better than everyone else" attitude, so we might not see this feature for awhile. It's probably true that they still feel burnt about OS/2 anyway. Why give a nod to Microsoft?
Sounds lousy on the outside...but it's got a heart of gold inside!
The speakers in this unit are tinny and quiet. I played Madonna's "Music" at top volume in both Windows 2000 and Redhat Linux 7, and it was very quiet. What would you expect from a pair of 1 1/4" speakers, booming bass? I plugged my Sennheiser wireless headphones (see my previously written article on these) into the headphone port and I got the full-range of highs, lows and mids. Perfect!
So much in such a small package. Don't believe me? Read on!
It's a great deal and wonderful package when you consider the fact that this laptop comes with comprehensive port-replication and features: PS/2 for keyboard and/or mouse, HD-15 for monitor, parallel port for printer, DB-9 for serial, built-in modem, external floppy-drive connector, IRDa for speaking with Infrared compatible devices, one USB port (which you can hub-out to as many as is practical), built-in CD-ROM drive, standard NeoMagic 256ZX 256-bit graphics chip with 4MB of memory, and SoundBlaster compatible sound card with line in, microphone in, and headphone out. All this and only 5.6lbs! If you take out the diskette drive (or CD-ROM if that's what you're using), you can bring it down to a "travel weight" of 4.9lbs.
A powerhouse.
Having a Lithium Ion battery is great! The specs say three hours, but I have yet to push that yet. If I'm in a plane, I carry a spare battery. You can shut the machine down, swap the battery, and you're back up for a few hours again. Normally enough time to get to where I'm going. For the car, I use an A/C power inverter. I came from the days of the older NiCAD and NiMH batteries, the former having problems with "memory" and the latter not having the same punch and power conservation features as the modern Li-Ion units. I would not expect anything less from IBM.
Windows or Penguins? Why fight when you can have both?
When you take this unit out of the box, you'll have Windows 98SE, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Professional installed. These days, you might be able to get Windows ME. I blew away the hard drive, and installed (as mentioned before) Redhat Linux 7 and Windows 2000 Professional. I won't go into detail here, as there are web-sites that cover this; but needless to say, with some tweaking, everything works great, and I have a choice of where I want to go today.
Overall...
I think when it comes down to it, this laptop is wonderful to have, easy to cart around from home to work, and from customer to customer. IBM has a pretty simple design philosophy, which people have come to expect over the years, and can easily identify. You probably won't see a bright-red IBM laptop for a long time, and there's a reason for that. I do prefer the touchpad in other laptops, but once you get used to the TrackPoint, it's not that annoying.
The only complaint I've heard that I agree with entirely is the cost. I didn't pay for this, but I know how much work did pay, and it is rather costly. When you consider the quality of the product, the stability and maturity of the entire line of laptops, the higher-quality components used in the manufacturing process, the "name" you're buying into, and finally boatload of features; you're actually getting a pretty good deal.
The complaint I've heard about overheating and being just too hot on the underside doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for me, as I have it on my desk and my car-seat most of the time. Adequate ventilation is always important in portable products, whether you're pumping 500Mhz of power, spinning drives and high-speed memory trying to stream audio and video at full-screen; or playing Quake III. If you had a huge fan in a machine, it would move a lot of air, cooling it down more quickly, but it would take a lot of power, and then you'd be very upset about a 1/2 an hour battery life. Everything's a trade-off in the portable electronics world. One suggestion for the "it's too hot crowd" might be to place the unit on a flat board so that the unit sits on the little feet on the underside of the unit; this allows for better air flow and exchange around the unit. Also, ensure that the side air-port (exhaust) is not covered or obscured, as well as the air intakes. Don't stick stickers over holes...they might be there for a reason!
In the end...
While there are other units out there that have more features, some that are lighter or thinner, and others that are more economical. For its time (early- to mid-2000), this laptop is an exceptional value for the features offered. If you can pick one up on the second-hand market gently-used, you might be able to find an even better deal. It's a pleasure to own, and doesn't hurt my shoulders as much as the older laptops used to. Happy commuting!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2750.00
Operating System: Linux
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 401-500
Screen Size: 13
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
amarand
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Member: Amarand Agasi
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Senior UNIX systems administrator who enjoys people and learning new things!
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