IBM T42 - The Solid Middle
Written: Nov 18 '04 (Updated Dec 11 '04)
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Pros: Excellent-Keyboard, Solid Case, Good Performance, IBM Online Support, Video Performance, Slimline, add-ons, Decent-Batlife.
Cons: IBM Canada, IBM USA?, More $$$, Pricey Extras & Features, needs DVI port.
The Bottom Line: A good all around laptop. Not for extreme/gaming. Worth the premium over a Dell/HP general laptop.
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| crfortin's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad® T42 (2379DXU) PC Notebook |
UPDATE: I am downgrading my rating to 3 stars. I have tested the system with 1GB or RAM and with the included graphics card performance at 1400x1050x16 is fast to good with even the latest games (32 bit gets choppy) however the system has developed a problem with intemittent core dump/bluescreen crashes. Also problems have developed and persist with transitioning from fixed to wire networks and sleep crashes.Some friends with similar machines have reported similar problems. Design good but Quality control/service of these new Chinese made Thinkpads is unacceptable. IBM has just sold their division to a Chinese PC maker and I will not be buying Thinkpad again.
I bought this laptop to replace my 3-4 year old IBM 1200i laptop, a mobile PIII based system. The main driver was that with bloatware OS and RAM+vRAM limitations (8MB) my old machine was taking forever to boot and could not play any games released in the last year or so.
Support & Integration
To IBMs credit their support durring the life cycle of that product was excellent and included driver updates across 3 generations of OS. All IBM laptops have an access IBM button which links you to Model specific help, software/driver updates and appropriate parts info. The preinstalled software includes a number of usefull connection and system management programs (such as for the WI-FI-g and battery management) fairly unique to the IBM line IMO.
IBM laptops have a reputation for being solid but pricey machines. In the last 5 years or so, the price gap narrowed with their competitors... so so long as you keep to their mainline models (see below).
Look and Feel:
The case of the T42 is made of some sort of polycarbonate super hard plastic that seems tougher than anything I have seen on the market. The frame behind the screen is strengthened with magnisium alloy mesh and the whole thing feels extremely rigid. The solid keyboard with good feedback and clicking is still the best on the market IMO. These keyboards have a water resistant back membrane and are easily replacable $70 module if you spill a liquid on them. The spacing on the new one is a little different and took me about a week to fully adjust to but is otherwise fine. The side vent processor fan is very quiet to noiseless. The machine looks good in a borg black kind of way and looks thin and cool particularly viewed from the side. The screen is clear and bright. The DVD software and DVD Burner work fine. The machine does not seem to go ape and lock up when I close the cover as many laptops I have had have been apt to do. The machine is compact but the weight of 5.7lbs for the 15" model seems high for a premium compact laptop. I'm not sure why going from a 14.1" to a 15" screen on the T42 added a full 1.2lbs of weight. But there it is.
This model has a trackpoint and a capacitive trackpad. They could have left the trackpad out, but some people still apperently like the stupid things.
Performance:
The Centrino 1.7Ghz exceeds my expectations for both speed and battery life. The performance is equal to my 1 year old top of the line PIV 2.4 desktop with 2x the RAM. The speedsteping appears to make a huge difference in battery life and the 2MB L2 Cache on the processor GREATLY speeds the 90nm process Centrino chip.
The ports included on the machine are all listed so I won't discuss them except to comment that I would prefer a DVI-D out port on the back of the machine to an old parallel printer port(a legacy of the IBM machines business market I guess) The port replicator II has a dvi port though. The S-video port is stupid too IMO, I've never used it.
Port Replicator II for this machine works well.
The DDR 2700 ram is plenty fast.
The ATI 9600 video with 64MB is very good and blazing fast for a laptop and allows you to install and play all the latest games.
For office/business needs this would be an excellent machine.
However for games there is a problem IMO. Because the display is 1400x1050 native and LCDs look best at native resolution, some games that force a more common resolution such as 1024x768 or 1280x1024 will look off. On the latest games that support 1400x1050 you will want to show off and run at that resolution, but at that resolution with decent detail settings the performance drops off below what is acceptable for shoot 'em up.
The limitation may be system memory of 512MB and I will update this when I test the system with 1GB of RAM, but out of the box the system is not ready for bleeding edge shoot-em up.
Ordering Problems:
I nearly didn't get this machine.
I ordered this machine when if first appeared on the IBM Canada website. IBM Canada pulled a bait and switch on me and upped the price of this machine in Canada to $1000 more than they sell it for in the USA even after exchange. When IBM Canada says something will take 6 weeks to deliver they really mean 4 months or more. Canada seems to get striped down or crappy end of run series. I have all this documented so they can sue me if they like. IBM online support remains good but there are no longer any IBM owned retail stores here in Canada so if you need a paticular model in a hurry .... well you can call and beg.
I ended up buying this machine while in the US and the price was great. Although the machine contains an Intel processor and Japanese/Korean parts the it is Assembled and shipped directly from the factory in mainland China under a special express import program. The whole thing seems designed to make sure no jobs, money or capital accidentally ends up in North America and left a bad taste in my mouth. IBM laptops used to be assembled in Taiwan and they at least had a warehouse in the USA.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1950
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Under 4
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Epinions.com ID:
crfortin
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Reviews written: 6
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