I’ve had my IBM laptop for about 9 months now with minimal fuss.
It came with:
P-4 1.7 GHz, 256 Mb RAM, 17Gb disk, DVD ROM, USB external mouse,
Win XP Pro and a carrying case which is standard with most ThinkPads these days.
There were very few things wrong with it and I’ll just mention them upfront.
Cons
- The mouse/red pointer on all ThinkPads is quite annoying to use for any mouse intensive apps.
A touchpad would make life much easier and less aggravating.
- The default graphics card is quite pathetic so a memory upgrade becomes necessary after 3-6 months of medium-heavy usage for graphics intensive work.
- The red button cover had to be replaced after 6 months of normal usage, since it was turning black! Luckily they provide a spare cover also.
- I know it was expensive (over a lakh or about half a Maruti 800!) so I might not recommend it as a personal purchase. Prices keep dropping every 3-6 months as newer models come out.
- The built in speakers have no bass at all but I’ve never heard a laptop with decent speakers.
- Batteries only last about 60-90 min of heavy usage (playing games as an example/benchmark)
Pros
- Its sturdy! I accidently dropped it (in its bag) from about 1 meter and it landed on a carpeted floor completely unhurt in any way.
- Its relatively large 14’’ reduces eye strain but I sorely miss the brightness adjustment slider under the screen for older ThinkPads. It becomes quite dim when on battery power. I could not figure out how to change this energy saving setting.
- The memory upgrade was cheaper than I expected (US$1/Mb). It worked out to about Rs. 4-5 K for an additional 256 Mb or about Rs. 18/Mb. I remember not so long ago when we celebrated disk space (not RAM) dropping below $1/Mb!
Gotta love that Moore’s Law ...
- 2 USB ports (left and back) & an external USB mouse are good standard features
- Built in modem and LAN sockets
- No other problems of any kind
Its actually hard to write a comprehensive review for a daily use product like this since I hardly even notice/appreciate it when everything just works most of the time!