The ETH Zurich and Pathworks Solutions are preparing their fall offers of IBM Thinkpads for students at amazing prices. Check out this web site mid-October.
This, and the cracked screen on my previous Sony Vaio, puts me in the unfortunate position to have to buy a new laptop, and it seems that everyone agree that IBM makes the best these days.
So which one to get? There are basically two lines:
-
The X Series: small, about 1.6kg, good battery life (\~ 6 hours), 1024x768 on a 12” screen, no touchpad, but one of those nipples (IBM seems to have gotten them right), slightly small keys, no internal CD drive.
The X41 is the current model, but voices suggest that the X40 has better battery life at comparable (or slightly lesser) performance. I’d probably go for the X40 then, but the X41 is what they will offer at the very special price, so I may be forced to get the X41. Cnet likes it.
-
The T Series: somewhat larger, but still handy, about 2.4kg, decent battery life (\~ 4 hours), 1400x1050 on a 14” display, touchpad and nipple, normal key size, built-in DVD-RAM.
The T43p is what the ETH will offer. The ‘p’ stands for Performance and Poor battery life. The T43 is definitely a better choice. Cnet seems to prefer the T42 still.
I am a year-long touchpad user and never got the hang of nipples (mh, don’t quote this out of context). Thus, that’s a strong argument for the T series. even though I have recently converted to ion and don’t really need a mouse anymore… but the smaller key size is also an issue — I intend to type a lot.
So the T series? But no! I have a powerful workstation at both, home and the lab, and I rarely use(d) my notebook there. I do travel a lot and go to a bunch of conferences, so the weight and battery life definitely seem to suggest the X series.
But thenq at most conferences, I am actually expected to do some work (yeah, it sucks, I know). Then, 1024 pixels across on a small screen is not exactly my idea of ergonomics. I also don’t really like the idea of not having a CD-ROM drive for music on the road.
Yesterday, my list of preferences was:
T42, T43, T42p, T43p, X40, X41.
Today the Xs have moved ahead, because I am looking at even more travelling in the years to come:
X41, X40, T42, T43, T42p, T43p.
But I am still not decided. I checked out both machines yesterday and I would have taken either one right there.
As Goethe would put it:
Da steh ich nun, ich armer Thor
und bin so klug, als wie zuvor!
I have to make a decision by Thursday. If you have anything to say on this matter, I’d welcome a short note!
