Impressions of a T40 owner...

[mocca]

Doesn't dualband a/b should work the same as 802.11g? In the sense that both can provide the wireless connection either at 802.11b or 802.11a speed depending on the access point connection type. I.e., the dualband a/b would automatically connect to either a or b that is available, the same as g.

Mocca

 

[Shanteli]

Yeah you're right mocca G and B works on the 2.4ghz range and the A works on the 5ghz range...you would have to have the correct AP for whatever connection you wanted.

 

[Viper0329]

After a few hours of play...


I'm in love.

 

[Shanteli]

Ok, so, on Monday my T40 came and and although, granted, it is a good system and all...I purposely passed up built-in wireless and a 1.5ghz processor for a SXGA screen. And now after working on it for a few days I have found out that I cannot see! Like it started giving me a headache and all cuz of the small-@ss characters. Am I the only one who is having problems with this? I'm pondering returning it to see if I can get another model IBM.

 

[mocca]

Try set the font dpi to a bigger size. 120 dpi on the SXGA+ solution should be big enough. You can do this in the display setting.

Mocca

 

[Viper0329]

Originally posted by: Shanteli
Ok, so, on Monday my T40 came and and although, granted, it is a good system and all...I purposely passed up built-in wireless and a 1.5ghz processor for a SXGA screen. And now after working on it for a few days I have found out that I cannot see! Like it started giving me a headache and all cuz of the small-@ss characters. Am I the only one who is having problems with this? I'm pondering returning it to see if I can get another model IBM.

I thought about ordering that same laptop, but heard that the small text size was a little sore on the eyes. Kinda makes me feel a little better about going with the one i got. 1024x768 is a great screen size. It could be a little smaller, which is why I guess SXGA+ was invented, but it seem to be a great fit. I wouldn't worry about XGA being too big. It's easy on the eyes. If you can, return and get the 1.5 with wifi. It seems to be a great upgrade, besides the fact that you downgrade to a Radeon 7500, but I, personally, won't be playing many games on it, so it's not that much of an issue with me.

EDIT: Try upgrading the font to 125 DPI as previously stated. It should make things much better for you.

 

[Shanteli]

Well I changed it to 125DPI and yes it does look better but still a little tweaked. I decided to call up IBM and return it...sad but what is sadder is that the shipping charges that I will accrue will make this whole thing not worth it overall. I'm not sure if I will even but the 1.5ghz or just keep my 2K. Anyway, thanks for the help guys

 

[bharok]

can someone post a sceenshot of the SXGA T40 screen so i can how small it is before i order a T40.
also what is the 3dmarks score for the 237358U.
are there any benchmarks between two of the same laptops wh's only difference is the 1.3 and 1.6 pentium M's
what is the difference . it is big between the 1.3 and 1.6

Thanks,
Bhavin

 

[bharok]

Originally posted by: Shanteli
Yeah I would probably only use B if I took my lappy anywhere but I would like to run a faster connection at home. Of course there is no "real" need for A or even G...but still. Well I looked up the prices and the a/b model 26P8506 goes for around 170ish through IBM...and the B's are all around 50. So no...it is not really worth it. Do you guys think that after G gets standardized, that they'll pump out another mini-pci card?

are there any 3rd party companies such as netgear or linksys that make a/b/g mini-pci cards ( the dell D series has one )

 

[mocca]

Chance are you won't find a mini-PCI that will fit the T40 unless it is from IBM. You might be able to buy Cisco 802.11b mini-PCI but it might be hard to find other than from IBM directly.

Mocca

 

[patsun123]

well i just got my laptop in... 237358u.

it is as good as everyone says. I don't really notice the sound at all. I tried looking for it once, and i can only notice if i lean in and point my ear in the direction of the noise. However since that causes me to look not at the screen, i can't imagine me doing that... at all. If i just stare at the screen normally i can't hear anything, except maybe the HD whirring when transferring stuff.

only minor complaints would be that the right wristpad gets warm. and the space above the optical drive LED is a little flimsy but i don't expect that to be harmful in any way.

On the SXGA screen... i would say this would be the equivalent of operating at 1600x1200 on a 19" Crt. That's what it seems like to me anyway. I operate on a 1600x1200 on my 19" and I don't really have to adjust to this res.. except maybe the LCD screen is really bright but that can be adjusted.


Hey does anyone know what i have to backup if i wish to do my own fresh install? Like what drivers and stuff.... i like the battery gauge and stuff but not really the other stuff. And will this mobile radeon 9000 take the new catalysts?

 

[Viper0329]

And will this mobile radeon 9000 take the new catalysts?

Generally, no. The drivers are made specifically to work with individual laptop systems because of the different screens. It is up to IBM to release updated drivers for the Radeon.

 

[Shanteli]

Nope I tried the new drivers and it did not take. U have to use the ones that IBM gives out on their site.

 

[OldSpooky]

Chance are you won't find a mini-PCI that will fit the T40 unless it is from IBM. You might be able to buy Cisco 802.11b mini-PCI but it might be hard to find other than from IBM directly

I suspect that it may be easier than you think. MiniPCI is probably an IEEE standard, and in any case, the T40 has to be able to accomodate the Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 MiniPCI card. I am sure that at the very least, one would be able to buy Intel Pro/Wireless cards and get them to work with little or no trouble.

 

[patsun123]

so when i tried to install my wireless mini pci card... when i was putting back the keyboard somehow i bent one of the screws and now it wont go in... hrmm... everything else went back together pretty smoothly but i'm wondering if missing a screw is going to hurt things dramatically?

(i'm missing the #3 screw)

 

[Viper0329]

Just found one bad side.

In my T40 with combo DVD/CD-RW, it won't mount a Verbatim DVD+RW disc that I have.

Grr :|

 

[lothix]

SXGA+ is the perfect resolution for 14.1", however you need to set your DPI higher and use ClearType. The ClearType is not essential but it does make text more pleasant to read against a high contrast background. If you still feel as if the fonts appear smaller than what would be comfortable for your eyes, almost every application under windows and even linux (Slackware 9 runs great on T40 btw) supports customized fonts.

 

[azazello]

Originally posted by: Viper0329

And will this mobile radeon 9000 take the new catalysts?

Generally, no. The drivers are made specifically to work with individual laptop systems because of the different screens. It is up to IBM to release updated drivers for the Radeon.

That is not true. I have installed the stock Catalyst drivers on my T40 and not only does it accept them with no trouble, but I see no difference in performance or otherwise from the stock IBM drivers. In fact the device identification string for the driver is the same in both ("Radeon 9000 series", I'm not sure why the driver that came pre-installed does not contain "Mobility" in the descriptor because I know some IBM-supplied drivers do).

I am convinced that the drivers themselves do not differ from stock drivers at all except for the identifier string and the display configuration (i.e. default resolution). The only operational difference from the desktop R9000 then is the clock speed of the GPU and VRAM.

 

[ndee]

dayum you Americans. You have tons of more options for your T40 notebooks

 

[nicowju]

oooh cool, a sticky
Anyway, I've posted two pictures of the screen (one big, one small) for those who want to see how big the icons and text look. Personally, I love small text and stuff (can fit a lot on the screen) so SXGA+ is perfect for me. I also know a few people who love their XGA screens, so the best way to decide, as always, is to just look at XGA and SXGA+ screens in person and decide which one you'd rather have...
Oh, and this SXGA+ screen's better than those I've seen on Dells, Thinkpad T23's, and a little better than what I've seen on T30's.

Scaling the SXGA+ screen down to XGA resolution isn't that bad. It's not as attractive as a straight-out XGA screen because its not native XGA, but it's workable...

Was anyone else's T40 made in Mexico?

 

[nicowju]

Oh by the way, for those who want some benchmarks of the 40GB and 80GB harddrives:
Benchmarks of 80GB vs 40GB drive

 

[Resh]

nicowju,

Am I missing something or did you forget the link to your pics?

N

 

[azazello]

People complaining about "text being too small" on the SXGA+ screen need to learn to set their DPI appropriately (the native DPI for the T40 SXGA+ is 125). This makes properly written programs increase the size of all their graphical elements. Windows also allows you to use bigger icons (not all programs have those, but those that do look great) and you can tweak it to display small 16x16 icons without scaling so they don't look ugly. There are fonts in the stock installation that look much better than MS Sans Serif, which is the default font for many GUI elements. Also, enabling ClearType makes fonts look even better, with a possible drawback that when displaying small elements in small fonts (like two letters l next to each other) it bleeds onto neighbouring pixels, making the text look a bit dirty.

Another advantage of SXGA+ is free antialiasing in games

Personally, I love it when I can't see individual pixels on the screen (unless I look extremely closely, and my eyesight is not bad). That is how display devices should be.

Now, after some comparison and prolonged use, I must say that I'm not thrilled by this display's maximum viewing angle or the bleeding of the backlight which pulls black values up very high. Frankly, the colors (when viewing at over ten degrees off normal) and contrast range suck compared to Trinitron CRTs and even some desktop LCDs I've seen. But again, I don't think there is anything better on the notebook market, except possibly some new Fujitsu and Dell models which I personally have not seen.

 

[nicowju]

yeah, the viewing angles aren't the greatest. The link to the pics are in the first post...

 

[Resh]

Thanks nicowju. Didn't realize you had added to that original list of links.

BTW, I'm about 80% of the way to ordering my T40p. I'm just confirming cost of a dock, car adapter, and extra power-brick with the local dealer.

In CDN, he quoted $4759 instead of IBM.CA $5099, but the return policy (for a non-defective unit) is non-existent so I'll have to get clarity on IBM's return policy and weight it against $340.

Thanks again for all your insight.