Validate my T42 order?

[alisajid]

I'm currently an Aluminum Powerbook user (1 GHz). I love the wide-screen display, OS X, etc but the battery life and speed (subjectively) are killing me. I just ordered an IBM T42 w/ Pentium-M 735, 512MB RAM, 60GB 7200RPM HDD, Radeon 9600/64MB, and 15" SXGA+ screen. All of this for $2064. A bit steep for me, but I'm giving up on the Powerbook (ebay), and selling a few pints of blood, of course. For about $2200 I could have picked up the Powerbook w/ Superdrive, but to me buying a G4 these days doesn't seem like a great decision. But still, the resolution on the Powerbook 1280x800, is kind of low for a machine of that cost.

BTW, my normal usage patterns are writing software in some C, Python and Java within the context of Apache.

So did I do right or wrong?

 

[KevinH]

You did very good. Do you mind telling me how you got it for that price? I can't configure it within sniffing distance of that.

 

[netsysadmin]

So you bought the 2378-DXU? Very nice choice!!! I just ordered the 2379-DXU. The only difference of the two is mine has a three year warranty. I figured if I am paying this much for a laptop the extra $85 for the second two years was worth it. Especially figuring that you probaly could not replace most of the parts on that unit for less than $85.

John

 

[alisajid]

KevinH: As far as the price goes, the employee purchase program for friends and family helps do the trick. Either that or the IBM stockholder's purchase program and maybe the Discover card discount may work.

netsysadmin: Hmmm, maybe I should call up the folks in sales and see if I can do something about it. I had no idea it was only an $85 difference.

 

[Alex08]

and if you upgrade to the 3yr warranty you can pay another $150-169 and get the accidental coverage. you can play catch with your son or let the dog chew on it. run over it with the car, drop it from the empire state building(i think the safety net will catch it though)

 

[netsysadmin]

Here is a post from someone that just got there T42. Not the exact same model, but close!

T42 Review

 

[KevinH]

Cool, thanks ali.

 

[ziplux]

Good luck getting that T42 anytime soon. I was going to get one, but they were going to take four weeks :Q to ship it, so I canceled my order.

My only gripe with Thinkpads in general is their lack of a Windows key! It's really annoying that such a good laptop is marred by such a stupid omission. The lack of a Windows key and the 4 week wait made me reconsider and instead I ordered a Fujitsu Lifebook S6120.

 

[eriqesque]

Originally posted by: ziplux
Good luck getting that T42 anytime soon. I was going to get one, but they were going to take four weeks :Q to ship it, so I canceled my order.

My only gripe with Thinkpads in general is their lack of a Windows key! It's really annoying that such a good laptop is marred by such a stupid omission. The lack of a Windows key and the 4 week wait made me reconsider and instead I ordered a Fujitsu Lifebook S6120.

Thats the standard wait time if they are not directly in stock
usually take much LESS time than that.

Number 2 you can map the prescious windows key to another key on any thinkpad
not to mention that's probably the lamest excuse i have ever heard to not like any paticular notebook.

 

[alisajid]

All good things....

Eh, I can wait a little to get exactly what I want.

 

[mrweirdo]

btw there are little programs out that there people have writen that display your windows keys. Ive seen one that works on xp - 2003 server.

 

[netsysadmin]

alisajid....Is you order status showing a ship date? I ordered mine on 5/20 and it showed a ship date of 6/28...now it says call rep. They said they are on a 4 to 6 week backorder.

John

 

[alisajid]

I ordered mine on 5/20 as well. For the first few days the status was "Call Representative" too. I gave them a call, and they tried to make me buy a T41. No thanks. They said 2-4 weeks. Yesterday, I checked my order, and now it says shipped from Hong Kong (great). I think they're over-estimating time frames for delivery to get people to buy T41's.

 

[netsysadmin]

I hope mine shows shipped soon Especially since we both ordered the units on the same day!

John

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: eriqesque

Originally posted by: ziplux
Good luck getting that T42 anytime soon. I was going to get one, but they were going to take four weeks :Q to ship it, so I canceled my order.

My only gripe with Thinkpads in general is their lack of a Windows key! It's really annoying that such a good laptop is marred by such a stupid omission. The lack of a Windows key and the 4 week wait made me reconsider and instead I ordered a Fujitsu Lifebook S6120.

Thats the standard wait time if they are not directly in stock
usually take much LESS time than that.

Number 2 you can map the prescious windows key to another key on any thinkpad
not to mention that's probably the lamest excuse i have ever heard to not like any paticular notebook.

That isn't lame! I'm picky about my keyboards as well. A lot of laptops I won't buy (HP/Compaq/Sony) because the keyboards are so mushy. I like the feel of most of the Dell keyboards myself. Also, if the keyboard doesn't have the arrow keys in an upside-down T configuration that is a bit away from the rest of the keys, I won't buy it. I also won't buy it unless the Home/End/Del/Pgup/Pgdown keys are in the right spot. The right spot isn't lined haphazzardly down the right side of the keyboard.

 

[ziplux]

Originally posted by: eriqesque

Originally posted by: ziplux
Good luck getting that T42 anytime soon. I was going to get one, but they were going to take four weeks :Q to ship it, so I canceled my order.

My only gripe with Thinkpads in general is their lack of a Windows key! It's really annoying that such a good laptop is marred by such a stupid omission. The lack of a Windows key and the 4 week wait made me reconsider and instead I ordered a Fujitsu Lifebook S6120.

Thats the standard wait time if they are not directly in stock
usually take much LESS time than that.

Number 2 you can map the prescious windows key to another key on any thinkpad
not to mention that's probably the lamest excuse i have ever heard to not like any paticular notebook.

Yeah, I can map it to any key. But then I lose whatever key I map it to. I use the left Control, Alt, and Windows key all the time (Alt-f4 to close a window, Windows key - r to get the Run dialog box, control -c to copy text ,etc) so only having two keys on the left is a huge minus for me in terms of the usability of the keyboard. Maybe if you could remap the "Fn" key they have on the left side, but from what I've read you can't remap that one at all.

 

[alisajid]

Stuck in Louisville, Kentucky for a customs "live" check whatever that means. It's interesting how the big things in life (today's terror alert) affect the little things, like my lappy getting to me.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: alisajid
I'm currently an Aluminum Powerbook user (1 GHz). I love the wide-screen display, OS X, etc but the battery life and speed (subjectively) are killing me. I just ordered an IBM T42 w/ Pentium-M 735, 512MB RAM, 60GB 7200RPM HDD, Radeon 9600/64MB, and 15" SXGA+ screen. All of this for $2064. A bit steep for me, but I'm giving up on the Powerbook (ebay), and selling a few pints of blood, of course. For about $2200 I could have picked up the Powerbook w/ Superdrive, but to me buying a G4 these days doesn't seem like a great decision. But still, the resolution on the Powerbook 1280x800, is kind of low for a machine of that cost.

BTW, my normal usage patterns are writing software in some C, Python and Java within the context of Apache.

So did I do right or wrong?

Does that come with the high capacity battery or the regular?

-Eric

 

[alisajid]

The regular one.

 

[Herr Yunta]

ziplux: you can use Ctrl+Esc instead of the windows key

 

[alisajid]

It finally arrived. My friends have Thinkpads already (T41's), so I thought I knew exactly what I was getting. I was pleasantly surprised. The flexview display is amazing. I compared it head-to-head with a regular T41, Powerbook 15", and Sony TR2A (XBrite) displays. For my money, the Flexview beats them all out. The Xbrite's shiny/reflective screen is annoying. The T41 and Powerbook's screens are nice, but color contrast and readability suffers at low brightness levels. The flexview is great at lower brightness settings.

Battery life is not as good as a T41. About 4hrs as compared to 4:30. Speed wise its fast. I can't really tell the difference between the T42 and my P4 2.8 desktop. I think I'll actually be able to game on this, ~9300 3DMark 2k1. The Thinkpad keyboard and trackpoint are as always amazing if not perfect.

Negatives if any are, the added weight of the 15" T42. Plus, the lower battery life. Maybe a Radeon 9700 or 9600 with 128 megs of vram would be good, for a little less than the cost of the FireGL/T42P. Lastly, I just wish they offered a wide-screen display.