Help me pick the new IBM

I have access to an EPP discount and it makes chossing an IBM a no-brainer.

My needs are modest, no games, at most four programs at once, some daily moving of the machine (I wil be teaching in China this winter and taking it to class three days a week), battery life is somewhat improtant but not critical, I hope to use this thing until it totally craps out (I am using a p3 desktop with no problems at home.

I am willing to add memory or swap a hard drive.

My inclincation is to go with the T42, having heard noisy fan stories about the T43. The T42s are available inonly a few configurations at this time. But then I look at the R52 and see that it has a firewire port, which seems useful for an external hard drive.

Screen?? It looks life the 14.1 SXGA would best suit my purpose, I have the middle aged eyes and need all the help I can get. Others have talked about the Flexview, I cannot see which screens that is available on.

Is a dedicated video card worthwhile?? The onle program I use for which it might help is Paint Shop, doing some small reconfigurations of photos.

BTW, the discounts on the EPP are very good, ranging from 20-25% off, naturally the more expensive machine save more $$, but once in a while there is a bigger discount.

Any help is sorting this out would be appreciated.

 

I bought my neice a T43 to take to college this year and she hasn't noticed the fan...I asked her about it at Thanksgiving. The R's are your best bet is you aren't going to be traveling a ton, where a lighter laptop and max battery life are a must.

I would chose an R52 or maybe even one of the new Z60m's. Either should suit all your needs and give you the best bang for the buck.

 

FlexView is only available on the 15" screens. If you haven't seen SXGA on a 14" screen, I'd recommend it as some of the text will be small although you can up the DPI if needed. It doesn't sound like you need a dedicated card. The T series will offer outstanding build quality. I prefer the T42 myself as Dothan Pentium Ms run cooler and have less fan noise. The forums at ThinkPads.com offer another good resource for ThinkPads. Good Luck.

 

Zazonz:

I am not sure what you are suggesting vis the 14" SXGA screen, are you advocating that I order it OR are you suggesting that I better see it before I do as the "text will be small". The screen decision is what has me uncertain.

Thanks

 

The T series are terrific machines. I've owned a few and I would highly recommend them. The T41-T43 series have all had various fan issues with the T41p having the least complaints. You can still find new T41p's out there for about 1/2 what they cost when first introduced. The other T models are still great machines, but they do have some fan noise but it's really not that bad. As far as screen resolution is concerned you should really go to a local electronics store and try to find a machine with the resolution you're looking for and see what you like. I've owned a couple 14" T's with the SXGA option and I thought they were great at the time. They allow a lot of information to be displayed on the screen. The only drawback being the tiny text. I'm not that old (31 with good vision) but as I get older I notice that I get alot more headaches and eye strain from the high resolution screens. I'm not sure if I would choose the 14" SXGA option anymore. If you have any doubt whether you can tolerate the smaller text don't get the SXGA. You'll just wind up regretting your decision. Don't fool yourself into believing that you can change the resolution or font size. Windows does not like to scale fonts and so it does a very poor job of it. Some text will get larger but other text will be clipped or remain small. If you decide to change the screen resolution just know that any resolution other than the native resolution of the screen will be blurry.

 

OK, it is coming down to an R52 (18494WU) versus a T43 (2687D3U).

Specs:

BOTH have the 1.86 Pentium M, 64 mg x300 GPU, DVD recordable, 512 mg RAM

R52: 80gb HD, 15" SXGA, 1 yr warranty (which my cc will double to 2 years, cost $1159

T43- 60 gb HD, 14.1" SXGA, 3 yr warranty, cost $1386

These prices are thorugh an EPP opportunity I have.

Mobility is not that improtant the R52 weighs about 1 pund more, se earlier post for my requirements (not a lot of moving around,no games, like larger screen if I can make out the type).

Thanks.

 

I am only suggesting the text on a 14" SXGA screen will be small for some people. If you can check it out I'd recommend it. They don't sell these at retail locations. I have seen people buy them then hate it cause it is too small. Good Luck.

 

The screen on the R52 is not a Flexview. Hence, I'd go for the T probably. Although a 14" SXGA+ might be too small, as zazonz points out.

 

I thought some of the R series had FlexView?

 

Some, but not R52, at least according to the Tabook I've got.

 

I'll reiterate what others have said backing the T42/T43 -- for portability/build/power the 14-inch version of these machines is superb, and it sounds like you need a very reliable laptop that's easy enough to get around with. The 14-inch SXGA T43 is my favorite, it is a downer that there's no FireWire but at the same time I don't think one missing port should be a make or break decision for your needs.

If you can afford the extra, I'd go with the T43 config you have there.

 

r52 is ok. from part looked up, i got r50's screen and t43 keyboard(NMB, however i think the keyboard is just okay, still does not satisfy me, but then still better than others i believe). palm rest warm, screen ok, material is good aswell. as in i dont have to worry about fingerprint, scratch. light enough to put it on my lap, when on battery, the laptop is 100% quiet. overall, 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. with .5 star is missing in graphic (but then i chose intel integrated) and std screen lighting .