Is it a disadvantage if your notebook is w/o an optical drive?

So I'm set on the Thinkpad X-series or T-series. I managed to find an X201 (12.1") and T410(14.1") being sold at computer store in my city today and I'm hooked on them. Both look great, I played around with them a bit and was happy. I'd say I rather the X201 a bit more, since it was smaller and just seemed far more portable, plus I liked the many flashing lights on the bottom of the screen (The T410 only had 3).

The only thing that I have an issue with is that the X201 doesn't have an optical drive where as the T410 does. For anyone whose gone without a direct optical drive in their system, how did it work out for you?

Going by how much I use my current optical drive on my notebook, I do use it every now and then, however it's usually for things like listening to music or watching a movie. I know I could easily use one of those external drives, but I imagine such a thing to be a nuisance?

 

I find it no problem with no optical drive. put your media on an external hard drive or USB thumbdrive.

 

i hardly use my optical drive nowadays, given that most files are downloadable and i hardly watch any dvd movies... i do have couple of spare usb dvd burner lying around, just in case the optical drive less laptop needs to access/burn cd or dvd.

 

+1
I keep my music on internal SSD and my HD movies collection on external 2TB HDD.

 

The T410 is rather large and heavy. It's fine if you don't move the laptop too much. If you do use the optical drive try to find an X301 (perfect for your usage) or go for a T410s. Although I only use the optical drive for burning something few times a month.

Carrying around an external hard drive drive negates the purpose of an ultra-portable imo. And if you're going to put media on a external hdd or usb flash drive, you might as well skip that entirely and rip it to the internal hdd.

 

I have 2 optical drives in my desktop tower, cant remember when was the last time I used them to burn something.

Optical drive on my R400 I used few times - first time to create back&recovery disks with factory XP on it, second to watch one DVD movie and then some 2-3 times to burn pictures from SD card to DVD. I have my ThinkPad for 3 months now.
Thats about it.
I agree with those who say that all you need is giant external HDD to serve media related tasks such as movies and music, photos and some USB drive or SD card to have things you need on the go.

Sure, lugging around external HDD isnt wise choice, but so isnt lugging around external LCD, keyboard and mouse. What I mean - you dont haul around with you every accessory of your laptop and HDD space will never be enough so external 2Tb disk is logical choice and mostly people keep their external HDD's at home anyway, unless youre an artist and need to take your entire collection of media with you everywhere you go.

You can always add 2nd hard drive into ultrabay slot (T series), but that will make T410 quite heavy and at the same time keep ultrabay burner at hand and lug it around with you IN CASE you need to burn something for you or someone else.
But that IMO is worthless, every computer these days has USB port and most of them have SD card reader.

Get what you think will fit your needs most.
I personally am reconsidering my laptop choice and might as well get X201/X200s/E220s/X220 when they hit acceptably low price point.

If your laptop is going to spend its time mainly on the desk and you dont plan to hook external monitor to it either then Id recommend you to get T410/T410s, either one with 1440x900 resolution.

If you plan to take your laptop with you frequently and want as light machine as possible, then get yourself X series

My 2 cents.

 

For me it's the same disadvantage as being without 5.25" floppy drive.

I use regular laptop HD in an external enclosure in case I really need bigger storage 100-200GB. It's pretty light and small, imo so I don't see how it "negates the purpose of ultraportable". Otherwise, I can live of 60GB + 8GB microSD card.

 

I usually use the optical drive in my T500 to install programs on CD or DVD, which happens rather infrequently as it is. I think I've only ever burned one disc. The SD card slot does the job for portable storage and I'm considering getting an UltraBay battery so I can put the slot to use when traveling, though even then, I'll probably opt for another 9-cell instead.

 

I only use the DVD to install Windows on my laptop, other than that I don't remember using it ever !!

But that's me (I use iTunes for movies/music, no need for playing DVDs) and your needs might vary. Some can not live without it. But others .. like my wife (MacBook Air/no DVD/CD) don't ever seem to need it (she has one in her drawer, the USB DVD from Apple, still sealed in the box). And she doesn't use mine either ...

 

Thanks for the responses everyone.

The T410 I was checking out today didn't seem that heavy when I picked it up and such. The X201 was definitely lighter, but I could probably do with the T410 if it came to it. I looked into the X301 but the Lenovo website doesn't seem to sell them anymore(?). I plan on buying off the site since the only store in my city that sells the Thinkpads has them at least $500AUD more than what they're going for on Lenovo's site. And even then the X-series on the website is rather pricey (compared to what's out there).

I completely forgot about SD cards, thanks.

That's the thing I'm unsure about now. The only purpose I'd use my laptop for would be university studies (which includes internet usage). However going by the one I have now, which I got ~3 years ago, I rarely took this one out of the home, but then again it was rather large (16.1") so I wasn't exactly eager on it. But I assume that if I get something smaller, then I'd be more inclinded to carry it around.
Btw when do you think those laptops will hit an acceptabley low price?

Going by a lot of the posts here though, they've put the whole optical drive issue into perspective. I guess it isn't as much as an issue as I firstly thought.

 

I don't find not having an optical drive to be at all troublesome. I do most of my file transfers and media watching via usb or wifi and have never needed an optical drive. Hell I rarely even use the optical drive on my desktop anymore. With that said I dare say optical storage, for pc's at least, is going the way of the dodo bird.

 

^^lol nice comparison

 

You'd be disadvantaged if wanting to do a SSD+HDD setup via an optical bay caddy. The X220 might use mPCIe SSDs to complement the 2.5" drive bay, at least Lenovo announced they'd be incorporating those SSDs in the next notebooks.

 

^^I'm not familiar with such a configuration so it shouldn't be an issue.

Btw I see you're from Australia. I live in Brisbane myself.
Would you happen to know of any good Aussie websites that sell decent Lenovo's?

 

I purchased a T410 last April and while it was a good decision sometimes I regret not looking into the X201 further or seeing whether I could acquire a X301. The T410 is a powerful machine and the 1440x900 resolution is nice. However, sometimes I find the portability and heaviness (I got a 9 cell battery) to be annoying. I don't mind carrying it to the library at school (5 minute walk) though but if I were to carry it for a while it might get annoying due to its bulkiness. I think the ultimate display for portability is a 1280x800 resolution on a 12.1" (ie the X201) or a 1400x900 resolution on a 13.3" (ie the X301 which as been discontinued).

Prior to getting the T410, I was using a Toshiba netbook and I purchased an external CD/DVD player. Aside from watching movies I've rented for a good part of the year and installing Microsoft Office, I probably did not use it at all. I think that the SD card and USB sticks are a good idea should you ever need to install something. In addition, you could always create iso's and have your laptop run a virtual drive.

With that being said, I would highly recommend a X201. You could always get a docking station or if you somehow find yourself needing to install something via an optical drive you could get an external CD/DVD optical drive for ~$50 USD. In addition, you could purchase a LCD for home use.

 

Actually, I'd say not having an ODD is an advantage. It's less weight to carry around, and allows computers to have more varied port selections as well. Plus, external ODDs are ridiculously cheap nowadays, anyway - there was an ASUS CD/DVD burner external drive for only $20 at Fry's Electronics a while back.

In fact, if the UltraBay charging logic was better, I would've purchased an UltraBay battery to put in my T500 instead of the ODD.

 

I agree. I don't get why we still see reviews then under disadvantages they write "no optical drive". It's not 1990. In the end it depends on what each individual person does - if you really juggle CDs/DVDs at work, you can just get external one as others suggested. Watching movies or whatever using optical drive on the go will burn your battery much faster than doing it off a hard drive. And with the internet speeds today, you can just download and stream whatever you want.

For portable storage, I'd go with a regular 2.5" HD 500GB for what $50 and a $10 enclosure. It's just WAY more convenient than optical drives. Optical drivers with their specialized burning method and inability to move files around like on a HD, poor access spin-up/down times etc. should go into history imo. And look at the prices for desktop HDs, it's ridiculous... I bought a 1.5TB HD (7.2K RPM 32MB cache Seagate Barracuda) for $70 few weeks ago.

For stuff on the go, you can go even with microSD cards (I use 8GB one on my mp3 player) or a regular USB key depending how much stuff you actually have. I only have few gigs of mp3, and basically few videos encoded for that small resolution.

 

I actually prefer not to have one, they have been the most likely thing to break on my previous laptops.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Looking back, I think i'll be able to survive without an optical drive. I guess i'm still stuck to the whole 'traditional' view of having an optical drive heh

 

Personally, I wouldn't consider a laptop without an optical drive for at least a few years more. But it is really about your uses and needs.

 

I still rely on my optical drive albiet not that often. I generally use it to install some legacy software or certain drivers of mine on disc format. The most recent was just last week installing a new printer, I could've downloaded the drivers but since the drivers were already on disc I just swapped out my hard drive caddy and put the DVD drive in for 5 mins so Windows can finish the installation to minimise wait.

On a day-to-day basis I generally just use my SSD and HDD caddy combination, but I still insist on having an optical drive for convenience.