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IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC Reviewed
JR writes "CoolTechZone.com has reviewed IBM's ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC that works as a standard notebook computer as well as a tablet PC. Generally with hybrid products, there are quite a few limitations attached, is that the case with X41? According to the article, "The notebook has a lot of drawbacks, lacks important features and tries to make up all that with its lightweight and a fingerprint reader that works like a charm. If you are looking for a small lightweight tablet and won't do much more than e-mail and note taking, along with basic office stuff, we would seriously recommend this one for it's battery life, the extreme lightweight design and the brilliant IBM support, but be ready to pay anywhere from $1800 to upwards of $2000 for a common purpose machine."
I really need a note-taking machine to be a Director of IT. I mean. Basically I take notes all day and delgate shit... occasionally turning wrenches when I'm the only one around who knows how. (Maybe I should be looking at a rachet set.)
I like this one, but the HP TC4200 is just "nicer". If MS had any brains they'd force OneNote onto everyone of these machines. It's not the greatest program but it intergrates really well with Office 2K3.
This
This PoS has no optical drive, man. WTF?
I used a tablet PC for several years while at Microsoft, partly because I wanted to understand what or if there was an application and partly because it was the politically-correct thing to do. I was not impressed. It really has nothing to do with the form-factor, although performance is a key factor. It has more to do with the software, specifically Windows for Tablet, and the whole human interaction thing.
I took notes on it for about 9 months, and then finally had to stop when I realized I couldn't find anything for later review. The files were all there, my notes were in them, but to open and close hundreds of files looking for the meeting where that guy said that thing about that stuff? Forget it. There was no way I could be more efficient than the notebook and pen. True, you can't search your notebook electronically, but you can't search your written notes either. Convert handwriting to text? Forget about it, the error correction you have to go through eliminates ANY potential savings.
My old-fashion father, now an 80 year-old CPA, used to laugh when I would bring home the latest PDA/calendar/phone thingy. He would smile, take out his daytimer and set it on the table. We would race to see who could look up a personal schedule for a specific date. I never won the race. I was never even close. I still cannot win that race, and I still cannot even come close.
The Tablet does have some unique applications, such as the Doctor doing their rounds and updating charts on the fly. Inventory perhaps. There are others. But as a general purpose note-taking computing platform, forget about it. It the latest technology cannot outperform the oldest known writing standard in the world, pen and paper, and can't make general office functions any better, it is just technology looking for a solution.
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
I got the X41 laptop and I must say I'm very pleased with it.
Works perfect with Linux. All except the fingerprint scanner and the SD card reader.
How long until these thinkpads are labeled Lenovo? As far as I'm concerned, there is no IBM Thinkpad any more....doesn't make Lenovo any better/worse; I'd just rather call a spade a spade.
I followed the link to the "IBM ThinkPad" and got a review of a Lenovo product.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
*sigh*
clearly the mods didnt even RTFA
Lenova is NOT IBM
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
I often wonder which, in 5 years, will be the more practical tablet type of solution. Will devices like this continue to evolve into that elusive "paper notebook replacement" or will Windows Mobile devices expand in functionality? The part that really seems odd is that, if Microsoft keeps developing both XPTablet and WindowsMobile, won't they begin completing with themselves for usage?
http://www.tomandemily.com
Lenovo Thinkpad x41 Unreviewx 41.ars
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/thinkpad-
-theGreater.
The Fujitsu t4010 is a great tablet that doesn't skimp on features. The only thing it can't really do is games (other than rise of nations and starcraft, etc).
I believe it is one of the few tablets with an expansion bay, so you can put another battery in there and have a good 7-8 hours.
It's not IBM anymore, guys, but rather Lenovo. Even for ThinkPads originally purchased from IBM, the Package Manager software has been steadily replacing all the IBM-branded ThinkVantage software with Lenovo-branded software. (So far, it all works the same, but they're making it very clear that it's a Lenovo show now.) Customer support has been turned over to Lenovo as well. (I can say from recent experience that it's still quite good.)
The article got this right, but I thought I'd post the FYI here as well. -- Paul
OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
They're a little vague on how they did the performance testing, but having just upgraded my new, similarly powered ThinkPad T42 from 512MB to 1.5 GB of RAM, that mostly fixed the performance problems I had.
However, there's one gotcha: There's a retarded Windows bug where machines with more than 1 GB of memory won't hibernate unless you close pretty much everything you have running. And with no source, I've just got to drum my fingers and hope that they'll one day fix it.
Another one worth looking at is the R series by Toshiba; it's roughly 6lbs but sports a 14.1" screen. You can see one in person at Best Buy (but iif you buy one I highly suggest going elsewhere). Also for either machine, if you qualify for academic prices definitely go through a local college. My school orders a number of preconfigured models in bulk and passes some savings to the customer (it's cheaper to buy from my campus bookstore than from the IBM higher education page directly). On a side note, is there any good tablet linux distros yet?
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash. Never. Maybe this is a niche machine for people who need to lug around electronic forms, blueprints, contracts and whatnot.
And please don't get me wrong I have a 12x12 Acecad digitizer tablet. I'm pretty familiar with using a stylus - - for things that it makes sense to use a stylus for. Like drawing.
Apple really needs to come out with something like this. I have a number of MAC shop clients and the artists have been seriously considering moving to XP for the Tablet functionality. The reason is that the Tablet can sense pressure, and a brush stroke is adjusted accordingly on the screen. The Waacom stuff can do drawing, but isn't pressure sensitive to this degree. There is about a 5k piece of equipment you can buy to do this with OSX, but its just not the same.
Vista is making some big strides on the Tablet end and is upping the sensitivity, so combined with the more accurate graphic color rendering, windows may be able to woo some artists away. Adobe and Quark products work well on both platforms. The only real thing Windows will be lacking is a decent font management tool.
This ThinkPad os exactly the kind of thing that I think could hurt apple at the end of the day. It may be easier for apple to get into this market now that they are moving to intel chips, since the hardware is already running on the x386 platform.
Way cool! Tablets are awesome. But, does this one run Linux?
:(
The fact is that it can run Linux just like any other laptop but, this will be very limited when compared to running Windows XP or Vista on it. Why? Because Linux lacks the handwriting recognition software that is built into Windows. That means that this laptop can truly be used as a tablet when running Windows but can only be used as a laptop when running Linux. I sure wish I could run Linux on a tablet.
Score another point for the "suckiness of Windows" and the "lack of innovation from Microsoft".
This is typical of IBM; they have always gravitated towards the docking station instead of building bulky devices on board. They expect the user to dock the device for charging and stationary usage, and mobilize it when making rounds, or whatever. http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/P roductDisplay?catalogId=-840&langId=-1&partNumber= 250610U&storeId=10000001 This is the docking station for the X41, including a cd-rw/dvd-rom drive. Perhaps you guys should investigate available accessories before beating on IBM's choice of how to design a tablet pc ;-).
Also, to all you guys beating on the IBM/Lenovo thing- IBM designed this thing. Lenovo was simply in charge when it made it to market.
Peace!
Am I the only one who is worried that IBM's excellent support may not be so excellent anymore now that Lenovo produces these computers under their own name?
OK, for a few years they are still allowed to use the IBM trademark, but still...
How long until these thinkpads are labeled Lenovo? As far as I'm concerned, there is no IBM Thinkpad any more....doesn't make Lenovo any better/worse; I'd just rather call a spade a spade.
from the title of the article: "Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC: Closing the Mobile Gap"
Slashdot just got it wrong, this is definitely a Lenovo.
a fingerprint reader that works like a charm
Maybe because it has a high false-positive rate? Just like with electronic voting, the problem is that you don't know how it works under the hood. At least with a password you know that n keys have to be pressed in the right order and you can easily compute the security of that on the back of an envelope.
Same as the brand name Lenovo instead of IBM, I suppose.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
then I'm not interested. Honestly, am I the only one who has trouble "writing" on these touchscreen tablets? I find it very uncomfortable due to the thickness of the unit. My arm/wrist is at an odd angle. I think they're fine for checking off forms or choosing from drop down lists, but free-form note-taking on these things is not for me.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
I have been using the x41 tablet and several other tablet brands for a couple of months and my conclusion is:
....I wouldn't mind taking a look at what Apple would come up with in the tablet arena, but right now in the Windoze world, it is pretty "ho hum!"
"For mainstream use, Not Worth the Effort"
Everything about them is slower than keying.
Interacting with websites or other apps which expect keyboard entry is painfully tedious. Annotation of existing digital docs require another step, another app and is of limited use to send to others unless they are so configured. (MS Journal, etc)
And as previous slashdotter noted: finding anything is problematic.
Nothing there that I can't do and haven't done with my Palm and graffitti for the last couple of years.
The "value add" that the tablet function brings only happens when you doodle or sketch alot while taking notes. Artists would like it.
I think this whole "writing recognition" thing is generational - with the generation that wants it now hitting retirement age. They don't know how to "type" so they want to "write". But they are generally terrible with their mouse skills and using the pen takes much finer hand-eye coordination than using a mouse.
There have been several articles recently how todays school-age kids can't even "read" let alone "write" long hand. It is like a foreign language to them.
"Print" - yes (it is like a computer!), but "cursive" or script, it might as well be french. So, I don't see this market happening.
No, seriously; how many Harvard-boy types do you know that use a PC as anything more than a fancy typewriter?
Put a secure OS on the machine so the PHBs can't load it up with their usual menagerie of malware, and IBM could have a real winner here.
Regards;
In fact, I'm typing this comment on it. It is a bit sluggish, but I suspect that's because my add-in memory is still on order. The battery life (as with all X series ThinkPads) is unbeatable. But the killer app to me is not the note-taking. There are a few nice applications the tablet can be used for that don't work as well on a regular laptop (and I won't buy a non-ThinkPad until someone else figures out how to put in a sane keyboard layout).
1. Driving directions. Bluetooth GPS + Streets and Trips 2003 = turn-by-turn directions and a nice huge map.
2. Photo editing. Instead of having a separate digitizer tablet, this one is built-in. Using the mouse for this kind of stuff really sucks, especially if you have RSI.
3. Aircraft use (pilot). There are a pile of programs to help aviators figure out where they're going, and they're much easier to see on a Tablet than on a laptop. In a vacuum or electrical failure, this can be a real lifesaver (by acting as a DG or VOR/GS).
4. Aircraft use (passenger). You can read PDFs in tablet mode, even when the seat in front of you is reclined. You can even annotate them with the pen.
So sure, its a bit sluggish (but another 512MB RAM will help that quite a bit), and the resolution sucks (1024x768? are we in the 90s?), but I think I'm sticking with the tablet for the near future as my portable. My power use takes place on a Pentium D desktop with 4GB RAM and a 24" LCD, so there's little need for me to have a beefy desktop-replacement laptop. And the optical drive problem is solved with an external DVD burner that hooks up to both the laptop and the desktop.
From the article:
Once the initial novelty wore off, however, we quickly realized that the limits of this notebook are achieved with minimal effort. We launched Winamp, Firefox with 25 tabs, proceeded to check our e-mail, work on an excel file with Norton Internet Security and Antivirus 2005 running in the system tray.
Although this sounds like a lot load on a system, it's actually how many of you may utilize it. By the time we got to checking our e-mail and working on the excel file, the machine was already crawling, and our attempts at opening another one of these browser windows all but stopped the machine from doing anything whatsoever.
So yes, the machine is definitely underpowered and despite the 512MB of DDR2 RAM, the processor and the hard drive are letting it down.
I think that's backwards. The processor and HD can handle the load, if only you put more memory in it to stop it from thrashing.
And you call that a review?
m
"When in tablet mode, the screen for some reason is not a touch screen, but works if we point the stylus at it."
Yeah, that's kind of the point. The idea is that you rest your wrist on the screen and write like you would on a piece of paper. If it was touch sensitive, that would be a little messy (virtual ink everywhere).
I guess this is Microsoft's problem: No one knows enough about TabletPCs to consider the benefits. Even the "reviews" seem to miss the point on some features. My Motion M1200 is almost 3 years old now and I still love it.
What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
But the reviewer also refers to the machine as an IBM.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
I wonder if this new tablet is lightweight. I mean, if it is lightweight I might consider using this lightweight tablet that has a light weight. Plus it has IBM LIGHTWEIGHT(R) technology!
This tablet appears to be as much of a 'hybrid' tablet as pretty much every tablet PC replaced since 2003. My three month old Acer Travelmate C314 works as a tablet and as a laptop, so I'm wondering what really pushes this Lenovo machine apart from the Acer and Gateway tablets of the world. Other than a fingerprint reader, I can't think of any. The reviewer seemed to be very uninformed.
Oh, and my tablet PC runs modern games quite nice, thank you.
"......." said the Wise Man
the brilliant IBM support
That's funny; when I call them I get Lenovo. Is this review in a time warp?
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Namaste
I am an interface designer, and I just got an X41 Tablet as my primary machine. It has a lot going for it - it's battery life is tremendous, the drawing experience is fabulous (almost better than drawing with a real pen - it's smooth, draws in real-time, and supports undo!), the handwriting recognition is quite good, and the keyboard is comfortable for typing. A trial for Alias's sketchbook application is included with the tablet - it is really ground-breaking to use this application with the stylus (I suggest everyone go to a best-buy and try it out, and anyone who does any degree of drawing for their job get a tablet exclusively for this application).
The thing that has me worried is performance. 1.5 ghz is pretty slow, and the 512 mb of ram is just-plain not good enough (I've got an additional gig of ram on the way - we'll see how that goes). The screen resolution is also only 1024x768 - fine for sketching, but when using photoshop or flash it's unacceptable.
Despite all this, I think the tablet has huge promise - my primary job is designing, which includes LOTS of paper-and-pencil sketching (most of which is never used since I am too lazy to scan). I think rapid low-fi prototyping will speed up immensely - I'm surprised that this niche (designers) has not been targeted more by Lenovo's marketing folks.
Good lord, I thought this thing was supposed to be lightweight - it's 3.5 pounds!!
...Y4? W2? I think that was it. Anyway, DVD writer (!), 1.1 Ghz machine, half a gig of memory, and only 2.5 lbs. Granted, it cost $3400+, and was only available via import companies that bring state-of-the-art japanese products here, but that's only dollars. The only reason I didn't get it is because it didn't have the nipple. If it had had one, I'd've dropped $3500 in a heartbeat.
I was looking for an ultra-lightweight a year ago, and when I saw this review, I thought "Damn. That's what I wanted - it's even got the touchstick (nipple, whatever)".
Then I go check the website. 3.5 pounds! Unbeeelievable!
I was looking at a Panasonic
3.5 pounds.
Whatever!
--LWM
I would say that your statement is as much a mischaracterization as any other I've heard.
IBM did not design the product. Lenovo did not design the product. They are companies. People designed the product. Those people were IBM employees while the product was being designed and those same people are Lenovo employees now that it's being shipped and supported.
It's basically this sentence that seems like non-sense to me: "Lenovo was simply in charge when it made it to market."
What does that mean to you? "In charge"? It's the same people. 1800 employees in RTP, NC that used to be IBM employees and are now Lenovo employees. Same deal with their other offices around the world including China and Japan.
Justin Dubs
The screen can be rotated to portrait orientation via rotate button (not dynamic, no xrandr on i915 yet, so 2 Xconfigs). It has special "BlueKeys" support when folded into tablet configuration: scroll Up, scroll Down, Enter, and Toolbox keys. The Toolbox Key (plugin to "EmpTool" tools to access LCD brightness up/down, volume up/down, backlight, wifi kill, etc)
Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
EmperorLinux
The next time you want to race your Dad with his daytimer, put your PDA thingie next to his daytimer, and before you decide what date to look up, whip out a flamethrower and destroy them both. Then open a brand new boxed PDA thingie, connect to the WiFi of your neighbor, download your backup database from the net, and proceed to look up your schedule.
That'll show the old bastard.
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
1.5 ghz is pretty slow
I won't pretend it's not... but the X Series has always had slightly slower chips because it shoots for the extreme battery life in a small package... but do keep in mind that this is much much faster than a P4 1.5GHz, the Pentium M's MHz #'s don't translate directly, also, this is the new Pentium M which has the 2MB of on board cache.
I have the 2GHz version of the M right now, and it blazes compred to my desktop with a 3.2 GHz in it.
it hibernates to disk. The video is i915. there is no xrandr for the i810 driver, so you need two xconfigs, one portrait, one landscape. We've made the "rotate" button switch between the two. The pen works of course in either mode.
Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
EmperorLinux
The killer feature for me is to be able to sit on the couch(or the bus) and browse comfortably.
First thing I did is buy a 1GB stick from Crucial; makes all the difference. I use Outlook, Virtual PC, RSS Bandit with no problem.
Yeah, the resolution is a bummer, but would you really want a really high res on a screen so small?
/. is irrelevant.
the X41's Biometric Fingerprint Scanner does work in Linux. It even can be tied into the GDM login process via the magic of PAM. whee! (see posts below)
Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
EmperorLinux
On the Emperor site, it states that handwriting recognition works on the X14. What package is Emperor using to provide hadwriting recognition and how effective is it in real-world use?
the X41 can be made to run any Linux distro, with enough work that is. you'll be ripping out Xorg (for the pen/stylus and latest i810 code), the entire GDM subsystem (for the BFP stuff), all the ACPI infrastructure (to get at the special buttons like rotate), and such to get it working. Oh, and Java to get Jarnal working...
Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
EmperorLinux
I just bought a tablet pc this morning - Fujitsu T4000D. I'll now bore you with summary and details, skip down to the end for my actual point.
I found myself burning enough time on the pc at home, and getting pains from it, that I needed a different ergonomic solution. I've already got an ergonomic mouse, but it's not enough. I know for a fact it's just related to my posture/position, I have everything in place to fix it, but my habits destroy all attempts to rectify the situation. What am I doing when I'm at home, though? I'm relaxing, for the most part. Wasting time web surfing, watching anime, etc. All stuff I could do from a couch, that doesn't need a top of the line videocard.
I initially was looking at just a Sony U750p, but decided that 5" for $1300 used wasn't worth crap - I have a Zaurus C760, I've done the small screen - you do it for portability, not general purpose. This lead me to scour around looking at the possibilities, and I landed at basically the Fujitsu P1500D or the T4000D. Other mentionables along the way were the HP 1100 (no pressure sensitivity, but active screen - worst of both worlds), the motion computing ls800 (overpriced for the features, this really would have been perfect), and the m200 [ no integrated cd drive, less battery life, same weight ].
The 1500 was smaller and lighter - but I would end up paying the same price for it for fewer features. It, however, had a passive digitizer (you can use object - finger, whatever) - which would have made surfing arguably more comfortable/ergonomic than being forced to use the pen. I decided that if in the future, the digitizer on the one I got broke, I'd rather have the much more useful featureset of the 4000. The 4000 has the same screen as the m200 - 1400x1050 in 12.1", which should make horizontal scrolling a nonissue. All in all, my perception is that it will be an awesome experience.
Okay, enough of the sales pitch/validation (who doesn't get this way about a new piece of gear?). My point? Tablets are looked upon as the end-all be-all for vertical markets and rich kids, but I think that making many laptops convertible and adding a digitizer/touchscreen would be really damned useful. Most laptops can't be used in the lap at all, but if you're using it just to read / view / surf, you could use them in slate form just fine.
On top of that, Microsoft just loosened the restriction that tablets have active digitizers to run their tablet OS, so companies can add simply a hinge and touchscreen (in addition to rerouting everything through the hinge) to their models and be done with it - they don't need to make a billion usability software tweaks like Sony had to for their U, it's all builtin.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Jarnal is what you seek, a Java ap that does very good handwriting recog. in Linux. All you have to do is setup the screen digitizer to be an input device (wacom), and then properly calibrate it to get the mouse pointer in the right place.
Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
EmperorLinux
I find the X41 not that bad except for its display resolution. I don't know what they were thinking but nowadays you expect a higher display resolution. 1400x1050 is the absolute minimum.
Whenever a company advertises a notebook with only the screen size given in non-metric inches instead of revealing its actual display resolution be very weary. There is usually good reason for it.
I'm using one right now and I like it. I've had 1GB of RAM installed the entire time I've been using it, so I suspect that the comments regarding the 512MB being the bottleneck might be right on.
Another thing that I have noticed that might be affecting performance is the presence of the "IBM Active Protection System." This locks the HD heads when it senses movement that may cause damage to the hard drive. The feature works well for extending HD life.
Problem is that on a Tablet, you're always jiggling the thing around and APS keeps "pausing" the hard drive, impacting disk performance. You can play with the sensitivity settings and this really seems to help. (You can also completly disable if you wish)
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do." -- Benjamin Franklin
While the reviewer was correct in some aspects, there are some things wrong with the review that are pretty bad... Several grammatical errors and the image on the main page is of the non-tablet X41. Also, some other posters pointed out the weird complaint that it was not a "touch screen." You actually rest your hand on the screen while writing, just like paper.
I have had one around my office for a couple months now. It's a nice laptop, but definitely a bit sluggish. The size is the real win; it's great to carry around to wiring closets or talks or meetings. I haven't found too much justification for the tablet-ness, but I have seen some speakers integrate the ability to draw naturally on-screen with their presentation, and it has worked well.
As far as the difference between IBM and Lenovo, I believe most of the thinkpad products are still branded IBM for the time being as part of the agreement between the two companies. Things are starting to change over to Lenovo, but last week when I called for a replacement keyboard for my Thinkpad T42, everyone and everything was identified as IBM.
I've got one of these and pretty soon will use it as my only machine while I'm living in a dorm. It's good, but I've had some problems. First, it took me 7 weeks to get it, but I did get it as soon as it came out. I had the system board replaced because the battery was not charging, and plus the hitachi hard drive has developed bad sectors (from shipping?) which still needs fixed. Also, there is an issue with these things where the mouse curser jumps around like crazy and closes programs, supposedly related to EMI from the digitizer. This makes it hard to do anything on it. Despite having all these problems, I still think it's a well designed machine for what I'm going to use it for...college.
Help cure cancer! Fold for slashdot: http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=
I think I liked Ars Technica's unreview of the X41 that they ran last week better. From the review: "You have to admire the tenacity of the guy who fought to keep the IR port on the X41. Does anybody own devices with IR ports anymore? I dug a four year-old PalmPilot out of the garage and tried to link up, but I think a dust mite fell between the respective IR ports, either that or the Earth was rotating and the movement caused interference." Comedy (precious metal)!
I hear a lot about "there is no use for tablets" and "it's quicker to type and convert it." For taking simple text notes or notes for yourself, I'd never use a Tablet.
I have found a legitimate use for a tablet though - remote tutoring of Computer Science courses. Normally, when I tutor locally, I use a whiteboard or a notebook. But my college has a branch campus in the middle east, and I also tutor for an intermediate course there.
I can't tell you how much easier it is to draw a binary tree (or Huffman tree, or semi complex data structure of your choice) on a tablet than trying to do ASCII.
Would I prefer an electronic whiteboard? Yes, but it's not very practical for one tutor to use, and I wouldn't be able to bring it to my apartment.
I'm not going to rush out and buy a Tablet for myself right now, but they're very useful for one on one remote conceptual communication.
Or, you could save a couple hundred bucks by getting the Fujitsu version of the same idea. It's very similar to the X41, although it might be a smaller display. My office has two, and our experience with them seems superior to what's described in the review (Arstechnica.com) I read about the Thinkpad.
(Keep in mind that these are niche devices. It so happens that my office also sits in that niche, so we love 'em. YMMV.)
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
I've been thinking on and off about replacing my old Thinkpad A31 -- it's a good machine but the battery (I'm on my second battery) is just about shot and replacing the darn thing is going to be anywhere from a hundred bucks up, and the extended service warranty pretty much expires at the end of the year. It lacks USB 2 but I've yet to find a need for it -- I carry a Firewire PC card because I do video work -- and as long as I keep the laptop sufficiently cooled it won't overheat doing things like playing Final Fantasy XI.
If I replace this machine I'd like to look into a tablet PC, but the X41 and the Fujitsu T4000 are nearly $2000. Are there any non-HP tablet PCs out there in the sub $1500 range that are good (or at least decent) for replacing my laptop, or should I just stay with what I have?
http://reviews.cnet.com/Toshiba_Portege_M205_S809/ 4505-3126_7-30612819-2.html?tag=nav
I have one of these, and I ADORE it. I got mine for $1100 refurbished (couldn't tell it was used at all). 1.5GHz Pentium M, 512MB of RAM, 1400x1050(!) 12" LCD, discrete graphics controller (GeForce FX Go 5200), wifi and optional Bluetooth. Plus it's lighter than the HP model and the stylus is terrific - has an eraser and a button on it to do left-clicking. I also think the hinge is sturdier than both the HP and IBM models.
The only thing that is lacking on it is the bundled software. Yes, you have OneNote, but I need something that combines OneNote's organization and keyboard-pen input with the selection flexibility of Journal (ability to lasso stuff and move it around). You can SORT of do that with OneNote, but not really - it decides for itself what should be grouped together, and God help you if you want to change it.
+++ATH0
Where can I find the drivers for it? Preferbly GPL.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/thinkpad-x 41.ars
I'm not sure why suddenly all these companies are doing reviews on the x41 tablet pc. It's been out for quite some time.
HD Trailers
It's a Pentium M 1.5Ghz. Not comparable to a P4 1.5Ghz at all, so saying "1.5Ghz is pretty slow" is misleading. I thought people here on Slashdot knew this stuff. 512MB of RAM is more than enough for everything I've ever done except playing Battlefield 2.
It's reasonably speedy for the application (ultra lightweight laptop). I have the X41 (non-tablet version) and the processor is fine for heavy Excel work, light/occasional programming/stats work and the like. The harddrive is slow, and startup is a bit tedious compared to my desktop (a brand new Athlon 64 X2 3800), but as long as you don't expect a desktop replacement/gaming rig/software development machine, you should be pretty happy. The other business users I know who have the X41 seem incredibly happy with it as well. As for resolution, you wouldn't want any higher than 1024x768 on a 12" screen - IBM offers plenty of laptops with higher resolution if that's what you want.
Battery life is much better than other laptops I've had and Lenovo (previously IBM) makes a solid little machine.
As for the tablet version, I didn't go for it, but I'm sure it's fine if you really want to use it as a tablet.
This is correct information that corrects the parent's quite off-the-mark comment. I'm not a moderator, but this deserves the limelight, I think.
Hmmm...that doesn't seem right. I am using the Thinkpad X40 which has a pretty similar configuration to the X41 except that mine has just 1.2 GHz. This is easily the best machine I've used. Even though it is not meant for gaming, I can easily play Age of Mythology on it. I have been using this machine for a year now, and I it has been simply superb. I never have less than 10 windows open and it handles it just fine.
I use it to play AOE2 online as well as work on my CS stuff which involves a lot of simulations. I run eclipse on it and once it's loaded, it runs smoothly. Oh...and another thing...this is as light as you can get...just 2.5 pounds which means you can carry it around really easily. In fact the X41 is what I plan to get once I graduate and get a job.
Given the very similar configs of my machine and the X41, I'm pretty sure those will be able to do a lot more than just email and note taking.
Thinkpads rock
I have one of these machines. About a week after I got it, I lost the pen on a flight. That was an expensive mistake. If you ever lose the pen, you will find that:
a) It is difficult to find a replacement. You certainly won't find one on short notice. (I was unable to find any store in the Bay Area of California or in Pittsburgh PA that had them in stock.); and
b) They are EXPENSIVE! Replacement pens online cost at least $40.
Egads!
Toshiba and others have had this device on the market for years now. Why is it important that Lenovo has done this?
I have an x41 tablet and I've been using it for the past couple of months for school mostly. I think it's a great laptop: It's light weight, the batery lasts all day, and it works very well.
I used the finger print reader for a while, and it worked fairly well. but then I f'd windows so bad it BSOD'd during startup. The built in IBM software allowed me to back up my homework and then it reinstalled everything. I havnt gotten around to setting it back up since then though.
The keyboards just right. I have to admit that I don't use it as a tablet that often, but tablet form is handy when im standing around and have to hold it with one hand.
Oh, and Unreal Tournament 2004 gets mid 20's framerates at default settings (800x600). (I have 1.5 gb ram. It averaged around 20 with 512 mb ram.)
so, it's a little pricey, but its definately a good laptop.
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
"I know it makes websites not work."
You hit the nail on the head when you said that the biggest problem the Tablet PC has is software. But this brings up an interesting problem. Because there isn't a great deal of software available, sales of the platform have been lackluster... which means it's incredibly difficult to get any investment to create software for the platform. Rinse, lather, repeat.
:)
As our final project in our undergrad computer engineering program, my group developed a mathematical handwriting recognition app for the tablet pc. Basic idea: write a math equation in the window, our app turns it into an expression tree and sends it off to a computer algebra system. We got it developed to over 90% accuracy, and working far better than the only commercial product on the market, but we have had little to no interest in investment, purely because the market is so small. It's frustrating, since it's exactly the kind of app the platform needs to be successful.
As for development, it was a breeze. Free student copies of VS.NET and we were on off to the races. If only Microsoft were more generous with their investment $$$
And now, a blatant plug in the off chance some investor is reading: http://www.freestylesolve.com/
All IBM ThinkPads contain boobytrapped self destructing Trusted Computing chips inside. Chips designed to allow your computer to be secured AGAINST YOU. You are forbidden to know your master keys (PrivEK and RSK and certain kinds of lower keys) and denied the ability to read or alter your "secured" files except under control of the Trust chip (sealed storage), and the chip is designed to spy on and to be able to send a secure spy report (Remote Attestation) to other people over the internet revealing exactly what hardware you have and exactly what software you are running. You are forbidden to control or modify the contents of this spy report.
And in case anyone doubts this, well here's an IBM Thinkpad TV commercial advertizing the very fact that ThinkPads contain boobytrapped selfdestructing security chips. Sure protecting you against "hackers" attacking you is a good thing, but that is absolutely no justification to secure the computer AGAINST THE OWNER, no justification to deny the owner full control of his computer, no justification to deny the owner his master keys, no justification to deny the owner to use his master keys to unlock anything he wants to unlock and deny him the ability to control his security system at will.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.