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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 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.
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
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.
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.
You backup all fingers in the reader in case you burn one, or cut it and the reader doesnt accept your finger anymore.
I've played with the T43 the fp reader is pretty good but frankly useless too because where i saw it used you could resort to typing a password in case something happened to all five of your fingers.
So security wise it's as useful as the most vulnerable part of the process, and most people might want to have a backup password in case something happens so it's as safe as the password is.
Coding projects blog - Code Slim
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.
The _Wacom_ 'stuff' is the same technology in many if not all tablet pc as the technology as the _Wacom_ graphics tablet digitizers. So in fact my shiny Wacom Graphire 3 Bluetooth graphics tablet has 512 pressure levels, twice as many as the tablet pc hardware http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/comparison.cfm
It's $250 for the graphire 3 bluetooth... $200 for a wired one... and that's a 6x8inch active area... a similar size to a 12" laptop screen.
I'm a user of an IBM x40 (which is extremely similar to the x41) with my graphics tablet and OneNote (and some alternatives as well).
If I were to own a mac my tablet would work perfectly with that. In addition to that OSX apparently has handwriting recognition built in, it's called InkWell IIRC.
The graphics tablets are just as good if not better than the tablet pc digitizers (depending on models). It doesn't cost 5k for a mac solution. The only technological advantage that the tablet pc digitizer has is that it has a 120Hz refresh rate as opposed to graphics tablets which are limited to the 40Hz of windows mouse drivers.
As an aside the IBM x40 (and presumable same for the x41) is a fantastic laptop. Insanely light and portable, with simply amazing battery life. I can get 8 hours when I'm thrifty, and still about 6 hours with bluetooth and/or wifi.
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
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
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.
Well, fortunately for you, this thing also has a STANDARD NOTEBOOK KEYBOARD that swivels out from behind the screen.
So really, they're not trying to FORCE you to do anything. Why complain, then?
I'm typing this on my tc4200 right now... and I've gotta say that I've fallen in love with this machine.
I use it both at work and at school (graduate degree... blah).. and it serves both purposes extremely well.
I personally selected the tc4200 over the x41 because it is _more_ of a desktop replacement+tablet than the x41 is. The 2Ghz PentiumM + 1GB of ram and a 7200 RPM hardrive upgrade make the tc4200 just as fast as most desktops. The only drawback being that you only have a 1024x768 screen, but a docking station and a good LCD screen solve that problem nicely.
I recommend that anyone in the market for a laptop take a serious look at the hp tc4200. You can find models starting at around $1300 if you shop around, making them not that much more expensive than a regular laptop and adding the tablet functionality to boot.
BTW... if you're going to get a tablet use Gobinder. Whether you are a professional or a student I find that it's note taking/organizing capabilities are beyond anything other offering (including one note).
Friedmud