Category: (CE)
1 used, starting at $279.00
The notebook is very sturdily and handsomely constructed, if rather utilitarian-looking on the outside compared to some offerings from other companies, and it's the first Thinkpad to offer a touchpad in addition to its famous "eraserhead" pointing device. The power button is well-placed on the keyboard itself rather than on the side as in earlier Thinkpads, which prevents awkward accidents with the machine switching on and draining the battery inadvertently. The various ports are well-arranged. Please note that the floppy drive on this model is a separate expansion unit which must be installed into the UltraBay; it's up to you whether you want to purchase one, since floppies really are pretty much obsolete these days with flash drives getting so cheap. The 14.1" screen is not as big as some other companies' models but delivers clear, crisp pictures. All in all, highly recommended for somebody who needs a high-powered laptop without wanting to pay a premium price for a new machine with the still-teething Windows Vista.
Great LaptopReviewed by Mandee Burt, 2008-11-11
I have owned and used the IBM Thinkpad over the years. Definately
one of the best laptops I've used. I would recommend it to
anyone.
Mandee Burt
Bruma's Gift shop
www.brumasgiftshop.com
Avoid IBM Laptops T30 & T41 and any IBMs for that matter.Reviewed by Trillum, 2008-11-10
Purchased both of these and had these for less than two years. Paid
600.00 for the T41 and 400.00 for the T30 at Budget Computers in
Portland Oregon a big reseller of these. Well we are now finding
out that there is a design flaw in these. Apparently the newer IBMs
have a cage around the video card to prevent these heavy laptops
from shearing the video card from the motherboard if you pick it up
with one hand. But even with the new cages it can shear off from
what I am told. Both of the IBM laptop video cards are failing. IBM
won't recall these or repair these. IBM was bought out by company
in Hong Kong and from what I can tell on the internet the products
are not good and IT managers are finding out the hard way just as I
have. But the fact that they changed the design pretty much admits
to the poor design. Budget Computer plays dumb and says if they
knew about the defect they wouldn't have sold it to us. But at the
time we were in for another issue on one of them two days before
the warranty expired they had kind of mentioned it under their
breath saying they hoped this one was ok. So they knew. I guess
someone is suing them right now. The did offer to take 200.00 off
and sell us another IBM T42 or R51 for another 300.00. They omitted
the part that some of the T42s still have the same poorly designed
motherboards as the T41. Will never buy again from Budget Computer
nor IBM. I had done all my home work and everyone said IBM made
these stout laptops but I do not consider it a good investment by
any means. All I can say is that it is timed obsolesence or lazy
product development. Resellers like Budget Computer makes me want
to avoid middle man altogether. I would not by another refurbished
laptop from reseller again. Budget also ghosts the software onto
the machines and never provides software disks and it is far better
to have the software to fix issues. Always get the disks for
software for your machine. You are not getting a deal at Budget. I
even emailed the CEO of IBM and never heard from them. IBM even has
a 1-800 complaint line separate from customer service, if that is
not telling I don't know what is. The complaint line takes you to
India from the sounds of it. The customer support and tech support
in Georgia was not that good either. They kept transfering me
endlessly. I was so disappointed at their customer support and they
were poorly trained. I wish I could find a laptop that really hold
us to being moved around. Panasonic makes these supposidly tougher
ones but they want 3K! Can't anyone make a 600.00 laptop that is
light enough and tough enough that it doesn't bend the motherboard
under normal use?
IBM computers suckReviewed by Deimos, 2008-05-09
I have owned IBM pc's and laptops before and they have all been cheeply made and didn't perform. Neither does this.
Continuing IBM's fine Thinkpad traditionReviewed by Joseph A. Admire, 2007-04-27
I just last weekend bought this product refurbished, but I've
already had enough experience with it to know that I'm retiring my
old Thinkpad 600e (with profuse thanks, as that other IBM product
has rendered yeoman service for the last 3+ years) and making this
my main backup computer (if that makes sense - I mean that it's the
computer I will be using when I'm not in front of my Sempron
2800+-based home-built). About the only real faults I can find with
the T30 are that there are no USB 2.0 ports integrated into the
machine (you need to buy a PC Card for that, but they're easy to
get and fairly cheap and will literally plug-and-play install with
Windows XP) and that the factory-install 40GB hard drive is a bit
too small and, at 4200 RPM, a bit slow for modern purposes.
However, any good modern HD with a capacity of 60GB to 80GB should
suffice to upgrade this part. Optical drives and RAM expansion
modules for this model are readily available, as are batteries;
I've already oomphed up my T30 by boosting the RAM to 1GB, which
causes the Windows XP Pro SP2 installed on this machine to run very
smoothly indeed, and putting in an 8X DVD+/- writer (I am intending
to find a lightweight, portable scanner and a USB 2.0 hard drive
next). I really like the integrated wireless; for the first time in
my computing career (and I'm admittedly rather late coming to this
point) I really am experiencing the power of Internet mobility. The
notebook is very sturdily and handsomely constructed, if rather
utilitarian-looking on the outside compared to some offerings from
other companies, and it's the first Thinkpad to offer a touchpad in
addition to its famous "eraserhead" pointing device. The power
button is well-placed on the keyboard itself rather than on the
side as in earlier Thinkpads, which prevents awkward accidents with
the machine switching on and draining the battery inadvertently.
The various ports are well-arranged. Please note that the floppy
drive on this model is a separate expansion unit which must be
installed into the UltraBay; it's up to you whether you want to
purchase one, since floppies really are pretty much obsolete these
days with flash drives getting so cheap. The 14.1" screen is not as
big as some other companies' models but delivers clear, crisp
pictures. All in all, highly recommended for somebody who needs a
high-powered laptop without wanting to pay a premium price for a
new machine with the still-teething Windows Vista.
EDIT: After nine months of using this laptop, there are several
issues that have come up. None of them is a showstopper, but taken
together, they'd probably take the overall rating down by half a
star - still very good at 4.5 stars, but not quite as overwhelming
as I had earlier deemed it.
1) The Thinkpad T30 has a rather notorious problem with its RAM
slots, in which the bottom slot often works intermittently or not
at all. Depending on how much RAM you need, the impact can range
from negligible to major, and is almost always frustrating because
it cuts your total amount of RAM by half. In my case, this means
that what should be 1 GB of RAM is actually 512 MB RAM - not
inadequate for Windows XP Pro, by any means, particularly for the
business purposes to which the Thinkpad series is usually put - but
annoying. There are several workarounds for this problem, ranging
from the field-expedient of inserting a folded piece of paper over
the problem RAM slot (this is said to hold down the DIMM enough to
make it contact properly) to outright replacement of the
motherboard with a properly working unit.
2) The LCD front bezel is rather flimsy. It cracked at the left
front catch back in the late summer, making the unit a bit
difficult to open. I haven't had the opportunity to get this fixed
yet, but it's actually a fairly simple matter of getting a new
front bezel - replacement parts are readily available through eBay
and other sources.
3) Make sure, as I indicated earlier, that you get a proper USB 2.0
PC Card for this unit, particularly one that has a power adapter.
You'll need it to run an external hard drive such as the Seagate
FreeAgent Go, which doesn't have an AC adapter of its own.
Still very highly recommended, but do be aware of the potential
pitfalls. Also be aware that at this point, warranty has very
likely expired on any of this particular model you find, so you'll
need to know a local computer shop that has good repair rates if
something goes seriously wrong.
