Check out the Dell Store on CNET
- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Superb tablet PC with few drawbacks"
Pros: Lightweight; excellent screen, easy to configure and use, exceptional battery life
Cons: No internal CD RW, some issues with fingerprint reader
Summary: I've owned my X41 for 2 months now. It is the 5th ThinkPad I've owned (600, A21, T20, T43 and X41).
Pros: exceptionally lightweight and the extended battery provides a gripping surface that makes carrying and holding easy. The battery life I'm getting on the 8 hour battery is right at 6.5 hours, so I'm fairly happy as it will at least carry me across country on an airplane. The docking station works well and I can plug 4 USB devices in when docked.
The tablet features work very well. The screen is easy to write on; character recognition works very good; and even though it is a tablet screen, it is clear and crisp enough for every day use, including limited design work.
Cons: no built in CD, although the docking station holds a CD/DVD burner or other device. I with the docking station held a 2nd device such as the floppy drive.
I've had problems with the fingerprint reader since receiving the PC and it is being shipped to IBM next week for service. It works for logon, but not for websites and other biometric enabled services. Appears to be a software related issue more than hardware.
The PC has bluetooth, but since I don't use it I would like to turn it off, but have been unalble to do so, even in MSCONFIG.
Slightly small keyboard, especially BKSP key, takes some getting used to. I also miss the little light that other ThinkPads have integrated for lighting the keyboard.
Hard drive (4,200 rpm) is a little slow and startup is about 3-4 minutes).
Overall, I am pleased with this purchase. The light weight, coupled with the accessibility of the tablet makes for a good road worthy notebook. While I do miss the larger and clearer screen of the T20, I understand there are tradeoffs when moving to the tablet and of all the tablets I investigated, the Lenovo X41 had the most features I needed.
