Touch the Future Now at Staples
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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"good for business, programmer , but screen not as good as HP widescreen"
Pros: solid, good performance
Cons: multimedia function
Summary: I work for software company, and have owned more than 10 laptops so far, from old IBM Rx, Compaq Presario, Toshiba tecra M2, ASUS, Acer....honestly, I was always seduced by Compaq fancy stuff : such as widescreen, JBL audios....but Compaq always have some problems. Think about it , I have purchased more than 5 IBM before, honestly, I am bored with its "traditional" black cover for more than 12 years....My previous one is a Presario 800 ( a 3 years old machine...) Its fan keeps kicking in, and you simply see your machine going slower and slower..... I also purchased a Toshiba M2 for my customer Q1 this year, it is around 2500 dollars, but not any faster than the 1400 dollars T43 I just got this afternoon.....And I already accidentally scratched on M2 surface ( silver painted...). Forgive me, I am not a rude person, all my 2 other old IBM still do not have any scratch on their black ABS cover.....
wireless connection is also far better than M2, although both have Centrino... maybe because IBM's antenna is better...
I have been play with T43 for over 2 hours, and I did not hear any fan kicking in yet.and seems not warm at all. my previous 3 year old IBM is much warmer, but never hang because of overheat. forget about my presario 800 as described above, hangs all the time due to overheat, and fan keeps going on... M2 is good in this area, but its fan does sometimes still kick in very loudly, but it only goes for probably less than 10 seconds....
there is indeed one thing I need to complaint a bit. the multimedia function is much weaker than Compaq such as DV1000 or V2000. They both have bright view widescreen, very good if you watch DVD. I actually almost purchased Dv1000 this afternoon in a computer store... But after playing with browsers, I gave up. The widescreen (16:10) is only able to see about 2/3 of the entire width. the right 1/3 is blank.... I tried to adjust the resolution, but still no luck.... I guessed I might have more problems if I want to do powerpoint, word, or some coding on it....
so how about HP nc6000 or nc4200? I did not try too much on these HP "business" laptops, but their keyboard and case give me a very cheap feeling, and the user rating seems to be quite low although many editors give ncxxxx high ratings??
Anyway, I purchase this one mainly for business and programming, so I did not want to take a risk. I still chose T43, and although I only played it for a few hours, I can already feel its performance if fast , stable, and not hot at all....I would still choose T43 even if M2 price goes down to 1400....Updated
I have just found out another inconveniet thing: no recovery CD and OS CD provided! Instead you need to go to start->access IBM->create recovery CD! There is pros and cons for this approach. If you did not notice this until your HD fail, you got serious problem, you are not even to restore the entire system, and you even need to get a copy of XP or 2000 CD, and then need another computer to download drivers!!! but if you do notice it, it can be handy because it allows you not only restore OS but also your own data....But I would really strongly suggest IBM to give restore CD, it can save many people a lot of troubles, especially for this kind of "top of the line" products!!! But overall, I still give it 9 points!
- 1 reply to this review
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This is my 4th IBM Laptop all T series. T40, T41, T42, T43. Part of the reason I did'nt mind paying the premium in price for IBM brand was service and availability. Well no longer that's even acceptable. I had a T42 and was working pretty nicely till one day the screen went bad called in IBM they asked me to ship it out to a IBM Depot. I did it and it's been 30 days since they have my laptop but they dont know when it will be fixed because the screen is not available (amazing they have same screen for their new laptops but not for a repair, so much for a warranty) i opened a complaint ticket and it's assigned to a representative who dosent know what to do
Well I thought it's just bad luck i bought another laptop (my mistake) i bought a T43 this time. And after 3 days my laptop wont start now i am again on phone with IBM service support and they want to repair the laptop (and they want me to send it in back to Depot) well are'nt they supposed to replace it if it's < 30 days old ? Well i dont see the reason to go with IBM anymore... Their service sucks big time now....
