Looking at buying X30 or X31, help and advices appreciated

Soo, as some might know I'm here in Japan with my trusty R52 which I use on a daily basis and carry with me here and there every now and then, though lately it's mostly been sitting nicely in my dock on my desk. Usage prolly ranges around 10 hours a day or so (doing research).

Anyway, here the used market's quite large, especially in the smaller mobile laptop segment (considering this is japan...) and i figure i could score myself one of the mobile thinkpad babies while i've got the chance (want a japanese laptop with a japanese OS to boot). I've been reading a whole bunch of reviews and from what I can see the X30 and X31 are two very competent laptops. HOWEVER, i've also looked at the X40 but it looks like a smaller, more underpowered version of the 31 with some of the newer stuff in it, correct?

Usage would be open office, lotus notes, mp3's, videos (mkv, avi, dvd images, whatever gets the time flowing during commuting. I don't do much gaming, nothing at all actually, though I do multitask and keep lots of software loaded (idle around 550 - 600mb of ram usage on this computer, WXP).

SOoo, what's the pros and cons as far as X30 <->X31 goes? How slow is the 1ghz P3M for instance? Would it be better to just go for the X31. Ohh yeah. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR when it comes to used X30/31's? I've noticed that many of them have a crack just next to the right hinge for instance.

Well, just about any information would be of great help here.
Thanks!

Ohh btw, if you've got any thoughts on other brands like those small Panasonic ones etc etc feel free to speak up

 

I bought a used X30 on Ebay and after using it for half a year, it's still running great. There's a crack on the right bezel near the hinge though.

The X30 and X31 are two very different animals. The X30 has a Pentium III mobile processor and an optional 802.11b wireless card I believe. Mine didn't come with wireless so I bought a PCMCIA 3Com A/B/G wireless card. If I still remember from researching the differences between the two models, the X31 uses the first generation Centrino platform. This mean it has a Pentium M processor (much more efficient than P3-Mobile), a built in Intel 802.11b wireless network card, and an Intel Centrino chipset (I forgot the model number).

The X40 is slightly lighter than the X30/31 but it uses a slower 2.5'' Hard drive. The 2.5'' hard drive isn't that great because of its small capacity and slow speeds. It's also more expensive to buy.

I bought my X30 for around $300 used on Ebay. The X31 will probably go for about $400-500. As you can tell, for that price, you can already buy a new laptop at Walmart or Office Max. This just shows you that Thinkpads generally don't depreciate as fast as their competitors.

If I were you, I'd try to save up for a X31 because of the Pentium M processor. Also, you should have at least 512MB of RAM on it.

 

Since they are both used, it's mainly about price. If they are close you might as well get the better specs. None of the things you are doing require a lot of CPU power. A 1GHz CPU is still pretty good for office and internet. Memory and hard drive will also play a role in system performance.

 

Alright thanks guys! I'll be on the lookout for a good X31 or a top loaded X30 to snatch in a not to distant future then.I'll come back with info once i've gotten one.

 

X30 has USB 1.1 and X31 has USB 2.0..........there is a world of difference, I have an X30.

 

Ahh alright, indeed I'd forgotten about the USB stuff. Alright, an X31 it is.
Head's up. This is indeed a great forum!