Still on the fence regarding thinkpad buying decision

Hello again,

I have recently sold my old HP laptop because of heavy weight and short battery life.

I've been lurking this forum as well as the hardware one and have even asked a couple of questions.

So right now I have basically narrowed my decision down to the X series and T series.

Because of the high prices I have ruled out the x41 and t43.

The dealer I have had best contact with mainly has good prices on x40 with 512mb as standard and he has a couple of different T41s and T42s.


Now, as I don't want to go out and buy a new laptop just one year from now when Vista arrives (I probably have to change to that because of work and school systems) I need a machine that is able to run vista and general office applikations (MS Office, Internet, SPSS, SAS, Navision etc.) and preferably the new Office 12 that is to be released next year.

My main question is then if the x40 will cope with it if I add another 512mb module so it totals to 1 gig of ram?

if not then what is my best options?


thanks

 

Do you want an ultraportable or a normal one? That should be the key issue in deciding between the X and the T.

 

Well my old system was about 3KG and a 15". It was too big and too heavy.

My friend has a x31 and it seems fine in size. I just want to know if the x40 will cut it in the future for the above reasons.

 

Ups I forgot to add that I need built in bluetooth for my presentations at work.

 

Related to the X40 and Vista, this depends on your UI-visualisation demands, meaning that you would need for higher Vista Aero 3D-UI stuff a DirectX 9 capable GPU with lets say at least 128 MB GPU-RAM.

However, the X40 should be expected to work with Vista's usual UI-stuff (not the GPU-hungry Aero 3D mode) in a well behaving manner, just make sure you put in 1 or 1.5 GB of memory inside.

If you take a look over some of the Channel 9 videos, for example this one here where some features of Office 12 are presented...

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=114720

...you will see that the lady there uses a Dell X1 for the Office 12 stuff, which also doesn't have or offer much more power than a Thinkpad X40.

So for the usual things you plan to use the X40 for under Vista, it should be capable of doing what you suggested. - But if you want to make use of Vista's Aero 3D-UI you would probably need a Thinkpad which is capable to handle the higher needed GPU-resources for this, let's say a T43 with an X600 or something like this.

 

The first thing I did when I got windows xp was removing all the balloon colours and fancy menues. I like it NT style

I guess the x40 is enough for me then?

 

Well, you have to decide by your own what fulfils your needs and what you will finally buy.

If you want to know more about Windows Vista and mobile devices, before you make a decision, take a look over some of the MS Channel 9 video sections, there you will find some talks and demonstrations, blog references etc. about Vista + mobile themes.

For example, look over...

- Meet the new Mobile PC Team (new Tablet PC features too!)

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=124797

- Windows Sideshow Team - Auxiliary Displays (new laptop feature coming next year)

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=124797

- Partying with Bluetooth

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=113858

..and so on...

 

If you're looking at the X40, I would also look at the X32. It's basically an X31 with faster CPUs. The only problem is that the GPU is VERY weak. However, it's more powerful than the one in the X40...

 

The x32 might be a good option. It offers a regular Dothan Pentium M and regular hard drive for much better performance. Bluetooth is offered on mid to higher level models.

 

I wonder if my dealer has any x32 at a decent price level