IBM ThinkPad T30 is well "Thought' out

Author's Rating:

Pros: fast, reliable and professional notebook.

Cons: slightly more expensive than other makers models with similar config.

The Bottom Line: 
The IBM ThinkPad is a professional grade notebook that is fast and reliable. i would definitely recommend this notebook who requires a no nonsense laptop.

Author's Review
The IBM Thinkpad is well Thought out!

I have been a notebook user since the eighties. The mid-eighties? Yep. Does anyone remember the Apple IIc? It was state of the art with a 128k (not meg) of total memory. From this, I was able to play the infamous donkey kong game in monochrome green and had a word processor program that ran off a 5.25” floppy. It got me through my bachelor’s degree. Having no spell check for my papers was difficult but much easier than re-typing the whole thing out.

Flash forward another ten years to circa 1996 and I buy my next notebook for professional school. It was really expensive for a grad student since tuition fee went through the roof. I think it was $3600 for a Pentium 120 with an 800 meg hard drive and a 10.4” screen. It came with a smoking 14.4k modem. Now I was cooking with gas! This thing did everything. It had MS Word. Finally a word processor that could really do what it was supposed to!

Can you believe that I used the thing until last year? How so you ask with all the high memory thirsty images and programs nowadays? Zip disks! I had various zip disks for things. It became a norm and a way of life for me.

Now, last year I finally got a new notebook by HP. This was a real notebook. With 1.2Ghz processor and 30 gig hard drive, this thing just smoked everything that I had previously! I stored everything on it and had a lot of memory to spare. MP3’s, images, programs galore etc.

Unfortunately, this was stolen about a month ago and I was pretty upset because it had all my clinical pictures as well. In addition, this meant that I had to get another notebook. So, the research had to start all over for a new one since things change so quickly.

One of my friends recommended an IBM ThinkPad. I said ‘Nah, IBM is stodgy and way too conservative. It is overpriced for what you get when compared to other companies’. Well, as I went onto the website to look it over and was very impressed with what I saw. I looked at very others like HP, Compaq, Dell and Gateway. When I looked and compared the others one on one feature wise. Surprisingly, the IBM was just a little bit more. Again, I talked to my friend and he said that this slightly higher price was well worth it. He has owns both Dell and IBM notebooks. He said the Dell’s were reliable but felt that the IBM was a true professional machine. It has so many features that aid and protect it from daily use as a portable. Another friend of mine also has a ‘very old IBM ThinkPad’ and doesn’t like it because it never breaks and his company won’t get him a new one until it does. So he is just as rough as can be with it trying to ‘accidentally’ damage it. But so far, no such luck.

Okay. Two unsolicited testimonies prompted me to get one. I looked at their websites (on my wife’s computer. I have never owned a desktop. I just moved too much when I was a student and didn’t want to lug that huge a desktop all over the place every time.) I decided on the T30 loaded to the gills. It has a 2Ghz processor, 512 meg RAM, 60 gig hard drive, integrated BlueTooth (for my iPaq and Sony Ericsson phones, both having BlueTooth.), integrated Wi-Fi and a whole lot of other stuff I didn’t need.

When I received the boxes, I was like a kid at Christmas. I just ripped open the boxes and went ‘Whoohoo!’ Unfortunately, IBM shipped the additional 256 meg RAM separately that I had to install myself. Thank goodness I just finished treating a young patient and he showed me how to do it!

The options I got with it were a port replicator to use in the office and an IBM wireless gateway for high speed DSL home use. Both worked flawlessly as I will go into that later.

The ThinkPad has an elegant matte black (which I am told is a titanium/plastic composite). I talked with a sales rep and he said that while he was being introduced to the T30, the presenter stood on top of the notebook (closed) got off and then turned it on to have it work flawlessly.

The touchpad now offered on the T30 ThinkPad T30 was one of the major reasons I finally decided to get it. I never liked the feel of that 'red button' thing I had to move around though that is also included with the T30. It feels unnatural to me. Even my 6 year old laptop had a touch pad but I guess this is more of a preference.

The 14.1” screen is incredibly sharp (much clearer than the HP I had (which was decent but nothing like the IBM in clarity). The keyboard feel is fantastic. The soft clicks and the wonderful touch of the keys are incomparable to the other notebooks and desktops I have tried. It is just a pleasure to type on.

A cool feature is a light on top of the screen that you can turn on in low light conditions. I tried it one night when I couldn’t sleep and was beside my wife in the darkness of our bedroom. It lights up the keyboard just enough without disturbing my slumbering neighbor.

Attention to detail for the traveling professional is amazing. Such as this little air bladder on the bottom so that when you plop the down notebook it absorbs shock that might damage the hard drive and any other innards.

A really beneficial feature is the Wi-Fi. This allows me to walk around the house with my notebook running on battery power without being attached to a cord. In addition, the antennas as I was told are integrated into the sides of the screen. There is no PC card sticking out from the side of the notebook.

I have yet to fully get the BlueTooth working with my iPaq and Sony Ericsson. It is not as easy as I thought it would to get it working harmoniously. The world of BlueTooth still seems to have their share of problems. I got the Wi-Fi working effortlessly on my first try so I wouldn’t be surprised if everything was moving in that direction for the future.

The port replicator is great for the office because what I do every morning is take the ThinkPad out and plop it into the port replicator which connects to my personal printer and fax machine. In addition, it hooks into phone line (for dial-up service if I need it) and to a mouse. The port replicator is a great option for not having to hook all that stuff up each morning.

Reliability has been excellent. Since the ThinkPad runs on Windows XP Professional, I have not had any problems with crashes or lock-ups. With the HP that had the XP Home edition, I would have to re-boot the sometimes once a day. Yeah, I am used to Microsoft’s quirks.

Performance has been excellent. Processor speed for me has never really been an issue. I primarily use it for typing up letters and light photo imaging duties. Oh, and who can forget about surfing the net? What more could one ask for? The best, most up to date notebook linked wirelessly to the internet?

This review was not meant to be technical in nature. As with all my reviews, I write them with the intention of how practical something is for everyday real life. I do not bury myself underground with a vast array of testing equipment to see how the thing is to the nanometer.

The IBM ThinkPad T30 is a reliable, fast notebook loaded with features that are almost a luxury for today’s standards. I would recommend this to anyone who wants the ultimate in notebooks.

Take care!