Full Review

I have owned and/or used four ThinkPads in my career, after an abortive first attempt with an Acer waaaaaay back in the early 90s. From there, I've had a 760, 770, T21, and now a T30.

ThinkPads are simply classic in design and are the de facto standard for notebook computers in the office. No shiny metal, no silly wristrest "inserts" here. Instead, IBM focuses its efforts on the actual use of the computer, including the best notebook keyboard on the market.

ThinkPad service is also the absolute best in the market. Although I haven't had problems with this T30 at all, I have had occasion to use IBM service on previous ThinkPads, and it has always been stellar.

Because the T30 is so well packaged and performs so well, I'm reduced to nitpicking on some details, but... At this stage of the ThinkPad's life, you would think the two USB ports included on the unit would be USB 2.0, but they're not. Even worse, when you attach the optional port replicator, you find that the replicator "replicates" only one of the USB ports, so you lose one. This is just sloppiness on IBM's part, and I'm hopeful that a new port replicator is on the drawing board.

Also, you would think that for IBM's premiere ThinkPad, they would bite the bullet and move to a 15" screen, but we're stuck at 14" and 1024 x 768 resolution. (I wouldn't want higher resolution unless I also had a larger screen.)

But for speed, battery life, service, a good support website, and because it's black and cool :) , I continue to vote for ThinkPads.