Suppose You Won A Lottery for $3000: The Way You Waist It
Written: Mar 12 '01 (Updated Mar 18 '01)
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Pros: Light weight, nice display, powerful profile
Cons: Price, internal design problem, mismatch with some software with default settings.
The Bottom Line: Can you risk your precious $3000 with a decent notebook which has some problems?
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| uribou's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad T20 (264746U) PC Notebook |
As the title goes, let me assume you won a lottery. Also, let's assume you want to buy a very high-end light weight notebook especially by IBM. Then, you probably want to check out IBM Thinkpad T20. Otherwise....
I recently had a chance to try this notebook of one of my friends'. She was having a lot of problems with her IBM Thinkpad T20, and asked me to re-install everything for a couple of big dinners. The following opinion is based on the 3-day trial use during my maintenance of her computer.
First of all, to be fair, I have to state that probably her IBM Thinkpad T20 is from a bad lot. Looking at other reviews, I might have to admit this product is not that bad as I describe below.
Now, let me go to the details. I would like to divide my points into hardware part and software integration.
PROBLEMS WITH HARDWARE
The first thing I noticed with IBM Thinkpad T20 is that the hard drive part gets extremely hot even in a shot-time use. It is not a serious problem, but I didn't feel safe. Every one hour or so, I got an urge that I should shut down this computer, and let it rest for a while.
Maybe this is due to the following reasons. Even though I am not doing anything and am setting the screen saver to run after 30 min., the hard drive is constantly accessed, and the disc is running all the time. I am not very familiar with when and how the hard drive is accessed. But their should be something strange, because there should not be many reasons for the machine to read out the information from the hard drive.
Another thing, which is very serious, is due to its design. Long before I took care of this machine, my friend encountered a monitor problem, and send the machine back to the technical support. What turned out to be true was that the connector between monitor and the body was malfunctioning. The technical blamed my friend's rough treatment in opening and closing the lid. But if the connector gets damaged within two-month use by a female who paid whopping $3000, what seems to me very likely is that the problem is in the design itself.
PROBLEMS WITH SOFTWARE INTERFACE
Compared to other computers, this machine takes much longer time to boot and to shut down. This happened even after I re-installed the operating system, namely Windows Me.
You can solve this problem by keeping the machine in the stand-by mode. But in that case, as I stated above, you have to deal with the consistent high temperature.
Talking about the stand-by mode, this machine doesn't alert before it goes dark. This is not a big problem, but I would like this machine to be more user-friendly.
It seems to me this machine with the default setting has some mismatch with some major software. This often demands you to re-boot the machine. You can solve this mismatch by customization. However, considering the fact that not many people are willing to change the system settings with their own knowledge, I guess many new users will have a lot of problems.
OTHER COMMENTS
Now, let's face the major problem. IBM Thinkpad T20 costs you a lot of money. As I just checked the latest prices, the refurbished ones go from $1700, and the brand new ones go from $2500. The prevailing price for new one is somewhere around $3000.
(Note that you have to be very careful in choosing the store. Some stores are offering with a very low price tag, but they don't ship the product to you.)
If you are one of the richest people, you will be able to risk your $3000 easily for a decent notebook. But these days when the computers are very cheap compared to several years ago, there is less reasons to buy a high-end notebook at this price.
Moreover, if you have the extra $3000, you can buy one nice high-end desktop and one decent notebook. As a serious computer user, I don't understand why I should buy a very expensive notebook a monitor less friendly to your eyes.
FINAL REMARKS
If your IBM Thinkpad T20 comes from a good lot, it will make you happy. However this product seems to involve a lot of problems by default. So, I would rather not recommend you to risk your precious $3000 with IBM Thinkpad T20.
Of course, if you have earned $3000 as the fast buck, and if you are loyal to IBM, you can try IBM Thinkpad T20.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 3000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 601-700
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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uribou
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