A Pleasure To Use
Written: Mar 15 '01
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Pros: Light weight, overall design, reliability
Cons: Price
The Bottom Line: This is a winner.
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| ok33's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad T20 (264746U) PC Notebook |
The IBM T20 is one of the most satisfactory machines I have had the pleasure of using. I believe it has been superseded by the T21 which appears to be the same but with enhancements such as more hard disk space and a faster processor; the machines can be compared at www.ibm.com. (Warning: The IBM web site is surprisingly difficult to navigate; a call to 1-888-SHOP-IBM ext.7000 might be just as good an idea as visiting the web site.)
I bought the T20 model because it is light; I haven’t been disappointed. I think there is a big difference between 5 pounds and 8 pounds when you’re lugging it around.
I like the T20’s 14” screen size vs. the 12” screen size of most lightweight laptops. On a crowded plane, I sometimes wish the screen were a bit smaller but that is only a fraction of the time I use the computer. The clarity of the images and fonts on the screen is excellent; I prefer it to CRT monitors.
IBM has always been famous for the feel of its keyboards which, I suppose, grew out of its experience making the best typewriters years ago. The keyboard of the T20 is no exception, surprising for a laptop. It is a pleasure to type on, even for a hacker like me!
Connection to the Internet couldn’t be easier. There are jacks in the rear for phone and Ethernet cable. I use both and like not having a PCMCIA card with the cable sticking out the side. There are PCMCIA slots, of course, but I haven’t had a reason to use them yet.
Battery life is good but I’ve never seen it last over 3 hours at IBM would have you believe. I count on a good two hours of availability between charges.
A few extras seem to be more useful than I would have expected. There are volume control buttons that I use often. There is a tiny, bright light above the screen that illuminates the keyboard which comes in handy sometimes on a darkened plane. The snooze function kicks in automatically and quickly when you close the cover. The DVD drive plays movies but I have rarely used it for that. I used the infrared port to transfer a number of files to another laptop; it worked very quickly and easily.
The only disappointment is that I cannot use the scroll wheel on my mouse for some reason. The IBM TrackPoint, which is located in the middle of the keyboard, works very well and is excellent on a plane, for example, but I prefer a mouse otherwise and it would be nice to use its wheel.
It is a pleasure to use a device that is well designed, looks good and functions so well.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3400
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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Epinions.com ID:
ok33
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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