[ltp] Buying a T41p

[Cameron McCormack]

Hi everyone.

I'm contemplating buying a notebook and at the top of my list is the
Thinkpad T41p.  From following this list for a short while it seems
like the Linux support for this model is quite reasonable.  I've got a
couple of questions before I commit myself, though.  (Sorry if some of
these aren't Linux specific.)

  1. How would the 1.7GHz Pentium M compare to, say, my desktop 2.4 GHz
     Pentium 4 machine?  At the moment I'm doing a lot of Java 2D
     graphics development work, and I don't want it to be much slower
     than my desktop.  I have read articles saying that the performance
     of Centrino machines with a given processor speed are comparable to
     P4s with a higher speed.  Is this correct?

  2. What is the VGA out and S-Video out quality like?  The notebook
     that was previously at the top of my list when I was investigating
     these things a few months ago was an Acer Travelmate 803, and there
     were reports of it having blurry VGA output.  I will probably be
     using the Thinkpad with an external monitor when at home, so I'd
     like to make sure that the image quality is good.

  3. Does anyone know (approximately) when the next model in this T
     series will be released?  I don't want to buy it and find out a few
     weeks later that the next model is available at the same price as
     the current top of the range model.

  4. For those of you running Linux on this model Thinkpad, could you
     give me a brief list of the things that don't work properly (if
     any)?

  5. Do IBM actually have any stores where I can have a play around with
     one of these notebooks before I actually buy it?  I haven't seen
     any Thinkpads in any stores that sell other notebooks.  (I'm in
     Melbourne, Australia.)

Thanks a lot,

Cameron

-- 
Cameron McCormack
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