[ltp] Buying a T41p

[Aaron Mulder]

On Sat, 27 Mar 2004, Cameron McCormack wrote:
> 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?

	On some Java compile/build benchmarks I did, I got the following:

Test #1:
   Laptop P4-M/1.8: 23s  (T30)
   Desktop P4/2.4:  17s  (800 MHz bus)
   Laptop P-M/1.6:  15s  (T40p)

Test #2 (including much code signing and other nonsense):
   Laptop P4-M/1.8: 2m 35s
   Desktop P4/2.4:  2m 11s
   Laptop P-M/1.6:  1m 53s

>   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.

	(On the T40p)  Never tried the S-Video out.  The VGA seems fine
for a projector or CRT.  VGA->LCD may be good or bad, depending on the
monitor.  Using the port replicator with DVI output, an LCD looks
excellent (but may or may not work at 1600x1200).

>   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.

	Well, Intel's releasing the next Pentium-M chip during the week of 
May 10.  Your guess is as good as mine as to when IBM will release a 
machine around it.  It took kind of a long time to get a 1.7 chip out the 
door, but there was probably less urgency since it was a fairly minor chip 
upgrade.

>   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)?

	The only hardware I haven't tried with the T40p is the bluetooth
and modem.  All the other hardware works fine for me on SuSE 9.  I haven't 
tried the a/b/g wireless, but the a/b works fine, and I think the same 
driver supports both.

>   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.)

	I've never seen one, but I've never been to Melbourne, either.

	Finally, note that if you order direct from IBM.com, it seems that
you can get a T41 loaded for about $2400 if you "let me build it" -- all
the same stats as the T41p except it would have the 32MB graphics card and
cost like $500 less.  Again, not sure if this helps you in AU.

Aaron