IBM's Sonoma-ish ThinkPad T43
posted January 19th 2005 10:42AM
Hey, we did promise a lot of news today about Sonoma, Intel's next-generation Centrino chipset, didn't we? IBM obviously had this one under development way before they sold their PC division to Lenovo, but you can add their new ThinkPad T43 to the growing list of Sonoma-powered laptops (other members of the Sonoma club: Sony, BenQ, Dell, Acer, Samsung, and Toshiba). You won't actually be able to buy it until March, but the specs on the T43 are almost tight enough to overcome any wariness you might have over the big changeover: it's got a 14.1-inch LCD screen, up to 2GB of DDR2 533MHz RAM, up to an 80GB hard drive, built-in biometric fingerprint scanner (for extra security), integrated 802.11a/b/g WiFi, and the option of using either Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator 900, ATI's RADEON X300, or ATI's Mobility FireGL V3200 graphics cards. And like its predecessor the T42, the T43 also weighs just 4.5 pounds and is a mere one inch thick.
I'm not too hip on ati mobile workstation cards. How powerful is the firegl v3200, and how doew it compare with consumer mobile cards?
Wait... didnt IBM sell the thinkpad line a few months back? how are there new thinkpads being released?
IBM also sold the Thinkpad name, so now that Chinese company can sell "IBM Thinkpads".
All these new features are nice. But does it have a windows key? I still don't get why IBM doesn't have it in their thinkpads.
The windows key has got to be the most useless thing in all of computing. One of the reasons I buy thinkpads is the lack of windows key. It leaves more room for the keys I actually find *useful*
I especially like the Stopzilla ad that opens up when you click the "read" link. I am using Firefox and this is the ONLY ad that consistantly opens without my permission.
How idiotic is it to advertise a "adware and pop-up stopper" by doing just that? Anyone that would fall for this app has got a screw loose.
Do you see this coming out on the IBM x-40 line? I was ready to buy an x40 but now I don't know.
How come IBM can't ship a high end ATI mobility chipset in their T series... Jesus put an X700 in it and it would be perfect...
Too bad it doesn't run OS X. :(
re comment #7:
The T series is supposed to be for mobile corporate users. If you want a IBM Thinkpad with a high end graphics card, you are probably better off looking at the R series.
"The windows key has got to be the most useless"
Until you start using the shortcuts that are tied to the Windows key. W and Pause/Break is my second fav to W-E that brings up a quick instance of File Explorer. Or W-R for the Run Diag. W-F to bring up the search diag. W-M to min all windows. SHIFT-W-M to restore your min windows. But you are right. Useless. At least for those who are clueless on its capabilities.
The T43p will probably have a high-end graphics chip.
Jonathan N,
that's why IBM ship their notebooks with a keyboard mapping facility. I have the AltGr key mapped to the Windows key.
Thinkpad keyboards *rock*. The ability to easily get a UK-layout keyboard for a Thinkpad in the US rocks too. :¬)
I agree with needing a windows key. Currently on my T41 I use the right alt key as a windows key. I don't think I've ever used the right Alt key for anything in my entire life, so I'm not that bugged out by it.
Great, but could they make it any uglier? (yeesh)
nice that it's an IBM laptop that is *small* AND has a real life trackpad on it. i loath those Thinkpads that they used to make with the G-H clitpointer *only*. so lame.
"Great, but could they make it any uglier? (yeesh)"
You're new to Thinkpads, I guess. This is what they've *always* looked like, and some people *like* the fact that they look like this. Pictures don't really do them justice anyway.
I used to love whipping out my Thinkpad whenever I'd see an iBook user sitting there and pretentiously sipping his half-caf latte at Starbucks or whatever. That sissy little girly-laptop of an iBook and its sissy little girly-man of an owner would almost visibly flinch from the manly black business-like seriousness of my Thinkpad. (Please note that this is said tongue in cheek. I almost bought an iBook myself last time I was shopping for a laptop, but I stuck with a PC - though not a Thinkpad this time - because of performance vs. cost.) The Thinkpad has always meant business, not little frilly bits of "i"-anything.
Now, as for the Windows key, chalk me up as another vote for "useless". And that debate ends right now, because my vote is final. Never used it, never had call to use it, guarantee I type and get things done faster than any of you. Call me arrogant, I don't care; truth is truth. If I don't need the Windows key, nobody does. Only thing it's ever done is slow me down when I've hit it by mistake. (My home PC has a real keyboard - an IBM Model M - so I don't need to worry about it. But the adjustment to my laptop still takes a few minutes each time I go back and forth.)
10, 7, i've got a T42p with a 15" 1600x1200 screen that's pumped by a fireGL card. it is very nice & handles 3D rendering great. thinkpads are really serious machines, they're built tough to last and perform well. i hope that the thinkpad or ibm name doesn't get trashed by selling it off to lenovo and that the quality stays top notch.
remap keys if you must or get a griffin powermate and set that to do your dirty "windows key" work for you. i've been doin fine without that key, though i've always wished that the thinkpads had a ctrl key at the lower left as opposed to that durn Fn key that i keep hitting...
The lack of a Windows key goes waaaaay back to the OS wars of the early-mid 90s. The ghost of OS/2 still walks the halls at IBM, and there's no way in hell IBM's going to put a permanent Windows logo on anything they sell. (You can peel off the dorky Designed for Windows sticker easily enough)
My T41p (two Centrino generations ago) has an ATI FireGL T2, basically a 128MB R9600 with enhanced OpenGL drivers.
"Until you start using the shortcuts that are tied to the Windows key. W and Pause/Break is my second fav to W-E that brings up a quick instance of File Explorer. Or W-R for the Run Diag. W-F to bring up the search diag. W-M to min all windows. SHIFT-W-M to restore your min windows."
Yeah, i find the lack of the Windows key a big pissoff too, as i'm a keyboard person as well. Luckily, while at work, i connect my T41 to the docking station, and use a normal keyboard that does contain a Windows key. Oh, an W-L also locks the computer.
Another trick that works for me very well is assigning shortcut keys to applications. I've assigned short keys like ctrl+shift+w for Word, ctrl+shift+. for VS.NET, ctrl+shift+X for Excel and so on. This way, i just use the shortcuts whenever i have to launch an application instead of risking CTS by using the laptop pointing devices.
There is a windows key, you simply need to configure it. The Right alt key can be made to act as a windows key with all the associated win + (D, M, R, etc) functions while also working as an alt key in most programs. That's how I have mine setup, works perfectly and there's no wasted keyboard realestate.
Mine is a t42, like the others I wish it came with a more substantial video card, but it is sufficient for what it is, a corporate machine that is better designed and uses superior components relative to all compeditors. The cost is higher than Dells, Toshibas, or Vaio, but with a studend discout the price is just right for the quality you get. Battery life is incredible (4.5+ hours with regular use) and the weight is minimal give the screen size (about 4.5 lbs). I still believe it's the best trade off between size, weight, quality, cost (as a student with a discount), battery life, and support. With the Sonoma (hey, I'm from Sonoma, CA, yip!) processor they may squeeze some more battery life and increased speed out of this already excellent product line.
As for production, this was in the works before the take over and the design team is supposedly going to remain the same plus some additional staff. Why change a good thing? It's part of the purchase and I think it was cNet who reported that when asked a design or production team member from the thinkpad division said he never felt more secure in his career at IBM. But who knows. Support is what I worry about diminishing, but after a couple calls in the past few weeks it's remained excellent. I'm not afraid to buy IBM again, but I won't be in the market for a couple more years since my t42 is still fresh by my standards (7 months old).
what I really want to know the most, is how well games will run on that FireGL V3200, and what other "normal gaming" graphics card it would compare to.
The lack of Windows key is the primary reason why I haven't switched to Thinkpad yet (the other one being the F1-F12 keys shifted to the left and Esc relocated one row higher).
The AltGr recommendation is great but useless to the non-english users (real world is not a Star Trek world ;-). In my case, I would lose @£$€{[]} symbols (scandic keyboard).
The backslash is extremely important symbol: my most common keyboard usage pattern would be Win+R to bring up the Run dialog box and type \servershare. I would switch to English but I can't even write my own name then without using Alt and keypad number combinations.
I once asked a Thinkpad user to demonstrate how he would do those things. First, he grabbed his mouse but then I explained that I need it to be faster and requiring less focusing than guiding the pointer and clicking. So we tried the obvious first: Ctrl+Esc, RR{ENTER} (two R's because Remote Desktop Connection had appeared to recently used applications list). Hmm... Too long... Removed the Remote Desktop. Ctrl+Esc,R. OK, faster now but still requiring moving your hand or using your other hand for pressing R. Plus, the F1 is what gets pressed when in a hurry. Then we tried mapping Ctrl to Win key but Ctrl stopped working completely after that and e.g. I couldn't use align center (Ctrl+E) in Word. AltGr couldn't be used for the reason explained above.
I have seen lots of other users with the same complaints (users missing Winkey shortcuts and users annoyed at the F1 key being where Esc is supposed to be). Why IBM leaves money to the competition by not making Winkey and normal Esc key version keyboards is beyond me. "Call me arrogant, I don't care; truth is truth. If I don't need the Windows key, nobody does." Perhaps this quote expresses IBM's point of view also. If that's so, then I would call them a bunch of assholes!
Hey, all you people crying about the lack of a Windows key, what's a Linux user to say when he/she has _absolutely_ no need of a Win logo on his/her machine. Sure, I can map it to something useful in Linux too, but what the hey, it makes my otherwise sexy laptop look wimpy.
IBM is great in that way and doesn't try and make their laptops OS biased, unlike other manufacturers.
Btw, ThinkPads rock! (Though I do agree that Macs are also fairly cool these days, esp. w/ OS X Tiger)
> that's why IBM ship their notebooks with a
> keyboard mapping facility. I have the AltGr
> key mapped to the Windows key.
Until you work on a belgian keyboard, then you require alt-gr for |@#^{}[]´`~.
Why isn't it possible to map the useless IBM key to the windows key. I don't need the windows logo on what could be the OS key. But when using windows I'm lost without the windows key.
OK so there isn't a Microsoft key but why isn't there an IBM key?