I apologize for the downtime. Simcity 4 was playing with me yesterday. Teasing me in fact :)
The final notebook in this roundup is the IBM T42 2379-DXU. The one thing I can say about IBM is that their online stores are much less intuitive to navigate than they should be. In some ways I can understand, since I’m not their target market. Big institutional buyers are. So, without further ado – here are the specs:
Processor: Pentium-M 1.7 Ghz
L2 Cache: 2MB
Bus Speed: 400 MHz
RAM: 512MB DDR (333 MHz) 1 SODIMM
Display: 15″ SXGA+
Video: ATI Radeon 9600 (AGP 4X) w/ 64 MB VRAM
Hard Drive: 60 GB 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM 8x DVD (r) 24x CD-RW (w) 24x CD-R (w) 24x CD-R/RW (r)
Wireless: 802.11b/g + Bluetooth
Ports: Modem, 10/100/Gb ENet, 2 USB 2.0, 1 line in, headphone out, parallel, VGA, S-Video, 1 PC-Card slot (Type I/II/III), IrDA, internal mike
Input: Trackpoint + Trackpad
Casing: Magnesium alloy + CFRP
Weight: 5.8 lb
Dimensions (HxLxW) (1.4″ – 1.2″) x 13″ x 10.6″
Battery Life: 4 hrs
Price: 2402 USD + tax
Now that’s surprising. For a machine with extremely similar specifications to the Dell, the IBM is around 150 dollars cheaper! That’s a first.
Now, despite Paul’s experiences with the desktops the one thing I’ve heard about IBM laptops is that as a rule they’re rugged as heck and _will_ take a lot of abuse. Sure, they only make them in black and they’re ugly – but will they do the job. The answer is…yes.