Lenovo ThinkPad T43 user reviews (Pentium M 1.6 GHz, 30 GB HDD)

Pros Keyboard. Screen. Rock solid. The perfect business travel system.

Cons None worth mentioning

Summary I've been buying (and using) portable computers for 20 years. At one time, I was upgrading every six months. I bought a T20 close to 5 years and never found a compelling reason (speed aside) to update. The T43 seemed compelling on paper. After three days of hard use, I'm absolutely satisfied. All the great design that made the T20 great but all the new toys. The wireless connection is great. Superb screen. Lighter, more compact and better battery life. This is the unit for business travelers who don't want compromise.

Pros Light weight, durability, well built components, bio key pad, light on monitor for travelers

Cons price, but it is not for your average user

Summary I have had about 8 laptops in the last 3 years and every one of my favorites has been an IBM. I have had many Dell latitudes, a HP zd7000, an IBM T42, etc... and must say for a business work computer with critical data I prefer the IBM. The keyboard does not give out like the cheap dell ones do in about a 1 year time frame assuming you are on your laptop 40 hrs a week or more.

The light on the screen is a nice feature for those that travel a lot especially on trains. The new bio key pad also is a nice feature that saves time on password entry.

Keep in mind this laptop really is not for a casual home user but a business user who is concerned with reliability(much higher then dell and HP from my personal experience), battery life and performance.

My HP zd7000 has a 3.2 Pentium 4 Hyper thread processor that runs very hot and loud and basically sits on my desk at home. I must say I preferred my T42 over my zd7000 due to the noise and thought the T42 with a 1.6M processor ran as fast if not faster at a lower noise and temp. The 1.8 t43 in my opinion, when doing intensive development work runs faster, longer, and quieter. This is a no brainer in my opinion unless price is a real concern then go with a dell get the extended onsite warranty because you will need it and be willing to put up with poorer quality.

As far as the screen size and keyboard goes I use a docking station and LCD's are cheap enough screen size is not an issue, and when traveling I want the smaller size.

Would have given this product a 10 if the price was not so high, but hey if you are buying it on a company budget what is an extra few hundred when you are talking about an employee who costs 45-100 an hour to make them happy and more productive? If you have a keyboard issue and they are not working 1 day you just lost your savings, and this will happen with dell.

Pros I received my thinkpad T43 on Friday (02/18). Amazing piece of equipment. Very fast, reliable, keyboard is great, fast memory, fast PCI-express architecture. Have been workin with it till today and i like it a lot. No doubt IBM thinkpads are the best

Cons LCD Screen could be a little better both with respect to quality and screen resolution

Pros Thin & Light Amazing Battery life with the optional larger battery. Have you ever taken apart an IBM laptop? if you have you will know why the T43 is so expensive compared to the "cough" comperable Dell D600, Magnesium vs Plastic, well engineered vs s

Cons Yes it is expensive.