ThinkPad T review: ThinkPad T

Styled in IBM's traditional, no-nonsense black, the ThinkPad T41 series measures a svelte 12 inches wide by 10 inches deep by 1 inch thick and weighs only 5.88 pounds with its removable 7-ounce optical drive and AC adapter--standard size for top-notch thin-and-lights. The notebook also runs cool to the touch, even while playing DVDs, so you can compute on your lap for hours without singeing your trousers.

Our test notebook's 14.1-inch, 1,400x1,050 native-resolution display produced crisp, sharp images, but you may need to increase the size of desktop icons in order to see them easily at this default setting. Even so, the ThinkPad T41 series excels at ergonomics. IBM's ultracrisp keyboard, with full-size keys, is as impressive as past IBM keyboards, as is the tiny screen-bezel-mounted light for illumination in dark rooms or planes.

Earlier this year, IBM doubled its input options, augmenting its standard pointing stick with a responsive touchpad that sports dual sets of buttons mounted both above and below the touchpad. The ThinkPad T41 series' sound is also good for a thin-and-light; it's loud, though lacking in bass.

The standard array of connections line the edges: audio in/out jacks, Gigabit Ethernet and v.92 modem ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a mouse connector and a PC Card slot on the left side; VGA output on the right; and parallel and AC jacks in the back. The right edge hosts a media bay called the Ultrabay Slim, which accepts a second battery or hard drive; our test unit's came filled with a CD-RW/DVD combo drive.

The ThinkPad T41 series also features IBM's Security Subsystem 2.0 with both BIOS-level and software components to make these notebooks some of the most secure in the industry. And now a new jewel has been added to the security crown: the patent-pending Active Protection System, which shuts down the hard drive when it senses rapid acceleration to prevent damage before a violent impact occurs. In our drop tests, the hard drive did indeed shut down briefly, but it returned to normal use in a few seconds.

The ThinkPad T41 series comes in a variety of configurations priced from $1,649 to $3,729. The configurations offer Pentium M CPUs from 1.4GHz to 1.7GHz, hard drives from 30GB to 60GB, and from 256MB to 2GB of memory. The 14.1-inch display comes in two native resolutions--1,400x1,050 and 1,024x768--each driven by your choice of the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 or the faster Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics card. Each of these cards sports 32MB of dedicated graphics memory. That's not a screaming graphics setup, but it's enough for business users.

Several battery options are also available: a $159, six-cell 4.4AH unit; a slightly heavier but longer-lasting $179, nine-cell 6.6AH model; and a $189 auxiliary battery that fits in the media bay.

We like ThinkPad T41's built-in 802.11a/b/g antenna, which works in conjunction with several different wireless radios: Cisco or Intel 802.11b, Altheros 802.11a/b, or Altheros 802.11a/b/g. The ThinkPad T41 series comes preloaded with the Windows XP Pro operating system and includes Adobe Acrobat Reader, Stomp RecordNow for burning CDs, InterVideo WinDVD (for models with DVD drives), Norton AntiVirus 2003, PC-Doctor, and the ThinkPad Utilities.

Our ThinkPad T41 test unit's performance landed it near the top of the heap for 1.6GHz Pentium M notebooks; it scored just one point lower than Dell's Latitude D600--a notebook that shares many of the same specs. The IBM scored seven points higher than the Gateway 200, although you'd hardly notice a performance difference in real-world use. All in all, IBM's latest thin-and-light demonstrates excellent mobile performance, and it will have no problem running office and content-creation apps while unplugged.

Mobile application performance

Dell Latitude D600 176 IBM ThinkPad T41 175 Gateway 200 169

Performance analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.

Find out more about how we test notebooks.

System configurations:

Dell Latitude D600
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5,400rpm

Gateway 200
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM Extreme Graphics (up to 64MB); Toshiba MK6022GAX 60GB 5,400rpm

IBM ThinkPad T41
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

The ThinkPad T41 series achieves impressive battery life, especially considering its high performance score. With its standard 10.8V, 4,400mAh (48WHr) battery, it lasted nearly four hours--more than long enough to best the Gateway 200, whose weaker 11.1V, 2,200mAh (24WHr) battery didnÂ't last even two hours. However, the ThinkPad met its match in Dell's Latitude D600, which sports a similar 11.1V, 4,320mAh (48WHr) battery. The Latitude D600 lasted 11 minutes longer than the ThinkPad T41 series; however, the T41 would undoubtedly reverse that result using its larger, optional battery. Regardless, the ThinkPad T41 series gives you plenty enough time to finish up your office and content-creation work on long plane rides.

Battery life

Dell Latitude D600 242 IBM ThinkPad T41 231 Gateway 200 111

To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark 2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).

Battery life analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.

Find out more about how we test notebooks.

System configurations:

Dell Latitude D600
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5,400rpm

Gateway 200
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM Extreme Graphics (up to 64MB); Toshiba MK6022GAX 60GB 5,400rpm

IBM ThinkPad T41
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

The ThinkPad T41 series comes with an exceptional three-year standard warranty and a targeted, superquick, 12-hour turnaround time on depot repairs. Toll-free phone support is free during the warranty period, and technicians are available 24/7. Paper documentation includes a terse but informative setup sheet and a thick and informative service-and-troubleshooting guide that could use a few more pictures. The support Web site offers a wealth of information, including e-mail to tech support, FAQs, and driver downloads.

To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.