I am typing this on my new (refurbished) SL410 and thought I share a mini-comparison with my current TPad, an X61 with the high resolution screen. Last Monday (May 24), the Lenovo outlet website blew out a batch of SL410s at $399. At that price, I couldn't resist and apparently some 350 other happy shoppers didn't either since the batch sold out with an hour or so.
The specs are: Intel® Core™2 Duo T5870 NV (2.0GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB) UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) 4GB (2 X 2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 1067MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory Hard Drive 320GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Hard Drive 14.0” WXGA HD (1366 X 768) LED, W/ Camera Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (Up to 4 Hours Run Time) Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100 (1x2 AGN) First impressions: Wow, the LED display is obviously much brighter than my tablet's display. I'm writing this in a bright and sunny room (don't ask me why I'm stuck indoors on a day like today in sunny Sausalito). It makes my "old" X61T screen feel old, tired and dim. However, the 14 inch size seems to be the largest amount of display I care to schlep around these days. My workplace recently gave me a gargantuan HP Elite book with a 15.4 inch display which is going to just stay on my desk. The only person that's going to move that beast are the two gorilla movers that my company hires to move office furniture. Minor annoyance: I am using a Lenovo travel ac adapter with the 20v adapter tip. However, the designers for the SL410 must have not tested the case design with this ac adapter configuration since the tip falls out of the socket if I glare at the adapter harshly. If I am going to stick with this laptop, I'll have to bring the regular ac adapter. The bright side - this is an "opportunity" to test battery life under my usage conditions <that's sarcasm>. Speed: since both are running some form of Windows (XP and 7), it's become much harder to gauge the speed experience. Both seem adequate for me. Display: The LED display is amazingly bright, even in a sunny room. I am enough of an old fuddy-duddy where I will admit to a visceral reaction to widescreen displays. What a stupid format. The mass adoption of widescreen displays (yeah yeah yeah, I know that the display manufacturers have foisted this format onto the notebook manufacturers) is, in my opinion, yet another sign of the decline of civilization. Keyboard: I like the SL410 keyboard as it reminds me of some of the older Thinkpads when their keyboards were the best reason to buy the brand (besides the trackpoint). The X61T keyboard now feels a bit cramped. Ultranav - The ubiquitous trackpoint is well placed and the next best reason to buy TPads. I also automatically turn off the Ultra-navpad since I despise those things. I note that the surface of the navpad has is no longer a smooth surface but is instead has a finely textured feel. It's interesting. Connectivity: There's an HDMI output jack on this - I suppose I now I own a $399 DVD/blue ray player <that's more sarcasm>. On the other hand, there's a nice expresscard socket where I can add something cool, if I could think of it. The overall placement of the connections seem well thought out. Crapware: For a retail machine, there doesn't seem to be a terrible amount of crapware loaded. The most blatant piece was Symantec's antivirus - you couldn't pay me to use it. The trial version of MS Office 2007 might be a close second but I also use word and excel a lot so I might consider buying it. Might... Anyway, if anyone has any questions or comments, please feel free to chime in. Mitchell ps: who is now looking to score a 13" or 11" Tpad from the outlet site. _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
