Okay, so it's not particularly gaming related, but I'd like to take the chance to review some hardware that I recently bought: the Lenovo Thinkpad T500 laptop. Here it goes:
Overview:
What can I say? It's a Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad, so I had perhaps overly-high hopes when I came in to review this, given that it looks, feels, and works almost exactly the same as every Thinkpad since about 1994. What can I say? I like the look. Okay, it's retro, it looks, as I say, from about 1994, but you can keep all your silly pretty laptops. But I digress.
Tech Specs:
Processor: Intel Centrino 2 Dual-core processor (P8400, 2.4GHz)
RAM: 4GB Dual-channel DDR3
Graphics: Dual (switchable) cards, Intel X4500HD (integrated), ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 (Discrete, 265MB DDR3 V-ram)
Screen: LED Backlit, 15.4 Inch, 1680 x 1050 resolution.
HDD: 250GB 5200RPM hard drive.
Battery: 6 Cell, 43 WHr
Ports: 3x USB, 1x 1334 Firewire Port, PCMIA Card slot, Modem port, Gigabit ethernet port, VGA D-sub connector, Full-size Displayport connector, 5-in-one memory card reader.
Design:
Like I said, the T500 isn't going to win any beauty contests, it's black, it's boxy, it has the Thinkpad logo stamped in one corner. Sound familiar? It should, if you've ever seen a Thinkpad. But with the boring asthetics, also comes the incredible build quality. The magnesium-alloy rollcage keeps the screen and base nice and sturdy, however, there is slightly more flex in the plastic panels than I'd liked to have seen.
Keyboard and Touchpad:
The keyboard is nice and clicky, but with slightly more flex than older Thinkpads. This is due, apparently, to the new backplate design by Lenovo in order to reduce keyboard (and overall) unit weight. other than the flex, it's a brilliant keyboard, and most people would have no problems typing at a high speed (I'm averaging around 80WPM writing this review).
The touchpad is reasonable, but not supurb, it has everything you need, scrolling zones, a decent touch area, and nice clicky buttons. The speed, however, is not as good as I like to see in a touchpad. However, this being a Thinkpad, it also comes with the iconic red trackpoint (or Clitmouse, for those of you who read XKCD). This works as well as any other form of mouse, and I find myself completely ignoring the touchpad in favour of the trackpoint to the point that I have disabled the trackpad for all but the scrolling features. The only problem with the trackpoint is that it sometimes gets in the way of typing, I find myself occasionally bumping it when trying to get from home to B, or vice versa.
Internals and Gaming
The Intel Centrino 2 processor is decently fast, loading Vista up in about a minute, and coupled with the 4GB RAM, it's fast enough for most users. People wanting to run very high power programs like AutoCAD will probably find it chugging along a bit, but anyone else should have no problems.
The real star of the internal hardware would have to be the Switchable graphics cards. Featuring a HD version of Intel's X4500, and ATI's 3650 descrete proccessor, you should have no problems running most last-gen, and some current-gen graphics games. Running Call of Duty 4 on medum settings, it's not great, but certainly playable. Games like Quake 4, DOOM3, Half-Life and Left 4 Dead run faster than expected, thanks to the DDR3 RAM and dedicated graphics.
Switching between Descrete and integrated graphics is easier than any other Laptop I have used. Requiring only a few seconds. Switching consists of opening the battery settings provided by Lenovo (a battery metre/ quick access panel comes embedded in Vista's taskbar, so it's even quicker), and changing the graphics settings from 'High Performance' to 'Energy Saving'. The X4500HD is perfectly capable of playing high-quality videos, and Blu-Ray videos, and will handle some basic gaming, but most people will only use it when they're unplugged from a power-point.
Ports:
The three USB ports are a bit dissapointing, four would have been preferable, And one on the right side for mice and other right-handed peripherals would certainly not have been unwelcome. The VGA port is fine, works as well as it should. However, I would have much rather seen DVI or HDMI instead of the included DisplayPort for digital interfacing. Regardless, everything works as it should, and right out of the box.
Battery Life:
This is where the Thinkpad shines, in my opinion. Unplugged on full-power with the ATI graphics card enabled, about an hour and a half was the best time I could muster, which isn't great, but full-power is much more than you need when you're watching a movie or typing something in-class. On minimal power, with integrated graphics, and fully bright screen, I managed to squeeze about 3 hours and 43 minutes out of the 6-Cell battery. This is great, personally. a 9-cell battery would certainly push the battery life over 5 hours, and probably closer to six.
Final thoughts:
For 2600 Australian Dollars, This isn't a cheap commitment, and if you're planning on buying a portable gaming machine, you will probably look elsewhere, but if you're looking for a decent laptop, you certainly could do worse. The price, spec-for-spec, is almost a thousand dollars cheaper than the current-gen 15inch Macbook, but a few hundred dollars more than the Dell Studio 15. However, the 3-year warranty, classic looks, and great build quality mean that Lenovo want you to buy this with the plan of keeping it for longer than the average laptop. A nine-cell standard battery would have been nice, and an extra 256MB of RAM in the ATI graphics card would be much-loved, but for what it's worth, and what you get for that worth, you really can't go wrong.
*Hey guys, this is my first review, and my first official topic on these forums, so any feedback on the review itself would be greatly appreciated, no matter how toxic!
Overview:
What can I say? It's a Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad, so I had perhaps overly-high hopes when I came in to review this, given that it looks, feels, and works almost exactly the same as every Thinkpad since about 1994. What can I say? I like the look. Okay, it's retro, it looks, as I say, from about 1994, but you can keep all your silly pretty laptops. But I digress.
Tech Specs:
Processor: Intel Centrino 2 Dual-core processor (P8400, 2.4GHz)
RAM: 4GB Dual-channel DDR3
Graphics: Dual (switchable) cards, Intel X4500HD (integrated), ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 (Discrete, 265MB DDR3 V-ram)
Screen: LED Backlit, 15.4 Inch, 1680 x 1050 resolution.
HDD: 250GB 5200RPM hard drive.
Battery: 6 Cell, 43 WHr
Ports: 3x USB, 1x 1334 Firewire Port, PCMIA Card slot, Modem port, Gigabit ethernet port, VGA D-sub connector, Full-size Displayport connector, 5-in-one memory card reader.
Design:
Like I said, the T500 isn't going to win any beauty contests, it's black, it's boxy, it has the Thinkpad logo stamped in one corner. Sound familiar? It should, if you've ever seen a Thinkpad. But with the boring asthetics, also comes the incredible build quality. The magnesium-alloy rollcage keeps the screen and base nice and sturdy, however, there is slightly more flex in the plastic panels than I'd liked to have seen.
Keyboard and Touchpad:
The keyboard is nice and clicky, but with slightly more flex than older Thinkpads. This is due, apparently, to the new backplate design by Lenovo in order to reduce keyboard (and overall) unit weight. other than the flex, it's a brilliant keyboard, and most people would have no problems typing at a high speed (I'm averaging around 80WPM writing this review).
The touchpad is reasonable, but not supurb, it has everything you need, scrolling zones, a decent touch area, and nice clicky buttons. The speed, however, is not as good as I like to see in a touchpad. However, this being a Thinkpad, it also comes with the iconic red trackpoint (or Clitmouse, for those of you who read XKCD). This works as well as any other form of mouse, and I find myself completely ignoring the touchpad in favour of the trackpoint to the point that I have disabled the trackpad for all but the scrolling features. The only problem with the trackpoint is that it sometimes gets in the way of typing, I find myself occasionally bumping it when trying to get from home to B, or vice versa.
Internals and Gaming
The Intel Centrino 2 processor is decently fast, loading Vista up in about a minute, and coupled with the 4GB RAM, it's fast enough for most users. People wanting to run very high power programs like AutoCAD will probably find it chugging along a bit, but anyone else should have no problems.
The real star of the internal hardware would have to be the Switchable graphics cards. Featuring a HD version of Intel's X4500, and ATI's 3650 descrete proccessor, you should have no problems running most last-gen, and some current-gen graphics games. Running Call of Duty 4 on medum settings, it's not great, but certainly playable. Games like Quake 4, DOOM3, Half-Life and Left 4 Dead run faster than expected, thanks to the DDR3 RAM and dedicated graphics.
Switching between Descrete and integrated graphics is easier than any other Laptop I have used. Requiring only a few seconds. Switching consists of opening the battery settings provided by Lenovo (a battery metre/ quick access panel comes embedded in Vista's taskbar, so it's even quicker), and changing the graphics settings from 'High Performance' to 'Energy Saving'. The X4500HD is perfectly capable of playing high-quality videos, and Blu-Ray videos, and will handle some basic gaming, but most people will only use it when they're unplugged from a power-point.
Ports:
The three USB ports are a bit dissapointing, four would have been preferable, And one on the right side for mice and other right-handed peripherals would certainly not have been unwelcome. The VGA port is fine, works as well as it should. However, I would have much rather seen DVI or HDMI instead of the included DisplayPort for digital interfacing. Regardless, everything works as it should, and right out of the box.
Battery Life:
This is where the Thinkpad shines, in my opinion. Unplugged on full-power with the ATI graphics card enabled, about an hour and a half was the best time I could muster, which isn't great, but full-power is much more than you need when you're watching a movie or typing something in-class. On minimal power, with integrated graphics, and fully bright screen, I managed to squeeze about 3 hours and 43 minutes out of the 6-Cell battery. This is great, personally. a 9-cell battery would certainly push the battery life over 5 hours, and probably closer to six.
Final thoughts:
For 2600 Australian Dollars, This isn't a cheap commitment, and if you're planning on buying a portable gaming machine, you will probably look elsewhere, but if you're looking for a decent laptop, you certainly could do worse. The price, spec-for-spec, is almost a thousand dollars cheaper than the current-gen 15inch Macbook, but a few hundred dollars more than the Dell Studio 15. However, the 3-year warranty, classic looks, and great build quality mean that Lenovo want you to buy this with the plan of keeping it for longer than the average laptop. A nine-cell standard battery would have been nice, and an extra 256MB of RAM in the ATI graphics card would be much-loved, but for what it's worth, and what you get for that worth, you really can't go wrong.
*Hey guys, this is my first review, and my first official topic on these forums, so any feedback on the review itself would be greatly appreciated, no matter how toxic!