X41 Compromises Not So Bad For Intended Role
Written: Jul 13 '07
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Pros: Very small and Light, Excellent Build and Ergonomics
Cons: Super Slow Hard Drive, Poor Graphics Performance
The Bottom Line: Well made, small and light, the X41 is the ideal travel or auxiliary computer, but not the best as a primary machine.
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| lawman67's Full Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X41 (252554U) PC Notebook |
This is my second review of an IBM X41, which makes sense as this is the second X41 that I’ve owned and is a different (lesser) configuration than my last one. Also changed is that the last time I bought an X41 it was a current model and the top of IBM’s (now Lenovo) ultraportable line. Since that time, Lenovo has released two replacements, the X60s and just recently the X61, both of which are considerably more powerful and run longer on their batteries. Here is how the X41 holds up today and why I bought another one.
First off, as anyone who regularly reads my articles knows, I frequently go back and forth between true ultraportables like the X41 and so-called “thin and lights”, like the ThinkPad T60 I recently reviewed. As I pointed out in my T60 review, when using a thin and light I always wish it was smaller and light, while with an ultraportable I always wish for a larger screen and higher resolution.
This particular X41, which has a slower processor and a different network chip than my old one, does nothing to solve any of the ultraportable limitations. It also does not solve the X41’s biggest deficit, the slow 1.8” hard drive, which if you want to avoid in a fast IBM/Lenovo ultraportable requires moving to one of the X60 or X61 series or to the slightly older X30 series, all of which use standard 2.5” hard drives.
Unlike the last time, when I bought the X41 to use as my primary computer, I bought this one strictly as a travel or auxiliary machine, which is the role for which it was actually designed. My last X41 was purchased for use as my primary computer, and while it did an admirable job, it couldn’t offer the performance of a high-end thin and light.
My T60 is a very powerful computer, with a high-end graphics card that has 128MB of its own dedicated memory. Its large 100GB hard drive is also very fast at 7200 RPM, and with 2GB of fast PC5300 ram and a fast Core2Duo processor there are almost no tasks that come close to the resources of this very high-end computer. The X41, in contrast, has a single processor core with both less capability and less speed, has 1.5GB of slower PC2700 memory and of course the tiny 40GB hard drive which spins at a slow 4200 RPM and has very little cache to help speed things up. Of course the older, integrated graphics of the X41 are many orders of magnitude inferior to the high-end ATI X1400 graphics on the T60.
What all that technobabble really means is that the X41 is drastically slower than the T60 in every possible way. In more concrete terms, Doom3 will barely run on the X41, with all visual effects set to minimum and resolution backed down to 800X600 it is playable, barely. On the T60 with everything maxed out and resolution set to 1400X1050 (the default resolution of the T60) the game is far more fluid and fast than on the X41 with everything shut off.
Of course, the X41 was never designed for games, or for any other high-end uses. Where the X41 excels and leaves machines like the T60 in the dust is portability. The X41 weighs only 2.7lbs with the 4 cell battery, or 3.3lbs with the 8 cell that I have. With an extra 4 cell plate battery attached to the bottom the weight swells to 4lbs, but isn’t even close to the 5.3lbs of the T60 with the 6 cell (weight is closer to 6lbs with the 9 cell). The X41 also gets terrific battery life. I get about 5 hours on the 8 cell, 7.5 with both batteries attached. The T60 does a little better on its batteries, but the X41 is close enough. The X60s is the battery life champion at 10 hours on its 8 cell.
The X41 is also tiny. With the T60, use on an airplane in coach is a very uncomfortable proposition. With the X41, it’s a piece of cake, with the machine taking up about 75% of a typical tray table (enough space left for a can of soda) and most importantly, being short and shallow enough to actually use when the person in front of you decides to recline. This is a VERY big deal, as a machine like the 14” T-series, considered quite small and light by most laptop users, would be flat against your chest in such tight confines.
While the X41 is no speed demon, for the tasks for which it was designed it does far better than you might expect. I have no trouble dealing with multiple Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents at the same time, ditto using Outlook for email and calendar, Acrobat for PDFs and even iTunes for music (iTunes video overwhelms the wimpy graphics). With the base 512MB of RAM you won’t be doing these things at the same time, but upgraded to 1.5GB as mine is, multitasking is no problem.
What I like most about the X41 is the ergonomic design. Yes, the keyboard is a bit smaller than on the T-series, but it retains the outstanding keyboard feel that ThinkPads are known for, and is better than the X30 series despite being smaller. The palmrest is small, but well shaped, and all of the little surprise and delight features like the keyboard light and the many and useful shortcut keys and ThinkVantage utilities for networking and security are there. Like all ThinkPads, the X41 also has a TrackPoint (eraserhead) mouse, however unlike the larger models, there is no touchpad underneath. Personally, I prefer the TrackPoint so much that I completely disabled the touchpad on my T60. Taken as a whole, the X41 keyboard feels slightly cramped and the screen is a bit small and lacking in real estate (only 1024X768 pixels), but in the context of a travel machine, it is more than adequate for even long writing assignments when on the go. No, it won’t compare in comfort to a full-sized laptop, but its much less of a compromise than other ultraportables.
Like most ThinkPads, the X41 is also very well made. It has a titanium composite lid and very high carbon content in the plastic case, which makes for a solid-feeling machine with almost no flex. The metal display hinges are strong and stay tight, and you get as close to a full suite of ports as you are likely to find on a 2.7lb computer. The built-in networking (Broadcom 10/100/1000 LAN and Intel 2200b/g wifi) are both decent components with stable drivers, though my X41 was upgraded to a ThinkPad a/b/g adapter II (Atheros chipset) which consumes slightly more battery power than the Intel card, but has better range. My T60 has a newer version of the Intel card and I have no complaints about that one either.
What I like most about the X41 is how it feels more like a big PDA than a small laptop. It is just a handy little device that is a pleasure to take with you. Closed, I tend to carry it in one hand without a case or to put it into a very small (non-computer) messenger bag, while many women will stuff an X41 into a medium sized purse. With the long battery life, I don’t even bring an AC adapter when only going out for the day.
You can increase the capabilities of the X41 by adding the X4 ultrabase and an optical drive, and so configured DVD movie playback is actually pretty good. Personally, at that point I’d rather just take the T60 as the X41 and X4 combo is close to 2 inches thick and weighs about 5lbs.
In conclusion, if all you do is office work and email, an X41 would still be a fine choice for your primary computer, but even if you do multimedia-rich content on your primary computer, an X41 makes an outstanding travel/auxiliary machine. It isn’t fast, but runs long on its batteries and is so small and light that you will hardly notice it when traveling. The compromises are very real, but over a year after selling my first one, its strengths were enough to convince me to take the plunge again.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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lawman67
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say.
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