Prime Notebook Computer Review

The IBM Lenovo X41 Tablet PC is a lightweight, full-featured notebook with outstanding battery life. At about 3.2 lbs. this notebook packs the best built-in security technology. It have a sturdy case with a responsive and full-sized notebook keyboard and bright displey. The X41 is designed to take a beating, not just to look. The hinges, keyboard, screen cover, case and trackpoint buttons all exude physical quality. The ThinkPad X41 use plastic for the case, but it’s a reinforced plastic composite. The case material provides for a very rugged and durable build, but still keeps the weight down. The screen lid is constructed of a magnesium alloy so there’s no flexing of the screen when push on it. It also have the IBM Active Protection System for the hard drive. No built in optical drive for the X41 keep the weight down and the overall package thin. To load software from a DVD or CD, use the ThinkPad X4 UltraBase Dock. The X4 Dock features are DVD-ROM, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combination, and Multi-Burner Plus drives. And the ports on it are Three USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), modem (RJ-11), serial, parallel, one PS/2 for mouse or keyboard, VGA out for an external monitor.

The Lenovo X41 specs :

Display : 12.1 in TFT active matrix
Processor : Intel Pentium M 1.5 GHz, LV 758
Memory : 512 MB DDR SDRAM
Hard drive : 40 GB 4200RPM
Operating System : Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
Battery : 8-cell Lithium ion
Dimensions : 10.5″ x 8.3″ x 0.8″
Weight : 3.5 lbs

The X41 processor is 1.50 GHz Pentium M that provides much better performance. Use the program Super Pi to get a benchmark of processor speed, we found the result that IBM ThinkPad X41 needs 123 seconds to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits. Fujitsu ST5000 1.1 GHz Dothan Pentium M needs 157 seconds and HP TC4200 1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M needs only 111 seconds. The results show that the performance of X41 is not bad. The performance for using Office applications, browsing the web and using such programs as Visual Studio for programming is very good. There’s no lag when running multiple programs and browser windows open at the same time.
The hard drive speed of 4200RPM is too slow. And with only 1.8′ size there’s no upgrading to a faster one.

The ThinkPad X41’s 12.1″ screen is XGA (1024×768) resolution. It’s smooth writing surface. The pen is manufactured by Wacom and does not require batteries. The silo on the front left side of the palmrests offers convenient access to the pen in both notebook and tablet modes. The X41 is lightweight and compact and very comfortable to hold in tablet mode for extended periods of time. The Low Voltage Pentium M runs very cool, even over long runtimes.

The keyboard of X41 is comfortable to use and for typing. Keys are smaller to fit everything on there, but no space is spared as the keys are pushed right out to the edge. Feedback from the keys is great too. The trackpoint is fantastic and the pointing stick makes it easy to navigate the cursor to the area on the screen. Above the main keyboard are a few hardware buttons. They are the power button, volume up and down buttons, a mute button and the blue Access IBM button.

The speakers on X41 are on the bottom and it doesn’t provide for very good audio. The volume is low and sound is tinny. For a better sound quality you can add external speakers or headphones.
The fan on X41 is runs quiet enough.
The X41’s battery is 8-cell Li-Ion battery which IBM claims a battery runtime of over 7 hours. The actual time is about 5-6 hours used for basic tasks such as word processing or internet browsing.

The ThinkPad X41 also includes a built-in fingerprint reader to provide biometric security. It’s located on the bottom right corner of the display frame and easy to access and use when needed.
The X41 comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11 a/b/g internal wi-fi card. There’s UltraConnect Wireless Antenna in the upper part of the screen that helps to extend the wireless range. It also includes an internal Bluetooth radio that works well.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X41 is a compact and lightweight Tablet Pc. Even it have no built-in optical drive and the hard drive is proprietary in design and cannot be upgraded, it still a good noteboook. The processor is so fast for this sized notebook and the keyboard and TrackPoint Navigation is amazing. The build is excellent and with Active Protection System and biometric security make it a notebook with great data protection and security. It also a thin and light Tablet Pc and have good docking solution that provides nice expansion capabilities. The wireless performance is good too. As a notebook or Tablet PC it’s still have an outstanding quality.