ThinkPad T42p 2373 - Pentium M 735 1.7 GHz - 15" TFT

Advantages: Slim, very light, IBM cachet, good screen, fantastic keyboard
Disadvantages: Build quality perhaps, ticking hard drive

...OK, as I write this, the T42 already has its successors in the T43 and T60 which are in all likelihood higher spec machines, but the T42 has a lot of bang for the money. First off, as a normal user, the 1.7GHz P-M processor is more than adequate, being equivalent to something close to the Pentium 4 3.0GHz and therefore on par with the desktops of the common people. Being an IBM, you may also choose to have a port replicator which would allow you to just slot your machine in at home and not having to worry about connecting wires etc and you can enjoy more "desktop-like" features, such as possibly a bigger screen, a mouse etc. Amongst other good features, you enjoy a 512MB in-built DDR memory, which is enough for most daily uses and can be upgraded to a whopping 2GB. The only gripe I have with this is that to get to 2GB would entail... Read review

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Advantages: Reliable, Well Made, Great features
Disadvantages: Older technology

...I got my self a T42 to use a laptop for university, something that I could take to lectures and also use back at my house. I couldn't have made a Better Purchase I paid around £800 for mine around a year ago, and it has been worth every penny. Not only is it a reliable chipset it also comes with great support from the IBM Website with updates and new software, programs and Bios updates, all to improve usability. I have not yet had any thing break on the laptop internally and externally. This isn't the latest generation of laptop but a safe buy second hand as it seems to be indestructible I have dropped bashed and spilled things over and still no problems. The Pentium M processor has given me fast enough capabilities. I use the laptop for all my courses with some very high processing intensive programs and it keeps up. As I am... Read review

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Advantages: Great screen, Quite Powerful, Nice Keyboard, Little Torch!
Disadvantages: Not overly fast, not overly light, speakers are RUBBISH!!!

...the battery life last a fair bit longer, and depending on what work I'm doing i can get between 2 and 3 hours battery life out of it. The laptop is really well built and pretty much bullet proof. OK, well I haven't acctually tried that, but they do take some SERIOUS abuse! One trick that IBM have built into the T42 is a Active Hard Drive Protection Thingy Whatsit. (If you can't guess i've forgotten the real term they use!) What is basicall does is detect the movement of th laptop. It's shows a nice little 3d model of the laptop, tip your laptop right, it moves right on the screen! Very snazzy! Ther eis a real use for this though. By detecting motion, it can figure out if the hard drive is in danger of being damaged. If it thinks it is, the laptop will park the heads of the hard drive PDQ. This means that the hard drive should... Read review

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