Rumors ran rampant when it comes to guess who would later seller to plunge his fingers in lukewarm water of the tablet market. Some said Apple, others Dell. It turns out that Lenovo / IBM to beat. The new ThinkPad X41 Tablet ($ 1899 direct) is the lightest convertible on the market and is perfectly placed to help bring tablets into the mainstream. For these reasons and others, is our new Editors' Choice, hands down, for convertible tablets.
The beauty of the X41 Tablet is that it continues to IBM longstanding and well-earned reputation for quality craftsmanship and engineering. The X41 Tablet is presented as the ThinkPad X Series ultra formidable systems and repeated Editors' Choice winners, and its price is comparable. The only difference here is that the screen swivels.
The X41 Tablet 12-inch screen is anchored by a quad-metal alloy hinge, strong enough to deal with frequent rotations of the screen. The front and base of the unit are rich in magnesium alloy, providing a durable outdoors. The camera weighs only 3.5 pounds (system), partly because he does not have a built-in optical drive. It is lighter than the HP Compaq tc4200 (our former Editors' Choice for convertibles) and the Mobile Toshiba M205-S809, which tipped the scales at 4.6 pounds (system).
The tablet has a perfect screen paper feel like writing, and the pen is comfortable to grip, like the pen on the Compaq tc4200. If you prefer typing, the tablet converts to a notebook, exposing IBM's patented full-size keyboard and TrackPoint. And the ThinkPad typing experience is still unsurpassed.
The X41 comes with Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. Tapping and dragging with Windows Journal was nice, with almost no resistance between the screen and the movement of the pen. Microsoft OneNote 2003 note-taking program is available as an option. The X41 Tablet also comes with Zinio Reader and 90-day trial versions of Franklin Covey PlanPlus for Windows and Alias Sketchbook Pro. You can also gain experience Pack for Tablet PC, which includes InkArt, cross-ink, ink office, and the Snipping Tool.
A fingerprint reader is located on the side of the X41 Tablet screen. The reader smear bidirectionally, it does not matter if you're in portrait or landscape mode. The fingerprint reader is combined with IBM manager of passwords and the Sub-security system ThinkVantage 2.0 to provide an extra layer of security. The blue Access IBM button is available, as it is on all IBM ThinkPad, and access to several utilities that can configure your wireless connections, set up your passwords, backup and recover your disks. Below the fingerprint reader are a PageUp / PageDown rocker, Enter, Escape, the rapid launch and display customizable buttons orientation.
The X41 Tablet is loaded with the new Centrino same elements as the notebook ThinkPad X41, including the Pentium M 758 (1.5 GHz), 512 RAM DDR2 533, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 GM chipset, and Intel Pro Wireless 2915BG. Our unit came with a 40 GB hard drive, which is configurable up to 60GB. The unit comes standard with a four-battery, which lasts approximately 2.6 hours. An eight-battery, which lasts approximately 6 hours, is available for $ 159 extra. The X41 Tablet does not come with a built-in optical drive, but an external DVD + RW is available for $ 429. You also have the option of purchasing the X4 dock ($ 219), which includes a CDRW optical drive in it, however, most probably leave the Tablet Post because of its size.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to execute our performance tests because our tests does not support Windows XP Tablet Edition.
If you hesitated to buy a tablet, Lenovo / IBM east of this decision a lot easier for you. The ThinkPad X41 Tablet, the company's first attempt, is as large as its X-series ultra counterpart, with the advantages of the tablet form factor. It is the lightest convertible market, and we love.
