Just a little help while choosing! (IBM Thinkpad R50e)

Member Name: Chillingham

Product:	IBM Thinkpad R50e
Date:	05/01/06 (813 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great service and support, Attractive, red trackpoint

Disadvantages: 30 GB hard drive

Warning: I’m not that technical, so this may not be ideal if you’re looking for specifications, etc!

I recently gambled on an IBM ThinkPad R50e, Which I’m writing on now, so better be nice or it may crash.

Needless to say, I love my ThinkPad. From the colourful display of “IBM” in the corner of my keyboard to the lights at the bottom of the screen telling me my battery is running low, and I’m currently connected to the Internet.

The ThinkPad is aesthetically pleasing, to say the least. When closed it is entirely black, with a coloured “IBM” logo in the corner, while when it is open the keyboard is black an white, with very handy volume controls and the ability to mute instantly (with my old laptop, you had to press the “Function” key).

The red track point (or as I call it “joystick”) acts as a mouse, which to my surprise and relief (I was frightened of it because I am so used to a touchpad), is much easier than the touch pad, never again do I have to drag my finger along a screen several times to get where I want to go, only to go somewhere completely different as I accidentally brush my arm against it, ending up wasting my time as I write my history essay into Google. Oh, and don’t worry about it getting in the way of typing, I have typed a lot on here and I haven’t once pressed it down instead of a “G”, “H”, or “B”.

The ThinkPad comes with a CD/DVD burner, and also came with Record now! Software you would probably have to pay in excess of £20.00 for. All this adds up to a great value laptop.

Other points, it comes with Intel centrino wireless, so you can access the internet (provided you have a router),

Negative point – it’s 30 GB, and while that’s fine for documents etc, I am the gaming sort so I do need a lot of space. If you’re like me, I recommend getting an external hard drive, I got a 40 GB external hard drive, and it was only about £70.

The battery can apparently last for a good while, so it’s fine if you need to perform say an hour long presentation in the office and you forget your plug, although if your on the go a lot, I advise you do as I am doing and save up for another battery which are currently priced at £76.11

I have been very impressed with the support that comes with the machine; the “Access IBM” allows you to access a program so you can get the most out of your battery, using several set programs or choosing your own, and making recovery disks. There are also other features on it which I have yet to understand!

Not that I have had to use it, but I pressed the “access IBM” button during start up and was transferred to a screen called “IBM rescue and recovery”, which made me feel like my computer was subject of a nuclear attack and I was in the bunker. This had lots of advice about what to do if my system went wrong, etc.

All in all, this machine was well worth its money, makes me feel safe, secure and looked after. Great!

How silly of me, I forgot, cost roughly £400. :)

Summary: Worth the money, great for students

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