Thinkpads

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Well I've now been using a Dell laptop for a month and my initial thoughts from two days of use haven't changed. I want my Thinkpad back!

The Dell has a nicer cable tidy for the power supply. Um, that's it. I'm sure it costs less too, but if it was my money I'd get a Thinkpad.

So, here we go:

  • three mouse buttons on the Thinkpad. two on the Dell. I use Unix, I need three
  • trackpoint (or "nipple" as people call them) and a darn sight better than the one on the Dell
  • decent hard disk. The Dell disk might have been twice the size of my old thinkpad, but it was shockingly slow at 4200rpm - it should be 5400rpm (or even better, 7200rpm).
  • thinklight so I can see to type when it's dark (read watching TV/DVD at night)
  • docking station for the dell has a speaker socket that doesn't work. I think it shows up on the bus rather than just being an electrical connection.
  • decent lid catch on the thinkpad. horrible one on the dell - can't be done one handed or easily
  • as for the catch on the Dell laptop bag - sometimes it takes a good 30s to open the silly design.
  • no USB port on the side of the Dell
  • Dell supply two slightly different power adapters - one of which output slightly more current for the docking station (it won't work with the smaller adapter).
  • To rub salt into that last point, the IBM adapter is substantially smaller.
  • the T-series thinkpads I've used have been very reliable, even when abused badly. However the R-series ones have been dreadful - broken wireless, ethernet, 3/5 dead drive bays, motherboard failures. No idea on the Dells yet.
  • the IBM keyboard is noticeably better
  • black is a better colour
  • the Dell puts "Ctrl" in the right place and has the windows key which help me on the very rare occasions I use windows.
  • both are bad using proprietary hardware. Using ndiswrapper is not acceptable. As for an IBM employee actually having to reverse engineer the accelerometer, well...
  • Dell have never innovated in their life. IBM have hard disk drop protection, thinklight, trackpoint, ...

Update: it now appears that at least on some models, Dell have stopped putting trackpoints on completely :(

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