The ThinkPad T42 is a good choice for business professionals looking for a top-notch laptop at a reasonable price.
IBM's first Dothan laptop is the thin-and-light ThinkPad T42, an update to the popular IBM ThinkPad T41. The T42 is almost as fast as the best-performing Dothan we've tested, the Dell Latitude D800. Battery life for the ThinkPad T42 was also good, although it wasn't able to outlast the HP Business Notebook nc6000 in our Labs' tests. But with an eye-pleasing sub-AU$3,000 price tag in its base configuration, the new ThinkPad T42 is perhaps the best value among laptops equipped with Intel's latest Pentium M upgrade.
For a laptop offering the latest in processor technology, the IBM ThinkPad T42 is strikingly modest in its design (which is par for the course for the all-black ThinkPads). We tested the larger model, which has a 15-inch screen and weighs in at 2.6kg (2.95kg with power brick and cord), measuring 329 x 268 x 31mm. The smaller model has a 14-inch screen and weighs less than 2.27kg, but it is still a good deal bulkier than IBM's new ultralight, the X40. As on all IBM models, the metal hinges connecting the T42's lid to the body are tough as nails and well suited to day-in, day-out business use.
The IBM ThinkPad T42's keyboard is broad and comfortable, with plenty of room toward the front rim for your palms. You get a touch pad and a pointing device that nestles in the middle of the keyboard. We also like the simple buttons above the keyboard, including volume controls and an Access IBM button that directs you to support and troubleshooting information.
The basic configuration for the IBM ThinkPad T42 includes a smallish 30GB hard drive and a combo CD-RW/DVD drive in the laptop's modular bay. For an extra fee, you can fill the bay with an IBM Multi-Burner drive that will read and write CDs and DVDs. Optional six- and nine-cell batteries are also available for the bay. Around the rim, you'll find two USB 2.0 ports, a serial port for a mouse, an RJ-11 port for the T42's built-in modem, a Gigabit Ethernet port, audio-in and audio-out jacks, two Cardbus slots, a parallel port for a printer, and a VGA port for an external monitor. That covers the basics, but accoutrements such as FireWire and flash media slots are missing.
Our IBM ThinkPad T42 came with Windows XP Pro, but IBM supports operating systems dating back to Windows 98 SE as well as the Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions. Software for the ThinkPad T42 includes InterVideo WinDVD Creator and Norton AntiVirus 2004. The ThinkPad T42 also comes preloaded with IBM's new Rescue and Recovery platform, a secondary operating system that lets you recover data on your hard drive and access the Internet even when your primary operating system won't boot.
The IBM ThinkPad T42 is among the best-performing laptops we've tested in its weight and processor class, scoring 208 on our MobileMark 2002 tests. Its standard six-cell lithium-ion battery didn't do quite as well in our battery tests. If long battery life is important for you, consider the HP nc6000.
IBM ThinkPad T42
Company: IBM
Price: AU$2,799 (base configuration)
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1800 289 426
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