IBM THINKPAD T41P

IN BRIEF: With a price tag that would buy you a reasonable secondhand car, does this top-of-the-line powerhouse live up to its promise?

According to IBM, the ThinkPad T41p(£3443 inc. VAT) is not merely a laptop –it’s a mobile workstation. That’s what the ‘p’ in the model name indicates, and it’s reserved only for the company’s most powerful machines. They’re designed to give you the best of everything, meaning processing power, graphics and battery life, allowing you to manipulate detailed designs or run complex presentations on the road.

To justify this high price, we expect a lot from the T41p. In past reviews, IBM’s ThinkPads have usually offered superb build quality, usability and battery life, but with disappointing power. Clearly the T41p needed to step up a level in performance, and it didn’t let us down. Intel’s 1.7GHz Pentium M processor is installed, along with 512MB of 333MHz DDRSDRAM. It would have been nice to have 1GBat this price, and some power users will want to add more RAM. Nevertheless, a MobileMark2002 test score of 188 shows this machine is certainly no slouch.

IBM also delivers on the promise of increased graphics power by providing an ATi Mobility FireGL T2 graphics adapter with128MB of VRAM. This adapter is optimised to give its best performance for CAD and digital content creation applications. Although our standard graphics benchmark, 3DMark 2001SE, might not pinpoint these attributes, it does provide a baseline comparison with other laptops we review. Our test result of 9049 shows the FireGL T2 offers plenty of graphics power.

The final performance area we need to examine is battery life. The 71Wh Lithium-Ion battery is physically larger than normal, jutting out from the rear of the chassis on one side (an optional smaller battery is available). Although it makes the profile irregular, the larger capacity compensates for the increased power drain of the T41p. Under test conditions with our benchmark’s office workload, the T41p ran for 420 minutes. This result of exactly seven hours delivers true all-day computing.

The rest of the machine is typical IBM ThinkPad. The keyboard is excellent and solidly built, with both a trackpad and a pointing stick. The latter is larger and more precise compared to other brands, although your fingers can occasionally trip over it while typing. We like IBM’s screen hinge arrangement with its all metal construction, but in our review system the level of protection behind the panel itself was not up to standard, causing a pronounced pressure ripple in the display. The 1400 x 1050-pixel panel is otherwise crisp and clear with good brightness control.

Storage is on a Hitachi 60GB hard drive that spins at 7200rpm (most laptop drives run at either 4200rpm or 5400rpm), and a Matsushita DVD/CD-RW combination drive. Although this machine cannot use the Centrino logo
because it has discarded the 802.11b wireless solution, that’s no problem because it’s replaced with a more useful 802.11a/g mini-PC card. Port allocation includes Gigabit Ethernet and two Type II PC Card slots (which can accommodate a larger Type III card), but it has only two USB ports and no FireWire. However, there’s a docking connector underneath if you want more.

IBM has shrugged off its reputation for laptops that disappoint on the performance front, nailing the hard-to-achieve double of impressive power and battery life. The ThinkPad T41p does indeed deserve to be called a mobile workstation. But is it worth nearly £3500? We think it should come with better screen protection and 1GB of RAM at this price, and only the bravest would carry that sort of value around in a bag.

PRICE: £2930/£3443 (EX/INC. VAT)

PROCESSOR: INTEL PENTIUM M 1.7GHZ
MEMORY: 512MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE: HITACHI 60GB
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE: 14.1-INCH TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1400 X 1050 PIXELS
GRAPHICS CARD: ATI MOBILITY FIREGL T2
DIMENSIONS: 309 X 254 X 33MM
WEIGHT: 2.6KG
PC CARDS (TYPE II/III): 2/1
WIRELESS LAN: 802.11A/G
ETHERNET: GIGABIT
MODEM: YES
USB PORTS: 2 USB 2.0
FIREWIRE: NO
STANDARD WARRANTY: 3YR RTB
WARRANTY UPGRADE: ON-SITE AVAILABLE
CONTACTS: 0990 727 272 WWW.IBM.COM/UK


RATINGS AND TEST RESULTS

BATTERY LIFE: 420 MINS
MOBILEMARK 2002: 188
3DMARK 2001: 9049

VALUE FOR MONEY: 6
PERFORMANCE: 9
FEATURES: 9
MOBILITY: 9
BUILD QUALITY: 7
OVERALL: 8