DELL 600m VS IBM T40

[tlam617]

so i guess the primary rivals in the notebook industry are Dell and IBM.. which do you think will win? What's ur reasoning? I seriously would like to know. thanks

 

[Pennstate]

Ok, this comparision is so unfair. They do not belong in the same category. T40 is a sturdy, WELL-DESIGNED (a feature often overlooked), light, business class notebook. THe 600M is just some plastic shell holding together some good components.

This is like comparing a 800 horsepower Festiva with a Lexus

 

[mocca]

T40 have better built quality, better services, thinner and lighter. Besides, they belongs to different class (even D600 is inferior to T40 in all of those issues I mentioned).

Mocca

 

[NeoMadHatter]

yea, the T40 is better in all those aspects. but the price is rediculous. it costs like $3000 compared to a Dell with most of the same parts around $1500-$1800. that's alot of money.

 

[mocca]

Actually, with the current IBM sale promotion, you can get a nicely equipped T40 which just a tad more expesive than D600. I believe I configured a T40 with P-M 1.6GHz, M9 32MB (come standard with 1.6GHz), 14"SXGA+ LCD, etc. with less than $2400.

Mocca

 

[tlam617]

hmmm i guess the real difference is the thickness of the wallet in this comparison. hmm.. i guess thats it, huh?

 

[NeoMadHatter]

that's pretty good for a T40. every time i config one i get around $3000+. it's too bad you can't really go down for a 1.6ghz though otherwise you can't get some of the other hardware. i paid around $1100 for my Dell. i'm pretty happy with it.

 

[mocca]

I agree. Consider the top of the line T40p sell for $3k, the $2.4k with similar config doesn't seem too bad. If the budget is tight, go with Dell D600 then. But bottom line is you get what you pay for (not that D600 is not good or anything because it is good consider a nicely configured one would cost about $2k as well).

Mocca

 

[OldSpooky]

The T40's major advantage is weight and build quality - these are top notch. The T40's keyboard is the best notebook keyboard I've ever used, even better than the old Dell Latitude CPi.

The 600m has the advantage in games. All 600m machines have at least a Radeon 9000, whereas most T40s have Radeon 7500s. Only the top end T40s have Radeon 9000 class cards.

 

[Mule]

One thing most people overlook is the pointing device. I've used the T20 and now I can't use a laptop unless it has a pointing stick. Most other vendors only have the touch pad (there are some exceptions).

I work so much more efficently when I have the mouse right at my finger tips while I'm typing.

 

[jonah255]

are the 600m really flimsy and prone to damage?

is there something sturdier under 1500$? Sams Club has a soltec note book for 800$ that has a magnesium alloy case, but I'd prefer something around the 14.1" monitor range.

 

[mocca]

I personally own T40 and T40p. I also used D600 and D800 that we have here. Let me just say that the differences in quality is night and day (and this is the comparison between T40 and D600/800, the I8500 and 600m built quality is even worse than D600/800). If you don't play game that much, I would go with a middle to low-end T40. You will get M7 with excellent built quality with 3yr superb services.

Mocca

 

[MWink]

I recently switched from a Dell Inspiron 8200 to an IBM Thinkpad T40 and I'm amazed at the difference. The T40 is so much better built it's amazing. This is how a laptop SHOULD be built. It's small, sturdy, and has by FAR the best cooling I've ever seen in a laptop. The Inspiron was huge, felt like it SHOULD break under its own weight, and could be used to cook food on. The T40 is the first laptop I've seen that does not actually get hot. The hottest it gets is warm and that's only on the bottom where the CPU/GPU is located. Also the fan is almost silent unlike the Inspiron's which were quite loud.

Everything just seems designed so much better on the T40. I've only found 2 thing I don't like about it. For some reason video is very slow (2D or 3D) which doesn't make sense since this has a Radeon 9000 and my Inspiron had a Geforce 4 Go. Also the DVD-ROM can't read DVD+RW discs. Other than that it seems near perfect!

 

[jonah255]

How does the build quality of the IBM X31 compare. I guess IBM recently had a deal selling those for 1500$. expired now though but perhaps there will be a similiar deal soon. oh and the r40, hows that one compare aswell?