Just got my new R50p about 6 hours and have been setting it up and working out all the kinks. Specs are as follows:
Pentium M 1.7Ghz
512MB RAM
Mobility FireGL T2 (9600 equivilant)
60GB HD
15" 1600x1200 screen
2x DVD-R drive
802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, IR, Gigabit LAN, 2x USB2, NO firewire
This is the 3rd think pad I've owned so far, the previous ones were an A30 and a A31.
In terms of weight, it's about the same as the A series and is clearly intended as a replacement. Build quality is the same high standard as always. Feels nice and solid in your hand, not like the flimsy toshiba I was using previously. One minor quibble is that they've recently changed the opening mechanism to a single slider on the right instead of one on both sides. This doesn't seem to have affected the integrity of the lid but it takes a bit of getting used to.
Contrary to some opinions, I think the keyboard on the R50p is better than the old A series. The key travel is nice and firm and there is no slight friction that would have been my only complaints against the A30's. However, this is possibly more due to the fact that it hasn't been subjected to heavy duty use yet, maybe time will tell. The dual Touchpoint/Touchpad is a joy to work with. I use the touchpoint a lot while typing but I prefer to move to a touchpad when I'm doing primarily mousework. I'm picking up a MX900 mouse next week so I dont see me using the built in mice much but it's still good to know they are nice and sturdy.
The screen is just magnificent. Thankfully no stuck pixels and the 1600x1200 res is a beauty to behold. Having moved from 1024x768/14" to 1400x1050/15" to 1600x1200/15" meant that I could sort of get into the groove of miniscule text without having to go through much of a painful adjustment. Novices might find the screen res to be a tad high but I love it. The backlight on this thing is BRIGHT, this is the first time I've ever had to turn down the brightness from full on any laptop I've ever tried. I estimate about 4 - 5 / 7 is about as bright as my previous A's. Should be excellent for outdoors work and I envision a lot of my work is going to be done on the patio from now on
.
The sound on this thing is mediocre at best, even the windows startup sound is tinny and the maximum volume is weak. I would have trouble making out anything out in a quiet classroom and even watching movies in bed is straining the limits of the volume. Headphones are a must for travelling. Battery life is excellent and highest power saving seems to put it at around 17W which gets about 4.5hrs from the 73Whr battery.
The lack of PS/2 and firewire ports is a bit of a drag as well as missing a second modular drive bay. Also, the lack of a windows button is still annoying even after 2+ years of using thinkpads. Oh well, its IBM's way.
On the software side, all the familiar suspects from the thinkpad line are there and slightly improved. Some new stuff include the hard-drive protection system and a funky graphical BIOS with mouse support... Oh, and the changed the thinklight from blue to yellow. The hard drive protection system is almost useless IMHO due to the fact that it's too sensitive, When watching movies, the video would frequently cut out due to the computer jostling on my lap. Maybe it's fine when doing word processing or something but anything that requires real time data streaming when not on a flat surface is going to be hampered.
So far, I haven't done anything to push it to the limits, performance wise. Waiting for the new mouse to arrive for some serious game testing. But judging by the benchmarks on the web, it seems like it's quite a comfortable performer for todays games and should be quite comfortable with the next gen gaming.
Is it worth the price? Well, it depends on what you want out of a laptop. I'm going to be lugging this thing around with me at least 3 hours a day and I intend to make it my primary system at home as well so I've always preferred something with a bit of heft to it and substance to it. The fact that I managed to get a pretty hefty discount on it helped as well ($3800 AUD from $5200 AUD). If all you want is a fast laptop, then theres certainly nothing wrong with a Dell or a Toshiba but theres just so much right about the IBM's.
Will hopefully update this as I get to put it through it's paces.
Pentium M 1.7Ghz
512MB RAM
Mobility FireGL T2 (9600 equivilant)
60GB HD
15" 1600x1200 screen
2x DVD-R drive
802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, IR, Gigabit LAN, 2x USB2, NO firewire
This is the 3rd think pad I've owned so far, the previous ones were an A30 and a A31.
In terms of weight, it's about the same as the A series and is clearly intended as a replacement. Build quality is the same high standard as always. Feels nice and solid in your hand, not like the flimsy toshiba I was using previously. One minor quibble is that they've recently changed the opening mechanism to a single slider on the right instead of one on both sides. This doesn't seem to have affected the integrity of the lid but it takes a bit of getting used to.
Contrary to some opinions, I think the keyboard on the R50p is better than the old A series. The key travel is nice and firm and there is no slight friction that would have been my only complaints against the A30's. However, this is possibly more due to the fact that it hasn't been subjected to heavy duty use yet, maybe time will tell. The dual Touchpoint/Touchpad is a joy to work with. I use the touchpoint a lot while typing but I prefer to move to a touchpad when I'm doing primarily mousework. I'm picking up a MX900 mouse next week so I dont see me using the built in mice much but it's still good to know they are nice and sturdy.
The screen is just magnificent. Thankfully no stuck pixels and the 1600x1200 res is a beauty to behold. Having moved from 1024x768/14" to 1400x1050/15" to 1600x1200/15" meant that I could sort of get into the groove of miniscule text without having to go through much of a painful adjustment. Novices might find the screen res to be a tad high but I love it. The backlight on this thing is BRIGHT, this is the first time I've ever had to turn down the brightness from full on any laptop I've ever tried. I estimate about 4 - 5 / 7 is about as bright as my previous A's. Should be excellent for outdoors work and I envision a lot of my work is going to be done on the patio from now on
.The sound on this thing is mediocre at best, even the windows startup sound is tinny and the maximum volume is weak. I would have trouble making out anything out in a quiet classroom and even watching movies in bed is straining the limits of the volume. Headphones are a must for travelling. Battery life is excellent and highest power saving seems to put it at around 17W which gets about 4.5hrs from the 73Whr battery.
The lack of PS/2 and firewire ports is a bit of a drag as well as missing a second modular drive bay. Also, the lack of a windows button is still annoying even after 2+ years of using thinkpads. Oh well, its IBM's way.
On the software side, all the familiar suspects from the thinkpad line are there and slightly improved. Some new stuff include the hard-drive protection system and a funky graphical BIOS with mouse support... Oh, and the changed the thinklight from blue to yellow. The hard drive protection system is almost useless IMHO due to the fact that it's too sensitive, When watching movies, the video would frequently cut out due to the computer jostling on my lap. Maybe it's fine when doing word processing or something but anything that requires real time data streaming when not on a flat surface is going to be hampered.
So far, I haven't done anything to push it to the limits, performance wise. Waiting for the new mouse to arrive for some serious game testing. But judging by the benchmarks on the web, it seems like it's quite a comfortable performer for todays games and should be quite comfortable with the next gen gaming.
Is it worth the price? Well, it depends on what you want out of a laptop. I'm going to be lugging this thing around with me at least 3 hours a day and I intend to make it my primary system at home as well so I've always preferred something with a bit of heft to it and substance to it. The fact that I managed to get a pretty hefty discount on it helped as well ($3800 AUD from $5200 AUD). If all you want is a fast laptop, then theres certainly nothing wrong with a Dell or a Toshiba but theres just so much right about the IBM's
.Will hopefully update this as I get to put it through it's paces.
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