In the last few months or so I’ve had the chance to evaluate a couple of laptops and I wanted to report the results here.
Winner: Lenovo Thinkpad T60p with 14.1" screen.
Ok to use: T60p with 15.4" wide screen.
No need to bother when there is T60p:
Tecra M5, M7
HP NC6400, NC8430
I removed common set of features from the test matrix and evaluated for the following criteria:
- Keyboard comfort
- Battery life
- Display quality
- Noise level
- Heat felt on lap
- Disk speed
- Portability
On all accounts T60p was clear winner. Fastest, coldest, most silent, most reliable of all is selected to be the winner. Some specifics on why others lost..
Tecra’s look perfect on the paper due to their connectivity options and whatnot, however battery life and heat issues cannot be overlooked.
HP’s are fine on most counts; they have less battery life and are noisier than Thinkpads. They also have this plastic/cheap feel to it. None except Thinkpad has the keyboard illumination led which is very useful if you’re a late night person or otherwise work at night.
Thinkpad’s also have a single "system update" utility that can scan and upgrade all available components/software/drivers from a single point. Others don’t have this ability.
