Using the X41 in the field

Jeff Duntemann has written a good user review of the X41 Tablet PC. Although he doesn’t use the ink features a lot, his favorite aspects are the form factor making it appealing to reading e-books. Most of his complaints revolve around X41  performance issues.

Jeff’s overall conclusion: a cautious recommendation

Carol and I are still in the Chicago area, and I’ve been here just about a month now, with no computing but my IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC. (I also have the associated dock, which contains the optical drive.) I’ve had abundant opportunity to use the machine on a daily basis and got good at it, and I think at this point I am in a position to provide a reasonable critique.

First of all, as a Tablet PC I have no particular complaints. It makes a superfine e-book reader, and I’ve been astonished at how easily I’ve been able to curl up with longish ebooks and not surface an hour later feeling like somebody kicked sand in my eyes. That was a complete surprise, and probably the best single thing about the unit, especially with its implementation of the MS Reader.