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Lenovo X200T In The House

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With CES right around the corner, the friendly folks at Lenovo sent me an X200T to use for the event. I’m sure you’ve all seen by now the excellent reviews that Warner posted up. I won’t bore you again with another review of the tablet, especially considering how thorough, in depth, informative, and entertaining his reviews were. I do have my Fujitsu T2010 that I will be comparing it to. I was going to post up some comparison pics, but my digital camera is broken and I won’t have access to another one for another week or so. I’ll be doing more in-depth comparisons in the very near future. For now, I’ll just give a really quick rundown of what I like and don’t like in the two days I’ve been setting the X200T up for CES in comparison to my T2010.

Pros:

– The speed of the new Centrino 2 processors is truly breathtaking. I was sent a unit with the L9300 processor, which runs at 1.6GHz. With 4GB of RAM onboard, the computer boots up very quickly. The 160GB 7200RPM hard drive accesses information quickly. It’s not quite as snappy as the T5010 I reviewed earlier, but it definitely leaves the T2010 in the dust.

– The chassis is completely solid. There’s no flexing, no creaking, and absolutely no wobbling anywhere on the X200T.   The X200T’s hinge is also bi-directional and snaps smartly in place when converting from notebook to tablet mode.

– The keyboard feels as good as any full-sized keyboard. This keyboard is unreal. It’s comfortable, it doesn’t flex, it has just the right amount of travel, and the keys are spaced out just perfectly. The mouse pointer makes the Fujitsu’s look like a stiff imitation. This is by far the best track pointer I have ever used.

– Battery life is tremendous. I have the 8-cell battery attached to the back of the X200T and it has lasted as long as the 9-cell on my T2010. Keep in mind that the L9300 processor is only a “Low-Voltage” processor, not the “Ultra Low-Voltage” processor of the T2010. Much props to Lenovo for maximizing battery life using the new architecture.

– The Lenovo is VERY QUIET compared to the T2010. Those of you who have experienced the T2010’s fan knows what I’m talking about. Stressed, unstressed, at idle or under full load, the fan doesn’t ever turn into a hair dryer. I’ll be installing RightMark’s CPU Clock Utility to monitor the temps of the processor, but no matter what I’ve done,   the computer remains quiet.

Cons:

-Screen brightness is about half as bright as the T2010. Full brightness on the X200T is roughly equal to the T2010 set at 56% brightness. The matte screen is great with very little speckling, it’s just not as bright as I’m used to.

– Weight seems to be a bit more than the T2010. It’s hard to really say since I don’t have access to a scale, but the X200T just feels a bit heavier. It might be the balance of the device that gives off this feeling, since the weight of the computer is concentrated to the back where the extended battery is. Speaking of which, I am still trying to get used to the balance of the X200T. Weight isn’t evenly distributed and reminds me of a better version of the HP TX2051 I was using for a while.

– Unless I mute the speakers, I haven’t figured out how to turn off the alerts that go off when I plug in or unplug the device. It even beeps when I close the lid to make the computer go to sleep. This is probably just user error at this point though.

Lenovo really did a good job with the X200T. If I was in the market for a new tablet and price wasn’t an issue, this one would be up there with the HP 2730p and Fujitsu T2020. Stay tuned for more comparisons as I use the X200T from now until CES. I’ll be posting up comparison pictures as soon as I get my hands on another digital camera.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Loren Heiny

    12/14/2008 at 11:27 am

    Lenovo has been creating some of my favorite Tablet PCs of late. I look forward to seeing the X200T in action as you use it at CES.

  2. Anthony

    12/14/2008 at 1:00 pm

    Can you please test pairing a Microsoft BlueTooth Mouse against this Tablet? My current x61t’s Tablet.exe Driver crashes, upon booting, once paired with my Microsoft BlutTooth Mouse (the 8000 with Memory stick model.) I would like to know if this issue still exists. Thanks.

  3. Truc Bui

    12/14/2008 at 4:55 pm

    Hi Anthony, I don’t have a MS BT mouse, but I do have a Dell BT mouse made by Logitech. Would that work?

    Loren, I’m really looking forward to CES with the X200T. I want to take a look at the new T2020 before I make any real decision, but the Lenovo really shines compared to the T2010. I really appreciate the attention to detail on the Lenovo unit. Can’t wait!

  4. R

    12/15/2008 at 11:55 am

    I think that beeping when power is connected/disconnected is controlled via a bios option.

  5. Jason

    12/15/2008 at 12:43 pm

    I can turn that beeping off on my x41 in the Lenovo Power Manager, under the global power settings tab. You will have to switch it to advanced to see that tab though. Hopefully it is the same for you, cause I fully understand how annoying that beep can be sometimes.

  6. Sara

    12/16/2008 at 9:41 am

    I actually miss the beep on my X61T

  7. Sara

    12/16/2008 at 9:42 am

    Did my message get cut off? I meant to say I missed it, as I can’t hear it when running Ubuntu. For me, the beep is a pleasant novelty.

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