Electronic Batteries Info

Many people find laptop shopping to be a bit of a chore. In previous years, the selections available would always leave one wanting more. This has changed in 2003 with Apple, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, and IBM all producing svelte yet powerful laptops, making the past dreams of a true desktop replacement a reality. IBM T42

Excellent battery life usually is near the top of any list of must-have laptop features, with a good warranty a close second. My previous laptop had been a Gateway Solo 2500 which gave me about 3 hours of battery life when I first purchased it. The Solo 2500 also had a great warranty (which came in handy one more than one occasion). So with these requirements in mind, it was time to score a new portable. When the dust settled there was one laptop still standing: The IBM ThinkPad T40 Series. After reading about the prowess of its Pentium M CPU and excellent battery life, we were excited about buying ours and digging in. IBM ThinkPad T40

The laptop
We decided ultimately on the T40 2373-91u. The full specs on the machine are as follows:

Pentium M 1.6 Ghz
512 MB PC2100 DDR
Hitachi Deskstar 80GB, 4200rpm
14.1″ SXGA (1400×1050)
ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 / 32 Meg
Intel Pro1000 gigabit Ethernet chipset
56k V.92 modem
CD-RW/DVD Combo DRIVE IBM T40 
Usually the first remark you hear about the T40 is that it is built like a tank. Indeed, the rumors are true. While it is not completely indestructible, I have no fears about my T40 getting damaged in any minor calamity. While the lid gives a little when twisted, its magnesium alloy construction makes it nowhere near as malleable as the plastic on most laptops. The lid is attached to the base with two large metal hinges, and it would take a lot to break them off. The lid is also designed so its edges come around the base a little when it is closed. This provides a little more assurance against injury when you throw it in your bag.

All T40 models have dual USB 2.0 ports, S-video out, dual PCMCIA ports, and a parallel port. I would have loved to have seen FireWire standard on this notebook, but I don’t think the omission is anywhere near being a deal breaker. The other drawback to the T40 is that only one of the memory slots is user-accessible. So you might want to max out the base RAM when ordering.

As far as software goes, the T40 is light in that department. The laptop comes preinstalled with Windows XP SP1, Norton A/V (Trialware), IBM recordnow (a.k.a., Stomp Recordnow), and Acrobat Reader. Most of the other applications IBM included basically duplicate the functionality of other programs. One example is the IBM Update Connector, which updates drivers and IBM software. We could not think of a reason to use this instead of Windows Update. Another odd inclusion is IBM Access Support. This software includes a handful of diagnostics and troubleshooters for the computer, which do about the same thing as the troubleshooters in Windows Help. In general, Windows comes with better software to do the same things all of the IBM software does. Fortunately, you are in no way forced to use any of these utilities. At least IBM does not load the system with apps that just waste away in the system tray.92P1011 6600mAh

There was no media packaged with the laptop, so in the case of total hard drive disaster, you are required to call IBM. What you get instead is a restore partition on the hard drive. This makes it easier for a large company to deploy their own images for easy restoring, but to the average user it means you pay for 6GB of disk space you can’t use without reformatting. It also means that if you have a hard drive failure, you will be SOL. Fortunately, IBM will speedily send you a restore CD if you request one from tech support, or will send you a new hard drive if it is completely unusable. It would be nice if you could request to have it shipped with the computer.

One of the things to keep in mind about the ibm thinkpad t40 series t40 series is that it is designed in many ways for being deployed in droves across a large business. Features like Access IBM are more useful to large IT departments than to individuals who just want a laptop.

The ThinkPad comes with a standard three-year limited warranty, with a one-year warranty on the battery; pretty much standard issue. If you so desire, a more comprehensive warranty is available, which provides for next-day on-site repair. Past experience with the IBM warranty department has been pretty good, they are very hands-off, no off-base questions asked.
 

Specifications of MacBook as reviewed:

• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 80GB hard drive
• Double-layer SuperDrive

Reasons for switching:

Apart from being greatly impressed by the OS X Operating System, I have recently been on the look out for a more portable notebook solution. After having ceased to play computer games due to excessive workload issues, I began to notice how big and heavy my 15.4 inch Asus A6Va really was. Also, as my university course has been focusing more and more on UNIX based systems in the past year and sensing that the trend is not going to change, I began to develop the need for a UNIX based Operating System. Linux, of course, would be an obvious solution, but I often find the popular Open Source Operating System act particularly unfriendly towards me.

Of course, friends are always a great factor in influencing my purchasing decisions. A number of them own MacBooks or iBooks, Macbook Pros, and Mac Minis. Although the Macbook Pro and the Mac Mini are both excellent machines, I did not quite like the Macbook Pro as I did not fancy the feel of its keyboard, and I do not see the point of spending a few hundred pounds extra for a dedicated graphics card I would never use. I did not like the Mac Mini because it meant that I would have to carry around a spare monitor. A1189

Feel free to contact me if you wish to hear all the other reasons that influenced my purchase decision.

Making the purchasing decision:

As a university student in the UK, I had access to discounts via the Apple Higher Education Store via the Apple website. Therefore, I decided to phone Apple and order through the phone to put their sales department to the test.

A cheery sounding sales person called Rod answered my call, who gave me the Higher Education discount after I told him I was from Imperial College. Note that the italic word does indeed mean what you think it means. I did not need to provide him with any proof of identity at all. But then again, I have heard that Apple do checks on the profiles of their customers during the few days before dispatch.

The Higher Education Discount meant that I only had to pay £755.50 for my MacBook as opposed to the usual price of £879. Other than the MacBook, I also ordered an HP Deskjet 5940 and the Brenthaven Edge 13.3″ Black Macbook case, which I might review at a future date if the demand for it arises.

APPLE MacBook Pro 17 inch A1189 Battery 6800mAh

The first information to provide would be the make and model of the equipment that you require the battery for, e.g.  HP F4098A Battery, or SONY PCGA-BPZ51 Battery . There is also usually a label on the battery, and some of the information on the label will help our sales team to identify your battery quickly. This information includes the voltage of the battery pack (note: this is not the same as the voltage on the power supply), the capacity of the battery pack and the chemical construction of the battery pack, e.g.Li-ion, Ni-MH or Ni-Cad. This information can be used to ensure the information you have provided matches the information we have about your battery. Many battery packs also have part numbers on the label; this can sometimes be used to help identify the battery. We would suggest that it is best to have all this information written down or close to hand before you call our sales team. This will help us deal with your call in an efficient manner.