T4020 vs T2010 vs X61

Hi All,

I found myself in the stange position of having 3 new tablets in my posession and thought to offer some insights.

Here is what I have.
T4220 1400x1050 2.4 Ghz 4gb 200Gb 7200 4 Gb readyboost
T2010 1280x800 1.2 Ghz 2.5Bg 100 Gb 5400
X61 XGA 1.6 Ghz 3gb 80 gb 7200 1 GB turbo for REadydrive and 4 gb for Ready boost.

So which is the best? I would say the T2010. Here is why

A tablet is a portable device so battery life and weight are critical. The T2010 has the best battery life on a single 9 cell. The T4020 can use two batteries and I get about 7-8 hours, but it weighs about 35% more. The X61 does not have the 5 hours min. IMHO, 5hours is a min since 3 hours is reasonable and the extra two give you buffer. The T2010 can go much longer than 5 on the 9 cell. Also you can not hot swap a single batter without AC power also.

As for screen, the T series are better. Crisper cleaner etc. I would not mess with the X61 SXGA until they have it figured out for at least a year. The T2010 is a bit short in the 800 direction but that is okay. The 4020 is even better. For the desktop a 1600x1200 in portrait is a great second monitor choice.

As for performance. I think the T4020 is overpowered! Runs too hot and with the vent ports (intake) on the bottom is simply does not breath well. If you get one I suggest the 2 ghz and nothing higher. I thought initally, on paper the L series 1.6ghz would be ideal, but as it turns out the U 1.2 in the T2010 actully runs very well. Unless you are doing something really demanding (on a tablet????) then it should be great. In fact my daughter runs photoshop 7 on it and is satisfied with the performance. After she moves to her machine with 1 gb turbo mem for ready drive and 4 gb for readyboost and a full 4 gb of ram (which only cost $130 for two 2gb chips since it is the older ram) she should be rocking.

The T2010 venting is all on the sides so it can be used as a tablet well. Yes the fan does turn on and you can hear it but the heat is less than the T4010's by a long shot. The X61's heat is again in the middle.

Some random comments below:
-- T4010 comes with the 3m protectors with are great because they really dont alter the screen or actually make it brighter; T2010 come with the thick dark ones which are throwaways. You will need to buy the 3m ones. Tx61 does not inclue any.

-- Disk restore software comes with fujitsu but not with the X61 ( they rob you of 15gb? of disk to store it on a partition)

-- Tx61 has a lot of bloat ware and a fait amount of "semi bloat ware" that is custom to the machine). Fujitsu has much less semi bloatware.

--Keyboard on the X61 is great but the Flex issue on the T4010 is a non issue for me since I type less using the voice and the pen. The T2010 keyboard is better but not as solit as the X61. BTW "solid" is not the same as better.

--The hinge on the T series seem more robust. with the 4010 being the best.

Lastly, using XPtune 1.5, if you run the boot defrag and the boot file move to front functions TWICE, you can get a boot time of about 25sec.

Cheers and hope this helps!!

Dean

 

I have had the X60 tablet before and switched to the T2010. The X60 is a great tablet and had the best construction I've seen on a convertible, but I agree its battery life was disappointing, I got about 4 hours 30 minutes. I find the T2010 better than the X60 even though it lacks the solid construction of the Thinkpad. The SXGA+ screen on the X60 is about half of the brightness of the T2010 at best, it can't hold a candle(pardon the pun) to the LED backlight. The WXGA on the T2010 is just about right in readability and has excellent contrast and wide viewing angles comparable to the X60.

I paid over $2100 on the X60 for the best configuration, but the T2010 only cost me $1400 which I considered an "upgrade". The core 2 duo ULV 1.06ghz processor I found was not only sufficient, I didn't feel like I lost any performance from the X60's 1.66ghz. I'm not running the most intense applications but the ink on onenote flows smoothly like any other tablet. The best feature is its battery life. The ULV processor can clock itself down to the point that I can get 7 hours easily when I am using this at work, on a 6 cell battery! I get over 4 hours if I'm lucky on the X60 with 8 cell. The thing that makes the X60 less attractive is the dim screen, which is unreadable unless it is cranked over 80% which sucks more battery than anything else. The T2010 thanks to its LED, can be comfortably be viewed with 30% brightness saving loads of battery. I have not tried the T4220 but if it weren't for the heat issues I may have gone with that instead. I'm glad I went with the T2010 despite its minor issues, I believe it is the best tablet for the price. The configuration at newegg is a no compromise device ready for work out of the box, packed with bluetooth, fingerprint reader. To get one of the best screen of all laptops(imo ), tablet functionality, solid performance and one of the best battery life for the same price as a comparably sized ultraportable makes the T2010 THE choice for tableteers and even for non-tablet users.

 

Wow, this kind of comparative review is highly appreciated and helpful. Thanks.

 

You want to say guys, if I have a X61 with Core2Duo LV CPU, MultiView + MultiTouch screen and 8-cell battery, it will run only 3 hours on average?

 

who said that?
Mine averages around 4h on "office" usage.

 

I understood it from here.