When they first appeared on the market I lived with a tablet PC as my main machine, as I really liked the idea of being able to write and draw on the screen. Using the pen to navigate windows works well most of the time, but I found that sooner rather than later I needed a keyboard. Either because I had lots of text to enter, and needed to get it right first time, or because there were some awkward characters that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the recognition software to understand. Thankfully the IBM X41 ThinkPad tablet that I tried recently is both a tablet and a laptop and comes with a proper keyboard - so it meets one of my key criteria.
I’ve always been impressed with the IBM ThinkPad range of laptops. The machines have sleek functional styling and look good. The X41 puts these good looks into a really neat package slightly smaller than an A4 page. With the battery pack attached it weighs in at 1.3kg - a real blessing if you have to take your machine with you all the time.
I was also impressed with the solid quality feel of the machine and it performed well. The neat keyboard was a pleasure. The screen was clear and bright and, in tablet mode (just a twist and click from laptop mode), it all worked really well. The screen-pen combination was very responsive and, again, a pleasure to use. For anyone using a tablet for the first time there are the usual on-screen tutorials that ensure you get to grips with the basics really quickly.
Like all ThinkPads, the X41 has the blue Access IBM key that enables the user to recover after a crash or failure. I didn’t have cause to use this but all the reports are that this is a very useful feature. Is there anything I didn’t like about this machine? No. I usually find those little joy stick things that are provided on mouse-less and trackpad-less portables hard to cope with, but even that seemed OK on the X41.
In summary, I think the X41 is a really nice machine. If I was in the market for a laptop/tablet then I would have a fairly short shortlist and the X41 would be on it.
Les Watson is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Information Services) at Glasgow Caledonian University
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Details
IBM X41 ThinkPad
Tablet PC which converts to a laptop.
Prices start at £1,290 + VAT, review model was an upmarket version (identified as UP05GUK) and is priced at £1,980 + VAT.
More details on IBM products can be found at http://www.ibm.com/uk/
Ratings
Fitness for purpose 4/5
Ease of use 4/5
Features 4/5
Quality 4/5
Value for money 3.5/5 |
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