This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 25 Jul 2006, by Andrew Schamess.
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25 Jul 06
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Pros: It's strange to 'back a screen size' from my old Satellite Pro's 15" screen, but the M400's 12.1" screen is very sharp and very usable. M400 is expensive (£1149 in UK pre-sales tax) and I wouldn't have paid that much if it came from my pocket. Handwriting-to-text conversion is astounding. Speech-to-text conversion is good but not as good as handwriting recognition - still worth using, though. Fingerprint scanner is absolute magic. On-screen inking is great; this machine goes with me to all my meetings (which is why I bought a tablet). Runs very cool (but see below re. fan). Battery life good (can't give you a running time (because I haven't measured it) but certainly the best of any portable I've used). Plenty of software included (too much? You have to reduce what is activated at startup). I added 1Gb RAM to the 512Mb supplied, and I would advise you to do the same. No laptop is perfect; this one isn't, but it's VERY, VERY good. Thoroughly recommended.
Cons: Not the best keyboard I have ever used (this is my 7th laptop and I've handled a lot of others). On the other hand, I use written or voice input for anything more than half a page! Fan runs ALL the time. Fan noise isn't intrusive in an office setting, but I took the M400 to an evening class, and there it WAS intrusive. The supplied Norton/Symantec security software fell over every 15 minues (the same happens on my boss's M400). The M400 was also locking for 30-60 zeconds randomly. Removed the Norton/Symantec software and installed McAfee instead. The falling over problem went away, the random locking stopped and the M400 boots noticeable faster too. Too much software is set to start up in the background at boot time. I repeat my comment above: no laptop is perfect, but this one is good.
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Pros: Built in optical drive with a Duo chip.
Cons: I have used a non-tablet Toshiba laptop for 4 years and wanted something that I could work on at home, easily carry across campus (I'm not a big person), take notes in meetings/seminars and use for presentations. I really don't like the design of the M400!! It is too thick to hold comfortably and heavier then I want. The fan is noticeable in a very quiet room. After waiting two months for it, I'm turning it over to the students in my program and will probably forgo the tablet and get something very thin and light. Too bad the Lenovo X60t (tablet) was just a rumor.
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Pros: Crisp clear screen. Dual core processor. Acceptable weight but definitely not light. Wide range of device and network connectivity. Multi-format smart cards slot. Data security and integrity protections. Bundled software. Wacom penable digitizer.
Cons: Not wide screen. No dedicated graphics card. Heavier than ultra-protable notebooks or slates. Quite thick and bulky. No DVI / S-Video, PS2, COM, Infra-red, Express Card, CF/MMC ports. Not touch screen. No modular bay battery option. Standard battery time not long. No installation CD. Cannot boot from Firewire nor Memory Stick. Small screen with native tiny font sizes. SATA HDD not natively supported by Windows XP. Logical SCSI RAID 1 drive seems only slow down the machine without any apparent benefit. Difficult to remove or put back the modular bay CD-DVD drive. Difficult to upgrade the memory. Expensive.
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Total User Ratings: 23 Recommendations: 60.9%
39.1% 
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