IBM's T40 StinkPad is a little cutie

THERE ARE TIMES when you get a product in your hot little hands that makes your life better, mainly because it simply works like it is supposed to. The IBM T40 laptops that I just finished setting up fall into that category. Rather than give you a list of the specs, it is easier to let IBM do it for you.

Basically, it is a very nice, nearly top of the line laptop that hits most of the buzzwords. The only thing lacking is a CD-R, or better yet, a DVD-R. Can't win them all.

As far as laptops go, this one is mid-range. It is not one of the smaller, ultra-portables, nor is it the massive desktop replacements, it is the middle ground. Think porridge just about right Goldilocks. Aside from the lack of anything -R, there is one more curious omission, the screen. Yes, it has one, and it is a nice, bright 14.1 inch model, no qualms there, but the rez of 1024*768 is a little skimpy. I would assume this is for power savings more than anything else, but still, a 1280*1024 screen would make it a lot more usable in Openoffice Calc, and other lesser spreadsheets. It will however play a DVD in widescreen mode on a plane, so I guess I will let it slide.

The thing that immediately impressed me was the feel of the case. Coming from a history of Compaq laptops, no slouches in the quality department themselves, this is quite a step up. The case has a grippy feel, and the keys are more dense than the usual laptop fare. Spinning it around, one thing stood out. It wasn't the ports, they are all there, everything you expect, then some, it was the hinges. This is the first laptop I have ever seen with metal hinges. Solid, chunky hinges. Any serious laptop users will know that on a cheap machine, the hinges are the first thing to go, starting about a week after the warranty runs out. You know the symptoms, open the screen, position it right, and start typing. About 5 minutes later, the screen is about 20 degrees from where you put it, soon followed by a mad grab when the thing suddenly gives up. This is why you don't buy a cheap laptop. Time is the ultimate test here, but I can predict with confidence that I don't think this will happen to the T40. This thing reeks of quality.

Getting the T40 to install Windows XP was similarly uneventful. It just worked. Skipping over the MS attempts at tricking you into providing your personal information, it took about 10 minutes to get it ready to run, not a record, but not bad. The real surprise was the wireless setup. I set up a Linksys BEFW11S4 to test it with, and again, it just worked. The connection was found, and XP presented me with another of the "scary" dialog boxes, making me manually approve a "insecure" wireless connection. Let's not point out to them that 802.11b is insecurable in the first place, it might clue someone in that the whole "secure computing" initiative is smoke and mirrors. Will they ever learn? Don't answer that please. 30 seconds and a few flashing icons later, I was on the net. Slick.

From there, it was a mere 30MB of patches for XP, and a download of Netscape 7.1, and it was over. Nothing out of place, nothing weird, just solid hardware and working drivers. For those who feel the need to have a number at the bottom of the review, this laptop deserves a 9/10. The only thing that kept it from a solid 10/10 was the half hour of turning off XP's eye searing graphics, spyware and "help". Highly recommended. µ

See Also
Another INQ review of the T40. Sheesh, our boys like this one