IBM X31 construction PC version of 12"PB?

[evilsprung]

Anyone see the review of IBMs X31 on Anandtech? I was particularly interested in the specs on the construction. Makes you sorta wonder which company was getting their inspiration off of.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1809

[ewinemiller]

Originally posted by evilsprung
Anyone see the review of IBMs X31 on Anandtech? I was particularly interested in the specs on the construction. Makes you sorta wonder which company was getting their inspiration off of.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1809

Actually it's not very far off the 4 year old ThinkPad I have at work, just much much faster.

[shadowfax]

I doubt IBM is getting many ideas from apple in their design department. they have done their own thing for a LONG time. i think they are one of the only ones in the business who still use that stupid stick thing in the middle of the keyboard.

[Latino]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
I doubt IBM is getting many ideas from apple in their design department. they have done their own thing for a LONG time. i think they are one of the only ones in the business who still use that stupid stick thing in the middle of the keyboard.

You may call it stupid, but I much prefer it to the trackpad found on all macs and a lot of PCs. I just can't get used to it, and I find them very annoying. I love the trackpoint, that stupid thing as you call it.

It's all a matter of preference

Dell used to ship laptops with both, tackpad and trackpoint... do they still do this?

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Latino
You may call it stupid, but I much prefer it to the trackpad found on all macs and a lot of PCs. I just can't get used to it, and I find them very annoying. I love the trackpoint, that stupid thing as you call it.

It's all a matter of preference

Dell used to ship laptops with both, tackpad and trackpoint... do they still do this?
i am pretty sure that IBM is the only big name one that does this.

my school has dell laptops with the "pointer stick," and they utterly piss me off. you can't change the pointer settings on most because of security crap, and they have the "tapping" turned on on the pointer stick. so any time i hit f or g in a word processor, the damn thing moves my text to wherever the cursor is. it pisses me off.

touch pads are easy to get used to, and pretty easy to avoid while typing if you learn proper posture. and you can learn to navigat with one thumb and click with the other, so you don't even have to move your thumb from the keyboard. i find it much easier to be precise, even in photoshop, with my powerbook's track pad. the darn thing is incredible.

[Dr. Distortion]

Originally posted by Latino
You may call it stupid, but I much prefer it to the trackpad found on all macs and a lot of PCs. I just can't get used to it, and I find them very annoying. I love the trackpoint, that stupid thing as you call it.

It's all a matter of preference

Dell used to ship laptops with both, tackpad and trackpoint... do they still do this?

Yeah, I prefer that mousepoint over the trackpad too... got a crappy Toshiba laptop... :)

-Dr. D.

P.S. some of my friends tend to call the mouspoint 'clit', for obvious reasons.

P.P.S. you can switch the top of the cl- err, mousepoint. My laptop came with rough and smooth ones, and in various colors :)

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
i think they are one of the only ones in the business who still use that stupid stick thing in the middle of the keyboard.

And Apple are the only ones in the business who still ship that 'stupid' one button mouse.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Flowbee
And Apple are the only ones in the business who still ship that 'stupid' one button mouse.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. and often the beholder is disreputable. believe me, you will never find someone who hates the one button mouse as much as me. on the other hand, i think that a one button trackpad is perfect--you don't have to think about which button you're hitting, and if you want a contextual menu you just hit the ctrl key, which is right there on a laptop...

[Keith Purfield]

My brother's Dell Inspiron 8200 has the mousepoint.

[firestarter]

Originally posted by evilsprung
Anyone see the review of IBMs X31 on Anandtech? I was particularly interested in the specs on the construction. Makes you sorta wonder which company was getting their inspiration off of.


I'm typing this on a 3 year old IBM X20. It has almost the exact same design - a nifty litle laptop.

[sparks9]

The Thinkpad X31 is an ultraportable notebook, the powerbook is not, the PB probably weighs 2 times as much as the Thinkpad.

I have an x22 (looks just like the x31) and it's great, a portable computer needs to be PORTABLE.

I don't see what you mean by where they get their inspiration from, because the Thinkpad has looked like this for ages (longer than the g4 powerbook for sure).

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by sparks9
I don't see what you mean by where they get their inspiration from, because the Thinkpad has looked like this for ages (longer than the g4 powerbook for sure). not to mention the 12 inch G4 Powerbook ;)

[G4scott]

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

That thing's UGLIIIIIEEEEEEEE

It's slanted

has a complicated plastic design

doesn't have an optical drive

and it just looks like it came out of my @$$

Die-hard windoze mobile fans may like it, but I'd still take my 12" PowerBook over it any day...

besides, they use the same design that they started out with 486 notebooks...

IBM, stop wasting time and money on laptops like this, and give us the 970!!!

(now I sound like a 970 freak... :rolleyes: )

[G4scott]

Originally posted by sparks9
The Thinkpad X31 is an ultraportable notebook, the powerbook is not, the PB probably weighs 2 times as much as the Thinkpad.

I have an x22 (looks just like the x31) and it's great, a portable computer needs to be PORTABLE.

I don't see what you mean by where they get their inspiration from, because the Thinkpad has looked like this for ages (longer than the g4 powerbook for sure).

Uh, the 12" PowerBook weighs just 4.6 pounds. Not exactly twice as much.

The 12" PowerBook can have a superdrive

The 12" PowerBook has 802.11g (not sure if the x31 does, but it has centrino, which revolves around 802.11b)

The PowerBook looks cooler and will get more chicks.

I didn't see on the page, but what's the battery life of the x31? And yes, I've gotten 4.5 hours out of my 12" PowerBook...

[Latino]

Originally posted by Shadowfax


my school has dell laptops with the "pointer stick," and they utterly piss me off. you can't change the pointer settings on most because of security crap, and they have the "tapping" turned on on the pointer stick. so any time i hit f or g in a word processor, the damn thing moves my text to wherever the cursor is. it pisses me off.

Well, just because you can't change the settings of the trackpoint coz your school have limited this functionality doesn't make them utterly useless

touch pads are easy to get used to, and pretty easy to avoid while typing if you learn proper posture.

Again, this is a matter of personal preference. I just can't get used to the trackpad. I hate them, and can't get any accuracy whatsoever. I much prefer the trackpoint.

Just my 1 cent (sorry, saving the other cent for a new ibook and a mouse to go with it)

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Latino
Well, just because you can't change the settings of the trackpoint coz your school have limited this functionality doesn't make them utterly useless

Again, this is a matter of personal preference. I just can't get used to the trackpad. I hate them, and can't get any accuracy whatsoever. I much prefer the trackpoint.

Just my 1 cent (sorry, saving the other cent for a new ibook and a mouse to go with it) indeed. but you would get used to it if you had to. i promise. it's a human thing. i used to like those trackballs back when 1.5 inch laptops were the norm... my dad's pentium 166 laptop, heh... i hated laptops with touchpads, even right up till i got my TiBook. spending my time on it, i got used to it though, and now i am right at home with it. it's that immersion that did it for me.

i really think that there are some technical advantages to using the pad over the pointer stick; the fact that it integrates the mouse into the keyboard is somewhat troubling; the keys shouldn't just be split like that. but you don't have to agree with me, i guess; apple is on my side on this one :p