Lenovo ThinkPad T42 Laptop/Notebook

The IBM-Lenovo T42 is an exceptionally well-engineered laptop. Styled in IBM's classic ThinkPad black, it affords the best keyboard in the industry and holds up well, even compared to the very latest models and other brands. Slim, efficient, sturdy, the T42 and its siblings in T-Series are truly worth owning. I love the feel and reliable performance. The "ThinkLight" feature lets me type without turning the big light on in the room. Battery time is great. There are extra-capacity batteries for those who want to go all work-day long without a plug. The removable optical drive bay will accommodate an optional battery on most models. Reasonably-priced docking stations are available allowing you to dress up your laptop like a desktop, attaching a keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, etc to the docking station--then push one button, and you are off with your laptop all freshly charged.

The economy is bad right now. There are a surplus of quality laptops: Dells, Gateways, HPs and of course IBMs. It is a great time to buy because they are abundant and reasonably inexpensive. Let's face it. These are computers that someone paid $1,500 - $2,000+. They are made to last, unlike most retail versions you see in the stores.

I also like the fact that there are always parts available in the used market and good support for drivers and specs.

I am a ThinkPad junkie. I love those things because they generally work so well for so long.

The T42 which I just purchased used here on EBay arrived quickly but packaged horribly, virtually thrown into a box with only 7 USPS Priority Mail envelopes to cushion it, yet once the existing battery was charged it worked OK but with a few significant screen flickers which seem to be going away the longer I run the machine during a given session. Oddly enough only the blue background has the most noticeable flicker while white and other colors seem stable.

The Pentuim M is probably an order of magnitude slower than my Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 with its multicore I7 processor but what can one expect. As stated in another Ebay location, it seemingly runs "forever" on the new replacement battery I ordered from a separate EBay vendor than the person I from whom I purchased the machine. Btw it's nice to be able to purchase replacement batteries now without having to mortgage the house. Thank you after market vendors!

The T42 has every feature I would normally want in a laptop except for a Blu-Ray DVD player/burner but I have no doubt that something to remedy that situation will appear sometime soon. Even my older Mac Titanium G4 Powerbook has one available and there are far more ThinkPads than Titanium G4s.

I purchased this particular product to use in my Amateur Radio station for multiple digital mode operations and to keep more and better records of my Civil Air Patrol activities. I could not have made a better decision.

The only common disadvantage to most of the ThinkPads is locating and changing the CMOS batteries. They are hard to find in the machines and harder to find after market replacements. Almost all of them are plug-in once you discover their locations. I would postulate that finding replacement backlights and/or LCD displays would be difficult and perhaps prohibitively expensive. Time will tell. I haven't had to do that yet.

I would recommend most any of the newer ThinkPads to anyone needing a good starter computer. This one is no exception.

This is the fifth IBM T42 Laptop I've purchased on Ebay. I clean them up, (detail them), update windows, add more memory, sometimes a larger hard drive, and install a few really nice shareware programs, and resell them at a small profit. These are some of the nicest, most reliable older laptops ever made. IBM did their homework on this Lenovo-it is thin, lightweight, and speeds through all apps. The included IBM software works flawlessly to assist you with anything-and PC Doctor is a wonderful little app as well-helps you fix any hardware glitches, and runs some really handy diagnostics. I've never had an IBM T-42 have any problems at all with the hardware, either. It's truly a "best buy", and I feel wonderful about recycling!

I bought the IBM laptop because it is lighter weight than many others. It fits in a binder notebook, so is easy to organize papers with the laptop,when working on line at the cafe or library. I bought a mini mouse to go with it and like that better than a touch pad. The computer is fast and I love it!

What can, I say about the T42? Anyone considering buying a new budget or netbook should look at any the T series by IBM or Lenovo which IBM sold their laptop manufacturing too. I also own a T22 and T60 as well as a Macbook, ASUS and Gateway laptop. The T42 is a solid well made machine. I have Linux running on it and it runs well. Mine came with just 2gb of ram but that's fine for most Lunux distros as well as a built in wireless card.

Budget buyers can find these units for around $100.00 here. Most come with a 40gb to 100gb hard drive. Buy a larger one if needed and swap it out. The Centrino processor isn't the fastest or best but its great and will beat the Atom processor or lower end AMD processors found in less expensive machines.

Excellent keyboards, wonderful sharp display and great overall build quality. A bit heavy by today's standards but still bearable. Some people may quibble about only 1gb or 2gb of ram but the average user tends to use less then 512mg ram. Great value, buy one!