Thinkpad series introduction

The birth of T20

IBM Thinkpad T series has always been the backbone. Excellent performance, excellent quality, and perfect design have always been IBM's We are proud of it, but the T series has been expensive since its emergence. In fact, the same is true for the predecessor of the T series, the 600 series. The price of more than 30,000 when the 600X was released really made it difficult for users who like IBM notebooks. However, after people carefully weigh it, After that, 600X had the best sales volume of the year and won numerous awards. Why is the 600 series so popular? This is because it has the best-feeling keyboard so far, the most fashionable design concept at the time, and it has sublimated the concept of "optical and soft interchangeability". The success of the 600X inspired Thinkpad designers, but they abandoned the 600 series mold and carried out a new design. At the same time, they segmented the notebook market and evolved the original 600 series into the T series, the 570 series and the 240 series. It became the X series, and the i series evolved into the R series, the main model of economic notebooks.

ThinkPad T20

The T in the ThinkPad T series is taken from “thin and light for travel”, emphasizing the combination of mobility and performance. The T series is mainly aimed at advanced mobile users who work in the office and on the move. When it was released, the T20 became the flagship model T42p. It has always maintained the 2-Spindle (hard disk built-in optical drive) style, and the price is also the lowest among all IBM notebooks. The mid- to high-priced ones, the T20 was priced at nearly 25,000 yuan when it was released in 2000. In fact, there is a rule that the price of new T series phones when they are released is not less than 20,000 yuan, which fully shows their noble quality.

In May 2000, IBM released the first model of the T series: T20, which increased the original 13.3'XGA of the 600 series to 14.1'XGA (the low-profile T20 is still 13.3'XGA ), and the body has become thinner and lighter, with a thickness of only 33mm and a weight of 2.36kg (the low-end T20 is 2.26kg). Many new technologies have also been added, such as the addition of an Ultraport slot above the screen frame, which can The T20 supports cameras with Ultraport sockets; a keyboard light design is added so that the keys on the keyboard can still be seen clearly in the dark. There are also many improvements: the battery capacity has been increased to 38.8WH, which extends the use time of the machine. At the same time, the number of battery charges can be seen through IBM's own software; the speaker has been moved from the palm rests on the left and right sides to the lower front of the fuselage; any Analog buttons, completely digital.

T2X Series

ThinkPad T22

ThinkPad T23

The same Logo, the rest are the same of. T23 is a leap forward for the T2x series. It abandons the 440BX motherboard chipset and adopts the Intel830 series chipset. It gets rid of the narrow bandwidth caused by the 100MHz FSB and supports 133MHz FSB; it supports up to 1G SDRAM SODIMM notebook memory (PC133). , while the BX chipset only supports a maximum of 512M; supports AGP4x; a USB interface is added to the rear of the machine, bringing the total number of USB slots of T23 to two; a wireless device antenna 802.11b Mini pci card is officially added to the high-end T23 , making true mobile office possible. With the replacement of the motherboard chipset, the CPU was upgraded from the original copper core MP3 to the Tualatin core P3m, and the secondary cache was increased to 512K (full speed). These technological innovations mean that the T23 has become another classic model after the 600 series. However, the T2x series has a common problem, that is, the 3D processing capability of the display chip is relatively poor. Although it uses the S3 SavageIX, which was the most advanced mobile display chip at the time, and is equipped with With 8M SGRAM, the display effect was still not ideal. The later T23 used the upgraded new version of the S3 SuperSavage IXC 16M display chip, but the performance was still not comparable to the GeForce 2 GO and ATI Radeon that were already used in other brands of notebooks at the time. However, It's normal. IBM itself is a business machine, not a game machine.

T30 Series

After Intel released the P4m mobile processor in 2002, IBM also launched the first P4m notebook: T30. T30 changes the design idea of ​​T2x, from the motherboard to the body structure, it is completely new. However, this "new" officially makes T30 controversial. First, the fuselage is thickened, making the T30 heavier. The first reason is that the P4m generates much more heat than the P3m. In order to provide more space for the powerful cooling system, the inside of the fuselage is raised. Another change of the T30 is the design of the left corner. Some people say that this design destroys the beauty and integrity of Thinkpad notebooks. In fact, this corner cutout has no effect. It just makes the Thinkpad notebook not look stiff. In addition, there is another most prominent difference from the past: the use of UltraNav. That is the design of Trackpoint Touchpad. Many people believe that this is IBM's compromise to the market to cater to the tastes of new users and add more user groups.

Compared with T23, T30 has made a lot of progress and has been greatly improved in all aspects, including weight and thickness. However, T30 sacrifices thickness and weight in exchange for better comfort and durability. In fact, IBM can make the high-performance T series very thin. With the release of the Pentium M (Banias) processor, IBM's latest notebook T40 was released. [1]

T40 Series

T40 is IBM's first Centrino model. Once launched, it attracted a lot of response in the industry. First of all, it changed the design style of the previous T series, overturned the previous design plan, and redesigned the architecture of the T series. T40 is the first Centrino model to use the latest 9.5mm thickness optical drive (Ultraslim), making the whole machine only 26mm thick, and eliminating the left corner cutout, making the whole machine look simpler and brighter. In terms of software, T40 cancels the design of the previous F11 recovery system and replaces it with the HPA recovery system, which is better than the previous F11 recovery system in terms of security and functionality.

The T series can be regarded as one of the best laptops nowadays in terms of performance and functions, but it still leaves us with a lot of regrets. First of all, the workmanship of the T40 is somewhat different from the previous T series. The most obvious decrease is in the optical drive slot. We can clearly see the large gap left after the optical drive is inserted into the host. Even the latest T41 has not improved much, and the keyboard on the right is very empty. The pressure will sink. Secondly, the battery will be relatively loose after installation, and the upper baffle of the battery is not very strong. Another point that must be mentioned is that the T series has not been equipped with an IEEE 1394 interface. Instead, the R series (some models) and X series are equipped with 1394 interfaces. I wonder what IBM thinks.

T40 and later T41 and T42 all followed the UltraNav design and have not changed it. Starting from the T40, a new top model appeared - T4Xp. The processor used the Pentium M with the highest frequency at that time, and the hard drive used the fastest and most powerful 7200 rpm 2.5-inch hard drive in the world today: 7k60. The display chips also used the most advanced products at the time (T40p: ATI Mobolity Radeon 9000; T41p/T42p: ATI FireGL T2). These expensive accessories are put together, and of course the price of the whole machine will not be cheap. The three T4Xp models were all priced at more than 30,000 when they were released, which is shocking.

T41 series

T41 was almost the same as T40 in appearance and configuration when it was released, except that T41’s memory used a 333MHz frequency, while T40 only had 266MHz, and The overall weight of the T41 has also increased to a certain extent (T40 is 2.0kg, T41 is 2.2kg). What is more regrettable is that the reasons why the T40 battery is loose and the bottom right side of the keyboard is empty has not been well solved, and the gap above the optical drive still exists, especially after adding the Ultraslim second hard drive box. In May 2012, the Dothan core Pentium M processor was released, and then IBM released a new version of the BIOS. The T41 can directly support the Dothan core processor by refreshing the BIOS, and the T40 is also immortal and can still support Dothan.

T41--Stable appearance, excellent performance, and relatively affordable price. In addition, it has a good balance between performance and weight, and has been recognized by the majority of consumers. But this cannot stop the release of T42, but T42 is not what people think, it has become lighter than T41. Both in terms of weight and body thickness, they are very similar to the R51. The weight of the T42 6YC reaches 2.65kg, while the weight of the 9ZC using 14.1'SXGA is reduced to 2.28kg. The body is wider than the T41 because it needs to match the area of ​​the 15-inch LCD screen. The main feature of T42 is the use of Dothan processor, and there are no changes in other configurations. The thickness of the fuselage makes the T42 sales less than ideal. However, as some models of the T41 are discontinued, the T42 will gradually fill the gap left by the T41. However, it is unclear whether people will accept this machine that looks like the R51.

T42 series

T42p--has attracted the attention of many people with its excellent performance, excellent quality, strong ease of use and comfort. , many people regard T42p as

ThinkPad T42

#, but are deterred by their limited spending power. However, this illustrates the IBM T series It has increasingly become a symbol of identity and status. Many users who love IBM Thinkpad notebooks will be proud to own a T series product. The T series will continue to adhere to the mid-to-high-end positioning. The T series served as the main model of ThinkPad in the four years after 2000. Its evolution largely reflects the design philosophy of ThinkPad and the progress of notebook computers. From this evolution point of view, we have seen the development of ThinkPad. No matter how the T series will change in the future, it will still be an indispensable and important member of the IBM Thinkpad family.

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