I’m officially a hard core nerd. I currently own two laptops and a desktop computer… that is far too many for a normal person. I’ve got a really old Sony that has been collecting dust since I bought my desktop back in May 2006. The Sony is really sluggish and is pretty big and heavy so carting that thing around the world was never really an option.
So I’ve been on the hunt lately for a more portable laptop and finally found my match! I just bought myself a super small 12.1″ IBM Thinkpad X41. It’s only 1.2kg, 1.6Mhz Intel Centrino, 1GB Ram, 40GB hard drive, wiFi, external CD drive, and 5 hours worth of battery. I’ve never liked widescreen laptops and can’t stand glossy screens and this computer has neither of those dubious improvements so that was a selling point as well. The red thing is my passport, the blue thing is a Swiss Army knife and I put my SLR camera to the right to give an idea of the laptop’s size. It weighs about the same as my camera and lens which I think is pretty amazing.
I bought it used off a totally non-dodgy guy who was getting an upgrade for work and I feel good about the purchase. I got it for £275 as well which is well below what I was willing to spend. I saw it on eBay for over £400 so I think I got a bargain. I was originally going to buy something either brand new or really flashy but I would have been paranoid about it all the time. It would suck if my laptop ever gets stolen but if it does it’s not the end of the world really because I haven’t spent that much on it. I just need to remember to keep everything backed up! It’s not super sexy either which might keep thieves away. IBMs seem to be pretty rugged as well so that’s another advantage.
It’ll take awhile to get used to using a laptop again, especially one with such a small screen when compared to my desktop. I’ll be keeping my desktop right up until I leave and am hoping to sell it to my housemate to cover the cost of the laptop. I’ll be heading up to Scotland for 10 days in October though and will be taking my new baby laptop up for a dry run and will report back on how I find using it.
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