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August 25, 2006
LIfe with The Lifebook
So it's been a while living with the LifeBook Laptop.
I must say I'm pretty pleased with it. There are many pro's and a few cons. (or wish haves), yet for the most part it's been a highly productive machine.
I use it alot in my living room. It sits on my coffee table while I relax, watch TV and chill.
Granted I have a few computers in there but this one is readily available and with a few disconnects, I can carry it to another room and contine my session.
On the road it's been a usefull tool too.
I don't usually use it in the AM as I sleep on the way in while riding the subway, but I do use it part of the way home.
I've been loading it up with various software for reading electronic books and or hard core developing.
I have the cygwin environment as well as VMWare running Linux. This gives me a full Unix environment in a box. Jack in to the network, transfer the virtual hard drive images and now my desktop has the virutal linux environment I've been working on.
The cygwin is so I have my unix tools (rsync, ssh, cvs, emacs, gcc) at the normal command prompt. It also lets me test compilation of our production tools in the windows environment. I've actually been doing this for a few years with the interix environment, but now I feel the cygwin is pretty mature enough for work.
The tablet functionality is really a boost in a crowded seat when I need to do a code review or read an electronic book. This was one of my main reasons for the convertable. Download some code, study away. I found out by accident that the fingerprint reader also functions as a scroll control. Very swift!
As far as entertainment, The lifebook functions pretty well. Although not as spiffy as a media desktop replacement, the lifebook holds it's own. The downside is the internal speakers and somewhat grainy screen. Ah, there's a price to pay for the indoor/outdoor screen. On the pro side, I am able to read the screen with no reflections when the sun starts shining through the subway window.
Battery life is pretty good compared to my prior notebook machine (Compaq N400C). This one achives 3.5 hours depending on usage.
The other day Tricia and I were able to watch a DVD movie on batteries INCLUDING the use of USB powered philips speakers. (review on that to come later).
Thereafter the battery monitor reported I still had 36 minutes of power left (and I had used 30 minutes of power with VMWare prior to firing up the DVD).
Not too shabby, but I may invest in a spare Bay battery for the long hauls.
On the con side is it's weight and size (althought that's a pro tool) Using it in a cramped seat does make me wish for the smaller 1510D model, however the T4210D was much more capable of a development platform.
The 2Ghz duo-core processor is a pleasure to work with. Fast snappy response and good compilation times. Even when running vmware I find it to be adequate. Regarding heat, the bottom does get warm, but not warm enough to cause any pain. This is unlike my friends Sagaer laptop which gets so dam hot it burns and causes pain.
The 4.5 LBS of the lifebook is not that bad, bit it's also one of the points making me wish for the smaller model. Hard to compare 4.5lbs with 2.2 lbs. Extracting the DVD player from the unit saves 1/2 a lb, but I'm not sure I really want to do that either. It's not much of a problem on my back (I walked across the city with it). It's more of a tiring when using it in tablet mode. It does make your arm tired as you hold it in the crook of your arm.
All in all these are things I can live with....
Coming soon is a review of the iGo Everywhere130 Power supply.
I had the need for a second power supply at work, and I discovered the iGo products and invested in them. I'm just awating the proper tip and I'll be able to test it out.
Looks like I may be a bit lighter to Prog Power USA this year with a few less power supplies! Yay!
Posted by Me on August 25, 2006 08:58 PM
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