These refurbished systems include a non-DOA warranty (exchange) for system failures not due to neglect, misuse, damage or freight claims. They are factory recertified and legitimately licenced.
Actual System Specifications:

• Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
• 14.0" SXGA (1400 x 1050) display
• 40GB, 7200RPM Hard Drive
• 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM
• CD-RW/DVDROM (CD 24x Read, 16x Write)
• Standard 6-cell battery
• Ports: 2 USB 2.0, 1 ExpressCard slot, 1 PCMCIA card slot, 56K Modem, Ethernet LAN port, PS2 port, headphone jack, microphone jack, parallel port, VGA out port
  Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3
• ATI X300 Graphics Card with 64MB RAM
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 802.11 a/b/g internal wireless card
• Fingerprint scanner for security

These systems will have minor cosmetic imperfections (scuffs and abrasions) from their light use in the corporate sector, but their housings, screens, keys, caddies and hinges are crack free and complete. Systems include AC adaptor and XP Pro Media Kit.

The specific ThinkPad T43 being reviewed here has the following specs:

IBM ThinkPad T43 Specs as Reviewed

* Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
* 14.0" SXGA (1400 x 1050) display
* 60GB, 7200RPM Hard Drive
* 512MB DDR2 SDRAM
* CD-RW/DVD-RW (CD 24x Read, 16x Write) (DVD 3x Read, 2x Write)
* Standard 6-cell battery and optional 9-cell extended life battery
* Ports: 2 USB 2.0, 1 ExpressCard slot, 1 PCMCIA card slot, 56K Modem, Ethernet LAN port, PS2 port, headphone jack, microphone jack, parallel port, VGA out port
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
* ATI X300 Graphics Card with 64MB RAM
* Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 802.11 a/b/g internal wireless card
* Fingerprint scanner for security

T43 Datasheet (1.8MB): IBM T43 Datasheet

ThinkPad Overview

The latest ThinkPad thin-and-light T series notebook addition comes in the form of the T43. The ThinkPad brand has been built over many years now and has come to stand for high-quality, solidly built notebooks that are rugged in their matte black look, yet sleek and professional at the same time. Usability is second-to-none with the ThinkPad line and consumer oriented bells and whistles such as multicard readers or widescreen LCDs are shunned in favor of things such as adding keyboard lights, biometric security readers, hard-drive shock protection or other things that generally add to the usability, durability and security of a notebook.

T43 Design

Aside from the new fingerprint reader (optional), we find that the design for the T43 does not deviate from previous T4X models. Since the ThinkPad T43 is intended for and targeted at business buyers, continuing on this look is just perfect.

Important to note is that there is both a 15.0" and 14.1" screen configuration available, our T43 is the 14.1". Settling for the smaller sized screen results in a smaller overall footprint, less weight and longer battery life and so is better for someone that desires to be more mobile.

A 15.0" model T42 on the left, 14.1" screen model T43 (with extended life battery installed) on the right

Like IBM's previous T4X series models, the T43 is a textbook definition of physical quality. From the first time you touch it, you know it's just good. The screen cover for the ThinkPad T42 is constructed of magnesium alloy and prevents any screen flexing. With other laptops you can usually push on the back of the lid and get a worrying ripple effect on the LCD screen, the T43 protective case will prevent such a thing from happening. The ThinkPad's insides are housed in a case of titanium-reinforced plastic. The whole thing is held together by a pair of sturdy metal hinges that attach the screen and main body of the laptop. These metal hinges ensure that there is no screen wobble, even when on a turbulent plane ride. The T43 simply looks like it's been designed to take a beating (although you should still avoid abusing the notebook when possible).

Input and Output Ports

Below are some pictures of each side of the ThinkPad T43 that displays what ports we have on each side of the notebook. Please note that I have the optional 9-cell extended life battery installed so the battery sticks out, the standard 6-cell battery is flushed with the back of the T43.

On the right side of the T43 we have the optical drive and what's called the D-SUB port (can be used to carry analogue video signals to a monitor). With this configuration the optical drive comes in the form of a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive. This bay is actually completely modular and is called the UltraBay by IBM. You can use the UltraBay to put in an extra battery, a different type of optical drive or even a sled that contains a secondary hard drive that is possible to boot to. Also of note is the hard drive for the T43 is at the front right side and you simply remove a screw from the bottom of the laptop and then slide out the tray it's stored in to swap the hard drive out if you wish.

On the left side of the ThinkPad T43 we have a majority of our ports. Two USB 2.0 ports are on the back right side. Personally I'd like to see more than just 2 ports, but for a thin and light this is acceptable, although not optimal. We also have an S-Video output port available. The modem and Ethernet jacks reside next to the S-Video port. Headphone out and microphone in ports are sandwiched between the Ethernet port and fan vent. On the front right side we have a PC card slot (PCMCIA slot) and ExpressCard slot. It's nice to have the ExpressCard slot as that will be the standard of the future for allowing accessory expansion on notebooks. However, for right now there are very few ExpressCard compatible accessories available.

On the back of the T43 you can see the battery (sticking out in this case because it's an extended life battery), power jack input and parallel port. The parallel port is a legacy port hangover and is completely unnecessary for the consumer, but there are some corporate customers that still need this.

On the front of the notebook the only thing we find are the two latches to hold the screen down (two latches work much better than one for keeping the lid down and tightly closed by the way) and an IrDA port for wireless infrared communication with other devices or laptops.

My IBM T43 notebook came with an SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) resolution display. Personally I prefer having an SXGA screen over XGA. I used a 15-inch screen IBM T42 with an XGA screen (1,024 x 768 resolution) for a period of time, and I can verify that you are able to see more on the screen using a T43 14-inch SXGA (1,400 x 1,050) resolution screen. You can probably see about 10% - 15% more on the 14-inch SXGA screen relative to a 15-inch XGA screen. It's very reasonable to have more than one document open at a time with an SXGA 14-inch screen.

The screen quality and brightness is middle of the road. When compared to other notebook screens such as the Sony XBrite screen or Toshiba TruBrite screen, the IBM T43 falls short. Brightness and clarity on the T43 does not match the top screens out on the market today. The whites on this screen are also not pure white but rather have a very slight tint of yellow, it's not uncommon to find that an LCD presents whites with either a very slight yellowish or bluish hue.

Although the screen brightness is not the best out there, I find the horizontal viewing angle of the T43 to be quite excellent. At a 45 degree horizontal viewing angle things are very readable and viewable still, and even from a full 90 degree viewing angle horizontally I am able to read text on web pages and in MS Word. There are no dead pixels present on the notebook's display. Ghosting on the display (a phenomenon in which fast motion on a screen causes streaks or trails of ghost images) has not been an issue with this display, some T42 users reported such issues, especially on 15-inch display models.

Keyboard / TouchPad / TrackPoint

IBM T43 keyboard / TouchPad / TrackPoint view

The TrackPoint navigation featuring a pointing stick, touchpad and multiple mouse buttons lets you choose your favorite way to navigate the cursor on the screen. I'm a huge fan of the pointing stick. The pointing stick and TrackPoint navigation are great for three reasons.

1. The pointing stick makes it really easy to get the cursor where you want it to go on the screen. I've never met a touchpad that gives you precise control and gets the cursor where you want it to go 100% of the time. With the pointing stick the cursor goes exactly where you want it, and if it begins to act funny and not go where you want it to, simply let go and the machine recalibrates the pointing stick automatically.
2. When the pointing stick is combined with the scroll button (located between the two upper mouse buttons) you can scroll through web pages and long documents with ease. Just hold down the scroll button and push the pointing stick up or down to scroll to where you want on a page.
3. The mouse buttons are raised very nicely making it easy to feel the buttons and push them. Competitors often have buttons that are barely raised, or even worse, flat.

The keyboard on the T43 is in line with the usual IBM exacting standards, there's not a notebook out there with as usable a keyboard. In fact, I prefer the T43 keyboard to even some external computer keyboards I've used. The IBM ThinkPad keyboard uses 7-rows of keys as opposed to the usual 6-rows competitors' use, this makes for more typing room and less cramping of the fingers. Each keyboard key is firm and has excellent travel, and each key feels individual. On a lot of notebooks you'll get flexing of the keyboard, so when pushing in a key you'll see other keys around it get slightly depressed and if you push in on the keyboard you'll see the entire keyboard sag. Not so with any ThinkPad, the keyboard is solid with zero rattle and zero flex. The usability and ergonomics of a keyboard is hugely important for a laptop, IBM has done much research and exerted great effort to ensure this important feature is as good as it can be.

IBM ThinkPad keyboards are sealed and sit inside of a tray so that spills do not get to the electronics underneath. Now this doesn't mean the T43 is waterproof and 100% spill proof by any means (liquid can still get in the vents if your aim is really bad), what it does mean is that if you spill some water onto the keyboard then you'll have time to tip up the notebook and pour the liquid out before it seeps down into the internal components of the notebook.

One thing I should note regarding any ThinkPad keyboard is that IBM has always been stubborn about not putting a "Windows" key on the bottom left-side that nearly every other notebook has. Pushing this key by default pops up the start menu in Windows. Some people like having this and find it annoying when it's not there, personally I don't care, and I'm sure some Linux fans are just plain chuffed that IBM chooses to leave this Windows friendly button out!

Above the main keyboard are a few hardware buttons: the power button, volume up and down buttons, a mute button and the blue "Access IBM" button. The Access IBM button will launch an IBM software application called Access IBM that will guide you in using, protecting, configuring and updating software on your T43. Once again, this shows IBM is highly concerned about the ThinkPad's usability and end user experience. It would have been nice to have play, pause and stop buttons for the DVD player, but these are more consumer oriented features and in general IBM shies away from such things. Apparently in the future this "Access IBM" button is going to be named "ThinkVantage" due to the Lenovo buyout of the IBM PC division (more on that later).

Processor and Performance

This particular ThinkPad T43 I'm using comes with a Pentium M 750 1.86GHz processor, and for using standard work applications this is absolutely more than enough for what you'll need. In general, with a 7200RPM hard drive and 512MB of RAM (my T43's configuration) you'll be very happy with the overall T43 speed performance. Running programs such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Adobe PhotoShop, Microsoft Word and Media Player at the same time, and flipping between them, were common tasks I performed and never made the T43 hiccup.

We use Super Pi to get a benchmark of processor speed. The Super Pi program simply forces the processor to calculate Pi to a selected number of digits of accuracy. Calculating to 2 million digits is our benchmark:

Comparison of notebooks using Super Pi to calculate Pi to 2 million digits (plugged in):
Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 45s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 48s
IBM ThinkPad T41 (1.6GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 23s
Compaq R3000T (Celeron 2.8GHz) 3m 3s
Dell Inspiron 600m (1.6 GHz Dothan Pentium M) 2m 10s
Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.7GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 28s

Although the T43 is fast for common applications, if you want to play games, it's a bit of a different story. The T43 I have comes with an ATI X300 64MB graphics card. This is certainly better than integrated graphics, but the X300 won't deliver enough power to run Doom 3 with any type of satisfactory playing experience.

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