nc8000 and t41 head to head... well sorta..

i saw a few questions about t41 and the nc8000 so perhaps this might help someone...

i ve got both t41 (work) and nc8000... when i have some time, will try to do a fuller comparison between the two.. but here is a few notes

nc8000:

-better screen (i had no idea just how good the screen is on this machine.. the issue with the t41 is that it seems too bright and somewhat out of focus at the top when the bottom is fine.. and vice versa when change the viewing angle - i ve tried lots of tweaking at no avail)
-better video (meaning faster - radeon9600.. plays all the latest/greatest)
- bigger screen – 15 inches..
-heavier (that 1.5 pound makes a difference)
-longer battery life.. ~5hours..
- good keyboard.. quality as good as on the t41
- very stiff pointer and the "mouse" buttons.. real pain to use.
- serial port, firewire (none on t41)
- extra (currently empty) multi bay for another hdd/battery/cdrom
- no bs "recovery partitions" that wipe your harddrive clean.. very little extra useless software installed..
- FULL VERSION of XP pro CD supplied!!.. also another two cds with docs and drivers..
- so far had very positive exp with tech support.. (had to get a new battery) both in us and canada

t41:

-SUPERB BUILD QUALITY.. i thought that nc8000 felt pretty solid.. but there is really no comparison.. this one is really great.. no cracking noises at all.. fells almost indestructible..
- light.. (very) thin..
- very usable pointer/touchpad and the accompanying buttons..
- sound/brightness levels are displayed on the screen in windows (although not in linux).. this is very helpful!.. nc8000 does not have this implemented.
- talked to support only once (to get the recovery cds sent to me) but I did not have to wait on hold at all – good sign
- cdrom/dvd slides out of its multibay… so could throw in another battery..

linux:
got linux (redhat/libranet) running on both machines.. needed a newer kernel (2.4.24) to get DMA and acpi working in both cases.. i should note that acpi is somewhat shady on the nc8000 (battery indicator does not work, shutdown does not turn the system off).. have not experimented with suspend too much but i think it works.. got IBM (philips chip) wireless on the t41.. got it working with the linuxant driver..

so to sum up t41 is a little more linux friendly.. but nc8000 is not too far behind...

bottom line.. they are both nice.. i would say the biggest beef I have with t41 (compared to the nc8000) is the screen.. I find that my eyes get tired a lot quicker..

perhaps the nc6000 would have the best from both worlds but I have yet to get my hands on it..

hope someone finds this useful.

someone asked about the screens.. they re both svga... running in 1400x1050

not sure why you re havin a problem with the keyboard - i would give them a call..

they both get a hot at the bottom... maybe nc8000 even more so than t41.. BUT nc8000 stays very cool on the top (where the wrists are).. t41 heats up a little but it is not really a problem.. (for me anyway).. the t41 also seem to vibrate a little almost all the time....

they are both very quiet... althought sometimes (i suppose when the cpu is runnin full speed
) you can hear the fan spin... but you really have to listen for it..