Lenovo ThinkPad® T43 (UC3F7GE) PC Notebook

Not the lightest or fastest, certainly not the prettiest but built like a tank - a dependable workhorse that survives rough treatment. Better with the X300 graphics chip as the Intel onboard chip is slow & takes main memory.

Very good battery life - a standard battery plus an additional high-capacity battery will give you around 8 hours of real-life use. The sort of use I mean is: WiFi on & connected; having a couple of Word documents open being worked on; a PDF open; Firefox open with half a dozen tabs; a PuTTY session to a server; PaintShop Pro with a couple of images open; Outlook connected to an Exchange server via a VPN; Switching between these apps from time to time.

The CPU fan management isn't very good but there is a small freeware utility you can get which will sort that out. Otherwise the fan noise can be annoying at times.

Docking stations are available on eBay UK for around £25 and are definitely worthwhile if you want to attach an external monitor/keyboard etc whilst not on the road.

The Thinkpad comes with software which makes switching between locations a doddle, the way Windows should and doesn't - and the way a Mac does. Once set up, the software will normally work out for itself where you are (by looking at the network connections it can get). It'll then ask if it's got it right. If not, you can change the location from a drop-down list. If it has, leave it & it'll automatically set things up for that location after a few seconds.

It also comes with Record Now!, a simple CD buring application which makes it very easy for first time users - and in fact for anyone needing nothing esoteric.

The keyboard is nice enough to use although I prefer the curved keyboard (a bit like an MS Natural Keyboard) on some of the Acer laptops. The mousepad works fine and all the ports seem to behave themselves. The machine doesn't come with half-a-disk full of unwanted software like a Sony Vaio. What it does come with is for the most part well thought out and useful. The display quality is excellent and, if you plug an external monitor in via a docking station, it remembers and acts sensibly when you undock and then later when you re-dock. he sound quality through good headphones is quite good. Through the inbuilt speakers it's dire!

I love the white LED built into the top of the display frame that you can switch on to illuminate the keyboard when using the laptop in a low light situation (yes, I use it often!). And you can find the keys to switch it on in the dark - the two keys are at opposite corners of the keyboard.

All in all, a very good machine if you need to travel with it & dependability is top of your list. I liked it enough that, having to give one back to a company I left, I'm buying one for myself this time. And that's after trying several other makes :)

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