IBM x41 Tablet can it handle internet these days?

[Byunbyuny]

Hi everyone, just been looking for a tablet for drawing simple caricatures. And found IBM x41 Tablet which is extremely cheap these days, however looking at the specs i'm afraid it won't even handle something as simple as email on html5 webpage. The problem is that it has non upgradable Intel pentium M cpu with 1.5Ghz, 512mb ram, intel gma 915 with 64mb shared video memory. The resolution however is only 1024x768 but in overall i never had this laptop and don't know if it will run internet today. My questions are: will it play youtube videos at 480p fullscreen? Will it play some early 3D games like half life 1 and taz wanted? Will it be able to handle websites like groovershark and soundcloud? I just want to find out how much can this laptop do, surely it was build a lot of years ago but i'm not trying to convert to and HD computer just want to find out what can it run.

 

[qazzi]

usually the IBM X41 comes pre installed with win XP home. it can handle the internet just make sure you add more memory. the default is 256mb or 512mb
max is 1.5GB "PC-4200 DDR-2 SDRAM" 200 pin.

btw HTML5 is not a problem..just install the lastest google chrome.

 

[Byunbyuny]

usually the IBM X41 comes pre installed with win XP home. it can handle the internet just make sure you add more memory. the default is 256mb or 512mb
max is 1.5GB "PC-4200 DDR-2 SDRAM" 200 pin.

btw HTML5 is not a problem..just install the lastest google chrome.

Ok but will it play youtube videos at 480p? I don't know if pentium M is strong enough and not sure if 1.5ghz cpu will be bottlenecking me or not.

 

[qazzi]

yes it will..just add more ram flash video/games tend to eat up memory.

here read up http/www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/ibm-thinkpad-x41-review-pics-specs/

 

[jaguarskx]

No sadly it will not handle the internet these days.

About 4 years ago I decided to whip out my IBM ThinkPad T40 which also has the Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz and has a Radeon 7500 dedicated graphics card (DirectX 8.1). For web pages that have very little flash content it is okay. But flash and other video banners and what not are pretty prevalent and my ThinkPad T40 struggles with those web pages, and sites like Youtube.

The issue is that the Radeon 7500 (and Intel's ancient GMA core) simply cannot decode the various videos banner and ads out there so that means the CPU must do all of the decoding. Since the Pentium M is based on the Pentium III CPU architecture and it only has one core, it will struggle playing videos on youtube to the point where you will get a lot of stuttering.

 

[qazzi]

No sadly it will not handle the internet these days.

About 4 years ago I decided to whip out my IBM ThinkPad T40 which also has the Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz and has a Radeon 7500 dedicated graphics card (DirectX 8.1). For web pages that have very little flash content it is okay. But flash and other video banners and what not are pretty prevalent and my ThinkPad T40 struggles with those web pages, and sites like Youtube.

The issue is that the Radeon 7500 (and Intel's ancient GMA core) simply cannot decode the various videos banner and ads out there so that means the CPU must do all of the decoding. Since the Pentium M is based on the Pentium III CPU architecture and it only has one core, it will struggle playing videos on youtube to the point where you will get a lot of stuttering.

have to dis-agree with there i have a Dell Inspiron 510m in which i upgraded the memory to 2GB and athe HDD to 160GB. works fine in youtube playing 480p.

 

[Byunbyuny]

yes it will..just add more ram flash video/games tend to eat up memory.

here read up http/www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/ibm-thinkpad-x41-review-pics-specs/

No sadly it will not handle the internet these days.

About 4 years ago I decided to whip out my IBM ThinkPad T40 which also has the Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz and has a Radeon 7500 dedicated graphics card (DirectX 8.1). For web pages that have very little flash content it is okay. But flash and other video banners and what not are pretty prevalent and my ThinkPad T40 struggles with those web pages, and sites like Youtube.

The issue is that the Radeon 7500 (and Intel's ancient GMA core) simply cannot decode the various videos banner and ads out there so that means the CPU must do all of the decoding. Since the Pentium M is based on the Pentium III CPU architecture and it only has one core, it will struggle playing videos on youtube to the point where you will get a lot of stuttering.

Thant's what i was afraid of, unfortunately the offer for my IBM x41 Tablet has expired but i'm offered Thinkpad X40 Tablet instead. It has The same Pentium M cpu with hardly 1.20 ghz and Intel Extreme Graphics 2 which i think is even worser. What do you think if i was to visit such websites as deviantart or soundcloud with old opera 12.12 and adblock to block all banners and stuff would i be able to get descent performance or am i just bricking myself here?

 

[jaguarskx]

have to dis-agree with there i have a Dell Inspiron 510m in which i upgraded the memory to 2GB and athe HDD to 160GB. works fine in youtube playing 480p.

I suppose I can break out my ThinkPad again and update the drivers to test drive it on the internet again.

 

[qazzi]

if your not gonna upgrade your memory then yes. as i already told you. if your gonna use it to surf youtube or something...you need more memory. it will surf fine. max out the memory and if you can change the HDD to a newer one. also what OS are you using? win xp? go for home ed. update it and use chrome browser. it has an ad block extension.

 

[jaguarskx]

My ThinkPad T40 has Win XP Pro and 1.5GB of RAM. I am not going to waste money upgrading it. I keep around for sentimental reasons I suppose since that was my 1st laptop and I paid around $2,500 for it.

 

[Byunbyuny]

Just found a person who has X41 and let me test that tablet, he had 1.25gb of ddr1 ram, 256mb of which was already built in and is non removable. The graphics was gma 900 series didn't say anything else in device manager, and Intel Pentium M 1.5Ghz. Tried regular offline movies they work fine, online movies play with a lot of stuttering unless quality is 240p. Youtube video tend to freeze time to time at 480p and for some reason are extremely pixelated no matter if i turn hardware acceleration on or off. Tried Latest chrome and Firefox browser no dice both consume a lot of resources and tend to take a load time between websites that contain media content and pop-ups. I guess i'm out of luck with this laptop, it works great as tablet for keeping digital notes but it's just too outdated. I guess i have no exit but to save up cash for a tablet laptop that has "U" based processors. Thanks everyone!