IBM Thinkpad R50e

Agree with other comments that this is a very robust machine that carries good basic features and is easy to use.

But it takes absolutely ages to open and operating speed is dire.

I have timed the initial opening and access to email and this can take 5 minutes plus from the time of initial boot up.

Switching from one window to another or one program to another is also very very slow.

I have had it serviced twice in 4 years and it is no better than when I first started to use it.

Is it just me?

Bought 3 of these laptops in 2005, two were for my kids. They are still working well even now. Even the most heavily used one is still going.

On this machine I replaced the keyboard (which was still working) but looked very tatty after a key was broken and food and dirt had become ingrained in the keyboard due to misuse and abuse. Otherwise there have been no other repairs. All the machines still look like new.

A basic model but very worth the money I paid and the spares are easily available. This is important because many other brands are not so easy to repair later on.

IBM Thinkpad R50e is an excellent laptop. All features at an affordable price. I very much appreciate the joystick used as a mouse right between the g button and the h button, it is present.

My IBM Thinkpad R50 is tough as anything. It is reliable has excellent built-in wireless, very good speed for general programs and internet and offers average-decent speed for video editing/playing. Overall, not very flashy, but a good workhorse laptop; but not suited for gaming. It can be a bit heavy, graphics card is not the best and has no bluetooth.

I have owned the computer for over 3 years. Since I use it for working every day, it has never been repaired, so the quality is good. It is also easy to use and good value for money.

The IBM Thinkpad R50e laptop has all the essential features that you need at an affordable price.

The IBM Thinkpad R50e is a good, sturdy, basic laptop with Parallel port and PC card slot. Many expensive laptops are now supplied without either of these.

It's a Basic Laptop especially for business use. The advantage is that the optical Drive is combo so can burn CD's and Read DVD's.

It only has a scroll button (many people are not used to this option), which means a missing touch pad. Also, there are only 2 USB ports, and in this tech hungry environment, they could have easily made one more USB port available.

No recovery disk was supplied in case the HDD fails, so basically it's stuffed. It also has a basic warranty of 1 year.