IBM ThinkPad T42   Workaholics, listen up. There’s a new IBM notebook out that’s just as reliable a workhorse as its predecessors. The new IBM ThinkPad T42 is slim, very responsive and has a load of practical features. Running on an Intel Pentium M 1.50GHz Centrino processor, an ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 / 32MB, 512MB of RAM, and a 40GB hard drive, this notebook gave great performance in our BAPCo Mobile Mark 2002 tests. An overall rating of 219 means it can handle office applications – and more – with ease. Response time was fast at 0.90 seconds, and it did well running Quake3 and Unreal Tournament. Battery life was good enough but it could be better – our test unit ran for 4.1 hours before it gave out.       The T42’s communication and expansion specs are just right for shuttling work in and out of the office, with integrated Gigabit Ethernet, Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 BG, an infrared port, two USB 2.0 ports and external VGA. A 24x/24x/24x/8x CD-RW/DVD combo drive comes built into it too. It is packaged with a slew of pre-installed software, such as IBM Protection System, Norton Antivirus 2004 OEM version, Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Access IBM, IBM Access IBM connections, IBM RecordNow, IBM Rescue & Recovery, InterVideo WinDVD, Thinkpad Utilities, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Like other IBM ThinkPads, the T42 comes with a convenient Access IBM button that leads to a host of IBM tools. There are buttons on it for increasing and decreasing volume and for muting the sound. The touchpad only needs light taps to respond and the keyboard is equally intuitive also. Sound isn’t as tinny as what other notebooks give out, and the 14.1 TFT LCD display serves up attractive images. With performance and features like these, it’s only natural that the IBM Thinkpad T42 costs quite a hefty P148,567. If you have cash to spare, don’t pass up on this one.