by Jin Kim
3,145,728 pixels That’s the number of pixels that can be displayed on IBM’s T210. The resolution is 2048 x 1536. The term QXGA refers to Quad XGA and that means you can display four windows with a 1024 x 768 (XGA) resolution in a 2×2 matrix. Awesome if you need to have multiple windows open at once. If you tend to work in portrait mode, you can have two windows side-by-side with a 1024 x 1536 resolution. Back in the day, in mid-2002, the T210 went for a cool US$5929 (MSRP).
The T210 sports a 20.8-inch TFT LCD that is enclosed in a heavy black metal base. The monitor is 23-lbs: very heavy. The monitor itself is about 3-inches thick: very thick. The base itself has height adjustment, tilt and swivel. The only thing it lacks is a pivoting feature. Of course you can get rid of the base and use a more versatile mount.
Connections Galore S-Video, Composite Video, DVI, VGA–these are the connections that are built into the T210. So you can use the 20.8-inch monitor to do work and to watch video.
User Unfriendly I hope you only need to plug in the power cord and the connections once. Because the T210 is designed so that connecting the cables require a lot of patience. Most likely the connections panel on the back was designed by an engineer for an engineer–both you don’t give a hoot as to user friendliness. Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that there is a fan inside the monitor. The fan is to keep the LCD cool. I need a monitor that needs to be absolutely silent, if you’re like me, you’ll need to keep that in mind.
Trader Geared According to Tom Martin, director of marketing for IBM monitors back in 2001: “Financial institutions are located on very expensive real estate. In the heart of New York, London, and Tokyo, they’re always trying to fit more traders into their trading environments.” Larry Tabb, VP of Securities and Investments at Tower Group back in 2001 explains further: “The typical setup includes at least four, if not six or even eight monitors and a big computing box. They really need a tremendous amount of information at their fingertips.” Instead of having four XGA (1024 x 768) monitors you can have just one T210.
Old But Solid Now bear in mind that this T210 monitor is about 8 years old. So the brightness has decreased a bit though it is still quite bright and 100-percent usable. There are a few nibbles on the display but nothing that should get in the way of doing actual work: there is a small spot that is about 1/8-inch in diameter where it is a bit darker and there are two half-circles with a slight green tinge at the edge of the top bezel probably due to the driver ICs getting a bit hot. Despite these slight abnormalities you’re getting a near $6000 monitor for free…
FREE Now why am I giving out this awesome IBM T210 for free? Well, it’s not completely free. The way this works is simple: comment on this blog post (you’ll need to register) and I will pick just one person who provides the most compelling reason why I should send the T210 to them. I am sure there are a lot of folks who could use a decent monitor during these troubling times. You have until noon (Pacific Time) Friday August 14, 2009 to post a comment and I will announce the winner on Monday, August 17. Don’t worry about shipping and handling, I’ll take care of that. If you’re local to San Jose, I’ll even hand-deliver it for you. If you know of someone who could use a T210, let them know!
Privacy When you register, you’ll need to use an email address that you actually use. I will not sell the email address and will not use it for anything else other than to inform you that you have won. The only other times I will use the email address are for when I want to send you important information about displays. Rarely will I do that.
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