Got my T939 in a week or so and I’m very happy with it! It is in unexpectedly great condition for its age and has a pleasant “Dillard’s” smell to it.
WWAN
I was happy to find that internally, the laptop has a vacant M.2 slot for the WWAN card that was originally an option when buying at retail. The SIM slot is blocked by a piece of plastic that you can easily peel off after removing the back of the laptop (which you would need to do to install a WWAN card). What was not included is the small plastic SIM tray that not only holds the SIM in position but has a small hook for easy removal. Luckily, without the tray the SIM fit snugly enough for me to at least get it detected. I have a tray on order from a Canadian eBay seller.
As far as WWAN card compatibility, I went with a EM7455 (4G LTE) which I believe was the card it would have shipped with. I pulled it from an old 6th Gen Intel / HP laptop. I can verify that Windows shows the WWAN card as connected through the USB 3.0 BUS, which may indicate that only cards that operate over a USB data link will work. Unfortunately I do not have another M.2 WWAN card to test and see if there is a BIOS whitelist that would prevent installation of more modern cards.
There are no pre-wired antennas for WWAN, which means you will have to get creative with purchasing frequency compatible antennas and where you place them within the casing (assuming you don’t go the extra mile and disassemble the display to place them where they would normally go).
RAM
There is no onboard memory, but only a single slot, easily accessible (1 Philips screw) from the bottom of the machine. I upgraded to a 32 GB SODIMM module of DDR4.
Storage
The M.2 slot for a NVMe drive is also easily accessible from the bottom of the laptop with a single screw. Its important to note though that the door for the NVMe slot, while perforated, is made of plastic meaning it won’t help with heat dissipation. This might cause issues with modern drives that are meant to operate with a heat spreader or sink of some sort.
Operating Systems
Ubuntu worked out of the box; wlan, wwan, bluetooth, & input devices.
Windows 11 also works fine, though a significant amount of “optimal” drivers were necessary to install. I used Snappy Driver Installer (free/open source) to mostly automate that task.
macOS will be the next OS I try using OpenCore.
Battery
The primary battery can be easily found on Amazon and other sites, though they are quite pricey at over $150. The secondary battery (this laptop/tablet allowed for hot-swapping of primary batteries) is much harder to find. I’ve only been able to find used batteries on eBay for relatively cheap though still likely not worth the risks that would come with a 4-5 year old battery with unknown usage history.
Display
The screen is unfortunately quite dated. While it is very responsive to touch/stylus use, the design dates it back to a time where there was still a noticeable distance between the outer layer of the screen and the LCD itself. Additionally there is no oleophobic coating, meaning the screen will quickly become covered in fingerprints and smudges if you are not using the Stylus.
Hi arcos9000, I appreciate all the info you gave in your post about the Life book laptop. I bought mine in the Aug. offering and have been really impressed with this convertible laptop and its swivel screen. I wish I knew I could have updated to 32GB, I installed
Crucial 16GB Single DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DR x8 SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT16G4SFD824A, much improved over the generic 8GB. I was wondering about the other M.2 slot. From the manual I though I could use it for another drive? The only let down from this buy is that there is no palm secure sensor- it reads the blood vessels in your palm, to unlock the PC as you would use a fingerprint scanner. From the description "* Smartcard reader, Palm Secure sensor, OPAL encrypted drives and Trusted Platform Module (TPM). I have had little luck finding an app to utilize
the smart card reader other than to find (IF I am correct) A AU9540 USB Smart card reader controller from ALCOR MICRO. Mine has been operating perfectly updated to Windows11, with a ton of driver updates!