If there’s one division in the new IBM that can pull the computer giant back from the brink of disaster, it s the Mobile Computing group of the IBM Personal Computer Company. The four models in the new ThinkPad 750 family are remarkable. Each is Ixiilt around an Intel 33-MHz 486SL processor, but each is targeted at a slightly different user and price point.
You can choose among the monochrome ThinkPad 750, the active-matrix colour ThinkPad 75OC, the pen-convertible Think Pad 750P, and the soon-to-be-rcleased dualscan colour ThinkPad 750Cs.
We evaluated one of the first active-matrix colour models to come off the line. $10,715 isn’t an unreasonable amount to pay for the industry’s only 10.4in activematrix colour display, the innovative TrackPoint pointing device, a 170M hard disk, 4M RAM, a 2.88M floppy disk drive and a Type III PCMCIA slot. But the ThinkPad 750C’s feature list extends even further.
Like all ThinkPad 750s, this model has an integrated 16-bit stereo audio subsystem and a high-fidelity speaker.
plus input/output jacks for microphones, headphones or portable speakers. The unit we saw was also configured with IBM VoiceType Control, a rudimentary speech recognition software program Out gives you voice control over basic commands under Microsoft Windows.
You might expect to give up performance in order to get such a feature-filled notclx>ok, but the ThinkPad 750C consistently surpassed the average benchmark test scores for 33MHz 486DX-based notebooks. The 750C’s scores on the Video and Graphics Winmarks tests were especially impressive, and its battery’ life of almost three hours was a pleasant surprise considering the system’s activematrix display.
IBM has been able to shave about a half a kilogram off the weight of the 750C compared with its predecessor, tl>e 720C. The 750C weighs just under three kilos with its floppy disk drive installed (2.7 kilos without it). An extra battery’ adds less than half a kilo to the travel weight, and the AC adaptor is one of the smallest designs ever to fit in a carry-on.
If active-matrix colour matters less to you than the money you need to spend to get it, the passive-matrix, dual-scan colour ThinkPad 75OCs should l>e out soon. It s configured the same as the 75OC except for the display technology’, and it costs $10,715 with a 170M hard disk and 4M RAM.
Upgrade now or later
The ThinkPad 750C and the rest of its family arc a study in upgradability. The keyboard on every’ 750 pops up so you can access the removable hard disk, the nickel hydride battery, and the Hoppy disk drive. You don’t have to pry the keyboard open; it tilts up easily and then snaps back into place when you close it. Below the floppy drive bay is a DRAM memory’ card slot for upgrading the system’s memory to 20M.
If you want to cut down on travel weight, leave the floppy disk drive at home. If you want several workers to share a single ThinkPad 750. they can each have their own hard disk and then if you need to swap batteries you don’t have to power down the computer. In the early part of 1994, IBM will ship the ThinkPad TV Tuner Module, which will give you onscreen television and VCR playback capabilities. IBM
Multimedia docking station
The ThinkPad 750 family brings with it a new docking station. To fully use the 16-bit audio subsystem in the new ThinkPad, IBM has introduced the $1616 ThinkPad Dock I, which comes with two built-in stereo speakers, a drive bay that accommodates either a CD-ROM drive or a hard disk, an additional SCSI port, and a 16-bit ISA slot.
The ThinkPad Dock replicates all the standard ports of the notebook PC. It doesn’t require much extra space on your desktop because you attach your ThinkPad 750 on top of the docking station instead of sliding it into something that resembles a desktop PC. The ThinkPad Dock is also fully portable, weighing just 2.7kg (without a CD-ROM drive), and features a built-in handle.
IBM supports ThinkPad 750 users with a three-year warranty, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and 24-hour, seven-day-a-week toll-free technical support. Through the IBM Express Repair programme you can send in your ThinkPad 750 for service free of charge.
The ThinkPad 750 family is in a class of its own. We’ve yet to see another vendor produce a system with a display the size of the ThinkPad 750C’s 10.4 diagonal activematrix display, and the keyboard-based TrackPoint still stands alone as an innovative, efficient pointing device. And now the ThinkPad 750 family incorporates serious multimedia capabilities.
The question is, will you lie able to buy one? Previous versions of IBM’s ThinkPad were so popular that IBM scrambled to fill the backlog of orders, and the volume of calls to IBM and its dealers requesting a ThinkPad 750 is equally large. But if you act now and wait a while, you’ll eventually reap the fruits of your patience.
