An entry-level notebook that is not to be taken lightly

An entry-level notebook that is not to be taken lightly

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): When it comes to designing notebooks, I believe
we still have reason to respect Big Blue. The ThinkPads, as I've
mentioned in this column time and time again, have always raised
the standard of portable computer design.

The 600 Series and the newly introduced 570 Series in
particular are my clear favorites at the moment. I'm still
waiting for my chance to test drive the latter, which has just
been launched in Indonesia.

It does not mean to say that IBM has always made great
notebooks though. ThinkPad 310 Series, for example, was not
really a successful one. It was meant to be a low-end retail
product, but it was not marketed in Indonesia because IBM did not
seem to think there would be much interest in it. Luckily, there
was the ThinkPad i Series, which debuted about a year ago.

Courtesy of PT USI Jaya/IBM, I have been able to tote around a
ThinkPad i Series 1400 for almost two months now. This notebook
even accompanied me on my recent trip to CA-World in New Orleans,
and it was truly a faithful and pleasant companion all the way.
Too bad I will have to return it to IBM soon.

Almost Everything

This notebook has nearly everything you would expect from
today's mainstream notebooks, although sometimes the i Series is
still perceived as a low-end ThinkPad.

It runs on an Intel Mobile Pentium II 300 MHz. While this one
is not exactly the most current mobile processor available from
Intel today, it is still very, very fast.

My test unit came with 64 MB of SDRAM, a large 13.3" TFT
monitor with 1024x768 resolution, 2 MB of video RAM, a 4 GB hard
disk, a built-in V90 56Kbps modem, two free PC Card slots with
Zoomed Video support, a 3.5" floppy diskette, a very slim 20x CD-
ROM drive, Windows 98, Lotus SmartSuite Millenium and Norton
Antivirus.

The speakers, which produce quite acceptable sound, are
located on either side of the monitor. There are jacks for
external speakers, a line in and external microphone. The
TrackPoint now comes with a third button for scrolling down
Internet pages. A USB is also available. The only thing I found
missing was the infrared port.

Although the monitor is not as brilliant as the ones in the
other ThinkPads I have seen, I still like it because it gives
quite a good contrast level. The larger monitor also helps me a
lot. With my limited vision I can still read the text on the
screen with ease without having to increase the font size.

The keyboard is as good as what you would expect from a
ThinkPad. Because of the large real estate, IBM didn't have any
difficulty designing a full-size keyboard for this notebook.

Using Fn together with F5, F6, F7 or F8, we will have four
customizable extra keys. And, unlike the previous ThinkPads that
I have played around with, the two standard Windows 95 keys now
appear on this one -- one for invoking Windows' Start menu and
the other for calling up the system menu.

The two legs at the back, which can flip out to raise the rear
end, make the keyboard more comfortable to work on. The legs can
also prevent the notebook from sliding on the airplane seat tray.

The ThinkPad i Series is not for globetrotters though. It is
very bulky and quite heavy. It was so large, I could not fit it
into my favorite Mimeo Mendoza bag. Luckily the unit came with
its own very classy handbag specially designed to hold it.

The bag still looked beautiful and exclusive even after the
long trip to New Orleans -- which also involved a lot of running
around the airport terminals.

Like all other ThinkPads, the power adapter is external. The
Li-ion battery gives me almost two and a half hours of computing
time before I have to find a power outlet.

When used as an audio CD player, it can play music for hours
with the system shut down. That should be considered as added
value rather than the main purpose of buying it, of course.

The design of the audio CD control panel could be made much
more elegant, but it does allow us to turn the CD player function
on and off, eject the CD, skip forward or backward without having
to turn on the system.

The sound system itself, which uses Yamaha's OPL3, can also be
adjusted to produce different 3-D effects, as can be seen in the
accompanying picture. I got very good sound even when I connected
the notebook to a pair of cheap, locally made power speakers.

Lately, the prices of notebook computers have really dropped
-- like bank interest rates in Indonesia. When the 310ED came out
two years ago, the price was US$1,999. It featured a 133MHz
Pentium Processor with MMX Technology, a 12.1-inch dual-scan
display, 16MB of RAM, a 1.6GB hard drive and an integrated 10-
speed CD-ROM drive. Today, this ThinkPad i Series 1400 costs
about US$ 1,650.

With all the pluses and minuses, the ThinkPad i Series is just
right for students living in a boarding house, a SOHO
entrepreneur who is just starting his own business venture or for
the entire family using it as a home PC.

If you're looking for an entry-level notebook that is not
light in features and capabilities, ThinkPad i Series 1400 or its
successor should definitely be on the list of products you should
look at. Just remember that it is not light on the shoulders and
arms.