ThinkPad 770: The notebook to buy if you want it all

ThinkPad 770: The notebook to buy if you want it all

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Remember IBM ThinkPad 760ED? In my hands-on
review in this column, I called it the "Rolls-Royce" of
notebooks. It was the notebook with everything -- a large and
pleasant screen, a digital signal processor, a built-in modem and
a slew of other features.

It was the notebook against which all other notebooks were
compared. It was also perhaps the most expensive notebook you
could find, and yet people still bought them.

Now, envision for a moment a similar notebook with a Pentium
233 MHz processor and ... hold your breath ... a 14.1" screen.
Exactly today (Sept. 8), IBM announces world-wide its new
ThinkPad 770 that has all these features -- and more.

Unfortunately, because it's still a very new product, I don't
have a clearer picture to show you.

Tillamook

But one of the most interesting things about this "Rolls-
Royce" of notebooks is certainly its processor, a Pentium with
MMX Technology with speeds to burn. Traditionally, Intel would
introduce faster processors to the desktop community first and to
the notebook sector much later. That was because notebook
processors had to be much smaller, and use less power. Now, with
the advent of their 0.25 micron process technology, Intel is able
to bring the faster Pentium processor with MMX Technology to the
notebook before the desktop.

The project to develop the new Pentium processors was code
named Tillamook, after a small village in Oregon. In case you're
curious, the chip was developed in Intel's Oregon lab. This new
type of processor uses only 1.8 volts, and ThinkPad 770 is one of
the first notebooks to have this powerful brain under the hood.

At last month's ThinkPad Advisory Council meeting in
Singapore, I had the opportunity to see a pre-shipment unit of
this impressive notebook. It will be launched here in Jakarta in
about one month's time, and you may have to wait a little longer
if you want one on your desk. But, like ThinkPad 760ED, the 770
can give us an idea about where the notebook industry is heading.

Large screen

As mentioned before, the screen on the top model ThinkPad 770
is a whopping 14.1" active matrix LCD. To put it in perspective,
let's keep in mind that most computer users are still using the
14" CRT monitor on their desktops. These CRT monitors do not
really have a full 14" viewing area because they all have black
edges around the screen image. An LCD screen, on the other hand,
doesn't have these black edges. So, if you think about it, the
ThinkPad 770 screen is even bigger than the average CRT monitor.

Because it has such a big screen, the top part of the notebook
is slightly larger than the base. IBM claims that the new LCD
screens are 36 percent brighter than the ones they put in their
ThinkPad 760 Series. The 770's case is black like all the other
ThinkPads, and despite all the features it doesn't really feel
very heavy. It still weighs less than 3.6 kilograms.

The bright active matrix screen is also capable of displaying
a very high 1024 by 768 resolution. Therefore, your workspace on
ThinkPad 770 is equal to what you would have on a typical 17" CRT
monitor. For those who have a slightly limited budget, there will
be three ThinkPad 770 versions with a 13.3" screen. All the
screens are capable of displaying 64,000 colors at the XGA
resolution.

The graphics engine is already 64-bit and it has a 3-D
accelerator, too. Multimedia is further enriched with supports
for MPEG 1 and MPEG 2. It also supports Zoomed Video, and video
in/out ports are available. As expected, 3-D SoundBlaster is also
supported and there is a Dolby Digital feature on the top of the
line model to give you 3-D surround sound. What else would you
want?

Improvement

The 770 comes with either one of the two Tillamook processors
-- the 233 MHz or the 200 MHz. All models come with a 512 Level-2
cache. The standard RAM is 32 MB, but if you feel like going to
the extreme you can expand it to 256 MB. Believe me it won't be
cheap to do that, though, because it uses SDRAM.

The keyboard follows the ThinkPad 560 model. There is ample
support for our palms, and the keys are as good as you would
expect from a ThinkPad. IBM has abandoned the idea of raising
the keyboard when you open it, as in the 760 models. They say
customers feel uncomfortable looking at the exposed internal
components.

The TrackPoint has been improved and a third button has been
added. This new button, in front of the original two, can be
programmed to perform different functions, including selecting
and scrolling.

As expected, some of the notebooks components can be
interchanged. IBM calls the slot for interchangeable pieces
UltraBay II+. Into it we can insert a CD-ROM drive, a DVD-ROM
drive, an additional hard disk, a floppy diskette drive, a ZIP
drive, or an extra battery for extended operational life.

The capacity of the hard disks' ranges between 3.2 GB and 5.1
GB. Now, if you put one in the UltraBay, you'll be able to get up
to 10.2 GB of hard disk space on your notebook. I wonder what you
could want so much space for.

Other features

ThinkPad 770 is the first ThinkPad with Desktop Management
Interface (DMI). With this feature, which resides in the BIOS,
the corporate system manager can do maintenance tasks on the
notebook the moment it is connected to the network. It is a
feature usually found in a corporate desktop PC intended to make
company computing resource inventories easier.

While I don't really believe the DVD will ever sweep us off
our feet as the MPEG 1 has done, having a system that is ready to
handle DVD is not a bad idea. ThinkPad supports DVD when the
drive for this notebook becomes available. CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are
optional.

For communication, the top of the line 770 has a communication
processor and built-in 33.6 Kbps modem with international
programmable DAA and DSVD. It can be upgraded to 56 Kbps with
software. On the other models, the modem is not built in.
Actually, in my opinion, a PC-Card-based modem offers better
flexibility than a built-in one. A Universal Serial Bus port is
available at the back, and the Infrared connection supports the
high transfer rate of 4 Mbps.

Push or touch?

With all these features, it would be difficult to add a wish
list without becoming unrealistic. But there's one thing that's
still missing. I believe it is time IBM also provided a touch pad
in addition to the TrackPoint. No matter how good the TrackPoint
has become, I still prefer the touch pad. I do understand that it
would be difficult for IBMers to abandon altogether the
TrackPoint that they themselves invented back in 1992. I know the
TrackPoint has been a sources of pride for them. Therefore, I
would suggest that the next generation of ThinkPads should be
equipped in the same way as the Micron Transport. In a Transport,
we can choose the stick or the touch pad. Both are available.

With such a powerful brain and such large display real-estate,
you really don't have to have a separate desktop computer
anymore. The price of the top model is expected to be below
US$8,000 and the lower end is expected not to exceed $6,300. If
you can afford ThinkPad 770, however, you will surely need only
the one computer for your home, office, hotel room and airplane.