ThinkPad Tablet PC still offers the same IBM quality

ThinkPad Tablet PC still offers the same IBM quality

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, zatni@cbn.net.id

As I wrote last week, I guess I was not totally wrong in saying that IBM was among the very few major laptop PC makers that never had a Tablet PC. The X41T that I test drove last week had not come out entirely from IBM's mill. It was the first offspring from the marriage between IBM's PC unit and China's Lenovo.

Why enter the Tablet PC market, which accounts for less than one percent of total laptop sales?

Soeparwan Soelaeman, who was country manager of IBM's PC Division, explained during the X41T's launch in Jakarta on July 14 that there was a strong shift in customers' choice from desktop PCs to laptop PCs.

"As sales of notebooks grow, we expect the market for Tablet PCs to grow, too," he said. With the X41T, ThinkPad aims to grab a piece of the growth.

A recent IDC report ranked Lenovo the third in the worldwide PC market after Dell and HP with a market share of 7.6 percent in Q2 of 2005.

In general, Tablet PCs come in two slightly different designs. HP-Compaq and Fujitsu, for example, use a detachable keyboard on their Tablet PCs. If you do not need it, you can leave it behind and reduce your traveling weight. Acer and Toshiba, on the other hand, choose a more conventional laptop PC design. The display can swivel and even lay flat on top of the keyboard. Personally, however, I prefer the detachable keyboard.

Fit and Features

It was a great relief to see that the quality and sturdiness that we had come to expect in an expensive IBM ThinkPad notebook were still present in the X41T. The keyboard, which was probably the main reason I had been so enamored with the ThinkPads, continued its existence in the post merger era.

There were other good design implementations in the X41T, too. The screen was flush with the bezel, making writing with the stylus comfortable. The reinforced screen itself was one of the best I had come across in a Tablet PC.

It was a clear as an ordinary notebook, and the colors were just great. Writing on the screen felt like writing on a piece of paper. By the way, the screen was a 12-incher, not the 10-inchers that we used to see in early Tablet PCs models.

My demo unit came with an eight-cell, high capacity battery. ThinkPad claims that this type of battery will deliver up to 7.5 hours of computing power. It was larger than the four-cell regular battery, and it protruded about one inch beyond the screen edge. I liked it because it also served as the handle.

The screen remained cool after hours of use, and this is a very important consideration when choosing a Tablet PC. The base got a little warmer but not to the point that it became too hot to hold.

Under the hood there was an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) or a Low Voltage (LV) Intel Pentium Mobile processor -- depending on the configuration that you choose -- Intel 915 Express chipset, 512 MB DDR 533 MHz of RAM and a 40 GB hard disk.

The hard disk is protected by an Active Protection System that works more like the air bags in your car. If the system senses an accelerating motion, which may indicate a fall, it will automatically and quickly stop the spinning and move the hard disk heads to a safe place. The Tablet PC may be damaged beyond repair after the drop, but at least the data will have a much better chance of survival.

We have all the necessary ports on both the left and right sides of the base-a PC-Card slot, three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA-Out port to connect it to the digital projector, an internal modem, a Gigabit Ethernet port as well as the audio-in and audio-out ports. There is a SecureDigital card reader, too.

In the area of connectivity, it has built-in 820.11 b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, which are the standard features of current Tablet PCs. However, the X41T is not for everyone, unfortunately. It costs around US$2,700, according to Soeparwan Soelaiman-the IBMer who is in the transition to become a Lenovoer.

Strong in Security

One of the stronger points of this Tablet PC is its security features. It comes with a bi-directional fingerprint scanner like the T42 and T43 notebooks. When I turned it on, it asked me to swipe my finger over the sensor. Of course, it did not work, because my fingerprints had not been stored in the "Passport". The security system could store up to ten different fingerprints, and they may belong to one or more persons so that different users can take turns using it.

After being denied access, I pressed the Escape key and the system then asked for the password. I entered the password that had been given to me, and I passed the system security check. However, I still had to log on to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 before I could use the system.

IBM implemented the Embedded Security Sub-system in most of its ThinkPads, and this Tablet PC was also equipped with the same feature. It had the Sub-system Version 2.0. Data backup and system recovery are simple tasks with the blue Access button. Starting August, Lenovo will have its official representative in Indonesia. IBM's partners that provided the after-sales service in the past will continue to provide it in partnership with Lenovo, so basically there will be no change in product support and service.

Overall, I like the 1.8 kg X41T a lot. It still has the durability of an IBM ThinkPad. It is also equipped with a clear and bright screen with brilliant colors. Its keyboard is still unmatched. In fact, PCMagazine has even given it their Editor's Choice award for convertible notebooks. However, as I said earlier, I still think a detachable keyboard is what makes a Tablet PC a tablet.