Businesses seeking a sturdy, secure, portable workhorse should consider the ThinkPad R52.

IBM recently breathed new life into its mainstream business ThinkPad R-series laptop. For the ThinkPad R52, IBM simply loaded up the ThinkPad R51's solid case with new parts such as Intel's next-generation Centrino platform, fast 533MHz RAM, and ATI's latest Mobility Radeon graphics chips. The result is a well-made laptop with enough oomph to tackle any basic business task.

The ThinkPad R52 test system we received came in at 314mm wide, 260mm deep, and 34mm thick and weighed 2.6 kg -- a moderate size and weight for a budget laptop with a 14.1-inch screen. The notebook draws AC power from a demure, 200g, blackboard-eraser-shaped adapter.

The ThinkPad R52 includes some of the ThinkPad line's trademark design features. Sturdy metal hinges tether the system's lid to the bottom, making the screen a bit less subject to breakage. The ThinkPad R52 also features IBM's traditional red eraser-head pointing stick, with a flat, tactile top that we prefer to the smooth, rounded tops on other pointing sticks. The stick has two mouse buttons of its own, which sit beneath the spacebar and sandwich a handy scroll button. Below the buttons lie a somewhat small touch pad and two more mouse buttons. The ThinkPad R52's comfortable keyboard is another IBM staple, with keys in places familiar to desktop users. The business-minded system doesn't provide as many extra buttons and controls as a multimedia notebook, but it does include four convenient buttons for turning volume up and down, muting the sound, and accessing support information.

The ThinkPad R52 we tested offered parts that were satisfying overall, including a midrange 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740 Sonoma processor, 512MB of fast 533MHz RAM, and an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics subsystem, which borrows up to 128MB of video memory from main RAM. The average-size 40GB hard drive in our test unit spun at a fairly fast 5,400rpm, while the 14.1-inch screen had a somewhat low-end 1,024x768 native resolution. Compared to the prices of more expensive business notebooks with similar specs, this ThinkPad R52's AU$2,988 cost (as of April 2005) is reasonable.

The ThinkPad R52 earned a respectable performance score in CNET Labs' mobile benchmarks. The laptop finished our benchmark 12 percent faster than the Toshiba Tecra M3 and 8 percent ahead of the Sony VAIO VGN-S260, which has a slower processor. The ThinkPad R52 delivered fairly long battery life in our drain tests, holding out for 217 minutes -- better than the Tecra M3's 184 minutes, though a bit shy of the VAIO VGN-S260's 229 minutes.

Where ports and slots are concerned, the ThinkPad R52 includes enough of both for the average worker. The case has two USB 2.0 ports, one ExpressCard/54 slot, and one Type II PC Card slot as well as parallel, S-Video-out, standard VGA, Ethernet, 56Kbps modem, and audio in/out ports. Our test system had a DVD/CD-RW drive in its internal, swappable bay; CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and DVD-RW drives are also available. The ThinkPad R52 ships with the Windows XP Professional operating system. Like most business laptops, it doesn't come with a productivity suite. But the company does provide useful applications for CD and DVD playback and recording, including InterVideo WinDVD 6.0 and WinDVD Creator 2.0, DLA, which allows you to drag and drop files directly to CD or DVD, and Sonic RecordNow 7.0.

Data protection has long been a ThinkPad strong suit, and the ThinkPad R52 is no exception. The laptop's Embedded Security Subsystem functions like a Trusted Platform Module, offering a hardware-based data lockdown. And the Active Protection System stops the hard drive from spinning when the laptop is dropped or bumped, preventing damage to the drive.

NOTE: Products in this test are for comparative purposes only and are not necessarily available in the Australian market.

Mobile application performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo MobileMark 2002 performance rating

IBM ThinkPad R52

214

Sony VAIO VGN-S260

198

Toshiba Tecra M3

190

Battery life (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery-life minutes

Sony VAIO VGN-S260

229

IBM ThinkPad R52

217

Toshiba Tecra M3

184

System configurations:

IBM ThinkPad R52
Windows XP Pro; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB DDR SDRAM; Intel 915GM/GMS 910GML Express 128MB; Hitachi 5K100 40GB 5,400rpm

Sony VAIO VGN-S260
Windows XP Home; 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M 735; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 32MB; Toshiba MK6025GAS 60GB 4,200rpm

Toshiba Tecra M3
Windows XP Pro; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB DDR SDRAM; Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 TE/6200TE 64MB; Toshiba MK6025GAS 60GB 4,200rpm

IBM Thinkpad R52
Company: IBM
Price: AU$2,988
Phone: 1800 289 426