IBM ThinkPad T20
The IBM ThinkPad weighed in at 2.424kg. When we swapped the DVD drive for the floppy drive we managed to get the ThinkPad down to 2.325kg. It's a little heavier than many of the other notebooks but what you don't get with many of the other notebooks is a large display. The IBM ThinkPad A20p won our high-end notebook comparison last November, so we expected a lot from the T20.
The ThinkPad shipped with an Intel PIII 800 processor as well as 128MB of RAM, a 20GB Hitachi hard disk, and an 8MB S3 Savage video accelerator. The IBM performed quite well but we cannot directly compare the results of the IBM with any of the other notebooks. The IBM came to us with Windows 2000 Professional instead of Windows Me as requested.
The keypad was large and nice to use. The standard keys are not coloured differently from the function keys. This makes it a little harder to find specific keys on the notebook, especially if you're not very experienced using a keyboard. All the keys on the ThinkPad were black to match the black exterior. The keys are large and the layout of the keypad is excellent. There were good separators between the function keys, which made the keypad easier to use. The three audio buttons were grey in colour (volume up/down and mute). The ThinkPad was one of the few notebooks that had three mouse buttons. They felt quite light in comparison to all the other buttons we tested. There was a bit of bounce around that area as well. When we pressed down on the mouse buttons some parts of the keyboard would actually bounce around.
The IBM ThinkPad was the only notebook to use a track pointer instead of a glide pad. You have to be a little more delicate when using the track pointer--it's much easier to overshoot your target. However, it doesn't take too long to get used to.
The speakers are mounted to emit sound from the front of the notebook. Your wrists will actually muddy the sound a little if you happen to be typing and listening to music at the same time.
The ThinkPad sports a 13.3in display. The display quality was excellent and the pick of the screens we saw. The display is also very well supported from the base. As we have said in the past, IBM notebooks are built with high-quality components and are built to last. And the ThinkPad is upgrade friendly--by turning the notebook on its back, it is easy to upgrade the system RAM.
The all-in-one 10/100 network card and 56K internal modem are also accessible from the base of the notebook, and the Hitachi hard drive pulls out from the left-hand side of the base. There were a couple of other nice features that came standard with the IBM ThinkPad T20 like the expansion connector and video out connector, which didn't come standard on many of the other notebooks. The IBM ThinkPad is priced at AU$5999 and is an excellent performer; it's just a pity it didn't ship with Windows Me so we could have directly compared the performance of the T20 against all the other notebooks.
IBM ThinkPad T20
Company:IBM Australia
Ph:1800 815 154
Price:AU$5,999
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