IBM ThinkPad 380D

I went into mild shock when I realised that IBM's latest ThinkPad was available for under £2,000 inc VAT. My next reaction was to wonder what had been left out to get the price down to this level.

A glance at the specs revealed some of the economy measures. You get 16Mb of EDO RAM, not the professional's choice of 32Mb; the hard disk is an adequate, but not vast, 1.35Gb; and the screen is based on DSTN rather than the significantly more expensive TFT technology.

The first thing that struck me about the 380D was that it was chunky even for a ThinkPad. With the lid shut, it's 59mm thick, but the good news is that it doesn't weigh too much at 3.2kg.

As with other ThinkPads, it's black, angular and handsome, albeit in a rather stocky way in this particular case. The build is typically robust and it's immediately apparent that this is a good-quality product, well up to the standard set by previous generations of ThinkPads.

All the necessary ports are present, including a PS/2 mouse or keyboard socket, a nine-pin serial port and a 4Mbit/sec infrared serial interface. Although this is a relatively inexpensive ThinkPad, the docking station connector hasn't been omitted, which may add appeal for corporate buyers as well as individuals looking for a desktop replacement.

Despite the thickness of the case, the PC Card slots are the standard size, so you have a choice between a single Type III or a pair of slimmer Type II cards. This rather boring choice is offset by the combined floppy drive/eight-speed CD-ROM that's thin enough to fit into a single standard-sized bay in the right side of the machine.

The monaural speaker produced a surprisingly loud and well-defined sound, which was better than many stereo notebook speaker sets I've heard. IBM has used a Crystal 16-bit FM sound chip, which provides the standard Windows and SoundBlaster Pro compatibility.

Graphics are provided by the increasingly popular NeoMagic MagicGraph 128ZV accelerator, which has 1Mb of memory integrated directly onto the chip itself. This delivers 16-bit colour at 800 « 600 SVGA resolution to the 12.1in DSTN screen. The screen is as good as any DSTN panel - not as bright, clear or even as a good TFT screen, but perfectly acceptable. If money is more important than absolutely top-notch display quality, you'll probably be happy enough with this screen and the cash you've saved by not opting for TFT.

One thing IBM does extremely well is notebook keyboards, and the 380D is graced with another fine example. The layout is close to desktop-normal, the modifier keys and the key are almost the same size as those on a standard keyboard, the keytops don't wobble and the action is firm, but quiet. Anyone actually having to do some real work on this machine will quickly come to appreciate these qualities.

The stud mouse set into the middle of the keypad is less to my taste - I much prefer mousepads that are easier to use - but it does the job tolerably well and most people should get the hang of it after a while.

IBM offers lithium ion as an option, but the machine is supplied with an NiMH battery which delivers about two hours use from a full charge. The power management is fully adjustable on the fly from within Windows via the excellent graphical ThinkPad Features applet. This provides a common interface for all areas of configuration, from PC Cards, audio and ports to choosing an external monitor and power management. The functions are marked against several views of the notebook, so the whole thing is fairly self-explanatory.