IBM ThinkPad 700C

In an age where sales of laptops are soon to outstrip those of desktop PCs, it’s hard to conceive now quite how revolutionary the IBM ThinkPad must’ve seemed just 15 years ago. Back then, a portable PC meant almost anything but portable. And then along came IBM.

The ThinkPad’s list of innovations is long, but the most technically impressive feature was the screen. At 10.4”, in 1992 it was the largest ever fitted to a portable PC, and offered a resolution of 640 x 480. That it was also colour only added to IBM’s achievement.

However, as advanced as this display was, the most memorable feature was the TrackPoint pointing device. Earlier portable computers had featured rudimentary touchpads, and trackballs were by far the most popular portable pointing solution at the time, but IBM’s TrackPoint invention was unique. In effect, it was a mini-joystick that stood just proud of the key surfaces, slap-bang in the middle of the keyboard. Caress the tip with a fingertip and the mouse pointer would follow obediently in response. Most satisfying, not to mention being a handy tool for navigating around Windows 3.1 (which, incidentally, also ranked as new and innovative in 1992).

Then there was the storage. Okay, so these days a 120Mb hard disk is barely enough to store an Office 2007 document, but a decade and a half back it was a remarkable amount for any computer, let alone a laptop. All this squeezed into a box with the precise same footprint as an A4 notepad – 297 x 21mm.

And this is a fact which brings us nicely on to a little bit of tech-lore relating to the ThinkPad’s name. If the collective wisdom of the internet is to be believed [Yeah,  right – Ed.] then the ThinkPad is so called because an IBM researcher on a tea break reached for a paper notepad and found the word ‘Think’ written on it. This apparently led him straight to the idea of a portable device with which to read, write, work - and think. In the unlikely event that it is true, then it’s probably just well that his jotter scrawl didn’t read ‘Stink’.

Released: 1992
Price: From $4,350

Processor: IBM 486 processor (with Intel core) running at 25MHz
Memory: 4Mb upwards
Size: 297 x 210 x 56mm
Weight: 2.58kg
Screen: 10.4” colour, 640 x 480 resolution
Storage: 120Mb hard disk
Other notables: TrackPoint pointing device