Review: IBM ThinkPad X40 Notebook PC
Feb. 9, 2004 -- With the arrival of the best-in-class IBM ThinkPad X40, other ultraportables have a lot of catching up to do.
Even with a system weight of just 2.7 pounds, the X40 still has the features serious road warriors demand — notably that wonderful-feeling, full-size IBM keyboard. Best of all, IBM has priced the X40 very competitively: Prices start at $1,499 direct.
It isn't entirely magic how IBM undercut the 3.6-pound system weight of the X31, the previous class leader among ultraportables (which continues on in the IBM lineup). With the X40, the internal battery drops from six cells to four, the hard drive is downsized from 2.5 inches to 1.8 (limiting maximum capacity to 40GB), and the processor choice is initially between the 1.0-GHz (ultra-low-voltage, or ULV) Pentium M and the 1.2-GHz (low-voltage) Pentium M.
You can order the X40 with either the four-cell battery or an eight-cell battery, which adds about an inch of depth to the 1.1- by 10.6- by 8.3-inch chassis and raises the system weight to 3.2 pounds. The AC adapter adds 0.6 pounds, and an external DVD-RW drive ($499) weighs 0.7 pounds. So even with these added, the X40 weighs 2 pounds less than the two-drive thin-and-light IBM ThinkPad T41, configured for the same 6 hours of battery life.
Physically, the X40 looks a lot like its ThinkPad siblings. The FireWire connector is gone, giving way to an IBM proprietary power jack for the external optical drive. There remains one PC Card slot and an SDIO slot that works with both flash memory cards and communications devices from the PDA world. Corporate IT departments will need a separate system image for the X40, since it uses a different graphics engine than previous ThinkPads (in this case it's Intel's integrated 855GME).
Power Issues
Because of the ULV processor, performance tends toward the low end for a premium notebook, with a score of 12.1 on Business Winstone and 12.2 on Multimedia Content Creation Winstone. But those are respectable numbers for an ultraportable, and speed is not an issue for e-mail, presentations, and document creation — the intended uses of a sub-3-pound notebook.
Total battery life depends on how you configure the unit. The four-cell battery lasted 2 hours 26 minutes on our test. The eight-cell battery delivered more than 6 hours of runtime, and an undermount 0.8-pound wedge battery can add another 3 hours.
For expansion, a new lockable docking station, the IBM X4 UltraBase, adds a three-port USB 2.0 hub and a swappable bay for an optical drive or yet another battery. With a DVD/CD-RW combo drive installed, the UltraBase weighs 1.7 pounds, bringing the system weight to about 4.5 pounds.
Security Measures
With the X40, IBM extends inside-the-box support with its proprietary Rescue and Recovery utility suite, launched by the blue "Access IBM" button on the keyboard. An embedded preboot operating system provides hard drive, CD, and Ethernet access. The utility helps you recover from crashes, user mistakes, viruses, and even some drive failures. You can have six backups in a hidden partition.
The X40 also includes recent IBM security measures. Most notable among them is a vibration and motion sensor for the hard drive (called the Active Protection System), which parks the drive heads if the machine senses it is falling.
All in all, the X40 is a nearly flawless system for users who value portability and ruggedness over big screens, big drives, and big footprints. Sure, we look forward to the extra speed the next generation of mobile chips will bring, but for those who need an ultraportable now, the X40 is the best in the field.
Company Info: IBM Corp., www.ibm.comProduct: IBM ThinkPad X40 Price: $1,999 direct Specs: With 1.0-GHz Pentium M, 40GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, 12.1-inch XGA display, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b wireless, Microsoft Windows XP Pro