IBM Shows Slim, Trim ThinkPad

IBM's new ThinkPad X40 will be the company's lightest notebook ever, as well as the first to incorporate file recovery technology, the company says.

The X40 is currently available in Japan and other countries in Asia. It will be available worldwide as of February 24, says Grant Shenk, worldwide product manager.

IBM shaved about 14 ounces off the weight of the X31 in order to produce the X40, he says. The new notebook weighs just 2.7 pounds and measures 10.6 inches long by 8.3 inches wide by 1.1 inches thick, but comes with a full-size keyboard.

A base configuration costs $1499 with a 1-GHz Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M processor from Intel, 256MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 12.1-inch display, and Intel's Pro/Wireless 2100 802.11b chip. Preconfigured versions of the notebook will be available on Monday, and customers can also build their own systems, Shenk says.

The base configuration comes with a four-cell battery that provides up to 3.5 hours of use under normal circumstances, but an eight-cell battery that lasts for up to 7.5 hours is also available, Shenk says.

PC Protection

The X40 is IBM's first notebook to come with Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore, Shenk says. This feature allows users to access a protected area of the system in the event they are unable to get Microsoft's Windows XP to load properly, he says.

Pressing the Access IBM button during the initial boot process takes a user to a troubleshooting screen where they can determine what is wrong with their system, recover critical files, and download them to external media, or access the Web through a built-in browser, Shenk says.

IBM also plans to announce new X31 models with faster Pentium M processors and support for the Rescue and Recovery feature, Shenk says. The X31 was previously the lightest notebook in IBM's product line at 3.6 pounds.