IBM ThinkPad 560Z

IBM ThinkPad 560Z

It makes perfect sense that astronauts prefer ThinkPads over other laptops, as IBM notes proudly on its Web site. Who else but the government, and well-heeled executives, would pay this much for a product with such limited functionality? Sure, the powerful ThinkPad 560Z is thin and light (not that it would matter much in zero gravity) and has a great keyboard. But you can get all that and much more--including a CD-ROM drive, an extra-cost option on the ThinkPad 560Z--on other PII-300 notebooks for hundreds of dollars less.

The ThinkPad 560Z maintains the slim profile and black color of its predecessors. You'll find the eminently poundable keyboard easy to navigate with its comfortable trademark-red eraserhead and curved plastic mouse keys. The handy brightness slider lightens and darkens the screen. The battery pops out easily, followed by the hard drive, which is held in by a big screw you can remove with a coin. Although the ThinkPad 560Z lacks external speakers, the sound--which pours out from beneath the keyboard--does a small notebook proud. The ThinkPad 560Z performs a hair faster than the average PII-300 we've tested and the battery lasts a little longer than average.

Otherwise, the emperor is scantily clad. The floppy drive connects externally, an arrangement you'd expect on a superlight mininotebook but not on the full-size 560Z. A CD-ROM drive, considered standard equipment nowadays, costs an appalling $390 extra. And you can forget about the finer amenities of portable computing: The battery pack offers no handy LED charge lights, and the heavy rubber port covers can be easily misplaced. IBM keeps the multimedia jacks to a minimum; you gain a combination MIDI/joystick port and an Ethernet port if you buy the port replicator.

IBM skimps on customer support, too. The company offers only one year of free around-the-clock help. After that you pay $99 per year, including parts, labor, and a 12-hour repair turnaround time. PC World readers are unhappy with the quality of IBM's technical support: In our survey it fell into the Poor category in areas such as time spent on hold and technicians' knowledge. But when readers were asked whether they'd buy again based on service, the score shot up to midrange. Brand loyalty is a powerful thing.

SUMMARY

PRO: Lightweight, good performer, nice manual, good reliability, includes Lotus SmartSuite 97. CON: Overpriced, poor service rating. $3499; 159 PC WorldBench score, Pentium II-300, 64MB of RAM, 512KB of secondary cache, 6.4GB hard drive, 12.1-inch active-matrix screen, 56-kbps PC Card modem (K56flex), 5.8-pound traveling weight, 4.2-hour battery life, Windows 98 (or NT). IBM 800/426-7255, ext. 4751 www.ibm.com/pc/us/thinkpad