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IBM's New Slimline Notebook

It costs plenty, but IBM's new ThinkPad 560Z is a superb traveling companion.

By Jon Jacobi, PCWorld   

In a world of here-today, gone-tomorrow notebook models, IBM's popular, lightweight ThinkPad 560 series has stayed the course for more than two years. The latest incarnation is the 560Z--one of the most usable travel notebooks I've run across. Its major drawback is a steep $3499 price as configured--without a bundled CD-ROM drive. (IBM expects you to pay $329 extra for that!)

Our handsome, flat-black ThinkPad 560Z review unit has the same slim, 1.4-inch profile of its predecessors and a couple of new upper-crust options: a Pentium II-300 CPU and a spacious 6.4GB hard drive. With 64MB of RAM installed, the 560Z posted a PC WorldBench 98 score of 158--within a few percentage points of the score of the fastest PII-300 portable we've seen.

The 560Z also has the 12.1-inch, 800-by-600 screen of its predecessors--a relatively small display typical of most lightweights.

What You Get
When you use the ThinkPad 560Z, you realize why the series is so popular--even at their high price. The keyboard is a joy compared to what you'll find on most notebooks--with large keys, excellent action, and a layout as close to a desktop's as you can find.

Without the AC adapter, floppy drive, and 56-kbps V.90 PC Card modem, the notebook weighs only 4.2 pounds. Adding those items increases the unit's traveling weight to 5.8 pounds. Unless you expect to do a lot of computing away from an outlet, you shouldn't have to weigh yourself down with an extra battery; the 560Z lasted 3.2 hours in our run-down test.

IBM provides thorough, well-written documentation and round-the-clock technical support. However, for this much money it would be nice to have a warranty longer than the standard one year.

All the same, if you can afford it, the ThinkPad 560Z provides a powerful computing experience few notebooks can match.