Many of us have been searching for that special notebook: That's the one that not only works as a desktop replacement, allowing the business or academic side of you to fulfill all your word processing and Internet surfing needs, but one that can also be easily toted and has extended battery life. The IBM ThinkPad X31 is that notebook.
Weighing in at only 3.5 pounds and about one inch thick, the X31 houses an Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz CPU, a 40 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM (upgradeable to 512 MB), wireless network antennae for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, external DVD drive, 12.1-in. display, two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port and much more.
The wireless capabilities were a pleasant surprise. Once I was able to find a hotspot, gaining access to the Internet was extremely easy, and I was kicked off only once during a two-hour romp through the Web. Pages loaded about as quickly as they do on my desktop, and my instant messaging program stayed connected the entire time.
The look of the computer is classic IBM. The matte black body opens to show a 12-in. screen. It seems that IBM took great pains to make sure that many of the keyboard features in its larger notebooks are still available in this smaller version. The keyboard is quite comfortable and easy to get around considering the size. It even includes the cursor arrows, a feature generally omitted from other equally sized notebooks.
The downside: While the speed is okay, you can't expect it to compare to notebooks with 1.5 or 1.6 GHz Pentium M chip. However, it's a small price to pay for the size.
