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IBM ThinkPad A21p

Richard Price
21 November 2000

IBM's ThinkPad A21p is an amazing piece of work. It is nothing less than a desktop in a laptop's body.

As with most IBM gear, the design is conservative. While it may look out of place with the Mambo and Razor scooter set it should be quite at home on the front seat of a SAAB.

The sleek, black A21p weighs 3.45 kg, and is less than 4 cm thick. Under the titanium composite bonnet there is a powerful 850MHz Pentium III processor, 128MB of RAM, a speedy 32GB hard disk drive (that's BIG, folks!) and a graphics chipset that will leave the opposition choking in your dust.

I have my doubts about that multi-coloured IBM logo though --- it cheapens the marque.

The 15 inch UXGA TFT monitor is remarkable clean and crisp using the default 1600 x 1200.resolution. When I dropped the resolution so I could navigate the Trackpoint more easily, I was disappointed to see that the display became a bit too chunky, even though font smoothing was turned on.

The A21p even comes with an ATI Rage Mobility 128 video chip, with video capture and playback capability. MGI VideoWave III editing software is included so users can be editing right away. This baby would make an ideal portable video-editing studio, as long as users where happy with analogue connections or an add-on PC Card.

Unfortunately I could not test this as the loan machine did not have the necessary software installed.

Surprisingly it took ages to boot into Windows 98. Once up, it was amazingly fast.

There is also an IBM proprietary UltraPort connector at the top of the screen. This can be used for a clip-on digital camera, or any other UltraPort devices as they become available.

The keyboard is well laid out and a pleasure to use. There is even a concealed ThinkLight above the screen that can be switched on to illuminate the keys in weak light.

The two speakers are well positioned and protected by metal grilles. The audio is far better then I was expecting, although I found the sound tended to distort when the volume was turned up.

I have my doubts about the TrackPoint stick in the middle of the keyboard. It takes a bit of getting used to, and is really only good for basic navigation. Fortunately it is easy enough to attach an ordinary mouse. One feature of the TrackPoint system I liked was the third button. This allows users to scroll without having to use the normal windows scroll bars. It works in a similar fashion to the small wheel that is found between some mouse buttons.

Lotus SmartSuite Millennium --- included in the package --- was not on my test machine but I never missed it. An older version of Microsoft Office installed and ran well enough.

Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Macromedia's Director worked like dreams. Once I had configured my Internet connection and loaded a few more of my favorite programs, I was more than ready to drop my desktop system into the recycle bin.

The battery lasts for about 3 hours before it needs to be recharged. Why isn't battery life improving yet? Serious mobile users would need to carry an extra battery.

Given the hefty price tag the A21p is likely to be used as a status symbol by the company CEO for PowerPoint presentations. It deserves better!

Price: incl GST is AU$10499
www.ibm.com

By Richard Price, Editor EnergyME.com

For information on getting a product reviewed email richard@energyme.com