Richard Sapper's classic design, modified only slightly over the years, is undeniably a major part of the ThinkPad's appeal. There may be those who detest the signature red TrackPoint as a mousing device—we are not among them—but very few people would dispute the ThinkPad's enduring good looks. We think it remains the best-looking notebook on the market, and the most prestigious—it has considerable cachet with corporate executives and geeks alike.

The ThinkPad series has traditionally delivered the goods in terms of reliability and performance, too. ThinkPads are generally acknowledged to have the best keyboards and displays of any portable; the tough casing—IBM used a titanium composite long before Apple—is an added bonus. Yes, ThinkPads are typically somewhat more expensive than other notebooks, but we've always felt they deserved their premium status.

And never more so than in today's tough economy, as we hope the following anecdote makes clear.

Our current ThinkPad, a PII 390E running Windows 2000, has served as a mobile development machine and has also been useful for presentations (the LCD is still gorgeous). Recently, the internal modem died and we sent the unit back to IBM to confirm this diagnosis. We didn't want IBM to replace the modem—their labor charges would have made the cost disproportionately high—but we wanted an official verdict, thinking we would move this little workhorse to a lighter role and replace it with a faster model. Accordingly, we asked IBM customer service to call us prior to making any repairs on the machine.

Well, there was a bit of a mixup (as there has been on almost every occasion we've dealt with any manufacturer's tech repair operation). IBM neglected to call us and replaced the modem, to the tune of almost $400. What's more, they claimed to have found a problem with the unit's hard drive, and replaced that as well. Total bill: more than $900.

We were, needless to say, somewhat put off by this. But after a number of calls to various IBM customer service people, the company made the situation right: no charge for the new modem, and an 18GB hard drive in place of the original 6GB drive (also at no cost). We remain somewhat astounded that a large corporation would treat a small customer so well in rectifying a mistake, but of course we're delighted as well. And IBM successfully delivered a message: the ThinkPad is a classy machine, backed by a classy organization. Our 390E will soldier on, and we look forward to our next ThinkPad, most likely an A31p "desktop replacement" model. Here's to another successful ten-year run.

(Reviewed October 16, 2002)