Volks NoteBooks

By JOSHUA QUITTNER

With its perfect keyboard and splendidly pixelated active-matrix screen, IBM's ThinkPad has a well-deserved reputation as the best of breed in the notebook category. If you can afford one, that is. I happen to use a year-old ThinkPad 560x, which weighs a bantam 4.1 lbs. Despite its advanced age and relatively pedestrian configuration (I had to add extra RAM), it cost $2,200 new. Luckily for me, my employer paid.

But what about people who aren't so blessed as to work for the best darn company in the world? Laptops constitute the fastest-growing sector of the computer market, and last year Big Blue undertook the most extensive consumer-research campaign in ThinkPad's six-year history to try to figure out who's buying them. It discovered a new class of information worker: mobile folks who buy their own gear. These consumers work at small start-ups. They're college students. They're even people who like to telecommute, but from the sofa rather than the home office. Some 30% of laptop purchases will be made by these people during the upcoming year, according to IBM. Price, for them, is a major consideration. So is bang for the buck. Also, apparently, stereo speakers.

At least, that's how it seems, based on how IBM's new ThinkPad i Series turned out. The company's first consumer-targeted notebooks, due out next month, are priced at $1,499, $1,999 and $2,499. All have active-matrix color screens, 56K modems and 20X CD-ROM drives. And inch-wide Altec-Lansing stereo speakers.

Slightly bigger screens, more capacious hard drives and extra RAM account for the price difference between models. The top of the i line, the ThinkPad 1720, is the only one powered by a Pentium II chip rather than the more declasse Pentium I. I spent last week getting to know the mid-priced model, the ThinkPad 1450.

My assessment? An everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach certainly has appeal from the cost side. But there are pitfalls that may turn out to be penny wise, pound foolish for some people. Those stereo speakers, for instance. While I am no Leonard Bernstein, I believe I have a fairly discerning ear. And that ear could hardly tell the difference between the Altec-Lansings and the no-brand speaker that comes on most laptops. I'm not sure, really, who'd use them; the sound on my demo model was too low-fidelity (and the volume just too low, even cranked up to high) for the PC to pass as a CD player.

The CD-ROM player itself, at 20X, is fast enough to run most software. I was able to stalk deer in the hills of Pennsylvania playing Deer Hunter II, though installing the game and loading it seemed to take forever compared to how long my 30X desktop machine needed. The 13.1-in. screen was certainly a pleasure to look at, but the big-screen contributed to a package that weighed in at a sumo-like 7.7 lbs. That's way too heavy for a wimp like me to lug around every day.

Still, the i Series, particularly the cheapest model, will give good value if you're slightly mobile and even mostly immobile, bound to a couch or just looking for a second PC to knock around the house with. Best news for consumers: IBM isn't the only PC maker that has identified the low-end laptop market. Let the lap wars begin.

For more on laptops, see time.com/personal E-mail Josh at jquit@well.com and watch Anita Wednesdays on CNNfn's Digital Jam.