The Time IBM Sold ThinkPads It Didn't Make

The ThinkPad line of laptops usually brings to mind two names: IBM, and more recently, Lenovo. Let's take a look at a model that was manufactured by neither of them.

Sources:
i Series 1480 review: PC Magazine, November 2, 1999

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[IanNewYashaTheFinalAct]

1999: Acer makes Thinkpads


2005: Acer makes _Ferraris_

[AudioCraZ]

I remember working on a few of these. The media player in the front was nice, especially for people who were flying, but could listen to music when they had to have their laptop off. Depending on how strict the flight stewardess was. Great video.

[PrivateEyeYiYi]

My T520 has a Thinklight. These were used on a ton of Thinkpads.

[XxMsrSzprzxX]

Watching this on a W530, the last generation (xx30) to have the ThinkLight. It lights up the whole desk almost, better than a backlit keyboard in my opinion.

[kbhasi]

I have one too! Well, by that, I mean what's left of a 514TXV. *The ThinkPad iSeries was based on the Acer TravelMate 510 series!*

4:29 The Acer version had speakers on the front, on the same side as the CD player controls, so when the lid was closed, it kinda looked like a flattened boombox.

[emdotrod]

Didn't know Acer made Thinkpads too. Great video Colin!

[VeerMaharaj]

There are IDE based SSDs available for these machines. Throw one in and see if it makes a difference. Just remember to disable/never run defrag.

[secondsettweezer]

Worth noting: the thinklight was not exclusive to this model. It was fairly common for quite a while. The x60s I am currently typing on has one, and I use it all the time. More useful than a backlight IMO. S-Video output was also fairly common for a number of years. I remember seeing them on laptops up to the mid/late-2000s.

[Tsuresu]

I had one of these that I got in mid-2000.
One important thing you forgot to mention: As expected from Acer, their build quality was absolute rubbish.

The first one I got was dead out of the box, the second one died shortly after. The third one lasted 6 months before needing to go for repairs, at which point I negotiated with IBM for a model change. This one lasted about a year. I then switched to an iBook.

[aaron]

When I first started at the computer shop I work at back in 2004 they had two of these fully disassembled in a box that had been returned multiple times for different issues. Guess it wasn't the most reliable machine, and now knowing the manufacturer... I get why!

[MatSpeedle]

Some of these thinkpads are a great way to get into classic DOS & classic windows gaming, they're easy to store and the driver support is always solid. You can cover most of the key gaming periods with a couple of models. Always great to find out more about some of these lesser known models, great video Colin!

[datdang]

it's strange to see an IBM Thinkpad without blue enter key

[vnceigz]

1:15 - The Display Triangle: contrast, brightness, refresh speed - pick two. (For external displays, it's worse because there's also size/weight, price, power-consumption, etc.)

[nitrax]

The ATi Rage Mobility is a great graphics chip, it's really a jack of all trades - the internal display scaling was superior to anything else on the market, and the S-Video output is built right onto the chip, making it a really cheap & easy feature to implement. Not to mention the built-in DVD decoding capabilities - the CPU on my Pentium III 500 Compaq Armada laptop that uses one barely goes above 20% CPU usage playing DVDs!

[eternaldrive]

It's really interesting to look back at these old laptops, and see how far we have come.

[lagunagfx]

Haha... I got mine for 20 euros a few days ago. You saved me a lot of research, Colin!

Now I’m looking forward to have some time of to refurbish it. The software install is a mess ans there are minor flaws, like the cd controls not working and the battery ejection mechanism is stuck

Really enjoyable video, as usual. Greetings from Spain!

[longnamedude]

I love the use of a separate audio system, and the feet built into the laptop too, these days it is all about making things thinner and less features included.

I use a Workstation-Class Laptop as my main laptop, an older Dell made unit, and it's the only reasonably modern laptop I could find with decent performance and a lot of connectivity regardless of price.

[WatchJRGo]

Really looks like a dual card bus slot... weren't these laptops the pinnacle of innovation? 💻

[aeonjoeyd]

the cd player functionality wasn't exactly an uncommon feature, models from toshiba, hp, dell, compaq, and many others did the same thing. models from HP even had a separate dual boot system to play DVDs and IPTV, remote controls were popular too.

[bytefree]

I had an I-Series turned on with Screen and HDD enabled all time running non stop for two years (one year ago). It is a way thinner one without the CD hot keys. It doenst feel like proper quality, but ... man, one of the best notebooks I had.