Design classic: The IBM ThinkPad

For plenty of good reasons, Apple Computer has become a design icon in recent years. It is easy to give examples from the past decade such as the original iMac or the iPod, but the company has been demonstrating it's grasp of good design since at least the time of the original Macintosh. Apple are trend setters, undoubtedly, and their products stand the test of time. I'm going to stop there. There exists enough column acreage on that subject. Instead, I'm going to outline why I think the IBM ThinkPad is a design classic.

I should right away admit that my last laptop upgrade was a ThinkPad. There were a number of things that steered me that way, some of which are to do with my previous laptop. My 1999 Toshiba, as old as it had become, had solderied on despite a few battle scars. It's a tough old tank from the days when laptops were still made in Japan. As the years marked it, I appreciated more and more the little design touches that weren't on more modern designs.

My current ThinkPad mirrors those strengths. Like all ThinkPads through the years, it is superbly engineered. It feels and is built to last. A longtime forte, the keyboard is so good to type on it beats any I've used with a desktop PC. The asymmetrical lid protects the screen very well with it's rib along one side. The metal hinges hint at the idea that you might be able to drive a car over a ThinkPad and still use it.

Clever little touches include the little LED light that illuminates the keyboard in dark conditions. Or how about the accelerometer that parks the Hard Disk head when sudden movement is detected - ThinkPads were first with that.

No one describes ThinkPads as beautiful. They are designed to do a job. And where Apple products shout high fashion, the ThinkPad is quietly understated and consistent. But so consistent is the ThinkPad template that you could mistake any made in the last few years as new. And that's a good thing, because you know a ThinkPad will last for a few years. The design of the ThinkPad is great because IBM have never been tempted to add anything to it that wasn't necessary or that wasn't a genuine enhancement. It is form that follows function, not compromise in the name of fashion.