10 most memorable laptops
IBM ThinkPad 701 (1995)
Claim to fame: Unique foldout keyboard (a.k.a. butterfly keyboard) One of the worst compromises made when shrinking a laptop is the keyboard. After all, we can live with the Web browser taking another 2 seconds to open, and we can always use an external optical drive if we want to watch a movie. But writing essays on a reduced-size keyboard can easily become a medical emergency. The 10.4-inch ThinkPad 701 had a unique and elegant solution. By splitting the keyboard into three parts, a cam on the LCD hinge allowed the pieces to fold out into a full-sized input device when opened. Too bad this design was not adopted by later ThinkPads or even other brands with sub-12-inch displays. |
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