IBM TK04BUK

It's built to last but has it got the power you need?

Price: £2205.48

Manufacturer: IBM

Ratings

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Verdict

Pros:
Connectivity
Dual case clips
Excellent screen
Solid keyboard

Cons:
Price
Lacklustre performance
External CD drive

Overall:
Built to last - but it's already being outstripped by more powerful systems

Emilie Martin, Personal Computer World 10 Dec 2002

The TK04BUK is the mid-range model in the IBM Thinkpad X30 family and is a compact and highly portable piece of kit.

Double clips on the notebook's lid minimise the risk of trapping items such as pens inside the case and damaging the 12.2in TFT screen, which may be small but gives excellent image quality at a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 768.

Given the overall size of the notebook the solidly built keyboard has well-spaced keys of a decent size. The only exceptions to this are the set of cursor keys, which are a little on the small side.

The Insert and Delete keys are sensibly located at the top right of the keyboard and a handy set of volume control keys is located just under the screen.

The lack of a Windows key, however, will prove extremely irritating to the shortcut-reliant and the numerical keypad is incorporated as function ('Fn') keys on the main Qwerty keyboard.

As with many of its other notebooks, IBM has opted for a centrally mounted trackpoint on the X30 series rather than a touchpad.

The trackpoint on the TK04BUK was responsive, but the pros and cons of its inclusion over a touchpad really boil down to personal preference.

Battery life was decent at one hour 33 minutes for the system battery, although we have seen better battery performances on cheaper systems.

Hooked up to the extended battery pack, however, this increased to a more respectable two hours 55 minutes.

The TK04BUK's overall Sysmark 2002 score of 106 was in line with expectations for a notebook built around a 1.2GHz Mobile P3, but the notebook's 3Dmark performance was decidedly poor, scoring just 638 in our benchmark tests.

The TK04BUK boasts onboard Ethernet 10/100 connectivity along with infra-red, Wi-fi, two USB ports, PC Card Type II with VGA and parallel ports located at the back of the notebook.

In trying to keep the size of a notebook down, though, there will invariably be trade-offs.

In this case there is no built-in CD-Rom drive and accessing data or installing files from the 10-speed external drive, which connects to the notebook via USB, can be a frustratingly lengthy process.

The TK04BUK is a sleek, well-designed notebook that is built to last.

Other notebook users will shoot covetous glances in your direction when you produce this model on the train or in meetings, but there are more powerful notebooks on the market at more competitive prices.

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