Lenovo's laptop lineup

The ThinkPad name has been highly regarded in the business world for nearly 15 years. Until late last year, ThinkPads were built exclusively for businesspeople, with some of the best business-class features available. Traditionally black in color, ThinkPads feature innovative (and in some cases, unique) elements, including the TrackPoint pointing device; a keyboard light placed atop the LCD screen for working in dim environments; arguably the best keyboard available on a laptop; the Active Protection System, a device that detects when a ThinkPad is falling and shuts the hard drive down to prevent damage; and a biometric fingerprint reader. Many of these features are branded as ThinkVantage technologies.

When Lenovo, the largest PC manufacturer in China, bought the ThinkPad business from IBM in 2004, many people freaked out, fearing that the ThinkPad's high-quality tech-support operation would be diminished. So far, that hasn't come to pass: All of the people, products, and services in the IBM personal computer division were part of the deal, and the PC support infrastructure will continue to supply tech support for ThinkPad laptops (and desktops) until 2009.

In late February, Lenovo launched the Lenovo 3000 C100, the first in a new line of budget laptops targeted at small businesses. The C100's design looks distinctly different from the ThinkPad's, and its case is stocked with low- to midrange components (no fancy dual-core CPUs, wide-screen LCDs, or other high-end features here). But the C100 does incorporate a ThinkPad keyboard, as well as the new Lenovo Care suite of utilities (based on the company's ThinkVantage technologies), for a starting price of $599.

For more information on Lenovo's laptop lineup, check out the company's Web site, the ThinkVantage page, and the Wikipedia entry on ThinkPads.

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