Vintage review: IBM ThinkPad X21

Hi. I just got this laptop (used) and thought it would be cool to dive into the past for a few minutes. 'Sides, I had to practice for when I'm reviewing my Sager NP5760 arriving tomorrow. Hope you enjoy. Comments welcome. ~C.



Specifications as reviewed.

• Intel Pentium III 700MHz (L1 16Kb, L2 256Kb)
• 256 Mb SDRAM 100MHz
• 20 Gb IDE U-ATA 4200-rpm hard disk
• 12" LCD TFT Active Matrix XGA (1024x768)
• ATi RAGE Mobility 4Mb AGP 2x
• integrated 3Com 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
• integrated 3Com 56k V.90 modem
• 2 x USB 1.1, VGA out, RJ-11 (modem), RJ-45 (LAN), PC Card, X2mic/headphone
• 10.9" x 8.9" x 1.2" --- 3.5 pounds with standard battery
• Shinza ZeroShock 12" Notebook Case (not pictured nor reviewed here)

​

Intro and Reasons for Buying.

I am a college student and a frequent flier. I needed a light, thin laptop for A) taking notes in class, B) writing essays and papers, C) working during flights, D) delivering the occasional presentation—oh, yeah, and, E) very heavy gaming. Does such a machine exist? Not quite yet, so I decided to go with a desktop replacement for all my gaming and multimedia needs (the 17” Sager NP5760, which I will review soon) and get an old, used ultraportable to lug around. After considering several models, most notably the Dell D400 and the Toshiba Portege 3480 and 4000, my choice was the IBM ThinkPad X21.

I was looking for something either used or refurbished in good working order and decent cosmetic condition; didn’t care much for tear and wear, but I wanted a good screen (= no cracks/stains/shadows, and no dead pixels if possible). I browsed eBay and UBid looking for a deal, and finally opted for a used X21 instead of a refurbished one, simply because that one vendor had pictures and a detailed description of the item, while most factory refurbished laptops don't (which is one of the reasons I will not buy from Ubid.com). I ended up paying around $250 inclusive of docking station/port replicator, DVD drive and floppy drive for the dock, working battery, AC adapter, and car charger, all in very good condition. I was especially lucky, as you can expect to pay up to $350-400 for such a machine. I was debating whether to get a Centrino-based X31, but decided the $300 price hike did not justify the performance increase: a Pentium 3, even clocked at a relatively low 700 MHz as in the X21, is more than enough for basic office work, as we shall see.


Build and Design.

Well, it’s an IBM. The build quality is astounding. The whole laptop is rock-solid and can be easily lifted with one hand from one corner without a creak. There is no detectable flex anywhere. The screen is also sturdy and firm on its hinges: it lifts smoothly without having to hold the base, and then stays in place with almost no bounce. Be wary that not all used units may be in such great condition. This is the state of a like-new ThinkPad, but your mileage may vary if you get a used or refurbished unit (and you have to, since IBM/Lenovo has discontinued production and support of the X2? series a long time ago). If you buy online and not in person, make sure the vendor offers a detailed description of the item, possibly with pictures.

As for the design, well, again, it’s an IBM: its extreme simplicity will be unattractive to some and quite appealing to others. I find its slab-like, squared design relaxing and non-threatening, like so much more care was put in the laptop’s functionality rather than its looks. And then the extra-thin chassis with the softly sloped keyboard allotment and the bright red TrackPoint can steal a couple of looks. Can we say so much time has passed since this unit was first on the market it can be considered almost vintage? For a few minutes it felt like holding my Commodore 64 again.


Keyboard and Touchpad.

Like most ThinkPads, this unit uses TrackPoint technology instead of a touch pad. The impact with a TP is not easy if you’ve never used one; it is hard to learn to regulate the pressure on the point to direct the cursor. It felt awkward at first (and the TP’s texture is somewhat rough under the finger) but I was fine after a few hours. Like with almost everything, it’s just a matter of practice.



On the other hand, the keyboard is as good as it gets. ThinkPads are renowned for their exceptional keyboards, so I had high expectations. The X21 met them all, as I have never used a better keyboard, on a laptop or otherwise. It is quite silent, contrarily to what you may have heard, and very sleek looking. The alphanumeric keys are full-sized, with excellent pitch and stroke for such a small unit.

While the keyboard’s build quality is excellent, key placement may leave a bitter taste in the mouth of some users. Due to limited room, the Home/End keyset stands on top of Backspace and not beside; Enter and the arrows are smaller; and Function and Control on the lower left corner are switched. At first I found myself striking Fn instead of Ctrl time and again, but since Fn alone produces no effect, this is only frustrating and not harmful. As with the TrackPoint, you get used to it after a while.

What may be also annoying for some users is the lack of a Windows key as well as a Menu key to imitate the right mouse button. Given the not exactly mainstream pointing device, it may have been nice to have the option to use it as little as possible, and the presence of those two keys would have helped. Needless to say, external keyboard and mouse solve the problem, although this laptop is designed for extreme portability and it would be rather counterproductive to accessorize like that.





Screen, Sound, Media.

To this day, IBM is one of the few major manufacturers to equip its laptops with a 4:3 matte screen. The lack of widescreen and the non-reflective properties will please traditional LCD fans, but is going to let down mediaphiles and those who need lots of screen estate. While this screen provided good functionality and decent contrast, colors aren’t as bright or vivid as on glossy surfaces with higher resolutions. That’s the price you pay for having a monitor that’s more restful to the eyes and easily viewable in direct sunlight.

The XGA resolution (1024x768) is sufficient for simple browsing and productivity tasks, and will still allow a good amount of icons on the desktop. Don’t expect to use this laptop for even movie watching, as the reduced screen resolution and quality will not provide a great experience in terms of media content.



Laptop speakers stink, we all know that. These stink even more, with their ultra-low volume and mono configuration. Actually, the entire audio section is thoroughly unremarkable, as even listening to music through headphones produces annoying background noise and awful bass/high contrast—and I am not an audiophile in the least. Once again, this laptop is not intended for any kind of media content. It will be fine only if you need to hear (as opposed to “listen to” background music while working, or to view the picture of your pet or loved one when away from home—and that’s about it.


Connectivity (Ports and Drives).

The X21 is so thin there are no optical drives whatsoever. The docking station, however, has a slot for either a DVD reader/burner or a floppy disk drive. Both were included in the eBay auction I won, but you may need to purchase them separately: they can be found used for a few bucks. Make sure the model numbers are compatible with the docking station. The laptop itself has little connectivity, but what’s important is all there: 2 USB 1.0 ports, PCMCIA card slot, UltraPort, VGA-out, headphones-out, microphone-in, line-in, RJ-11 (modem), RJ-45 (Ethernet), and a Kensington lock hole. An X2 docking port and relative locks are on the bottom of the laptop.



If you need more, the docking station/port replicator has all this plus S-video, serial, S/PDIF, and even DVI-D. It’s an impressive set of connectivity options for such a small and relatively under-performing unit. Most of this stuff will not even be used, but I was very pleased to find it there “just in case”.





Performance and Benchmarks.

The ThinkPad X21 is equipped with a Pentium 3 clocked at 700 MHz, 256 Mb PC100 RAM, a 20 Gb 4,200-rpm hard drive, and an Ethernet 10/100 integrated card. The graphics option (ATi Mobility Rage with 4 Mb of dedicated video RAM) did not pass even the PCMark05 test and will only let you play very old games. Once again, quite obviously, this laptop is not intended for any games more intensive than, say, Solitaire or 1995’s Wolfenstein 3D. I haven’t tried running Vista Beta, but certainly Aero would not be an option (if the OS runs at all, that is).



What matters is Windows performance, and in that regard the X21 does deliver—moderately. The P3 is far slower than any Centrino-based processor, and the 700 MHz clock isn’t remarkable either, but it’s more than enough to run Windows and basic productivity/security software. My laptop runs Windows XP Professional, Open Office 2.0, and Kaspersky Anti Virus 6.0 without a hiccup. Also Opera 9 and Firefox 2.0 Beta run flawlessly. There are, of course, substantial loading times when launching a new program, but not so much you’ll tear your hair out, and once the program is going, it goes well.

As is expected, such a slow processor won’t beat any benchmarking records. SuperPi results are totally unimpressive at over 7 minutes to calculate 2 million digits.



Also HD Tune gives rather poor results both in terms of hard disk access time and transfer rate.



The RAM is clocked at only 100 MHz but has a very low latency (2.0-2-2-5) that allows for relatively fast read/write times. Considering how much of a memory hog Windows XP is, this is welcome, and startup, hibernation, and shutdown are almost always painless. Also installing updates is fairly quick. Older versions of Windows should make the laptop somewhat snappier—but given the hardware, don’t expect huge performance increases even then.

The 20 Gb hard drive seems like a folly in these times of 750Gb and external enclosures, but it is quite appropriate for this machine. After the disk was partitioned/formatted and Windows was installed, there were still about 18 Gb free on the disk, which is more than you’ll ever need if you don’t do multimedia or gaming—and with this laptop, obviously, you can’t.


Heat and Noise.

One would think that such a small machine with so little horsepower would not suffer from either heat or noise issues, but that is not necessarily true. While definitely silent, the X21 gets quite warm after prolonged usage. Especially the center of the keyboard and the underside of the notebook feel warm to the touch, sometimes even hot. It is not uncomfortable when the laptop is sitting on a desk or docked, but you would not want it on your lap unless you had thick clothes on. Again, this only happens after prolonged use and especially when operating on AC (on battery, the whole unit is generally cooler, as the processor is underclocked, though still noticeably warm on the bottom). The upper center part of the outer screen lid is also warm at pretty much all times.


Battery.

This (and keyboard) is where IBM has always excelled. Beware that used batteries are likely to not hold a charge, or to not last for very long. I was lucky enough to get one in great working condition, as it holds a 100% charge and has a rather impressive lifespan:

• Idle: 4 hours 53 minutes.
• Light work: 3 hours 31 minutes (Open Office, copying files, viewing photos).
• Heavy load: 1 hour 57 minutes (watching a movie, running virus scan, compressing large files)

Please consider that:

• all of these tests were run on highest screen brightness (level 7 out of 7);
• all of these tests were run with the standard 3600 mAh battery;
• the use of a wireless/Bluetooth add-on card would bring down battery life substantially.

With low brightness and the extended 4400 mAh battery you could probably break 5 hours of work time. An extra battery only weighs 330 grams, quite easy to carry, and the whole laptop plus 2 batteries does not even exceed four pounds. Both batteries will make this baby easily run for a full coast-to-coast flight, and with some tweaking/battery saving even for an intercontinental flight (I expect to use it on the 9-hour London-Chicago route and not be disappointed). Quite impressive for such an old product with a power-hungry Pentium 3 under its hood.

Again, remember that these tests were run with fully-working, like-new batteries. Used batteries may or may not give the same results. I strongly recommend buying a brand-new battery. You can find it for around $40 on eBay from several sellers.





Customer Support.

This entry does not really make sense in a used laptop, but if you do buy second-hand try and do so from a SquareTrade member seller. Soon after getting my X21 I purchased a SquareTrade warranty package. Used electronics—including computers—are warrantied for 2 years starting 60 days after the date of purchase. My cost was $35 a year, a feasible sum (for comparison, I spent $300+ to protect my brand-new Sager NP5760 for 3 years). Does it make sense to protect such a small-time investment? After all, I’ve only spent $250 on it... In my opinion it does, as you can have your product replaced no-questions-asked in case of hardware failure during the period covered by the warranty. SquareTrade does have technical support and even repair depots, but why go through all the hassle if you can just get a replacement?


Conclusion.

Two weeks into my first IBM product, I am quite satisfied. True, it is not a high-performance machine: as I am waiting for my Sager NP5760, I’m using this laptop for all kinds of things such as e-mail, instant-messaging, and web browsing... and it does lag sometimes under such “heavy” use. It may be because I’m a rather compulsive user and need to launch several processes at the same time: I type and click faster than this Pentium 3 can keep up with. ;-) But this is not the way this laptop is meant to be used, especially with modern-day software. The X21 is a good, affordable choice for those who have very basic computing needs on the go. If you plan on doing any kind of programming, graphic design, or even just webcam-chat at Starbucks, you need a more powerful unit. But for the note-taking student, the commuter worker, or the writer who likes to spend time outdoors, the X21 is a near-perfect choice.



Edited: specs and minor typos

 

Nice review -- especially for a "practice" one! For $250 you can't go wrong with an old IBM, and great that you found a trusted seller at such a price. 7 minutes plus on the Super Pi time isn't too great, but if it gets the job done in terms of running chat and a browser, then that's great.

 

Nice review. I just bought an X30 in perfect condition but for the battery. It lasts about 3 hours though...will be getting a new one here soon. It came with an Ultrabase and CD-ROM, 512mb total RAM, and an extra battery for $350 shipped. Not as good as your deal, perhaps, but I LOVE this machine!

 

Thanks for the nice comments. That's a very good deal on the X30 though!

C.

 

I also bought a X30. I'm currently waiting for it to be shipped. Mine was $300 with 256MB RAM. I bought another 256MB stick on Newegg for $35. I might have to buy a new battery depending on how bad this one is.

 

Great review! I love my X31. It does everything I need and runs great with 2 512 stick installed. These older X series are great machines for people that want internet and office for little money in a small package.

 

Claud: I actually bought myself an X21 for the same reasons you bought one, something that's cheap, light, high quality, and would last for a reasonable amount of time on the battery... I paid about $250 for it myself, and have been extremely pleased with it. I've found that I can play SNES emulated games for about 2.5 hours on a full charge, and the computer handles them flawlessly
I'm planning on buying a T60 in the near future, but the X21 will always hold a certain place in my heart...

 

Ahh now THAT is a good idea! I wonder if it can also run the recently released DOS emulator for old MS-DOS games. Retro-gaming is a trip. Good suggestion!

C.

 

where did you guys buy these for those prices anyway ??
IBM site or somewhere else

 

I got mine on e-bay. The key is to find one that shows pictures of the actual computer that you are paying for, not a stock photo.. I waited about a month before I found one that was in near perfect condition that was shown in the ebay ad itself...
The trackpoint really does taking a bit of getting used to, but I actually find myself liking it more than the touchpad in my Averatec 6110... In fact, I find myself using the IBM more than I do the Averatec, lol.
I must have gotten lucky, I can pull about 3.5 hours out of the battery on light usage, closer to 3 if I'm using my linksys wireless card.
Since I'm a geek when it comes to making things non-stock, I pulled the cooler out of the computer and replaced the stock heat sink goo stuff with AS5 and drilled a couple holes under the fan. I've found that helped a bit with the heat while plugged in, and when it's on battery the thing stays fairly cool.

 

That's a pretty risky procedure, though of course not so if you know what you're doing. Kudos to you!

And yes, I got mine on eBay as well. My research was three weeks long.

C.

 

You complain to much about the performance, my 760CD with pentium 120 plays quake just fine, I did super pi on a gateway 2000 486 DX2 66mhz and it took 6 hrs and 7 mins to do super pi to the 2m

 

Heh, I did the same thing to my brand new Averatec the evening I got it home, lol..
With the X21 I actually had to sandwich a bit of thin flat aluminum between the core and the HSF because of the way it mounts... I just used a bit of left over case material from the casemod I did on my main PC (.6mm aluminum).

 

Oh I was definitely not *complaining* about performance: just stating that by 2006's standards a Pentium 3 is an underperforming processor, which is clearly true when compared with recent CPUs. That said, and as remarked in the review, it still works just fine for certain tasks, as would the 486.

C.

 

No I really like your review I wish people would do more reviews on older machines, I really love the old thinkpads, before lenovo took over.

 

looking at that. makes me sad i am upgrading my A22m but needs to done. photoshop is waaaay to slow..and i cant feed my WoW crack addiction on it either..