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Looks aren't everything, right? We tried to remind ourselves of that during our review of IBM Corp.'s ThinkPad T30, a notebook that comes with a full set of updated features but a case that looks virtually unchanged from the ThinkPads of years ago.
If you've seen a ThinkPad in the past, you know what this one looks like: all black and boxy. The titanium composite top and bottom covers are durable, but the soft matte finish on the top cover causes dust to stick like Velcro. Attempts to brush it off were only partly successful, resulting in a cover that looked slightly mottled with gray.
IBM touts the T30 as "thin and light." The unit is indeed fairly light at 5.4 pounds, but at nearly one-and-a-half inches, we don't consider it thin.
Inside, however, you'll find updated notebook specifications, including a 2 GHz Mobile Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processor, 512K of Level 2 cache, 256M of PC2100 synchronous dynamic RAM (expandable to 1G) and a 40G hard drive.
The two-spindle design features a multibay that comes with an 8X DVDROM drive and can also accept a CDRW/DVD Combo II drive, floppy drive, Iomega Corp. Zip drive or second battery.