Image gallery: 16 breakthrough notebooks through the years

IBM ThinkPad

In late 1992, IBM took the compact design of the PowerBook's pointing device a step further in its new ThinkPad series -- most notably the $4,350 ThinkPad 700C, which ran Windows 3.1 and had a 120MB hard drive, a 25MHz 486SLC CPU, and a large and lovely 10.4-inch color TFT active-matrix panel.

As operating systems advanced and their interfaces became more graphical, the need for a mouse increased. Prior to the PowerBook 100, users had to go through the hassle of attaching a mouse to their laptop's keyboard. IBM's solution: a little red stick embedded in the keyboard and dubbed the TrackPoint.

Photo credit: André Karwath

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