Home » Tech and Product Reviews

IBM 250 WorkPad

From a reader:

For anyone interested, I found the Holy Grail of mobile writing tools: the IBM Z50 WorkPad. They no longer make these new but you can find them on eBay. Meets my mobile writing needs perfectly.

Weighs around 2.5 lbs (light), has an almost full-size ThinkPad keyboard versus those sub-optimal Psion keyboards. I've written almost three chapters for my book on it, usually for 3-4 hour sessions at a time and have no cramping problems.

During the summer, I'd ordered a Handera PalmOS-based device and tried it with one of those Targus folding keyboards. The keyboard was fine, but the screen was simply too small to comfortably write more than a page or two at a stretch. I shipped it back and consider it useless for my purposes - writing an entire book with.

One of the best features of the Z50 its battery life - it beats any other laptop out there I've ever heard of (Palm Pilot batteries last longer, but they don't have real laptop-style screens). You get about 8 hours on one charge with the stock battery and 16 hours with a high-capacity battery purchased separately (I just won an auction for that one and am awaiting delivery); that also comes with a AA dry cell case, so you can run the thing on regular batteries if you don't want to plug directly into a foreign power grid.

In runs WinCE, which is why it may be so efficient with power. Full-blown Windows operating systems are power-hogs. And you can even run Linux (FreeBSD I think) on the Z50 if you're rabidly anti-Microsoft. Comes with pocket Word, pocket Excel, and pocket Powerpoint. Not the best programs, but they get the job done.

The power supply seems to auto-convert to a variety of different worldwide voltages, so you probably only need a plug-adapter to use it outside the US.

I get a lot of comments on this machine out in the coffee shops. It's quite a conversation piece.

For storage, the Z50 takes CompactFlash cards, it has a PCMCIA slot, and also accepts IBM Microdrives - truly amazing little devices that have up to 1 gigabyte of capacity.

It's got a built-in 33.6 modem, and can take a 56K modem via the PCMCIA slot. Just about the only thing it doesn't do is toast bread.

I'm very happy with it and plan to buy another one to have as a spare. This is the ultimate writing machine for the road in my opinion. For $200 or so, you can't go wrong.

Dana Nibby