Such a roller coaster of design, quality, manufacturer, timing. The budget portable IBM? The consumer portable IBM? The..... shittier portable IBM?
Many of them have suffered from being on the cutting edge of miniaturisation, economy and portability, whereas others have stood the test of time and still have a very useful place in today’s retro computing community. With the exception of the 320, all the pictures used in this article were taken by me for this article. None of the pictures are reproduced from anywhere else.
Foreword
One of the first things to know about the 300 series is that the chronological release of each model does not align with the 3xx numbering. The 300 was certainly the first (or was it?) and the 390 was certainly the last but there is definitely some weird shit going down along the way. As a result, this article may look a bit strange because we will travel through time in a linear fashion by release date, covering them in the order in which they were released. Here is a timeline for your delectation:
IBM Zenith Thinkpad 300 2615 – October 1992
The first and many would argue the worst! It was absolutely nothing like the incredible 700C released at the same time whilst both were branded as "Thinkpad". Could you imagine ordering what you thought was a TFT, trackpointed, aeroplane-friendly Thinkpad 700C and receiving this piece of plasticated dogshit? It was made by Zenith and had virtually none of the revolutionary features which made a 'Thinkpad'.
Released for $2375, it had no TFT - it didn't even have colour! It was an awful VGA monchrome passive screen. It had no pointing device whatsoever - and in particular, no trackpoint! The painted grey plastic looked like something that had been made to carry eggs. Once. And on top of all this, it had a reputation for arriving DOA to it's new owner!
As of 2025, they're either dead, worn out, dying or simply forgotten.
My one has been repaired a number of times and still feels like it's clinging onto life by a thread. As you can see in the pics below, lined up against it's Zenith half-brother - the snappily-named Zenith Z-Note 433Lnc+, it clearly has the same hardware, with some subtle changes here and there. It's absolutely definitely *not* a Thinkpad.
Weirdly it seems to share quite a lot of design cues by the even crappier PS/Note N45SL. I really don't know why.
Conclusion: Hideous, Crap, Not a Thinkpad. Probably DOA even more so than it was then. The worst!
IBM Thinkpad 350 2618 – June 1993
Now this is possibly stranger than subcontracting out to Zenith. What we have here is a re-hashed PS/Note 425 - a machine that had been left in the dust by the Thinkpad 700 with some unique design quirks and something which has also become a bit of a time bomb when it comes to the type of plastic used to form the chassis and the way they designed the hinges. Essentially, the plastic case is extremely brittle and is liable to crack - and the hinges put all of their force onto the case as the lid is opened and closed. As a result the chassis snaps apart into dozens of tiny pieces and the obvious 'swinging lid' form factor of almost every notebook computer ever concieved is lost. If the hinges aren't shot, then the capacitors will be leaking, the keyboard and LCD ribbon cables will be breaking and cracking and the display will be failing.
I guess at least it was actually built by IBM, but it seems they really hadn't worked out hinge design yet. At least not lasting hinge design. To be fair, the 700 and 720-series also suffer from a similar kind of deadly brittle plastics around un-reinforced hinges, meaning they tend to suffer the same fate. It was soon after June 1993 where IBM began to.....crack it - or more to the point, work out how to stop it all cracking.
This makes the 350 a very difficult machine to love. I feel torn because on one hand, it does reflect some of the design leneage between the pre-Thinkpad PS/Note machines and the 'proper' 700 Thinkpad - even if only for the fact it has a PS/Note design and a Thinkpad red trackpoint. On the other hand, it's still got a bloody awful colour passive/DSTN display.
It's the only 300-Series machine to actually mention it's model designation on the IBM badges. I really don't now why. It's also the only 300-Series thinkpad to advertise it's processor with markings on the case. Somewhat reminds me of when cars had increasingly stand-out chrome model designations on the boot lid. XR3i anyone?
Both of these smack of a japanese and PS/Note heritage because most of the PS/Notes had their model on the badge.
I took my (and it's) life in my hands taking these pictures. I could tell that the lid was going to destroy everything it's connected to, at any moment.
Conclusion: The second and the second worst 300-Series Thinkpad. Really a relic of the PS/Note days where really we had all moved on. You wouldn't have wanted one then and you certainly don't want one now.
IBM Thinkpad 320 5523 – Sept 1993
Ok this is a weird one. Impossible really to give a view on because I've never seen one for sale or barely even mentioned. There is a single A4 press/marketing sheet showing what looks like a 720, badged as a 820 and with the same model designation as the later 330-Series. Apparently it was only ever sold in Japan at a time they were transitioning from the PS/55 Note series.
"Essentially the ThinkPad 320 is an updated PS/55 Note M23V, retaining the basic chassis, keyboard (without TrackPoint) and VGA mono screen, but upgraded from a 386sx 25MHz CPU to a 486slc 25MHz CPU."
Conclusion: A mystery!
IBM Thinkpad 330 5523 – April 1994
Ok, this is another weird one. Released only in Japan and without a battery. God knows why. You still get an AC-DC external adaptor but you also get an empty plastic shell in place of a battery with a figure-8 socket to plug AC mains straight in! I've heard that a battery pack never existed. Someone said these might be a 'Special Bid' which was when machines were sometimes launched but not available for general purchasing and only available to certain clients as a special negotiated order. Also there is still no trackpoint and the keyboard was crap. Oh, and did I mention they were all grey? Not the DIN-Grey for the German market, nooooo - they were just grey. Oh, and on a very limited release, which appears to be mostly in Asia.
It's the only thinkpad with a weird, detachable and often-missing foot on the base.
Conclusion: Not really a Thinkpad; without a battery, without a trackpoint, without a decent keyboard, not black. What is it? I really don't know.
IBM Thinkpad 360 2620 – May 1994
Right. Now, Here we go. We are cooking at last. It's kinda like a cost-reduced (and I believe practically 'paired' with) the enterprise Thinkpad 750 - albeit with cheaper feeling plastic case, smaller TFT panels (as a high specification version), but finally a machine that IS a Thinkpad. It's black! It's got a red nipple! It's got a TFT (as an option). It has a lift-up keyboard for internal access. . . Its nothing to be ashamed of. The keyboard hinges up like a 750 to expose lots of it's guts. Lovely stuff. You could swap out the HDD and the floppy whilst waiting for your orange juice and prezels. The battery is still awful, but at least it would have worked for the first 10 years.
You could argue the 360 makes more sense in 2025 than a 750 because it wasn't coated in weird chemical rubber concotions that generally look scatched to pieces of are gradually rotting and dropping off like zombie flesh. Most of the 360 machines I have encountered look fairly 'new'!
What makes the 360 more special is that is had some rather special variations - namely the 360P and *slightly upgraded* PE models, which had a lid which could be folded completely over itself and you could close the machine back up it just a screen and a stylus for touch-sensitive wow-factor. IBM sponsored the 1994 Olympic games and forced thousands of these embryonic tablets onto the workforce. I wonder how many people hated this form factor by the end? It's a shame they continued to cheap-out on the displays because the DSTN-ness of this tablet really is a bit of a ball-ache.
Little bit of nerdy trivia. The 360 shares the same battery type as the business-end IBM Thinkpad 750-series, but without it's super-doopa intelligent charging system. So if you have a 750 with a dead battery, that refuses to take a charge, you can pop it in a 360 and it may well charge.
Conclusion: Innovative (for the consumer, at least) and finally a proper thinkpad! Nice to user then, nice to use now.
IBM Thinkpad 355 2619 – June 1994
The 355 is really quite strange. Usually na XX5 model is either a later revision of it's 3X0 model - or a special revision aimed at a specific market. For example, the 345 is almost exactly the same as a 340 and a 315 is almost exactly the same as a 310. The 385 model range was almost exactly the same as the 380 model range but I believe it was aimed at the educational market.
However in the case of the 355, it's is absolutely nothing to do with the hideous 350 and we should all be eternally grateful for that. It's actually almost exactly the same as the 360. I don't quite know why this even exists. However, as it has all the same niceties as the 360, but, even more curiously was released the following month. I sniff a special order. Schools?
Conclusion: I don't understand why this exists, but anything that shares it's heritage with a 360 is OK by me!
IBM Thinkpad 340 2610 – Sept 1994
Ok, another curve ball. They seemed to get the design right with the 360, but then four months later, IBM manufactuered and released the 340. Why is it completely different, practically as good, released later, but with a lower number? I say completely different - but it is definitely a thinkpad. It's black, it has a trackpoint, nice keyboard, accessible on an aeroplane and nothing to be ashamed of.- but looks and feels like it was made by a different company. It's like an IBM executive decided to play two different design and manufacturing hubs off one another, and the losers get fired. I really like the monochrome 340 and I don't know why. They age really well. Nothing seems to go wrong and they often look and feel like the day they came out of the factory.
It's a shame the keyboard doesn't lift up - and the outside does look distinctly cost-reduced compared to the 360. No hinged keyboard, fewer connectors, weird bulky barrel-jack power connector and a less satisfying push on/off button above the keyboard (rather than the 360's push-switch on the side).
Inside the 340 looks distinctly different and hugely simplified over the 360. You get the feeling that IBM started this machine from the ground up as a far cheaper alternative to re-using the 750's modular design which would accomodate all sorts of different boards (which was carried over to the 755).
Conclusion: Possibly the most 300-Series that exists. It's completely NOT a 700-Series derivitive. It completely IS a Thinkpad with a nice case, screen, keyboard, trackpoint, battery and...it's black! It's certainly designed from the ground-up as a consumer model and it's built BY IBM. If this had been released instead of the 300 or the 350, then it truly would have been earth-shattering.
IBM Thinkpad 370 9545 – May 1995
Here we go. Almost peak 'original, thinking-man's, consumer's 7xx-series' 3xx Thinkpad. It's basically a 755 in a more plasticky shell. Well, there are some other differences but I guess as the 700 series was evolving into the swishier 760 and 770 with much bigger screens and flashy keyboards, the 3xx Series was briefly a kind-of 'last year's 7xx range.
Conclusion: A really nice alternative to a 755, due the case weathering better over the last 30 years. Modular, repairable, swappable, nice screens, nice keyboard.... Nice!
IBM Thinkpad 345 2610 – Aug 1995
It's a 340 but slightly better. I don't know why, but it feels less sturdy, less well made and all a bit shinier plastic. Was it a cost-reduced, cost-reduced Thinkpad?
Conclusion: Just a 340 but slightly different.
IBM Thinkpad 365 2625 – November 1995
365 is another shocker. It's not a 'slightly newer' 360. It's definitely it's own machine. It was my first Thinkpad, so maybe I'm biased. Aged 18, I met a woman 10 years older than me on a Thinkpad 365 and she blew....my mind. An innocent beginning to what has become a billion dollar industry and hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels telling the same Catfishing story over and over and over again.
Yes. It had TFT. It had a Trackpoint. It had a CDROM!! I also discovered GTA on my 365 and that, too was a revelation. Not only did my 365 hook me up, it entertained me with automotive genocide, played my music and got me 'online' (with one of those PSION Gold Card modems).
Conclusion: I have to condede it's special to me, and it's an excellent contender. The insides really are starting to move on in their own unique space and design now.
IBM Acer Thinkpad 310/315 2600 – Jan 1997
Ok so this is almost a hanging offence. People should have died because of this abomination. It's totally crap. The keyboard is awful, plastics worse. Most of the screens were shit. Even the trackpoint feels like some crappy rip-off. You can smell a rat the instant you turn it on and there is no 'Easy Setup' - just some generic BIOS with a couple of options.
If you ever came across an Acernote Light 370PCX you may notice some similarities. The main one being is that they're both crap.
That's because this Thinkpad was built by Acer. I really don't know why. Maybe it was some kind of expriment (that also later concieved the weird and cool G40).
There are two plastic covers over the hinges which you have to remove to disassemble the thing and if you merely look at them in a slightly strong manner, they snap.
11/13 This machine is a really dark horse. On paper and in pictures, it looks great. Definitely a more modern design than the previous 3xx models, with a slightly sleeker case and keyboard. But try to use one and it's bad.
Conclusion: Just a fucking disaster. An almost-dead end in subcontracting out the blessed brand. You wouldn't want one to use and you don't want to have to repair one. Best left in a google image search.
IBM Thinkpad 380/385 2635 – May 1997
I'd say this is jointly peak 380. If the remit was to sell a wonderful consumer laptop machine, then this is it. Big screen, nice keyboard, expandable, (just) portable. No real weaknesses (aside from the DSTN screens, I guess). It's a tubby little thing - with a very fat base. A bit weirdly flabby to be honest. However these machines just run and run and run. Very useful to have a later one with a USB port alongside PCMCIA, Windows 98, optical and floppy. You can convert, unpack, copy and decompose all sorts of shitty old software on this thing. The plastic is a bit cheap and nasty but it certainly has some kind of charm. A good, honest retro machine. It's has forgotten a few key elements of what makes a thinkpad great, but it's still great.
Conclusion: Not exactly beautfiul and certainly not premium but a real tankbuster over a piece of hardware and will probably outlive all of us.
IBM Thinkpad 390 2626 – Nov 1998
We're back to the hinges again, aren't we? Well at least on the early models. Have we reached the ultimate 3xx series? I guess as far as model range is concerned, this is the 300-Series machine with the biggest drives, the fastest processor, biggest RAM, largest screen.... It's got floppy AND optical drives built-in. It's god a weird proprietry IDE interface for the hard drive which conveniently slides out of a trap-door on the rear....an interface I've seen in a variety of laptops of this era - I wonder if it was close to a standard....
The cracking case appears to be most prevelant on the earlier releases - there seem to far fewer signs of weakness in the later 390E and X models.
As far as a legacy machine - it's quite a nice option. It'll happily run a few difference old Microsoft operating systems. It has USB alongside PCMCIA, floppy, optical, parallel serial and a few other bits and bobs. It certainly has a certain amount of 'consumer' feel to it. The speaker design is rather pleasant.
It's a machine that's easy to like for it's practical use, but not an easy machine to love. Perhaps the Vauxhall Cavalier of the 3xx Thinkpads?
Conclusion: A nice machine, where you're starting to see a new formula of 'desktop replacement' that appeared in the G and A series machines. No longer really strictly in a consumer space, or a business space. Just a productivity tool that is still built like a tank - just not as expensive.