联想ThinkPad：经典设计背后的故事

    当然，ThinkPad笔记本电脑多年来变得更快，也更轻薄。而它的设计也在忠于最初理念的基础上进行了创新。其中最具代表性的机型是于1995年亮相的ThinkPad 701C。用户打开这款10英寸的机器时，它的“蝶形键盘”会伸展开来，于是用户可在全尺寸的键盘上打字。这款产品已成为纽约现代艺术博物馆（Museum of Modern Art）的一款设计藏品。ThinkPad也是最早配备弹出式副屏的笔记本电脑品牌。另外，ThinkPad还首创了可拆卸底座，使用户旅行时可去掉CD驱动器的重量。

    希尔喜欢突出一些设计细节，比如ThinkPad的按键。与大多数电脑的方型按键不同，ThinkPad键的底缘是弧形的。希尔称，这种设计使键盘对[输入]错误更宽容，这一说法已经第三方测试证实。毫不意外，希尔的最爱是他最近推出的the X1 Carbon。这款配备14英寸屏、重3磅的超薄机型被《笔记本电脑》杂志（Laptop）称为“最佳商务超级本”。

    希尔说：“我们正努力创新ThinkPad。”过去一年，有两款联想平板电脑使用了ThinkPad这一品牌。这在某种意义上可谓回到过去，因为早在它推出ThinkPad笔记本电脑之前，IBM就曾推出过基于手写笔的ThinkPad平板电脑，可惜它们当时太过超前。（未来联想推出ThinkPad手机也并非不可能。）“设计是一个移动的目标，我们仍然在不断发展。”希尔说：“但我们有根基，有粉丝基础。”希尔计划，无论ThinkPad如何变迁，它仍然将继续秉承萨帕二十多年前奠定的便当盒设计理念。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    Over the years, ThinkPads got faster, slimmer and lighter, of course. But their design, while staying true to the original concept, also embraced innovation. Among the most iconic models was the ThinkPad 701c, unveiled in 1995. It was a 10-inch box whose "butterfly keyboard" expanded when users opened the machine, allowing them to type on a full-size keyboard. It became part of the design collection at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The ThinkPad was also the first laptop to come with a pop-up second screen, and the first to have a detachable base so users could travel without the extra weight of a CD drive.

    Hill is fond of highlighting design details like the shape of the ThinkPad's keys, which, rather than being a square shape like most computer keys, have a curved bottom edge. Hill says that makes the keyboard more forgiving of mistakes, a claim that has been validated by third-party tests. His favorite machine, not surprisingly, is his latest, the X1 Carbon, an ultrathin, three-pound laptop with a 14-inch screen that Laptop magazine called the best business Ultrabook.

    "We are working on a huge number of ideas to take ThinkPad to new places," says Hill. In the past year, two Lenovo tablets got the ThinkPad name, which in a sense is a return to the past, since before launching the first ThinkPad notebooks, IBM released a pen-based ThinkPad tablet that was too early for its time. (It's not impossible that a ThinkPad phone could be in Lenovo's future.) "Design is a moving target, and we are still evolving it," he says. "But we have a foundation, a fan base." Hill plans to make sure that no matter how much the ThinkPad evolves, something in it will still evoke the bento box that Sapper conceived more than two decades ago.