A computer hobbyist has created what might be the smallest ThinkPad laptop.
The "ThinkTiny" is a DIY creation from Paul Klinger, a PhD physics graduate who assembled the miniature notebook using components he bought online and a 3D printer to fabricate the black casing. The result is a laptop that can fit in the palm of your hand.
The laptop is pretty limited in functionality, but you can play games on it. Klinger uploaded a YouTube video, showing the machine running black-and-white versions of Tetris, Snake, and Lunar Lander on the device's tiny 128-by-64-pixel screen.
The ThinkTiny is too small to have a functioning keyboard. But it does have the ThinkPad's iconic "TrackPoint" red button, which can act as a mouse.
"I basically made it just for fun," Klinger told PCMag in an email. He previously created another miniature PC, a gaming desktop, which he also programmed to run simple computer games.
The ThinkTiny "was kind of an obvious next step after my tiny gaming PC, and the ThinkPad trackpoint is a perfect fit for a 5-way switch," he said, alluding to the multi-directional control button on the tiny laptop.
It took Klinger about a week or so to build the ThinkTiny. "The code is mostly the same as for my tiny gaming PC, so the main part of that was the mechanical design for the case. The PCB (printed circuit board) is pretty simple, and took only an afternoon," he said.
Check out Klinger's GitHub page for instructions on how to create the device, along with the computer code he used to run the games. In total, he spent about $70 on components and another $15 on the custom printed circuit board.