Lenovo ThinkPad Z61m reviewed

Ok suits, listen up. It's time to pilfer the IT budget 'cause the business-class, Lenovo ThinkPad Z61m just pulled a stellar review over at NotebookReview. This Core Duo beast boasts a titanium lid which makes it, dare we say, attractive in that sisterly kind of way, but she's all ThinkPad underneath. The 15.4-inch widescreen model under review featured the 2.0GHz Core Duo T2500, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 5400RPM 100GB SATA disk, and a 128MB ATI x1400 graphics card which allowed the reviewer to blast through the performance tests and should keep Vista's GUI puttering along for at least the terms of your lease. Meanwhile, that 6-cell battery eked out a respectable 3 hours 20 minutes while under a typical workday load -- you know, bidding on eBay auctions, checking stocks, and hunting down ex-lovers all google style. Sure, it's built "like a rock" coming in a bit too heavy and thick for the reviewers liking, but your wage monkeys won't complain will they mister boss-man?

[BILLGA~1.BAT @ Jun 12th 2006 10:16AM]

I used to like the Thinkpad design, but this one looks like shite. Guess I'll have to go for a MacBook now.

[jens @ Jun 12th 2006 10:33AM]

how thick is that thing??? damn, it's really ridiculous. it's more than one and a half MacBook Pro.

[daviel @ Jun 12th 2006 10:38AM]

That's really dumb....


GO MACBOOK PRO!!!!

I hate ipods.....

[Russ @ Jun 12th 2006 10:51AM]

I buy, on average, about 200 Thinkpads/Per year for my company. While almost every one is a a T-series, I bought the first Z60 for myself. I hated it. The resolution sucked, the keyboard/deck area just feels cheap, and they have replaced the mouse and auxillary buttons with cheaper versions. Even though it makes more sense, I hate the speakers on top as well.

Thinkpads are still the best business laptop you can buy, especially for corporate security, but I will stick with my T60.

[Russ @ Jun 12th 2006 10:58AM]

#2, I think they sit in at about 2" thick.

[vlangden @ Jun 12th 2006 11:29AM]

Engadget was referring to "suits", not to you people you can only care about MacBooks because they are hip and everyone wants one. Lets face it, MacBooks are for the artists and T-Pads are for the business peeps....even Engadget knows that much.

[trout-101 @ Jun 12th 2006 11:44AM]

As z60m owner, here are my thoughts on the line.

Yes, the titanium cover is cool, but it adds about 1LB in extra usless weight!!! It has a tendancy to tilt backwards because if this. But the battery helps to stablize it by sticking out.

The screen is beautifully crisp and bright, it’s the first thing people comment on. The video card helps out when playing games online, err that spreadsheets for my boss.

This is not a laptop for a commuter, I tried for a week carrying it to the office but the weight is just too much. Yes, it’s built like a tank even after dropping it, the darn thing survived without a dent from a table (remember the tilting).

What has sold me on the line, is the keyboard, it the best I’ve used so far on a laptop. It has a solid response with a good layout.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the fingerprint reader and the security options that allow me to encrypt portions of the hard drive with my fingerprint. Whenever I traveled, my greatest fear was my laptop being stolen with sensitive customer and personal data. We’ve all read the news about laptops stolen recently, so the threat is real.

As for Apple, I tried their 15” powerbook and it was a terrible experience for me. The OS X interface looked great, but I’m used to each application handle their own interface and not take over the desktop. Sure it’s supposed to be great but it does not lend it self to simple multi-application use.

The one thing that annoyed me the most was the one button thing. Sure you could buy a multi-button mouse, but what’s the point of a laptop then? Well at least, some one got a family discount, on super friendly no payment terms.

Would I buy it again? Only if I got the same crazy discount, I did last time. For the same price, I can almost get two HP’s with almost identical features.

[BILLGA~1.BAT @ Jun 12th 2006 12:20PM]

On Apple notebooks: two fingers on trackpad + click = right-click

[Josh @ Jun 12th 2006 12:45PM]

On PC notebooks, right-click = right-click. I think I prefer that. ;-)

[David @ Jun 12th 2006 1:01PM]

"On Apple notebooks: two fingers on trackpad + click = right-click"

does that work on the 15.4" Macbook Pro yet? because it was only introduced with the release of the 17" model and the Macbook. I would still much prefer a actual second mouse button though.

[Otter @ Jun 12th 2006 4:39PM]

This Thinkpad's appearance looks like the Lenovo product design team is slowly merging their clunky styling into the Thinkpad series. Ugh.

[Huey2k2 @ Jun 12th 2006 9:05PM]

What's really funny is I just bought pretty much that exact same laptop on Friday.... Except from Dell and it had a 256MB x1400 as opposed to a 128MB... and it was only $1400 CDN after taxes. Seeing this review makes me happy.

[Padriac @ Jun 12th 2006 9:31PM]

Hell yeah, it's a business laptop! I'm so damn excited about this laptop! It looks boring! it lacks features such as built in camera for the sake of security! It will be so awesome for my IT department to restrict what I do on this puppy!

I'm tired of the term business being used as an excuse for "ugly" and "boring". Since when is something being well-suited to the business world something that normal people will be excited about in any way? Enterprise computing: It's like hot rod enthusiasts getting excited about public transportation.

[nacho libre @ Jun 13th 2006 11:03AM]

uh, it DOES has a camera. why don't you check out the review before commenting.

I'm going to buy one of these to replace my trusty T40.

[E71 @ Jun 13th 2006 3:20PM]

You woulda thought being in the laptop business for this long, IBM would have come up with some new designs. All their laptops look alike and ugly as sin.