Lenovo unveils Cingular-enabled WWAN ThinkPad T60

All of you Cingular users who are happily toting that Dell already know how splendid built-in UMTS / HSDPA-based technology can be, and you Verizon customers with MacBook Pros now have your very own EV-DO ExpressCard to gloat about, but America's "favorite" GSM provider has paired up with Lenovo to unveil the latest ThinkPad T60. For those who just ain't feeling the protruding Novatel apparatus, this WWAN-integrated machine comes with Cingular's BroadbandConnect hardware pre-installed, as well as a communication manager that "easily establishes connections" to service, and Lenovo's own ThinkVantage software is thrown in to automatically activate / deactivate the host of wireless capabilities based on your in-range options. The specs on this T60 -- aside from the WWAN amenities -- is on par with other non-Cingular editions, and sports a 14.1-inch SXGA+ display, 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, 80GB hard drive, 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 graphics, 802.11a/b/g, and a DVD burner. The Cingular-enabled T60, which is amazingly not tattooed by a barrage of little orange stickers, is available now to curb your 3G notebook cravings for $1,899.

[Via Slashphone]

[Jac @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:29AM]

You could previously buy them with built-in Verizon EVDO WWAN, they're just expanding their options.

[Fergus Hammond @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:18AM]

This isn't new news: they've been shipping these for over a month. They also have WWAN available in several models, including the high-end T60p. The model I'm using - 2007-8EU - is a 2.33 GHz T60p with a 100 GB 7200 RPM drive, 14" 1400 x 1050 screen and a ATI FireGL V5200. It's pretty great.

One thing that isn't as great is the integration between the WWAN card and Lenovo's utilities. The network profile manager - Access Connections - can barely manage the WWAN card. Switching to a WWAN profile can turn the other network options off (e.g., 802.11 and wired Ethernet) but it can't connect you to the WWAN network. It just launches Cingular's Communication Manager software, where you still need to click the Connect button. It's not a big deal but what's a little ironic is that Cingular's Option GT Max WWAN card - a separate add-in - actually works better with Access Connections. The GT Max card is seen by the OS as a dial up connection and Access Connections can make a profile that uses that connection. We've actually ditched Access Connections - overall, it's more trouble than it's worth - so in our case, the lack of true integration is no longer an issue.

The other issue is that the WWAN in the laptop (the Sierra Wireless MC 8765) is dual-band, not tri-band. The card in the laptop supports 850 and 1900 MHZ; the Option GT Max supports both of those for North America but also supports 2100 MHz. This means you'll get HSDPA in the North America but you'll drop back to a slower speed when overseas. (The card supports 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz, so you will get EDGE and GSM/GPRS support globally.) Hopefully, Sierra Wirelss will ship the MC 8775 card soon - it's a tri-band HSDPA card.

If you are overseas, make sure you've signed up with one of Cingular's international roaming plans (they have a US plan, a US, Mexico and Canada plan and a US and everywhere else plan). Roaming without a plan can be incredibly expensive; a colleague racked up a $1600 bill in two days of travel.

Lastly, the most important thing: speed. It's pretty good. I use the WWAN T60p on a train each morning and usually get around 700 kbps down and about 300 kbps up. EVDO on the same route gives slightly better download but slightly worse upload. What's interesting is that both drop their signal in the same place. Sharing a tower, perhaps?

P.S. Hi Ingo ;-)

[ElectroGeek @ Aug 23rd 2006 1:49PM]

Why not just use your existing Cingular wireless GSM phone and the modem that comes built in. It's cheaper than the data packages needed for the laptop PC cards and you still get a solid 230kbps data rate. Not bad. This way you can use any laptop you want. It just gives you more options. You can even establish your modem connection to your device using bluetooth if you hate the USB cable connection. Thoughts? You can get more information about using your GSM phone as a modem here: http://www.electrogeek.com/blog/2006/08/07/cingular-8125-modem-link-setup-and-drivers/

This info should apply to any Cingular GSM phone with modem support running WM5.

[Himanshu Patel @ Aug 23rd 2006 2:48PM]

Sony has already been having the feature.

[equipment @ Aug 24th 2006 2:24PM]

Thanks Electrogeek! Use an existing Cingular phone instead for more laptop options. Never thought of that. Cool.