Lenovo ThinkPad T61 reviewed
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 10th 2007 3:04PM
posted May 10th 2007 3:04PM
Like many of the other Santa Rosa-based laptops released this week, Lenovo's ThinkPad T61 has wasted no time getting itself reviewed, with the folks at PC Magazine doing the honors this time 'round. They sure seem to have found a lot to like in this one, giving it their Editors' Choice award and calling it the "best business laptop for those who love widescreens." In particular, they found it to out perform all but HP's massive Pavilion HDX in their tests, aided by its top-end T7700 Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M graphics, which should even be enough for business-types to get in a bit of gaming. About the only fault they could find with it was the included 56-Wh battery, which could only eek out an hour and 57 minutes during their DVD rundown test (higher capacity batteries are available). The T61's battery also isn't compatible with those from earlier T60s, so anyone 's that's stocked up on those won't be able to carry 'em over to their new laptop.
[Thanks, Jacob]
[Thanks, Jacob]
Very good notebook, how much the T61? difference between R61?
Buy battery replacement : http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/ibm-thinkpad-t61-battery.htm
The thinkpad t61 looks very well.That is better if there is more detail.Thank you all the same.I find a replacement battery for it,http://www.lenovo-batteries.com/cheap-lenovo-thinkpad-t61-laptop-battery.html
I bet it also burns a massive hole in our wallets.
No it doesn't really, I just configrued one yesterday for about $1500 and that has the T7300 processor, 14.1" WXGA+TFT display, Nvidia 140m video card, 1GB turbocache, 2GB ram, 100GB 7200RPM HD, new Intel wireless chipset, DVD-RW, and 6 cell battery. A very good deal in my opinion, especially when compared to the current lineup of Dell and HP business laptops. I was choosing between a Lenovo and a Macbook Pro for a long while, and I went with the Lenovo. It sounds like it is the right choice, even if I can't run OSX. Oh well, if you don't visit less than suitable sites on Vista, you won't have a problem with viruses anyone. Additionally, many of the programs I will be using for grad school are cheaper on PC's anyhow. I can't wait for it to ship at the end of May!
Well, I was referring to the T7700 option really, but your configuration does sound really nice. I'm assuming your have ordered the T61, not T60?
You can try running OSX86, but wireless LAN might not work.
Yes it is the T61
hey by the way, it sounds not very clear to me: in the presentation, they mention an integrated camera. But in the specs, I can only see '14.1 Widescreen w/o camera'. As if the 'w/o' were a typo. Do you have some information ?
I just wish I knew why Lenovo felt the need to change the old style Thinkpad layout. There is no reason I can think of why they couldn't have a full size Return key, it's a little thing but it really bugs me on laptops :(
US layouts don't have the double-height return key - other layouts do, i don't ever remember this being different.
PCMAG has the wrong pictures... they have the T60 pictures...
What a joke.
Nice. I confirmed with them that the 15.4" model will be available on June 5, as well as full-disc encryption on the 160Gb models.
Well I really think the laptop in the picture has a clumsy look... It's too thick!
I'm not very excited with my T60ws, which is the first thinkpad i purchased after Lenovo acquired IBM's thinkpad brand. The build quality is sturdy, but after I compared it to my friends' ASUS & Compal with similar configuration (but better graphics, mine had ATI x1400, while theirs had x1700 and x1600 respectively) and cheaper price, I left wondering if I should've chosen an ASUS notebook instead. The sound output was way worse than my old HP dv6000, and the wi-fi doesn't work without their proprietary software, which eats up lots of system resources. It also comes with so many bloatware, and even a hidden "back-up" partition that automatically backs up your C: drive and simultaneously grows in size, thus shrinking the free space in my tiny 80gb hdd. Oh and does somebody know how I turn off this frustrating "beep" sound which plays everytime I click shift+any key+any key at the same time?
Just as an FYI for everyone that keeps saying the ThinkPad's are so "thick"... the T61 wide shown above is 1.08" which as far as I'm concerned is hardly thick.
The last good T-series Thinkpad was the T43 (I use T40). Since then, Lenovo is crippling the legendary quality of Thinkpads... Sad.
Could you cite some article or report or articulate blog post? I scouted around a little and I only heard good things.
That article is from over a year ago and it reads like a poor attempt at FUD. The author asserts people lack faith in Lenovo, compared to the faith they had in IBM. That's natural and it's not necessarily a problem.
Lenovo took possession of IBM's PC division *over two years ago*. If they're hurting the quality of the Thinkpad line, there should be evidence.
Yes, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616466/posts.
In my opinion, Thinkpad was always IBM product and now they even removed the IBM logo from it.
Just my 2 cents...
Cheers,
Filip
>> Could you cite some article or report or articulate blog post? I scouted around a little and I only heard good things.
> Yes, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616466/posts.
What?? How does a blog post speculating on the users' trust of the two companies count as a factual article/report? I suspected the same thing when Lenovo bought out IBM; cheapening the brand, worse support, the end of the "real" Thinkpads. However, I'm holding my judgment until I find some actual numbers.
I agree that there is no factual evidence Lenovo Thinkpads are lesser than IBM's. A post from a BLOG saying that those in his "vicinity" have traded "up" (how many is that 3, 10, 100?) is ridiculous and shows nothing but fear and an unsupported opinion. Former IBM Thinkpads were made in China (like very other pc maker) just like Lenovo's. I find it sad that the replies to that blog think the change is automatically bad. Funny that one poster said Dell is the only way to go for business laptops. Dell has acknowledged quality and support problems across many of its lines http://hardware.seekingalpha.com/article/31802.