Tablet PC Review has discovered a tantalizing spec sheet buried on an IBM website, one which details an upcoming convertible tablet that is presumably the successor to the popular X60: say hello to the Thinkpad X61. Although pics aren't available, word is that the new model will retain the same form factor as its predecessor (pictured), but offer beefed up options such as a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500 ULV CPU, up to 1,400 x 1,050 pixels on the 12.1-inch screen, as much as 160GB / 2GB of storage / RAM, and all the ports and wireless options you could ask for (well, except for maybe 802.11n and WiMax). Since the posted document is dated today, and it is the season for laptop releases after all, we'd expect an official announcement on this one to come any day now.

[Via Tablet PC Review]

Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Laptop of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Apple MacBook Pro, Apple MacBook, Asus G1, Dell XPS M1710, HP Pavilion DV6000, Lenovo ThinkPad X60, and Sony VAIO SZ.

Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Tablet PC of the Year! (For the purposes of this award, UMPCs will compete in Handhelds.) Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Fujitsu P1610, Gateway CX210 / M285, Kohjisha SA1F00, Lenovo X60, and Toshiba Portege M400.

Admittedly, it feels a bit strange to praise a machine for getting a Core 2 Duo in April of 2007, but Lenovo's highly-regarded convertible has finally remedied the one gripe that nearly everyone seemed to have about it. While we've seen the C2D hit high-end lappies rather late in the game, we're fairly sure this one takes the cake for belatedness, but if you've been patiently anxiously awaiting for the overdue processor upgrade, your wait is finally over. Right now, you can order up an X60 Tablet PC with a 1.5GHz L7400V Core 2 Duo CPU, 12.1-inch SXGA+ display, 1GB to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 120GB of hard drive space, Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g/n, and an eight-cell Li-ion battery to boot. Of course, such "fresh" luxuries apparently don't come cheap, as a fairly well-spec'd machine will run you upwards of $2,000, and should arrive "within one to two weeks" from now.

[Via Slashgear]

UPDATE: Well you can officially color us confused, as it appears that the Core 2 Duo mention on Lenovo's official webstore is, um, bogus. According to "sources at Lenovo" cited by TabletPCTalk, "there are no Core 2 Duo ThinkPad X60s available as of this moment," but alas, we've no idea when this moment will end and the next will begin. Stay tuned.

Big, big week for gadget news (as we all well know). The Zune, the PS3, and the Wii, it's been pretty crazed around the hallowed halls of Engadget HQ. We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about the news surrounding the gadgets since something tells us a lot of you are wondering what they're like, and whether you should buy one. We also briefly touch on some other noteworthy announcements, including the Lenovo X60, Nikon D40, the Core 2 Duo MacBook, and those sweet new Cingular Windows Mobile devices. It's going to be a hell of a holiday season this year.

Get the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
[RSS OGG] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in OGG) to your RSS aggregator.

Hosts: Peter Rojas and Ryan Block

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Music: Solvent - Instructograph (Ghostly International)

Program:

0:01:25 - Zune review
0:20:37 - PS3 unboxing!
0:35:03 - Wii hands-on, unboxing!
0:43:03 - Xbox HD DVD hands-on
0:48:03 - Xbox Live Video hands-on
0:52:54 - Hon Hai cops to iPhone contract
0:56:02 - Apple's MacBook goes Core 2 Duo, too
0:56:16 - Cingular 8525, BlackJack now for sale
1:00:46 - Nikon D40 officially announced
1:03:40 - Hands-on with Lenovo's X60 Tablet PC

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET, Engadget (Gizmo Project) or podcast at engadget dawt com

We already showed you a review of the thing, but now we've got an X60t of our own, and we thought you'd give you our impressions, along with a nice bevy of pictures of this tablet in the flesh. As always, you can find the pics after the break, so lets get on with the impressions. Tablet PC Review was no liar when it complemented the build quality of the X60t: the unit is a rock. The keyboard feels wonderful, the hinge is solid and even the TrackPoint "nipple" (of which we're not normally a fan) works great. The pen is solid, and when writing on the screen there's just the right amount of friction to make pen-based input feel just right. Aside from an overly zealous complement of pre-loaded, taskbar-hogging software, our only real problem was with the battery life, but it was a big one: the stock 4-cell battery choked out at around 1.5 hours of use for us. Granted, the display was at max brightness (which is plenty bright), and WiFi and Bluetooth were on, but it was still rather disconcerting to be able to visibly watch the battery meter lose percentage points, and then have the thing conk out altogether at a supposed 8 percent of battery left. So, if you can spring for the 8-cell, or stand to live without wireless or a backlight, the X60 comes highly recommended as far as Tablet PCs go, but we do have that minor caveat. Keep reading for the pics.

Lenovo's ultraportable X60 has gotten plenty of love, so there are some naturally high expectations for this "X60t" tablet incarnation, and it looks like they were pretty well founded. Tablet PC Review has already been putting the brand new tablet through its paces, and it seems to definitely come out on top. In fact, most of the biggest gripes about the laptop are directly related to the Tablet PC OS: slow startup, inconsistent input options, etc.. Performance gets a big bump from that of the X41, though the size of the laptop has increased a bit to accommodate a faster HDD and the extra USB and Firewire ports available on the X60t. As for actual functionality, Lenovo really lent its polish to the proceedings: the pen input feels just right, the XGA MultiTouch (finger-based input allowed) display is bright and quite usable, the SXGA+ (non-MultiTouch) option is great as well, and the keyboard feels ThinkPad-great. Of course, road warriors need not apply. The price of entry is steep, and "features" like a mono speaker slapped underneath the computer make it obvious where Lenovo's priorities lie. Battery life just OK for the ultraportable set, the 8-cell battery hits around 5 hours at average use (quite a bit under the 7.5 hour rating), but pushes the weight over 4 pounds, while the 4-cell battery manages 2.5 to 3 hours, but maintains ultraportable status. Other little gripes like an EV-DO hump at the top of the screen and no optical drive (you'll need to spring for the $200 base station) should make you weigh your options carefully, but after the dust settles it's pretty clear that the X60t is one of the best made tablets on the market, and should please the ThinkPad and/or Tablet PC faithful quite well.

It's got a 12.1-inch display with XGA touchscreen and/or digitizer options, as well as an SXGA+ digitizer-only version; it's got 3G; it's got 802.11n MIMO WiFi; it's got a PC card and ExpressCard slot; it's got a bunch of ports, Core Duo or Solo processor options, a 2.5-inch drive up to 120GB, in-bezel nav, fingerprint reader, mic, etc.; it's Lenovo's X60, reborn as a tablet convertible tablet. It weighs 3.77 pounds, is 1.1-1.3-inches thick, and could in theory last you up to 7.5 hours on a single extended battery. It starts at $1,800. Steel yourself, though, you've got video games to buy you and your family. Well, yourself, anyway.

Yeah, we're officially removing any "ultracompact" or "ultraportable" marketing speak that might have slipped in to describe the V100 from Lenovo, but there's plenty else to love about this slightly bulky compact notebook. First off, at 1.25-inches thick and weighing 4.4 pounds, the laptop is no X60 (which doesn't contain the DVD burner of the V100), but it does look positively skinny beside Dell's new M1210. The V100 features a nice glossy 12.1-inch WXGA screen, and a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera that captured his smarmy mug much better than those featured on the M1210 and MacBook. Lenovo also doesn't seem to have as much trouble keeping the Core Duo cool as Apple is; the V100 ran plenty cool even though it doesn't have the low-voltage version of the chip run by its X60 brother. The plastic case build is a bit drab and not near as sturdy as a ThinkPad, but it should hold up fine. However, the 3 to 4 hour battery life seems barely acceptable. There's an ExpressCard 54 slot, so you might want to hold off until an EV-DO solution comes along. The integrated graphics really limit the gaming options, but the V100 really does provide a lot of functionality for the price, especially if you're not up for lugging an external drive around and want some of that Core Duo power.