DESCRIPTION

ThinkPad T61 14.1" widescreen notebook is easy to recommend as a laptop for those that want a highly durable system that provides powerful performance while on the go. The new cooling system design works wonders for keeping the temperature of the notebook down below 50C and limiting the need for the fan to run.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

• Processor: Intel T7300 Core 2 Duo (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)
• Graphics: Intel GMA X3100
• Operating System: Windows Vista Business
• Display: WXGA+ 1440 x 900 (LG screen)
• Hard Drive: 100GB 7200RPM (Seagate Momentus 7200.1)
• Memory: 2GB (1GB x 1GB), up to 4GB max
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, Monitor out, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in
• Slots: 1 PC Card Slot, 1 ExpressCard slot (optional media card reader and Smart Card reader)
• Optical Drive: Ultra-slim Super-Multi Drive
• Dimensions: 13.2" x 9.3" x 1.09 - 1.26" (335mm x 237mm x 27.6 - 31.9mm)
• Weight: 5.1lbs

FEATURES

Design and Build

The ThinkPad T61 is a premium product with a durable build, it is geared towards business users or simply those willing to pay a bit more to get something that won't fall apart after 1-year of use. For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the build and reliability factor is probably more important than having the latest and greatest components inside.

Input and Output Ports

The port layout of the T61 has also changed quite a bit, and mostly for the good since we now have a standard FireWire port and optional media-card reader port.  I’m not so thrilled with the fact that all of the USB ports are vertically oriented; I find this more awkward than horizontal.

The media-card reader is an option, but it replaces the ExpressCard slot if you go for it.  You can also get a Smart Card slot in place of the ExpressCard if your company needs that. Let’s take a tour around the T61 to see all of the ports that you get.

Screen

The new widescreen format screen for the 14.1” T-series is either good, bad or somewhere in between depending on your personal preference.  Lenovo will try and convince you widescreen offers more screen real estate and so it’s better, the reality is the guys making the LCD screens are forcing it down the throats of the PC manufacturers because it’s cheaper to make widescreen LCDs.  For a more complete look at the benefit of standard versus widescreen read the review I did of the initial rollout of a ThinkPad T61.

Speakers

The T61 speakers are located on the sides of the keyboard, taking advantage of the extra real estate width due to the wide format.  The speakers are quiet; you have to be fairly close to the laptop to hear the audio, it won’t work to try and watch a DVD from across the room as the audio won’t carry (especially dialogue).  But Lenovo made an interesting move by putting the headphone jack on the front side of the laptop.  This is to make it easier to quickly plug in your headphones and get superior audio.  The slight downside now is that if you plug in external speakers the wiring running around the front is not as convenient.  The move is better for me because I use headphones more, with a portable laptop such as this I think that will be the case for most.

The hardware buttons at the top of the keyboard to quickly adjust audio volume are very nice to have, the quick mute button is clutch in business situations as well.

Processor and Performance

The ThinkPad T61 now uses the Intel Centrino Duo (Santa Rosa) platform.  You get a faster processor front side bus (800MHz), more processor cache (4MB) and an improved integrated graphics solution in the form of the Intel X3100.  If all that talk is nonsense to you, then suffice it to say the T61 offers newer and better processing components than the T60.  Will this performance be perceivable in helping to run MS Word faster?  No of course not, but certain processor intensive tasks such as encoding video will be faster.  And even if you won’t be utilizing every ounce of processing power, just knowing the processor is faster and you’re on top of the game is enough to make people like myself want to buy it.

Battery Life

One thing that’s always a concern with a new platform is battery life.  Reading the first reviews that came out about the T61 sounded like gloom and doom with reports of 2 hour battery life.  It seems most of the initial reviews were done using very power hungry dedicated graphics solutions and with a 4-cell battery.

I had the opportunity to test a larger 6-cell battery on an integrated graphics system, and got 3 hours and 41 minutes of battery life under what I would deem normal usage.  I was using the T61 with screen brightness set to half or lower, Vista battery optimized setting, wireless off to get this number.  In a torture test, I set the screen brightness to top level, put in a DVD (Stargate) and played it until the battery hit 5% and the PC went to sleep – which happened after exactly 2 hours 15 minutes. 

Heat and Fan

Basically, the T61 ran far, far cooler than my ThinkPad T43.  The bottom never got as hot on the T61, and all around it just felt cooler.  Since there’s a lot more heat vents on the T61, the fan doesn’t need to run as much.  But even when it does run, the T61 fan is very quiet.

Software

You can get the various flavors of Vista or Windows XP Professional as the pre-loaded OS on the T61.  Bloatware is kept to an absolute minimum as this is a business notebook. Interestingly Google software is no longer present like it was on the T60, you actually get a Windows Live Toolbar and search included now.

Warranty

The default warranty for a T61 is one-year, but you can always upgrade to 3-years.