A Thinkpad Z60m review, CoolVanilla style

Here is my shot at an informal review. I know this notebook has been reviewed quite a bit here, so I’ll tend to focus on why this is a good choice for me. I hope you enjoy!

Lenovo Thinkpad Z60m 2530-38U

I’m something of a laptop geek. Ask anyone I know, and the first thing they’ll tell you about me is how I change laptops more often than I change shirts. Over the 10 years I’ve been buying the things, I’ve probably had 25 different models ranging from my very first Texas Instruments to the most recent, the Thinkpad Z60m. Dell, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Compaq, HP, Acer, Asus, IBM and now Lenovo.

Over the years, I’ve developed the concept of “my ideal laptop”. This concept has evolved as I’ve evolved; from a student in college, to a junior software engineer for a big robotics firm, then a senior engineer for a small controls group, to eventually a founding partner in a successful industrial automation company. This experience has resulted in the following “ideal” hit list:

1) Screen: it’s got to be big and beautiful. After all, I’ll stare at it for 8-16 hours a day, 365 days a year.

2) Feel: the keyboard and mouse need to be comfortable, responsive and “feather touch” compatible. Nothing worse than needing to hammer down with every touch of a key or mouse click.

3) Speed: it’s got to support 5-15 applications open at once, compile source code and run emulators without breaking a sweat.

4) Form: I’ll admit it; I’ve got to like the way it looks. I take pride in myself, my work and my presentation. When convincing a client to spend big time dollars, you’ve really got to present yourself as a complete, confident package. Along with many other factors, I’ve got to look like I’m the best and believe it or not, a sexy laptop really helps.

5) Battery: It’s not uncommon to be without external power for 4-5 hours on a customer floor or clean room. Long battery life is a must.

6) Durability: The thing needs to go where I go. It needs to sit on vibrating robots, chemical drums, moving machines, it’ll be in electrically “noisy” enviornments… basically, it needs to be solid enough to take minor bumps and jolts all day long.

7) Video: When not working on my laptops, I’m usually playing games on ‘em. A “good” video chip is a must.

Sound like pipe dream? I thought so too… until I met the Z60m.

Thanks to this site (and some goofing with a buddy’s Z60), I became convinced this notebook was next on my list to try. I was worried though that I’d be waiting for months… something I couldn’t afford as I had just recently discovered a major USB problem with my Asus z63a that prevented me from using it with some of my very expensive controls equipment. Dual core doesn’t excite me (for my purposes its actually a detriment), and I figured now might be a good time to score a nice deal. So, I gave eBay a look and eventually I found a seller that had what I was looking for, was responsive to my questions and had great feedback. $1900 and 3 days later, I had my brand new, factory sealed Z60m:

2GHz Pent M 760
1GB RAM, single DIMM
100GB 5400RPM HD
15.4” 1280x800 MaxBrite
x600 ATI Radeon
WinXP Pro
Ti Lid
9 Cell battery
DVDRW
And all the rest of the Z60m goodness

My first impression was a good one. As it booted, I found myself configuring and then loving the embedded security chip. I’ve always worried if my laptop happened to walk away, that all my very proprietary source code would walk away with it. With this chip, when configured and utilized properly, I can relax a bit. Even if my laptop does disappear, my source is all but untouchable. That is a VERY good thing.

So, after using this machine for a week or so now, how does it compare to my “ideal laptop”?

1) Screen: The screen, for me, is perfect. My Dell Inspiron 6000 convinced me 15.4 widescreen was “it”, and that 1280x800 was the most comfortable resolution for staring at all day. Any smaller, and headaches always followed. While I wouldn’t say the Z60m’s screen stands out in my mind (Sony, Fujitsu and even the Asus screens “stand out” in my opinion), it certainly is not a detractor. It is sharp, has enough of a brightness range to handle sunlight drenched settings as easily as a dark room, and best of all… there is no “light bleed”.

2) Feel: It’s a Thinkpad. Need I say more? Ok, I will anyway

The keyboard is very nice, if a little loud. There is no doubt you’ll be the center of attention in a quiet room when you type. But, the “clack” is a solid clack; very unlike the clack of a Dell. These keys feel solid, without feeling too firm. The Dells, just feel… loose. The other extreme (Asus or Fujitsu) is what I would call stiff. This falls right in the middle.

The mouse buttons are a delight. The slightest touch actuates them. Again, with the Asus, you really had to hammer down to get the response. Brush these, and your good to go.

3) Speed: Much has already been reported on this topic, so I’ll just say that I found 1gig of memory to be too little for my purposes. I upgraded to 2GB and we’re golden; this processor, RAM and HD combo can handle anything I’ve been able to throw at it with little effort.

4) Form: This can be a polarizing issue. I’ve read here how many don’t like the Ti lid, or the fit or finish… for my money, the Ti is a neat touch, if a little out of place. It does look to me like someone woke up one day and said “Hmm… wonder what a Ti lid would look like on the Z60m”, stuck one on to see, and then forgot to take it off. It is a bit out of step with the rest of the design. Is it a distraction or detraction? Not in my opinion. I actually kind of like the way the IBM Thinkpad logo looks in aluminum

As for the rest of the form… it’s a no frills kind good look. In terms of sexy, the Asus z63a is a flat out gorgeous, “sexy” machine. Is the Z60m in the same class? Not even close. However, there is a certain sophistication to this look that I find myself drawn too. I’m definitely proud to carry this around, in contrast to the embarrassment I used to feel with the Inspiron 6000 or HP (very ‘home user/hobbist’ looking machines, verses the no doubt all business classy Thinkpad).

5) Battery: I got a full 6.5 hours yesterday. Yeah, the screen was on the dim setting, the WiFi was off, the proc was at its slowest… but hey, its good to know that kind of life is possible!

As for the battery fit into the machine… the sticking out the back doesn’t really bother me. It still fits into my trusty case just fine. But, what’s up with the wobble? I’ve felt loose batteries before, but this thing is outta control. I’m not sure why this is; I have a hard time believing its design oversight (maybe it can take more abuse if its loose?). In any case, I’m going to see if there is some way to secure it tighter. It does look like there’s room for Velcro or something similar, but I’ve got to do something. Yeah, I know… but rattles and creaks drive me nuts!

6) Durability: Well with the exception of the battery, this is one solid unit. Pick it up by a corner, and, unlike some Dells I’ve had that feel like wet noodles, the whole laptop silently picks itself up. Again, the battery will want to flop around a bit, but nothing else moves. The screen is solid, the keyboard doesn’t flex, and the palm rest doesn’t groan. Time will tell how long this case holds together, but thus far, for such a large unit, it’s already well ahead of the competition.

7) Video: At first, I was really disappointed here. The x600 seemed to really suck wind and it looked no better than the integrated graphics on my Asus (500ish 3Dmark05; I had the chance to test originally with a friends Z60m). That was, until I read here and educated myself; I installed the Omega drivers and disabled Powerplay. Wow, what a difference. I’m now in the 1600ish range, and it plays my games flawlessly. Why the chip came so hamstrung, I don’t get. But it was nice to unleash it, sit back and watch the fireworks. For my purposes, the x600 is more than enough video power.

There a number of things I find myself enjoying about the Z60m that are not on my list:
-The hardware WiFi on/off switch is quite handy. The fact that the software remembers your radio settings is a nice touch too.

-The ThinkVantage software… wow. I originally thought I wouldn’t have any use for it, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. They nailed this software suite, and I am glad I have it.

-The hardware volume keys; veeeerrrrry handy for shutting off those questionable sounds in a hurry

-The speaker location is wonderful. I often work in bed, and my belly will cover up front located speakes when the laptop rests up on my legs and stomach. This allows me to listen to music, at a really low volume and yet still hear nice crisp sounds.

-The 3-1 reader is nice too, although I still need a CF slot… a PCMCIA reader took care of that though.

-The USB port locations are nice. The back one is a great location for a receiving unit for my wireless mouse when I use it, and the side ones are up enough so I can use that mouse in a smaller space, without needing to work around a wire or something (many laptops like to stick those USB ports on the right side mid way down toward the palm rest; a perfect location for devices you plug into ‘em to get in the way of a right handed mouser).

-A little thing is the HD light; it’s up on the display, easy to see. No longer will I need to move my hands from the keyboard to see if the HD is doing something.

-Heat and noise… well there just isn’t any. Unless I’m really cranking up the games, or compiling a huge source file, I never hear more than a whisper out of this guy. And heat… well again, unless I’m really demanding its processing power, and its on AC, the bottom gets no hotter than warm.

-Thinklight. I’ve read here how many folks feel it’s not of benefit, and I wholeheartedly disagree. When its late, you’re working in bed and you have the screen dimmed completely, that keyboard might as well be a black hole. The Thinklight adds just enough unobtrusive light to illuminate the keyboard, and save you from needing to tilt the screen down to see, or increasing the backlight and blinding yourself.

-The Pointstick and Touchpad. Originally, I figured I wouldn’t touch the stick… but now I find I use both about equally. It’s hard to explain, but some working positions just lend themselves to one or the other, and I’ve been glad to have either to choose from,

So, is there anything I don’t like?
-The battery wobble. Have I mentioned the battery wobble?

-The size could be seen as a negative. Lets face it; this is a large laptop. But, having said that, I don’t think it’s large enough to justify some of the desk fixture comments I’ve read here. Look, if you carry your laptop in a backpack, you wont notice the 2 extra pounds. If you carry it via a handbag or shoulder bag, maybe you will after walking a mile or two. But, to not buy this solely because it’s ‘too big’, in my opinion is simply a mistake. Unless you’re a document editor that spends most of his/her laptop time on a plane, the size of the Z60m just isn’t that ‘big’ of a deal.

-I always partition my hard drives into a programs partition (C drive) and a data partition (D drive). When I did this to the Z60m, I lost the ability to boot into the recovery OS. I’m not too concerned about this, as I’ll eventually ghost the drive. But, it would have been nice to have some way of redirecting the boot loader to fix itself and point at the still perfectly fine and untouched recovery partition. As it is now, I blew away the recovery partition and claimed the extra 5 gig J

-Picky bastard alert! I hate the orange color of the Thinklight. What happened to the nice white or blue? Orange is just… well… ugly!

So, is this my ideal laptop? Well, if it’s not perfect, it’s at least almost perfect. Fix the battery issue, maybe round out the looks by adding Ti accents, give me a white Thinklight… does it sound like I’m nitpicking? Well, that’s probably because I am. For all intents and purposes, the Z60m is just right for me. I think I might just break with tradition, and stick with this one for more than a month or two.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, or would like more details, don’t hesitate to post!

 

Doesn't seem like you are nitpicking to me. I think orange would be annoying to me as well. ThinkPads are great machines. You are going to enjoy it. Good job on the review too.

 

Battery wobble and the pointless orange light are my key gripes too, lol.

Oh, and my restore partition was CRAP. Basically stopped towards the end trying to load up this bluetooth setup driver. Installing some clean windows right now on my own. I think mine had like 64 processes out of the box running at all times. I try to keep it around 20-25 on all my main computers.

EDIT: the 6 cell unit I played with for a bit felt MUCH tighter. I am guessing the rail grooves on the 9 cell are a bit "sluttly" in a way .

 

Yep, a good objective review.

Let me add that something like the perfect notebook per se does not exist and will probably never exist. In other words, one always has to make the one or other related compromise in order to decide which might be individually the right notebook.

So something like "the best Notebook" for all und anyone does not exist, instead only the one which might possibly fit individual best.