Lenovo ThinkPad T60 Review (pics, specs)

The Lenovo ThinkPad T60 series is the first ThinkPad to be released with the new Intel Core Duo processor. The ThinkPad T-series can be thought of as the flagship of the ThinkPad brand, it's squarely targeted towards business users and professionals. Durability, security, usability and performance are all important characteristics of the ThinkPad T-series. The T60 carries on these traditions with a jump in performance from the most recent T43 and some changes to configuration options available and the port and keyboard layout.

Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (view larger image)

An important thing to note regarding the ThinkPad T60 is the fact it comes in two flavors: a 14" screen variety and 15" screen variety. The 14" type offers lighter weight and longer battery life at the expense of a smaller screen. The 15" type T60 offers higher end performance configurations and also the option of a FlexView screen, but at the cost of a higher weight and less power life per battery cell. Under review here is a high end configuration of the T60 15" variety. Following are the specs

Specs of the ThinkPad T60 Being Reviewed:

• Model #: 2623-D3U
• Processor: Intel T2500 2.0GHz Core Duo
• Motherboard Chipset: Intel Calistoga i945GM/PM
• Hard Drive: 100GB 5400RPM SATA (Hitachi Travelstar HTS541010G9SA00)
• Memory/RAM: 1GB (1,024MB) (configurable up to 4GB)
• Screen: 15.0" 1400 x 1050 SXGA+ (LG Philips LP150E05 - A2)
• Graphics: ATI X1400 128MB
• Optical Drive: Multi-Burner DVD recordable
• Battery: 9-cell (extended life, protrudes from back of notebook)
• Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11 a/b/g), Bluetooth 2.0, InfraRed
• User Input: Touchpad, Pointing Stick, UltraNav buttons, Fingerpring Scanner
• Warranty: 3-years parts and labor, 1-year battery
• Dimensions:
  14.1" screen config: 12.2" x 10.0" x 1.0-1.2" (width x depth x thickness)
  15" screen config: 13" x 10.6" x 1.2-1.4" (width x depth x thickness)
• Weight: 6.4lbs (14" T60 is about 5.2 lbs with a 6-cell battery and optical drive)
• Ports:
  • 3 USB 2.0 ports
  • dock/port replicator
  • Display-out
  • AC adapter port
  • RJ-11 (Modem)
  • RJ-45 (Ethernet LAN)
  • Audio line out for headphone/speakers
  • Microphone
• Slots:
  • 1 Type II PC card slot
  • 1 ExpressCard 54 slot
• Buttons:
  • Power on/off
  • Volume up/down/mute (3 buttons)
  • Wireless on/off
  • ThinkVantage shortcut button (shortcut to system support, security and diagnostics suite)
  • Battery lock and release
• Price: $2,799 (as of 2/13/2006 at Lenovo.com)

Design and Build

The ThinkPad T60 is a premium product with a durable build. For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the difference between a sub $1,000 starter notebook and a premium workhorse is obvious. The ThinkPad T60 stands out with its durability via choice of components, very sturdy case material and a strong protective chassis. You pay a lot more for these features of a T60, but if you're on the road, away from support, and miss a time sensitive opportunity because of hardware problems -- you might just wish you had spent extra dollars for a better built notebook such as the T60.

So how does the T60 excel build-wise? Basically the same as its predecessor T-series notebooks did. The T60 body is a rugged plastic that does not flex. The magnesium reinforced lid won't flex and provides amazing protection for the screen. The keyboard does not flex -- at all. The thick metal hinges that attach the screen are very rigid and ensure the screen does not wobble. The keyboard is spill proof and has two drain holes to make sure if you do happen to spill your morning Starbucks coffee, the liquid is carried away from sensitive components and out through the bottom of the notebook. The hard drive is shock mounted and the entire chassis is a newly designed magnesium "roll cage" (it offers 30% more protection that past T-series chassis), and even if your T60 is dropped and broken the Active Protection System (APS) will stop hard drive activity to prevent data loss. The double screen latch system locks securely to make sure the screen stays down when being carried around. In other words, there's no shortcuts being used in build quality from past ThinkPad notebooks since the Lenovo takeover of IBM -- only enhancements.

Aesthetically the ThinkPad T60 remains pretty much the same as past ThinkPad T series notebooks, meaning from a few feet away you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between a T40, T41, T42, T43 or T60 (assuming they're all the same 14" size -- the 15" size was not introduced until the T42 came about). But with the T60 there are definitely some changes in overall layout and aesthetic looks.

The first change you'll notice between the T60 and former T-series notebooks is the UltraNav buttons have changed along with the hardware buttons at the top (power, volume, ThinkVantage). Gone are the familiar red stripes on the mouse buttons and blue stripe on the scroll bar button. The mouse buttons are also squared off now and significantly smaller. See pictures below for a comparison of the T60 to the T43 UltraNav layout:

The ThinkPad T60 touchpad and UltraNav buttons

The ThinkPad T43 touchpad and UltraNav buttons

Personally, I really liked the coloring on the mouse buttons. I'm a fan of using suttle color to make things stand out as being an important function (and mouse buttons are an important function). The coloring was also unique and something different, I'd prefer if Lenovo leave the obsessively clean looks to Sony and Apple. Besides, the ThinkPad is sometimes called too boring in its all black look, and tearing away what color there is makes it look more boring and, might I say -- generic. The button size change was made consciously by Lenovo to improve usability, argument being larger buttons are easier to bump accidentally. I'd say the new buttons are probably as usable as past ones -- or you at least get used to them quickly if you've used a ThinkPad in the past, but still, I preferred the larger size.

Also changed is the button look at the top of the keyboard, the Function keys (F1 - F12) used to be grey in color, but with the T60 they become all black. Again, I miss the extra color seperation and distinct look. Also, the once black volume and power buttons are now silver and do not reside in a dimpled depression as they did previously. The "Access IBM" button has become the "ThinkVantage" button and jumps to the right of the volume keys. In use these plastic constructed buttons feel fine, but just looking at them would cause suspicion of cheapness and you'd half expect them to be wobbly (they're not).

Above is pictured the T60 top row of keys and buttons

Above is pictured the T43 top row of keys and buttons

The port layout of the T60 has also changed quite a bit, these changes are covered in the Input & Output Ports section.

So overall in terms of aesthetic design, I still love the professional black look of the T60, it's as distinctive a ThinkPad look as ever. However, I can't say I like the new buttons look or the UltraNav changes. At least they didn't change the lid color to titanium or anything crazy like that though...

Screen

The ThinkPad T60 under review is a 15.0" variety with an SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) and has what Lenovo calls "FlexView" technology to provide very wide viewing angles. Often notebook screens can suffer from color distortion if viewed from angles that deviate from perpendicular viewpoints (straight on and level) -- the cheaper the LCD the worse the viewing angle. The FlexView screen is a real treat though, the screen color and brightness maintains from just about any angle you try. Gathering people around your laptop to view a spreadsheet (or to view the latest version of your work offices favorite online flash based cartoon) will mean everyone can see it, even those at the end of the semicircle of people. Also important and worth noting, since the screen is matte (anti-glare) you won't get any nasty reflection of office lights on the screen -- but it is true colors are not as bold and contrasting as with the popular glossy screen consumer notebooks (i.e. Sony XBrite, Dell TrueLife, Fujitsu CrystalView, HP BrightView).

Below are examples of how the T60 screen maintains amazing colors and brightness from any angle:

T60 view straight on (view larger image)	T60 view with screen tilted 70-degrees back (view larger image)
T60 view with screen tilted 50-degrees forward (view larger image)	60-degree from front left side angle view (view larger image)
Straight on view of ThinkPad T60 (left) compared to Dell e1705 (right) (view larger image)	Angle view of T60 screen and e1705 screen -- notice colors and text still crisp at this angle for the T60 (view larger image)

Brightness wise the T60 screen under review is very good, it's the brightest ThinkPad screen that I've experienced in fact. But ThinkPad screens are not known for being the brightest and best, just adequately bright and good enough for business use. So I'll say that the T60 screen being reviewed is bright, it's equivalent in brightness to a current Dell e1705 17" consumer oriented notebook I have in hand (see pics above), but I'm sure there's a 5% audience out there that might wish there was one more notch increase of brightness available.

The screen lighting is very even, there's no areas of darkness or brightness -- indeed it's what makes the T60 FlexView screen all the more amazing, it's so evenly lit and crisp from such vast angles.

Also, keep in mind, my comments here reflect the use of a 15" SXGA FlexView screen T60. Experiences may differ with a 14" size screen, there is no FlexView offering on that screen size.

Speakers

The T60 speakers are located at the front bottom area of the notebook. The speakers are actually not half bad, they certainly get loud enough to comfortably hear a DVD movie from across a room. The sound quality does deteoriate as loudness increases -- more static and tinny sound becomes apparent at the loudest level. Even at the louder levels though the sound is not grating and serviceable -- good news if you prefer not to have to carry external speakers. As usual though, the recommendation is to have a pair of headphones if you want bass or what can be considered very good sound quality.

Above is a front view of the ThinkPad T60, you can see the infrared port on the far left, the new wireless on/off button on the left side (a new feature) and the speakers are centered at the front underside (view larger image)

Processor and Performance

The ThinkPad T60 is the first Core Duo based notebook I've used. It runs at 2.0GHz with dual core processors -- meaning multi-tasking is what this machine is born to do. I've had zero situations in which lag has been a problem, even when there's a virus scan running in the background and I'm ripping a CD, have Word, Outlook, an HTML Editor and Visual Studio (a code development tool) open and flipping between them the T60 is yawning and CPU usage is low.

Two processor graphs for two processor cores in Windows Task Manager

The T2500 processor coupled with the ATI X1400 128MB graphics card is also enough to play most any game, albeit maybe not at the highest setting. As a demonstration of the processor and graphics card capability I installed Doom 3 and took it for a test run. The game ran flawlessly on medium settings, which I think for a business notebook is pretty good. If you're on the road and want to unwind a little you're not exactly going to be pulling out the 3D surround sound headphones and getting online to smash it up, a one player high-end 3D game at medium graphics settings is probably enough. And given the fact Doom 3 runs well with such settings, Half Life 2 and other popular titles can be assumed to run and probably well.

Doom 3 runs just very well at medium settings on the T60 with an ATI X1400 128MB graphics card (view larger image)

Settings used for playing Doom 3 on the T60

Benchmarks

Below are the results gained from running Super Pi (ftp://pi.super-computing.org/windows/super_pi.zip), a program that forces the laptop's processor to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy. As you can see, the new Intel Core Duo processor smokes any previous processor at this calculation, the ThinkPad T60 and recently reviewed Acer 8204WLMi are pretty close on processor speed times. The T60 beats the last T43 1.86GHz Pentium M I reviewed by about 27 seconds on this calculation (something like 26% faster).

Notebook	Time
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 15s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Below are the results gained from running 3DMark05 on the ThinkPad T60, basically it can be seen that the X1400 performance rests somewhere between the older ATI X600 and X700:

Notebook	3DMark 05 Results
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB	2092 3D Marks / 4462 CPUMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m (2.0GHz Pentium M, ATI X600 128MB)	1659 3DMarks / 3426 CPUMarks
ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	727 3DMarks / 3414 CPUMarks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI Radeon Mobility x700 128 MB)	2530 3D Marks / 3749 CPU Marks
Quanta KN1 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 128mb)	2,486 3DMarks / 4106 CPUMarks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2536 3D Marks / 3557 CPU Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4157 3DMarks / 4812 CPU Marks

Below are the results gained from running PCMark04 on the T60 and comparison results to the T43, the T60 with the given configuration handily beats the 1.86GHz ATI X300 equipped T43.

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	IBM T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300)	Lenovo T60 (2.00 GHz, ATI X1400)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	3.33 MB/s	6.83 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	27.19 MB/s	55.83 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	23.4 MB/s	52.5 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	10.88 MPixels/s	23.24 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	1914.17 MB/s	4450.72 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	2.82 KB/s	4.88 KB/s
File Decryption	54.11 MB/s	59.64 MB/s
Audio Conversion	2496.87 KB/s	3062.34 KB/s
Web Page Rendering	5.27 Pages/s	6.35 Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	51.71 FPS	74.82 FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	159.19 FPS	212.51 FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines	868.44 FPS	1514.98 FPS
Futuremark 3DMark05 Scores
3DMark Score	727 3DMarks	2092 3D Marks
CPU Score	3414 CPUMarks	4462 CPUMarks
Gaming Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon	3.3 FPS	9.7 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest	2.2 FPS	5.7 FPS
GT3 - Canyon Flight	3.4 FPS	10.6 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1	1.18 FPS	2.5 FPS
CPU Test 2	2.9 FPS	3.5 FPS

Below is a graph generated from running HDTune on the T60, a hard drive benchmarking application:

(view larger image)

Heat and Fan

The T60 is cool running, very cool running in fact. After playing Doom 3 and running 3D benchmark applications the T60 fans didn't even kick in. The back area where the fan and vents are got a bit warm as they pushed the heat out, but certainly not uncomfortably warm or anything. The fact that there's an extra heat vent now on the back where the parallel port used to be probably helps quite a bit to dissipate heat.

Input and Output Ports

Here's a quick visual rundown on the ports available again and what's on each side of the notebook:

T60 left side: Fan/heat vent, Monitor-out, modem, ethernet, microphone, headphones, USB 2.0, ExpressCard (top slot) and PCMCIA Type II slots (bottom slot) (view larger image)

T60 right side: 2 USB 2.0 ports, optical drive/multi-bay (view larger image)

T60 back side: heat vent, power jack, battery slot (view larger image)

T60 front side: Infrared, wireless on/off switch, speakers, screen latch open (view larger image)

T60 underside view: Port replicator connector, access to memory, battery release latch and lock (view larger image)

Above view -- the same ThinkPad look as ever except that hump on the right which contains the WWAN antenna on this specific model (if you order a T60 without WWAN connectivity you will not have this)

The T60 drops the parallel port in favor of an extra vent on the back of the notebook. Finally we have 3 USB 2.0 ports, much better than the 2 the T-series use to have. The dual ExpressCard / PCMCIA card slots is a smart move as we're right now in the middle of phasing out the PCMCIA type slot and adopting ExpressCard as the standard.

I'm a little annoyed there's no media card reader, having an SD card slot is nice to have given the number of devices that use it. Yes, I know USB flash memory drives are cheap and easy too but an SD card is easy to store inside of a notebook and quickly pop it out when needed or pop in an SD card from a PDA or camera when needed for easy fast transfer of files from other mobile devices. I use the SD slot a lot on my ThinkPad X41 and wish the T60 had it.

No FireWire port still for the T-series, the X60 series will have this and so does the Z60 series, odd that the T60 didn't adopt it. It doesn't bother me not to have it, I don't use it, but there's definitely some that will be annoyed.

And along with the parallel port going bye-bye, so does the S-Video port. Another thing that will probably annoy a number of people as well. In regards to the parallel port, you knew it was only a matter of time before that thing went and having the extra vent at the back there really seems to help keep the notebook cool, so fine by me.

Overall the port selection can be called fine, but could certainly be better and not up to snuff with some other similar notebooks.

Keyboard / Touchpad / Pointing Stick

ThinkPad T60 keyboard area (view larger image)

The ThinkPad keyboard is the best there is, there's zero flex, every key feels individual, every key has great travel/feedback and the keyboard is full-size. There are changes on the T60 keyboard however, the Windows key and Menu shortcut key have been added to the T60 as Lenovo starts to integrate these keys across the ThinkPad line (starting with the Z60 series). It never bothered me not having the Windows key as I don't use it. With the introduction of this key, the ALT key suffers the most in being sized down, in doing a few ALT-TAB commands to switch between open windows I found I hit the Window-TAB keys instead. Kind of annoying, but you learn and muscle memory kicks in so you know how far to stretch (or not stretch) to hit the ALT key or Windows key if you use that.

The T60 has a pointing stick, I love using this and find it much easier than the provided touchpad -- it makes it so you can move the cursor around the screen without having to lift your hand from the keys, a much faster and easier to control style of input. But the great thing is that if the pointing stick isn't your cup of tea then you've got the touchpad to fall back on.

As mentioned in the design section, the mouse buttons have been squared off and downsized, the feel of the buttons is still the same but overall I think uglier and not as easy to find via feeling. They're still better than most any other notebook though, the travel and feedback from the mouse buttons is good.

Worth mentioning, the F8 and F9 keys now can be used in conjunction with the Fn key as shortcuts. Hit Fn + F8 to bring up a display to disable the touchpad or disable TrackPoint. Hit Fn + F9 to bring up an applet that allows you to easily detach devices such as the multi-bay optical drive.

Battery

I have the 9-cell battery with the T60 being reviewed. It adds a bit of weight over the standard 6-cell and sticks out but if you want close to 4 hours of battery life with the 15" screen model you'll need this size. In using the T60 without Wi-Fi and at medium brightness (3rd notch of 7) it got 3 hours 42 minutes of battery life when used lightly (typing review, or idling). You can expect to get over 3 hours with Wi-Fi on and finishing a DVD with the 9-cell battery shouldn't be a problem, well, unless it's Lord of the Rings.

The T60 14" screen size will do much better in terms of time of battery life per cell because a smaller screen just drains less battery. My guess is the 6-cell battery for the T60 14" will get you about what the 9-cell battery does for the 15" -- again, that's just a mildly educated guess.

Wireless

The ThinkPad T60 uses the Intel 3945 a/b/g wireless card. Reception is fine, no troubles, the antenna of the T60 is in the screen to give extra range. The T60 also comes with a new Access Connections (IBM built-in software for managing wireless) look that displays all the wireless networks in range on a little map with strength. Cool.

Wireless network management application with the T60, just click on the network you want to connect to.

You can also order the T60 with a WWAN antenna and integrated Verizon EVDO card (notice the "hump" on the right side of the T60 screen that I have, it's the WWAN antenna). I'm a huge fan of this Verizon service, it works really well in most any mid-size or larger city where Verizon has their EVDO network setup. A monthly plan is $80 (have to sign up for a year) or you can opt for a one time 24-hour access charge for $15. This $15 service is great for those who travel maybe 2-3 times a month and need ubiquitous wireless while on the road those days. Or, if you're in a pinch and desperately need the web/email for some business related task but cannot find a net connection, you'll be glad to pay $15 to get to the net.

The T60 can also come with Bluetooth if so chosen and configured, great to use with printers, PDAs and SmartPhones for transferring data wirelessly.

Service and Support

The T60 I have comes with a 3-year warranty when ordered through Lenovo.com. Service and support from Lenovo (and IBM in the past) has always been good for me. Like any vendor though, there are disaster stories, but the Lenovo ThinkPad tech support center (based in Atlanta at last check) has always been helpful for me and generally gets rated at the top of the list for notebook vendors. Sadly, the acquiring of a newly released Lenovo ThinkPad will be the most painful part of things, the tech support always seems good, the sales and buying process from the consumer side has recently been comical. In our forums there are countless people that ordered the ThinkPad Z60m in December and in mid-February are still empty handed with uncertain receive dates. A similar thing happened with the X41 Tablet release. Maybe order fulfillment issues can be blamed on excessive demand, but the Z60m was announced and released in September and 5 months later it's still a interminable wait for many orders. The Dell e1705 I ordered from Dell.com was announced January 6 and it took exactly 10-days to get it from Dell for a recently placed (Febuary 1) order, and I know there's major demand for that machine. Lenovo needs to come in line with making its Lenovo.com ordering channel a reliable place to order something and get a product shipped in a respectable amount of time (not 3 months). Visit our IBM/Lenovo forum to keep track of customer experiences of ship dates with the T60.

Software

Windows XP Home or Pro are your two choices of OS. The ThinkPad built-in system tools for recovery, backup, system-updates, active protection system (data protection), security, managing wireless connections, screen utilities, and overall management of your notebook is best in the industry. The ThinkVantage software is a very mature suite and is constantly being improved.

One surprise is that Lenovo included Google Desktop Search and Google Toolbar search installed by default. Google reportedly paid Dell the sum of $1 billion to slap these products on all the machines they output for the next 3-years. The ThinkPad isn't generally a product that's been used in the past to install 3rd party software to generate cash / improve margins -- so I wonder if Google is paying Lenovo to put these applications on or if Lenovo figured they're useful tools that most people will install anyway. Likely the first scenario -- Google is sure getting agressive.

Conclusion

The ThinkPad T60 is easy to recommend, if I were an IT manager and had to choose a notebook to equip a sales force with notebooks I'd go with this. It's highly durable, very easy to use, looks extremely professional and gives you a multitude of connectivity options. Furthemore, if you get the nice FlexView screen that mine came with, you'll have what I consider one of the most pleasant to view screens on the market. The input/output port selection still isn't where I'd like it to be, strangely even the latest tiny ThinkPad X60-series beats the T60 in port selection (although the X60 has no optical drive, it does have FireWire and an SD card slot in addition to everything else the T60 has -- talk about getting beaten by your younger and smaller sibling).

The new Core Duo processor veritably tears through anything a business user will throw at it, and with an X1400 or better graphics card installed you'll have to be somewhat concerned with the workforce blowing time on games. So if you want a T60 notebook for yourself but find that it's too pricey, and yes you do pay a pretty penny for such a premium level notebook, then you might want to start lobbying to your manager and IT department now to adopt T60 notebooks -- it's a treat to use and I'm sure can make you more productive.

Pros

• Great feeling keyboard, the best there is for notebooks, and now there's a Windows key for those that missed that
• The 15" FlexView screen offers a fantastic viewing experience and really makes it easy on the eyes for day long computing
• 2.0GHz Core Duo + X1400 128MB graphics card = fast, fast, fast
• Runs cool and quiet, no overheating issues even with a fast processor and dedicated video card
• Very good battery life
• Docking station and port replicator options if you need more ports
• Multi-Bay makes it easy to switch out the optical drive with an secondary hard drive, battery or optical drive upgrade

Cons

• No FireWire, no SD card slot no S-Video ports means the T60 is behind the curve in available ports / slots
• At 6.3lbs the 15" variety T60 is kind of heavy to be called portable, go with the T60 14" if you need greater portability
• Expensive, but it's a premium product so you expect that
• The new power and volume buttons look cheap and couldn't possibly be more boring
• Smaller mouse buttons and no coloring is a bit of a downer in my book, I liked the old style better and found them slightly easier to use

ThinkPad T60 Pricing and Availability: Lenovo ThinkPad T60

 

Kudos to Lenovo for keeping the same design.

I do wish they kept it with the red button stripes though, those gave it a unique look. No other computer has - er, had -that.

X1400 performs right where I expected it to, 2k in 3DMark05. Nice jump from the previous-gen X600 from a performance standpoint.

No S-video or FW? Have to give a thumbs down to that. The S-video is important to a lot of people. I think it should have also had a DVI-D - useful to connect to newer projectors and monitors, which business pros are sure to do.

Nice job!

 

ahh yes, the DVI-D, forgot to mention that -- you are right, another port selection some other business notebooks have that's missing here.

 

Zat eez one awesome notebook. Kudos on a great review, Andrew!

 

How much is price Varying?????

 

Great review, abaxter. I'm impressed with Lenovo thus far... no sign of diminishing quality at all.

 

A bit disappointed in the lack of SD and FW but it looks like I'll still be getting the T60

 

WOW what an amazing review...it answered EVERY single one of my questions (I was even curious how Doom would run on the T60).

Outstanding job!!

 

looks like a good challenger to the V6j for the 15" standard ratio title.

 

ranges from $1,400 to about $3,000 depending ot the configuration, go to www.lenovo.com/products/us/en to see pricing

 

Thanks for the comphensive review.
So is the fan really quiet? or does it not turn on due to lack of heat?

chris

 

Does anyone know how the performance of a T2300 (1.66Ghz) core duo CPU compares with a Sonoma (1.86Ghz) CPU?

And also ATI's x300 vs x1300?

thanks in advance.

 

I'm curious as to what the battery life on the 14in models are. I'm debating weather or not to get the 9cell battery. What do you think. Is the extra weight worth the extra battery life?

 

I'm pretty annoyed with the removal of the S-Video, I use it all the time. Maybe they'll phase it back in with the T61. I've got a T43 so I expect they'll probably be on the T80 by the time I'm ready to upgrade.

 

Ahhh, thanks and great job indeed!!!
For me, FireWire, s-video and that cardreaderthingie, are not that important. And that coloring on the ultranavbuttons looked fine, but this 'neutral' look is OK too.

 

Nice laptops. Good to see the quality isnt decreasing.

Your comparison of the screens on the T60 and the Dell is a little biased. You really need to take the same shot from both the left and right, since the arrangement of the machines mean that you have a lower deviation from straight on to the IBM. Not that I doubt your conclusion.

S.

 

As always a nice Review from abaxter, now we are waiting and looking forward for some X60 and X60s (this one hopefully with the UltraLight TFT) Reviews.

 

Oh, by the way, this Wireless app you're talking about. Is that a IBM app, or is it part of Intels wireless pro "management software", to call it that way?

 

mostly a case of it just doesn't turn on, noise wise it's the same as past thinkpads -- not whisper quiet but no vacuum either.

 

for me, yes, I like as much battery life as I can get without having to carry two batteries. I like to go to coffee shops, bookstores, or be able to work when travelling and not worry too much about battery life though. if you stay plugged in a lot, then it wouldn't matter so much.

 

It's IBM, part of their "Access Connections" software

 

the Dell screen is good too, I didn't mean to say "T60 screen rules and e1705 screen is the pits", on the contrary, both screens are nice but the e1705 viewing angles and lighting isn't quite as good as the T60 and the e1705 does have some light leakage at the bottom.

Plus, the other side view I took was even more blurry a picture than the one in this review but here it is attached

 

in the "Heat and Fans" section of the review, I see "T43 fans" mentioned. is that accurate, or did you intend to say "T60 fans?"

otherwise, excellent review of a superb product.

 

Thank you for your review. When did you order the T60 and what was the est. shipping date? Was it delayed? I have heard a lot of shipping delay on Z60. Don't know if it happens on T60. Thank you.

 

Any information on the power drain issue when a USB device is attached?

 

Ah, OK.
And as I see, there's a ATi and MS Windows XP pro sticker on the TP you got, but I'm missing this Centrino sticker here??
Not that it is that important, but doesn't it belong on a centrino-certified notebook, though?

 

You certainly are not going to become famous for the quality of your photos...

When are you getting a production X60? I'm getting too old to carry around full size laptops.

S.

 

Abaxter,

Was wondering if the bottom part of the case feels more like the z60t or the t42/43 since the tabook doesn't say "titanium-reinforced CFRP in bottom cover" for the T60. Has the Lenovo Thinkpad design team decided to save money by not using titanium anymore and figures the new magnesium "rollcage" will be sufficient. The only downside i could see in using the rollcage and keeping the current titanium bottom cover would be cost. Anyway, great review!

 

I have to say I'm jealous of notebooks that get good battery life.

My Sager 5320 gets 2.5 hours max. on an 8-cell. With the six-cell modular bay battery, I can get probably close to 4 or so.

But, considering that some laptops get 4 on a six- or eight-cell, makes me a bit jealous.

Then again, can't deny why I get relatively low battery life. 256MB X700, etc.

 

No more Centrino with the Duo Core processors. "Centrino" refers to...
Intel Pentium M processor
Intel chipset
Intel wireless

Many ThinkPad do not have the Intel wireless or chipset, so are not Centrino. None of the Duo Cores are.

 

Not really. Intel still uses Centrino as a platformname with the release of core duo and core solo processors. Only with core duo, centrino became 'centrino duo'. And when Abaxters T60 should be certified as centrino (I checked it), there should be this centrinosticker on it...
And as I said, it's not that important, but I just noticed it, and because of that I asked about it.

 

is there a way to get S-video on this laptop? like an external peripheral? I really need it to play the movies I download on a bigger TV!

Michel

 

To respond to a comment made earlier about battery capacity:

Battery life is not measured by the number of cells in the battery. Unfortunately, OEMs are advertising it that way and it confuses consumers. When looking at battery capacity, look for the WH or mAH plus voltage specifications on the battery. With that said however, it is difficult to check this since not many OEMs publish this info unless you physically check the rating at a store.

The next best thing is to research on websites like NBR for battery life. Maybe Andrew can start some kinda of database for that??? I'd definately contribute.

SA

 

what about SXGA in T60 14'' screen? not any more ?!!

 

I too don't like their removal of ultranav button colors :-(.. I did not go for their Z Series for just that reason. Nobody ever had any complains of that red & blue strip, and so really can't reason what made Lenovo do such a stupid thing.

It was truly unique, much like IBM, but Lenovo, striping away some of the elegant unique touch it had inorder to merge with the rest of mediocracy.

People don't look at the plain buttons and say.. Ahh.. Apple like eligance... the nut responsable for this move should be fired.

 

No S-Video too .. I love watching stuff on my TV, also, when I use my Stearing wheel for my racing games, I use the S-Video to output the game on TV.

 

This appears to be the same panel I have on my T42, perhaps a newer revision? Not sure.

Yep, I too prefer the soft coloring and smooth edges of the older Ultranav. But - no biggy.

Actually, this feature has been around for quite some time. I can do it on the T42. It's just that there are no marks on the keys to indicate it. So while being a somewhat "hidden feature" on the older T-series, it is now "fully documented".

Overall, it seems that Lenovo is keeping up with the Thinkpad quality, but I cannot help but feel that some strange decisions seem to interfere with true progress.

* Removal of S-Video? Why? OK, parallel port is rarely used these days, but S-Video is present on almost every other laptop out there.
* Still no Firewire? The Z series have it, the X series have it, and the T series, which is, as Andrew correctly noted, the flagship series, doesn't have it?

On the positive side of things:

* At last 3 USB ports (even though 4 would be more welcome)
* Finally a Ultrabay-slim DVD burner that can burn all formats and doesn't suck badly at speeds (I wonder how much it's gonna cost to upgrade my T42 burner to that thing. Probably $1000).

 

Yeah, I think changing the keyboard appearance and ultranav buttons was a mistake too.

Thinkpads have a reputation as solid dependable no nonsense notebooks. In fact, they have THE reputation for that. So why change it? Especially when people are worried about Lenovo sacrificing quality. Why do anything that makes it look like they're diverting from the beloved Thinkpads made by IBM?

I also think they T60 just looks more boring with the changes.

 

A question for abaxter:

Did you notice any difference in the feel of the T60 keyboard from the T40 series? I compared a T43 to a Z60 (which appears to have the same keyboard used in the T60) at Office Depot. The Z60 with the new keyboard layout definitely felt different from the T43. The keyboard was more clacky and the keys' feedback didn't feel as nuanced and firm. The Z60 was good, but it definitely had a different feel.

 

that's pretty funny, and no i didn't mean to say that the T43 fans wouldn't kick in when the T60 gets warm, the laptops are not soul mates or anything It's a typo on my part -- and fixed so thanks.

 

it doesn't have any kind of Intel sticker on it, I'm not sure if it's because it's an early unit/review unit but I didn't remove anything.

 

Feels the same as the T43 as far as key travel and firmness -- really the only difference I can notice is having to adjust for reach on the Alt key sometimes (I've overstretched and hit the Windows key a few times) and the mouse buttons being smaller and maybe slightly different in feel as well.

 

There are a couple different manufacturers of ibm keyboards (nmb and chicony, I think), and supposedly they have a slightly different feel to them. So, it might not be that the z60 was different, just that it had the keyboard that you weren't used to.

abaxter, fantastic review, very thorough. I'm very jealous, I wish I had been able to wait until these dual cores came out.

 

Am I correct in concluding that it is no longer possible to replace one of the sodimms through an easily removed panel on the bottom of the notebook?

If you look at the maintenance manual, it looks like you have to remove the palm rest and trackpad to replace memory. Also, the manual only shows where one of the sodimms is. I assume they're both replaceable?

 

Question to Abaxter:

How does the touchpad feel in the T60 considering the previous T series thinkpads? I've got a T30 and it I knew that T43 got esentially the same as the T30 model. I mean does the finger glide as hard as on previous models?

Also I want to know if it is as big as the previous, it seems smaller and thus limiting thus the movement...

From the pictures it looks softer, like "mainstream" (generic, common) notebooks. I am much bigger adept of the trackpoint, but ocasionally I used the pad, and on the thinkpad it was much better...please tell.

 

Wow, thats really dissappointing. No media card reader, firewire, and S-Video. The fact is, I am an IT Manager. But I still really need SD reader and firewire available on the notebook for faster file transfering. Can't swap SD reader and firewire pc card back and forth. Spending that much money and it's lacking stock availability and basic features are just not worth to look at. Plus for now T60 14" doesn't come with bluetooh+WWAN altogether in a package. You have choose either bluetooth or WWAN option which is another dissapointment. T60 doesn't seem to be good for an IT manager IMO. Now I have to crossout T60 off from my list.

 

Way to generalize. Do all IT managers absolutely need SD cards and Firewire? Do all of them need Bluetooth and WWAN at 14" size?

 

Do all IT Manager only use USB2.0? Do all of them not need media reader? Do all of them not need BT and WWAN at 14" size?

 

if it doesn't have CF, I would prefer it not have any media reader slots.

 

2623D7U is the only one I found that is 14.1" with X1400, BT, WWAN, WLAN, 2GHz, 100GB, 512MB. Other than missing card reader, firewire, and serial port, it has everything I need.

Manufacturer IBM-Lenovo
Part Number 2623D7U
Model Name Thinkpad T60
CPU
Processor Type Core Duo T2500
Processor Speed 2.0 GHz
Processor Manufacturer Intel
Level 2 Cache 2MB (shared)
Bus Speed 667 MHz
Display
Display Type TFT (Active Matrix)
Display Size (inches) 14.1
Screen Regular
Video
Graphics Type SXGA+
Maximum Internal Resolution 1400 x 1050
Maximum Internal Colors 16M
Graphics Bus Interface PCI Express x16
Video RAM Size 128 MB
Video RAM Type GDDR1
Video Chipset ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 M54
RAM
Memory (RAM) Standard 512 MB
Memory (RAM) Maximum 4096 MB
Memory (RAM) Type PC2-5300 667MHz DDR2
Design and Drives
Design All-in-one, except FDD (external)
Hard Drive Size 100.0 GB
Hard Drive Type SATA 5400RPM
Devices, supported by the Modular Bay Ultrabay Slim compatible
Multimedia Drive DVD-MultiBurner, Internal, Swappable
Additional Devices TPM, Fingerprint Reader, Verizon EVDO
Audio
Audio Type 16 Bit Sound Blaster Compatible
Audio Manufacturer HD Audio / AD1981HD codec
Communications
Pointing Device TrackPoint and UltraNav
Modem 56K v.90
Network Card 10/100/1000 + Wireless (802.11a/b/g) + Bluetooth
Power
Battery Type High Capacity Lithium Ion
Worldwide A/C Compatibility Supports both 110-120 and 220-240 voltage systems
Ports
Infra-Red Port 4 Mbps, IRDA Compatible
External Monitor Port Yes
PCMCIA Slots One Type II
ExpressCard slot One ExpressCard/34 or ExpressCard/54 / PCI Express x1 or USB 2.0 / integrated door
Parallel Port No
Serial Port No
PS/2 Port No
USB Port 3 USB 2.0
TV Out No
IEEE 1394 Port No
Audio Out Yes
Microphone In Yes
Software
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Pro SP2
Software Included • Rescue and Recovery™
• Access Connections™
• Client Security Solution™
• ThinkVantage Productivity Center with Maintenance Manager
• ThinkVantage System Update
• Symantec® Client Security™
• Diskeeper Lite
• PC-Doctor™ (diagnostics)
• ThinkPad Utilities (Power Manager and Presentation Director)
• Adobe® Reader
• Google Toolbar
• Google Desktop
• Picasa from Google
• Fingerprint Software
• Multimedia Center for Think Offerings
• Sonic RecordNOW and Drive Letter Access (combo, DVD±RW)
• InterVideo WinDVD (combo, DVD±RW models)
• InterVideo WinDVD Creator (DVD±RW models)
Dimensions and Weight
Height (inches) 1.0-1.2
Width (inches) 12.2
Depth (inches) 10.0
Weight (lbs) 5.5
Warranty
Warranty Period Three (3) years