Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Review

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by Kevin O'Brien

The Lenovo ThinkPad X61 is an ultraportable business laptop geared to individuals who demand the best. Like its larger brothers of the ThinkPad line, it shares all of the same rugged features, as well as the creature comforts of a full-size keyboard. The X61 looks as if Lenovo took a ThinkPad T60 and shrunk it down by 30 percent. Although it is much smaller than its counterparts, it is every bit as fast. This model came loaded with a 7200rpm hard drive, 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM. Light business travelers can rest easy knowing they didn’t sacrifice anything but weight when they bring the X61 on the road.

Specifications of the X61 being reviewed:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz T7300
• Chipset: Intel 965 Express
• Memory: 2048MB DDR2 PC5300 (2x 1024MB)
• Hard Drive: 7200RPM 100GB Hitachi (HTS721010G9SA00) SATA
• Screen: 12.1&quot; 1024x768 LCD
• Optical Drive: LG GCC-4247N DVD/CDRW (Through X6 UltraBase)
  • 8x DVD-ROM
  • 24x CD-R
  • 24x CD-RWX
• GPU:  Intel X3100 Integrated
• Network/Wireless: Intel Wireless 4965AGN, 1Gb Ethernet Card, Verizon WWAN Modem and Bluetooth
• Inputs: 95 Key Keyboard with Three Button Touchpoint
• Buttons: Power, ThinkVantage, Power, Volume Up and Down, Mute, and WiFi/Bluetooth On/Off Switch.
• Slots: PCMCIA/PC-Card
• Battery: Eight Cell
• Dimensions:
  • Width: 10.58&quot;, With WWAN Antenna: 10.91”
  • Depth: 8.35” ,With 8 Cell Battery: 9.37”
  • Height: 1.41&quot;
• Weight: 3lbs 10.6oz
• Operating System: Windows Vista Business
• Warranty: One Year Warranty
• Price as Configured: $2033 ($1863 without UltraBase and Optical Drive)

Lenovo ThinkPad X61s on the left, X61 on the right (view large image)

Design and Build

ThinkPad X61 (view large image)

The X61 is a durable ultraportable computer. It shares many design characteristics with the rest of the ThinkPad line including its internal unibody structure, full-size keyboard, stainless steel display hinges, and complete port selection. The fit and finish is astounding, with no creaks anywhere (not even a small creak), as well as little unused space. The outside case is very strong giving it a good deal of protection when thrown into a briefcase or maybe even a tall purse. It really seems like a handbag sized ThinkPad down to the smallest detail.

Thickness of X61 compared to Blackberry Pearl (view large image)

For upgrades and repairs that might come up down the road, the X61 has the user in mind with easy to remove access panels and covers. The most frequent upgrade items being the HD and RAM are accessed through panels on the bottom and side of the X61. Other items such as the keyboard, wireless cards, and backup battery can be reached by removing a handful of labeled screws on the bottom, and easily popped out. For my first time taking it apart it took roughly three minutes to figure out how the panels came off once the screws were out. I found almost little to no risk of breaking other components during this process, unlike other laptops which are not so user friendly in this area.

(view large image)

One concern worth mentioning is the amount of heat that can build up below the palm rest after the computer has been powered up for about an hour. The right side was fairly warm to the touch, and when I took the laptop apart to find the cause of the heat, I found that both the WiFi and WWAN cards were directly under this area. Lenovo includes an additional fan with models equipped with the WWAN card, but this may not activate if the card is not in use. During my testing, I was only using the WiFi card for internet access. Since items are packed quite densely in this ultraportable laptop, it is hard to win on all design points.

Input and Output Ports

Front

Front view of X61s and X61 (view large image)

The only items in the front of the laptop is the screen latch and wireless on/off switch

Left Side

Left side view of X61 on top of X61s (view large image)

Left to right we have the CPU heatsink output grill, USB Port, VGA connector, 1Gb LAN, PCMCIA Slot with SD card reader below it.

Right Side

Right side view of X61 on top of X61s (view large image)

Left to right we have the mini 4 pin firewire port, 2 USB connectors, headphone/mic jacks, HD access panel, 56k modem jack, power plug, and Kensington lock port.

Back

(view large image)

One really wide battery

Keyboard and Touchpoint

Keyboard view of X61s and X61 (view large image)

The most surprising thing about the 12” X series laptops is it has a “full-size” keyboard. The primary letters, numbers, and function keys are all the same size as the larger 14” and 15” models, with only the outer keys reduced in size. This gives you a comfortable typing surface, that once you get used to the odd size outer keys, becomes a pleasure to type on. Build quality is 2^nd to none, and it shows with the very precise quiet clicks that each key press gives as feedback.

The touchpad or lack thereof will probably come as a shock to most users seeing only the red cap of the ThinkPad Touchpoint. To save space the X61 omits the touchpad system in favor of a touchpoint. I never really used the Touchpoint on my T60, falling back to the touchpad on almost all occasions. Even so I found transitioning to the Touchpoint to be painless, and I even found myself using it on my T60 without realizing it. The only problem that did come up is occasionally the pointer would start to drift without any input from me. I had to tap the Touchpoint a bit to make it stop. This may be a result of the fine sensitivity I had it set to, but it was hard to duplicate the problem enough to pinpoint the cause.

Screen

The screen lacks defined blacks and good contrast. Vertical viewing angles are not that good -- quickly inverting colors at the slightest change of angle from being perpendicular to the screen. Since this laptop will be close to you during normal use, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I found the brightness of the screen to be pleasant typing indoors, although it would be quickly washed out outside in the sun. For normal use inside, my comfortable viewing level was six or seven notches down from the max of 15.

(view large image)

Protection from the display cover is very good, requiring a ton of pressure before you start seeing any ripples on the screen. The hinges are strong, but they don’t feel as tight as other ThinkPad models. Normally it requires two hands to open up the display of a ThinkPad, but the X61 only requires one. Given that the hinges are so much smaller on this model, it could be that they have a much smaller friction surface.

The screen on my X61 had no defects like dead pixels or backlight leakage.

Speakers

The speakers inside the X61 are very weak, and I would have to suggest wearing headphones for watching movies. For better speaker performance, the optional X6 base provides much better sound quality. The differences between the 2 systems are pretty amazing. Playing music outside of the dock sounds like headphones with the volume cranked, then when docked it sounded like a boom box.

Performance

The X61 is very impressive when it comes to raw power in such a small package. As the following results show, it provided some very respectable benchmarks. Overall I think the 7200rpm hard drive provided the biggest benefit, giving it instantaneous load times. Windows Vista startup time from the moment I pressed the power button to no activity on the desktop was 46 seconds.

PCMark05 System Results

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

 

Super Pi Comparison Results

Notebook	Time
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

 

Battery Life

I found the battery life to net between four to five hours of use on the 8-cell extended battery. With Vista the system likes to occasionally go wild in the background almost pegging the processor, eating up precious power from the battery at times. I also had problems with the ThinkPad power management software competing against Vista's power management settings. After every reboot settings such as HD spindown, standby, LCD shutdown, etc. were all changed back to the default Vista settings. Even though I had the Vista and ThinkPad settings both set to “Never” for every power option, it still returned to 5-10 minute intervals after every reboot. I found myself returning from a coffee break to the computer shutting itself down, only to have to spend another minute powering it back up. Compared to Windows XP, Vista has been horrible in my uses for power management or power efficiency. It was hard to ever have a moment just sitting where the HD didn’t start seeking like crazy, or the CPU going under load wearing the battery down.

When compared to other Lenovo laptops, the X61 recharges its battery extremely fast. I could easily say it was between 30-50% faster than my T60 trying to charge, especially as the battery got to a higher charge level. Around 90% the T60 slows down to about 40-50 minutes left, but the X61 takes 15-20 minutes from this point. Both systems were using their respective extended batteries, which were around the 80Ah capacity.

The power adapter is 65w model, measuring 4.134” x 1.709” x 1.138” and 8 oz in weight.  This was small enough to not add any real bulk to my carrying case, a great pair to the X61.

Heat and Noise

Heat output from the laptop is more than you would expect from such a small machine. Unless idle, the laptop usually had its fan spinning at a low speed outputting a fair amount of heat. Fan noise was minimal though, so when its one you may not notice it.

The palm rest was also another heat source, with both wireless cards mounted under the right side. After being powered on for 30-40 minutes, the right side gets pretty warm. With a room temperature of 76F, the right side of the palm rest was measuring 97F, with the rest of the laptop around 90F. If you were typing for a couple of hours, your wrist may start feeling some discomfort from the heat.

Wireless

This X61 was equipped with the Intel 4965AGN, and reception through the laptop was above average. The Atheros alternative (ThinkPad 11a/b/g) which I have in my T60 did manage to pull in wireless networks that the X61 could not see, and may be a better option if you are customizing it on the Lenovo website yourself.

I wasn’t able to fully test the built-in Verizon wireless WWAN card since I don’t have that service, but I did check its reception in my house. Usually cell phones barely work and cutout frequently. The X61’s antenna saw a 30% signal, and didn’t seem to change if the antenna was fully seated, or extended all the way.

Conclusion

I found the ThinkPad X61 to be a fantastic alternative to my larger 15” T60 in situations that I didn’t want to lug around the heavier machine. It had all the grunt of the much larger machine, but inside a much smaller package. I was also surprised by how easy it was to upgrade the ram in the X61, by removing a access panel on the bottom of the laptop. This is the only ThinkPad that doesn’t require you to remove the palm rest for this upgrade. Besides the screen, the only qualms I had with this laptop related back to Vista. For the ultimate travel machine, I personally would install XP Professional on it for better battery life.

Pros

• Primary keyboard keys are full-size for easy typing
• Extremely fast ultraportable
• Lightweight, even with the 8 cell battery

Cons

• The display has poor contrast and view angles
• The palm rest gets very warm from the wireless cards mounted below it.
• Touchpoint made mouse drift at random times

 

For all the power this thing has, its got a really long battery life. Pretty impressive, but also pretty expensive.

Great review!

 

Nice review! Powerful, powerful machine, in such a small form factor. Amazing!

 

BTW, the Trackpoint always does recalibrates from time to time!

Hmm, no screen comparison between the X61 and the X61s, even that would have been interesting, especially if the X61s would have been equipped with the more luminant UltraLight panel.

I was told from a Lenovo rep in europe that they had reworked the palm rest for the X61-series, according to the known and reported right side palm rest heat problems of the X60 series. It seems, if I interpret this review correctly, that the Lenovo guy I talked with didn't know what he at all was talking about, or just tried to make positive sounding bla bla for the renewed/reworked Lenovo X-series.

 

I would have to check the hardware manual for the x60, but the fan inside the palmrest might be the new improved part for the x61

 

WoW! This is a well good review!

Great review with great pics!

You could have probably sold this to them for $60 or so!

Kepp up the good work mate!

 

I think the fan is new, but as you said it is only the X61 with WWAN that has it. I think there might be a new went too.

Great review. Thanks!

 

Thanks, great review. Those performance numbers are really impressive. It's amazing to me that the X61 gives a PCMark score essentially the same as the dv6000t (T7400 + Go7400). The 7200 RPM drive is a big help, but the X3100 graphics must be doing okay too.

 

Once I was able to deal with most of the AV and other security stuff running in the background, the machine really started to pep up. Quite taken back by how fast it was in comparison to my desktop and T60.

 

ahh ordered X61s.. i didnt know the thickness differences is so little.

 

With what sort of panel ( a normal one or the UltraLight) was the X61s, you used in the comparison images, equipped?

If I look at this image here...

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/23667.jpg

...it looks like the X61s is much brighter, as far as both X-serie models have been setup nearly to the same brightness number value for the screens.

 

Has anybody found any fixes or at least explanations for Vista's power inefficiency? It really stinks that the next OS just really offers nothing over XP, and in many cases seems much worse.

 

That's the driver recalibrating. I know, it's annoying... You're not supposed to touch the trackpoint when it's doing that though. If you do it will take longer and won't recalibrate well.

 

Only 4 to 5 hours on the 8 cell? What a load of BS. Vista sucks. The X30s, X40s, and X60s would do 7 hours on their 8-cells, just like my Z33 does.

 

Well, this is the regular version, not the s. The CPU draws at least 10W more power than the LV CPU in the s model. I think its pretty reasonable. Its much better than some of the AMD laptops that get under 3.5 hours on the 8 cell battery (MSI MS-1222).

 

Thats why I want to know if anybody's figured out the problems/solutions.

Seems like hard drive seeking and CPU loading at random times must be part of it. Is Vista just indexing or something?

 

Nice review cokefiend

Since you have both, how does the X61 compare to the T60?

 

It feels almost identical in speed once I upgraded my T60 to similar specs. Finally made me pull the trigger on a 7200rpm drive and another gig of ram. Otherwise they are almost identical in speed, one is just like half the weight.

Build quality is top notch, if not better in some areas. Sooo much lighter.

Biggest difference would be the keyboards. The X61 came with the NMB board, while my T60 shipped with the Chicony. The t60 is pretty clacky sounding, while the X61 is a bit softer. That is more of the keyboard lottery than laptop build though.

 

With regard to the power management and consumption, couldn't one simply create a custom profile in the Thinkpad Power Manager since what I found is that the Power Manager will take over after each login/sleep/hibernate/restart.

On my x60s, Vista Business does seem to calm down after about a week or two. During the first few days, Superfetch was using up all of my 2GB RAM, but now there always seems to be around 600MB left uncached after the Superfetch is done.

On power consumption, what I found on my machine is that switching the theme to Vista basic from Aero (w/ transparency turned off) saves approximately 0.5W, while turning on transparency consumes another 0.5W. But this is with the older GMA950, so I have to wonder how the x3100 will perform.

ps. It seems that Superfetch will not be retained in memory after a hibernate on my machine. Suspending to RAM is fine, but after a hibernate the hard disk activity will start to thrash for a few minutes. Is this the norm?

 

Just confirmed the fan bit in the hardware manual

1150 Second Fan
Note: This procedure is only for ThinkPad X61 and X61s models with wireless
WAN.

Using thinkpadfan control, it sounds like 2 fans ramping up when you change fan speeds. So both fans must be controlled on the same circuit, and this works even with both wireless cards disabled. Only problem is with both cards disabled the right side still feels warmer than the left side. My IR gun says left is 89 with the right 95-96

 

When you tested the battery life, what was the screen brightness set at?

 

10/15, about 2/3 up.

 

ah, the days of ultraportables being so much "slower" than their bigger siblings are slowly coming to an end...nice review, and nice pictures. Battery life & performance are incredible for a laptop that portable.

 

I think the battery life is much shorter than I would expect for the 8-cell. My wife has a HP NC4200 and she gets 5-1/2 hours from a 2 years old 6-cell battery. Considering the X61 has a 8-cell battery with almost two years of technology advantage, I would expect at least 7 hours for the 8-cell.
Anyway, I am ordering a X61 with a 4-cell battery for my wife to replace her NC4200, I guess she will be complaining about the batter life if the 4-cell can only last for 2 hours.

 

Lenovo Malaysia offers X61 and X61s in both Vista and XP Pro. But no price tag yet.

Configs are also blur...no details on most items like connectivity.

 

Wait, I don't get it - what's the difference between the x61 and the x61s?

 

The X61s has a Core 2 Duo Low Voltage processor. Its slightly more expensive and less powerful, but its slightly thinner/lighter and offers better battery life.

 

I'm planning to hook this baby up to a larger screen at home (19" or 17") because I don't think I'll be able to tolerate the small screen even when I'm home. Does anyone know if X61 or X61s supports resolutions higher than 1024x768?

 

Is UltraBase the only option to use this machine with an optical drive? $200 seems too much for being just a "connector" to an optical drive..

 

Thanks. from the pictures though, I can't tell the difference between them. Or maybe it's just me.

 

Inevruss: Please refrain from double posting.

The X61 and X61s do not support anything higher than XGA. The X61 tablet (based on the X61s) offers an SXGA screen, but its much more expensive than either of these.
If you meant resolution on an external screen, all three versions of the X61 should be able to run a screen at 1920x1200.

I'm unsure about the UltraBay, but you can definitely buy an external optical drive and hook it up to the X61 using USB.

Its small enough to make almost no difference. In the first thoughts review, Andrew took a comparison picture of the X61 and X61s; it showed the s to be minimally thinner. I think in actual specs, its about .08" thinner. Big difference

 

The external antenna looks like it's a bit of an afterthought. Can you say how it looks and feels? Does it make it difficult to put the unit in a tight fitting laptop bag sleeve? Can it be removed?

It the size/weight difference between the X61 and X61s significant?

Do you have the ultralite version of the X61s?

 

so if the form factor is pretty much identical (to me, anyway), basically the difference is a slower computer in favor of better battery life?

 

And lower heat as well, but yes, thats the gist of it.

 

All of the thinkpad WWAN antennas have looked like that for the past 2 generations. It feels very solid, and the antenna that pulls out feels a heck of a lot more solid than a cellphone antenna. Much thicker and flexible as well. I did not have any super tight fitting sleeves to try with the laptop, but were talking a centimeter at most, would have to be a form fitting leather case not to stretch that much. The antenna is not coming off without a bit of work BUT... if you dont get the WWAN card included, the antenna is not included. If it bugs you that much, just dont opt for this option.

 

Being a Toshiba user looking into the X series for the nex machine a I'm struggling a little bit when comparing the X41/X60s/X60/X61/X61s.

1) Seems as if the X60s are best for battery life, while the X61 are slightly faster, is that correct?

2) The X61s has additional features to save some energy compared to the X61 but I presume these are not supported in any Linux distro.

Is there a reference table for battery life between X60/X61 and computing power?

 

1) I think you mean X61s, but yes.. the "s" model has some of the lower power consumption devices like the low voltage processor and screen to help battery life. It is also slightly slower.

2) Not sure on that, but most of the key power draw items should work fine, like CPU clocking, and dimming the screen should work with proper implementation in the kernel for the intel processor.

 

Is there a widescreen version of this?

 

Unfortunately no. The X61 is only standard.

 

I'm just wondering if the palm rest get warm without the WWAN card activated or installed? I'm very interested in buying this machine, but at the same time, I'm worried about the heat. Also, the battery life is a bit disappointing, but considering the speed of this thing, I may be able to tolerate it. Also, will the ultrabright screen option make it much better?

 

I just got mine delivered 2 days ago with no WWAN option. Making recovery disks took over an hour with a lot of harddrive access. The right palmrest was noticeably warmer than the rest, but it wasn't uncomfortably warm. Enough for you to notice, but nothing more. This was with a 5400rpm drive, though. A 7200rpm drive might make a difference (testing that next).

 

sorry for bringing up an old thread but I noticed one comment in the review about people being comfortable knowing that they sacrificed nothing but only the weight when compared to other thinkpads. I think X61 buyers would've also sacrificed the screen quality, am I wrong? The LCD screen in the review does seem a bit dull when compared to the X61s.

With the new discounts I really wanted an X61 but the heat issues mentioned and the screen quality are the reasons im thinking maybe going with the R61 since it's pretty much the same as the T series (T61) now that both use the same plastic shell and the roll cage.

 

After reading this review again...im thinking off getting a X61 for school

 

the battery life isnt that bad when properly set.
with turbo memory + vista sp1 rc,
screen brightness 50%, indexing - power saver
wireless - medium power saving, + etc
i get 6hours.

 

For X61, if you want to reinstall Vista/XP and you don’t have a portable CD/DVD drive or the Ultrabase, you can use an UBS portable hard drive or flash drive.
http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry

It’s a great way to install a fresh copy of XP/Vista without all the crapware. But make sure you backup all data and drivers. Especially the Lenovo specific drivers.
(I’m waiting to receive my X61 then I’ll try it out and put up an update.)

 

i'm having problem with the wireless connection after i downgraded to win xp. Lenovo refuse to support and wants me to upgrade back to vista before answering any queries.

Other than the wireless connection keeps switching off by itself and i have to reboot, this is one powerful road warrior.

 

Quick Question: What brightness level do most users use on X61? It doesnt seem as bright as my desktop LCD screen. For X61, I have it up at full 15 or 13th level and it's not very comfortable.