Lenovo ThinkPad T60 Review
Overview
Today we bring you the ThinkPad T60 widescreen from Lenovo. After acquiring IBMs PC and laptop production in 2005, Lenovo continues the legacy of one of the longest running and most storied notebook lines, the ThinkPad series. These laptops have always been solid performers and a favorite among the business crowd and power users alike. Weve reviewed the normal T60 in the past, but always eager to get our grubby little hands on the newest tech, we readily agreed to have the best and brightest in Lenovos arsenal on our testing bench. You can see the link here for our review of the normal T60 back in March 2006. This T60 came equipped with a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400, 1GB DDR2 667 RAM, 100GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, dual layer DVD+/-RW drive, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 GPU, and a beautiful 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050.
With the release of the T60 widescreen, will Lenovo rest on the laurels of the famed ThinkPad name, or will this laptop stand on its own two feet and rise to the occasion? Read on to find out!
Design
Portability
Measuring 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.1-1.3" with weight starting at 5.1 lbs, the T60 widescreen packs a lot of computer into a pretty small package. Its less than half an inch fatter than a MacBook Pro, and only a bit deeper, which surprised me. The T60 was easily portable, a lot more so than other laptops weve seen recently. The wide form factor may cause the laptop to not fit in a standard sized laptop bag (such as the generic ThinkPad bags offered as an accessory for other models), so you may want to take that into consideration if purchasing an aftermarket bag.
Case and Design
Remember when your mother told you to never judge a book by its cover? That same adage applies here. Sure, ThinkPads have looked the same since the dawn of time, but this is definitely an instance of function over form. Lenovo packs a lot of computing horsepower into the T60, but its looks are definitely bland and a little dated. Like the Ford Model T, you can get the T60 widescreen in any color as long as its black. I guess the thought here is that when youre sitting in a meeting with your companys board of directors, you dont want blinking LEDs and glowing alien heads adorning your laptop lid; hence the tried and true black chassis reappears time and again.
Like many other ThinkPads before it, the T60 widescreen is built like a tank. It probably has the best hinges of any laptop out there and will survive many a beat down. I can say that out of all the ThinkPads I have owned and used over the years (six now and counting), I have never had a broken hinge or screen. The rest of the laptop feels very solid and nothing flexes under pressure or seems flimsy. Bravo!
Keyboard
Theres 89 normal keys on the T60 widescreen, displayed in 7 rows. The keys are pretty quiet when depressed, emitting a nice chattering sound when pressed rapidly. The keystrokes have great feedback, as do pretty much all ThinkPads Ive dealt with. Not too stiff, not too sloppy; just perfect. I didnt find my fingers feeling strained or tired during my use of the T60, which is sometimes the case with other laptops.
The T60 widescreen also has the standard group of ThinkPad function keys that can be accessed by depressing the Fn key and keys with alternate blue letters on them. These shortcuts include tasks such as locking the laptop, choosing a power scheme, standby, brightness control, and video controls. The complete list is as follows:
| Lenovo T60 Widescreen Keyboard | |
| Number of keys | 89 keys |
| Number of rows | 7 rows |
| Special/Function Keys | Fn+F2: Lock Windows |
Touchpad/UltraNav
It is in this department that the T60 widescreen (and all ThinkPads for that matter) shines. My single favorite feature of the T60, which may sound sad, is the UltraNav TrackPoint, or as veteran ThinkPad users refer to warmly as the eraserhead. Whatever you call it, Im talking about the red rubber mouse pointer nestled between the G, H, B, and N keys. This feature alone is enough for me to keep coming back to ThinkPads year after year. As a user that absolutely *hates* touchpads of any sort, the TrackPoint gives you far increased mousing accuracy and reduces to zero the number of times youre typing a document and your palm accidentally rubs on the touchpad, sending the cursor flying and losing focus of your document window.
Its odd to think that Lenovo is one of the only manufacturers that still does this, yet this seemingly unimportant feature would be enough for me to choose the T60 over another competitor. Navigation is much easier with the eraserhead even when using the T60s touchpad, which is slightly better than the average laptops. Lenovo also includes software that allows you to enable or disable one of the two pointing devices on the fly, which is a nice touch. If youre like me, one of the first things I did with the clean T60 build was disable the touchpad. You also have the option to have both enabled simultaneously for those of you that are a little more indecisive.
Design ContinuedConnectivity Options
The T60 widescreen has most of the ports you would see on the average laptop, except for multimedia ports such as SPDIF, DVI, and a few others. The ThinkPad designers definitely kept the clutter to a minimum, and the result is that the T60s exterior is rather spartan.
Front
On the front of the laptop, you will find a switch to enable/disable wireless connectivity, an IR port for infrared mice and other devices, and a lid latch.
Rear
The rear of the T60 widescreen is almost totally bare, save for the AC power connector and one CPU vent.
Right
The right side of the laptop contains the DVD+/-RW drive and dual USB 2.0 ports.
Left
On the left side of the T60, you will see ports for VGA, V90 modem, Gigabit Ethernet, microphone, headphone, USB 2.0 port, and lastly, a combination Type II card/ExpressCard slot. The ExpressCard is on the top, and there are push in levers to pop cards out.
Heat and Noise
The T60 widescreen runs pretty quietly under normal circumstances. Apparently the chipset code of this laptop was too new for any temperature monitoring software to read. I attempted to use Motherboard Monitor, SpeedFan, and Everest to gather temperature data and not one of them could report any temperatures other than the hard drive and an odd static temperature of 40 degrees C on the CPU. Now, that would be a respectable number, but when I ran dual instances of Prime95 (one on each core), the 40 degree reading did not fluctuate one iota, which is impossible because one of Primes main functions is to heat the processor up as much as possible to see how much punishment it can take.
So, left with an uncertain temperature reading, I had to use The Force a little and as a result my conclusions are probably pretty subjective. Under full Prime load, the temperature of the exhaust pouring out of the side and rear vents was not extremely hot, and I did not report any warm spots on the laptop due to the system testing. The system was fully stable after several hours of Prime testing. The fan noise only increased slightly to deal with the increased temperatures, so there was no turbine-like effect as the CPU fan tried to keep up.
Upgrading and Expansion
Upgrading the T60, as is the case with most other manufacturers, is pretty limited. You can upgrade simple things such as RAM, hard drive, wireless adapter, or ExpressCard. Lenovo has icons impressed into the bottom of the chassis to show you which screws keep what attached. This comes in handy when performing these minor upgrades, but it is still easy to put a screw back in the wrong place since they are all the same diameter, but different lengths.
If you need to perform some maintenance (i.e. replace the LCD or keyboard if they break), you will need to completely disassemble the laptop. This is somewhat more daunting and irritating, as you will need to peel off these small black dots designed to cover screw holes. Good luck getting those to stick again!
FeaturesTechnical Specifications
The Lenovo T60 widescreen is built on Intels Core 2 Duo T7400 dual-core processor. The T7400 runs at a speedy 2.16GHz and comes with 2MB L2 cache per core. The T7400 has a TDP (Thermal Design Power, or maximum thermal output) of 34W and is built on Intels new 65nm mobile process. Lenovo offers the T60 widescreen with several different CPU options ranging from the lowly Core Solo T1300 (1.66GHz) to the top of the line T7600 (2.33GHz).
The T60 sports the Intel 945PM chipset, and is equipped with the 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 PCI-E graphics card. Built on a 90nm process with four pixel shader processors, two vertex shader processors, a core clock of 432MHz and memory speeds at 345MHz, the T60 Widescreen is in the lower end of notebook video cards. Users shouldnt expect an amazing gaming experience, but thats not what the T60 is designed for. Most games though, should be playable at reduced settings.
In the RAM department, the T60 tested for this article was equipped with 1GB of DDR2-667 running in single channel mode. At first I thought this was bizarre since system performance would be lacking in comparison to a dual channel (2 x 512MB) setup. I then realized that with only two total slots for RAM, Lenovo left one open for those customers out there that want to upgrade to 2GB and dont want to be stuck with two 512MB modules that they wouldnt be able to use. Smart thinking on Lenovos part- reduce waste on the customer side and promote additional purchases by the customer.
Our T60 came with a 100GB Hitachi TravelStar 7200RPM 8MB cache SATA hard drive. Hard drive performance seemed to be on par with others weve tested, and operated at an average volume. One cool thing about the T60 widescreen is that Lenovo has implemented an anti-shock mechanism in the hard drive that will make the drive stop spinning momentarily if the system detects any jarring movement. This is an innovative and very helpful feature since it will prevent your hard drive arm from slamming into the platter and causing physical damage.
For audio, the T60 is equipped with a SoundMAX HD Audio processor, like many other ThinkPads. There are two perforated spots above the keyboard for the speakers (one on each side). The sound quality was decent, if not a bit tinny. The volume was not all that loud, but this is a business grade laptop were talking about, not a ghetto blaster.
The default installation of Windows XP Professional was pretty well free of clutter on the desktop, i.e. free ISP trials, etc. What there were a lot of was system tray icons; half of them are Lenovos own programs, but they still extend to almost a quarter of the screen. Thank Microsoft for the ability to hide inactive icons!
Display
The T60s display is very bright and sharp. Native resolution weighs in at 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA+). I used to think that was too high of a resolution for a 15.4 screen, but after using the T60 widescreen for a while I got used to it and was upset when I had to switch back to a non-widescreen T60, with a paltry 1024 x 768 screen. There were some instances where things looked just a bit too small, but they were few and far between. I did notice that to make up for the higher resolution, Lenovo also increased the font size of desktop icons and it bothered my eyes a little. Overall though, I liked the smaller windows and as someone who keeps a lot of icons in the Quick Launch toolbar, having the wider desktop area was definitely a plus.
Optical Drive
According to the Windows Device Manager, the T60 comes equipped with a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4083N optical drive. CD-RW and Dual Layer DVD+/-RW are the supported formats. Noise levels of the drive are pretty close to what you would get from most other drives.
The supported read and write capabilities are as follows:
- Read: 24X CD-ROM/CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD-ROM, 8X DVD+/-R, 4X DVD+/-RW
- Write: 24X CD-R, 4-16X CD-RW, 8X DVD+/-R, 4X DVD+/-RW, 2.4X DL DVD+RW
Wi-Fi
Like many other manufacturers, the T60 widescreen uses Intels PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Wi-Fi card because of its great power efficiency. Wireless connectivity worked great as I effortlessly connected to my wireless network. One neat feature that more and more manufacturers are including these days is an on/off switch on the front of the laptop chassis that allows you to enable or disable the wireless adapter. Bluetooth also was included with the T60, and WWAN (Wireless WAN) is an available option offered through Verizon or Cingular.
It is worth mentioning Lenovos awesome Access Connections software. In the Connection Manager, you are able to create profiles based on your location, so, for example, if you had an account on your corporate wireless network as well as your home, you would no longer need to manually change all of the network information (IP address, WPA or WEP key, etc) every time you were at the office or at home to connect. This is pretty cool stuff here and I know a guy who is in love with this software- each time he uses it hes always compelled to marvel out loud about how great it is.
Battery
There are two battery options for the T60 widescreen: the standard battery is a 5200mAh 6 cell battery operating at 10.8V, with 56.15 watt-hours of capacity. The battery clips into place in the underside of the laptop and is flush against the surface. There is also an extended-life 7800mAh 9 cell battery available that protrudes out of the back of the laptop, providing a nice handle to grab on to when youre moving the T60 around. This 9 cell battery also operates at 10.8V and has 84.24 watt-hours of capacity.
AC Adapter
The T60 widescreens AC adapter is an average sized power brick, and it looks similar to other ThinkPad AC adapters of years past. There is one large difference however, and that is the actual connector is fatter and the tip is now male whereas in previous ThinkPads the end of the cable was female. This is no doubt due to the move to the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors. More power needs more juice! The adapters cords are of decent length, with both exceeding a combined ten feet. Kudos to Lenovo for including an attached piece of Velcro to keep cables nice and tidy. Ive found that the Velcro works better in containing wires than the straps and snaps of other manufacturers.
The T60 Widescreens AC adapter compared to a Nokia 8801.
Biometrics
If you lower your gaze to just below the arrow keys, you will see a small strip, just above the ThinkPad logo (still IBM-branded, by the way). This strip is a biometric fingerprint scanner, which you can associate with your user ID and password. Lenovos included software allows you to scan three different fingers (in case you lose one or two in a lumberjack accident) and save them into a profile.
Speaking from experience, Lenovo has greatly improved this scanner. I used to own a T42 with a biometric scanner, and I would have to swipe my finger an average of 5-6 times every time I logged in because it was unable to read my print. It was actually faster to just type my password in than to bother with the fingerprint scanner. Now, with the T60, first swipe, BAM! Im in. Rarely do I need to try a second time. If for some reason it doesnt accept, a message will flash onscreen telling you to swipe slower or move to the left a little. This is a great security feature and works exceptionally well in a domain environment similar to what youd find in a business.
ThinkLight
Lenovo includes a cool light built into the top of the LCD that shines down onto the keyboard when enabled. This feature would be good for red eye flights or working while someone is sleeping next to you (wife, baby, you fill in the blank). Turn on the light, see the keys. Pretty straightforward but cool nonetheless.
Setup Method
The T60 Widescreen was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to Home/Office Desk with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to Portable/Laptop. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.
Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.
- Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
- Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.
Bapco MobileMark 2005 is the latest version of the premier notebook battery life and performance under battery life metric based on real world applications.
- Office Productivity: The workloads in this category model a mobile professional at a fictitious automobile company. The worker creates documents using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, accesses email, and creates graphics and animation with Photoshop and Flash to include in a multimedia presentation. An Internet browser is used to view presentations. The user also invokes file compression and virus detection in the background.
- DVD Playback: The DVD playback 2005 workload is based on a 1 hours 55 minute movie that BAPCo has created from content provided by BMW. The DVD playback test starts the movie playerapplication, sets up a full screen playback, and the loops over the content on the disk in the DVDplayer. This playback will continue until system shutdown at battery depletion.
3DMark 2001 SE PRO build 3.3.0 measures graphics performance by benchmarking the CPU, memory, and graphics through a series of 21 tests, including simulated games, theoretical tests, DX8 feature tests, and image quality tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
3DMark 2003 build 3.6.0 measures DX9 performance through a series of 3D game based sound, graphics, and CPU tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
3DMark2005 build 1.2.0 is a graphics intensive benchmark best suited for the latest generation of DirectX 9.0 graphics cards. It combines high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, and is the first benchmark to require Pixel Shader 2.0 support, making this a highly stressful 3D benchmark.
PCMark 2005 Advanced build 1.1.0 is the latest update to Futuremark's popular overall system benchmarking program. The 2005 version adds multithreading, DirectX 9, Windows Media Player 10, virus scanning, High Defintion video playback (WMVHD), and a vast number of other tests to its suite. Testing your computer's CPU, RAM, hard drive and graphics card, PCMark05 drives your computer to the max to determine its strengths and weaknesses.
Configurations
| Specifications | Lenovo ThinkPad T60 widescreen | Lenovo ThinkPad T60 | HP Pavilion dv6000t |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 2x2MB L2 Cache, Dual Core) | Intel Core Duo T2500 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, Dual Core) | Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.00 GHz, 2x2MB L2 Cache, Dual Core) |
| Front Side Bus | 667 MHz | 667 MHz | 667MHz |
| Chipset | Intel i945PM | Intel i945PM | Intel i945PM |
| Wireless LAN | Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG w/Bluetooth | Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG w/Bluetooth | Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG |
| LCD | 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT LCD (1680x1050) | 15" SXGA+ TFT LCD (1400x1050) | 15.4" WXGA Glare TFT LCD (1280x800) |
| Hard Drive | 100GB Hitachi TravelStar 7200RPM 8MB Cache SATA150 | 100GB Hitachi 5K100 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA | 120GB Fujitsu 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA |
| Memory | 1GB DDR2 667 PC5400 SDRAM (1 x 1024MB) | 1GB DDR2 667 PC5300 SDRAM (1 x 1GB) in Single-Channel Mode CL4 | 1GB DDR2 667 PC5400 SDRAM (2 x 512MB) in Dual-Channel Mode (5-5-5-15) |
| Graphics | 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 | 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 | 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 |
| Graphics Interface | VGA-out | S-Video/TV-out/VGA-out | VGA-out, S-Video |
| Optical Drive | HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GSA4083N (CD-RW, DVD+/-RW DL) | 8x DVD+/-RW | HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GSA4082N CD-RW, DVD+/-RW DL |
| Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem |
| Ethernet | Intel PRO/1000 PL | 10BASE-T/1000BASE-TX Ethernet | Intel PRO/1000 PL |
| Audio | SoundMAX HD Audio | Intel High Definition Audio (ICH-6) | Conexant HD Audio |
| Audio Interface | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone/line-out with SPDIF support | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone, SPDIF |
| Ports | 3 x USB 2.0 | 3 x USB 2.0 | 3 x USB 2.0 |
| Weight | 5.1 lbs. with 6-cell battery | 6.3 lbs. with 9-cell battery | 6.09 lbs. with 6-cell battery |
| Size (W x D x H) | 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.1-1.3" | 13.2" x 10.6 " x 1.2-1.4" | 14.05" x 10.12 " x 1- 1.69" |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 | Windows XP Media Center Edition |
| Battery | 6-cell 5,200 mAh | 9-cell 7,800 mAh | 6-cell 4,000 mAh |
Bapco SYSmark2004SE
Internet Content Creation
The scores of the T60 widescreen and dv6000t are very close since both benefit from the larger 4MB cache of Intels Core 2 Duo processor, while the normal T60 is slightly behind due mostly to its 2MB cache Core Duo CPU.
Office Productivity
Again, due to the increased cache size, the T60 widescreen and the dv6000t are neck and neck while the T60 lags behind.
Total Score
Once more, the T60 widescreen and the dv6000t turn in about the same performance while the less efficient, older Core Duo based T60 takes third place again.
PCMark05 Advanced
The T60 widescreen ekes out another victory here, but the dv6000t is hot on its heels. The normal T60 just cant keep up with the other Core 2 laptops that benefit from newer CPU, bus and memory architecture. That said, the T60 widescreen gets the win due mostly to its slightly better GPU and faster hard drive.
and the PCMark05 Advanced Overall Score:
We added these tests for a better way to compare dual core systems. Looking at numerous testing methods and results, we found the existing SYSmark2004SE benchmarks to be an excellent choice. The tests are easily performed and repeatable, providing a consistent and simple way to test dual core systems. The three sub-tests below show a noticeable correlation in CPU and memory performance, the two most important aspects of a multi-CPU system.
Bapco SYSmark2004SE
3D Content Creation
"The user renders a 3D model to a bitmap using 3ds max 5.1, while preparing web pages in Dreamweaver MX. Then the user renders a 3D animation in a vector graphics format."
Once more, as with the previous SYSmark benchmarks, the Core 2 Duo based laptops beat the Core Duo T60, but this time around, the T60 widescreen cant better the score of the dv6000t.
2D Content Creation
"The user uses Premiere 6.5 to create a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into Photoshop 7.01, modifies it and saves the results. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using After Effects 5.5."
The dv6000t wins this contest, with the T60 widescreen close behind and the normal T60 lagging. .
Web Publication
"The user extracts content from an archive using WinZip 8.1. Meanwhile, he uses Flash MX to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed using Windows Media Encoder 9 series in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches in Dreamweaver MX and the system is scanned by VirusScan 7.0."
The T60 widescreen storms back after its last two losses, and bests the dv6000t by about 7%. The ordinary T60 rounds out the pack again, a full 15% slower than its widescreen brother.
3D Performance3DMark 2001 SE
The T60 widescreen is the clear victor here, due to its superior Mobility Radeon X1400. Ill bet thats one of the few times youll see the words superior and X1400 in the same sentence (unless its in the connotation Card XXX is far superior to the lowly X1400)!
3DMark 2003
3DMark 05
T60 wins here.
3DMark06
This test bucks the trend a little. The dv6000ts Core 2 Duo no doubt helps it score in the same ballpark as the T60 widescreen, but it just isnt enough to overtake the champ.
Gaming PerformanceFEAR
None of these laptops are a gaming powerhouse, but returned playable framerates for F.E.A.R. The T60 widescreen is just behind the HP dv6000t and the normal T60 trails behind considerably.
Quake 4
The T60 widescreen and dv6000t once again are side by side on this one and the normal T60 cant keep pace.
Battery PerformanceI was pretty pleased with the T60 widescreens battery performance. The efficient Core 2 Duo processor and Intel wireless card helped the laptop consume less power, and therefore allow for longer battery life. Lenovo offers a 9 cell extended life battery as an option, which may be of interest to those of you that want to run this laptop as long as it can handle.
For the purposes of the following tests, I excluded all of the battery performance results of the normal, non-widescreen T60 as they were run with the 9 cell extended life battery, while the tests were run on 6 cell batteries for both the T60 widescreen and the HP dv6000t. The T60 widescreen benefited from its 6 cell battery being rated at 5,200 mAh while the dv6000ts 6 cell battery was only rated at 4,000 mAh.
Overall, I was sufficiently impressed. You can count on between 2.5-3 hours of battery life depending on the task.
Conclusion
Pros:
- Awesome LCD
- TrackPoint!!
- Core 2 Duo CPU
- Solid build quality
- Biometrics
Cons:
- Price
- Bland, somewhat dated styling
- Lack of higher end gaming card
I can unequivocally say that the T60 widescreen kicks some serious ass. I wasnt sure how Id feel about the high resolution on a relatively small screen (15.4) but I was quickly won over. I expected the build quality to be top notch, and I wasnt disappointed. I was happy to see Lenovo offer the Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz, 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache) as my own personal non-widescreen T60 is only Core Duo.
Oh, and did I mention that theres a TrackPoint, the most accurate mousing device outside of an actual mouse? Lastly, the biometrics felt solid, and improved over the last ThinkPad I had.
I do wish the T60 widescreen didnt cost as much as it does, but as is usually the case, you get what you pay for.Some people may not like that the T60 looks so bland, and exactly like every other ThinkPad built in the last 15 years, but I suppose thats part of the charm that comes with one of the most impressive legacies in computing. One other minor quibble I had was that the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 was the best available option in terms of a video card. Granted, this machine is not designed to be a gaming laptop by any stretch of the imagination (think back to that board of directors meeting I mentioned early, and now think what would happen if they caught you playing a few levels of F.E.A.R.). Lenovo could have at least jammed an X1600 in there (hey, Apple did it!). Its just a minor shame considering that everything else inside of the T60 is humming along so well and could give you a nice gaming experience to boot if the video card were more up to snuff.
All in all, I was extremely pleased with the Lenovo T60 widescreen and wouldnt hesitate to recommend it to anyone in the market for, in Lenovos own words, the ultimate business tool.
Availability/Warranty
The Lenovo T60 widescreen is available now at Lenovos website starting at $1154.00 (the configuration reviewed here come in slightly under $2000). A one year warranty is standard, and can be expanded to 5 year onsite, next business day service for an additional $549.
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