Just received my Lenovo Z61m today :D

I have to say that i really like the build quality of this notebook. I've been used to a few Dell and HP consumer notebooks and this is definitely a step way up. I haven't seen the T60 models so i can't compare the quality between the two but i would think they are pretty much the same. The WSXGA+ LCD is pretty bright and looks good to me. It seems to be about as bright as the UltraSharp WSXGA+ i have on my Dell E1505. I just need to upgrade the RAM and hard drive in it and i will be set. Currently I'm using it with 256MB of RAM which is almost unbearable for Windows XP. I have 2 gigs of DDR2-667 to put in it so that will be a night and day difference. I got it for under $1100 before tax and it has a T2500 and X1400 128MB in it so I'm satisfied with my purchase i think. Can anyone tell me if the optical drive is easily upgradeable to a DVD-RW burner off Newegg? Since It's an UltraBay device it seems to just slide right out but are there any size differences? The Z61m doesn't use the thinner optical drives like the T60 so I'm guessing that there shouldn't be. The Z61m also isn't as heavy as i thought it would be. It's a little heavier then some of the other 15.4" business notebooks but It's certainly not the brick i was expecting. The only thing i dislike is that the fingerprint reader seems to take several swipes before it reads my fingerprint correctly when logging in. I may just need to practice doing it some more or maybe redo the setup scan to get a better match though.

 

Congrats on the new Z71m! A review w/ pictures would be awesome.

256mb ram must be horrible, I could barely put up with 512mb before I upgraded to 2gb.

Did you get it with a 7200 RPM HD?

 

No, i bought it with the 40GB 5400rpm because the cost to upgrade was more then buying a new drive aftermarket.

 

The optical drive is proprietary and usually must be bought from lenovo. Others will not fit/work into the ultrabay. Be sure to get the supermultiburner with 8X speed, the older slower ones are only 2x and have burn errors.

Expect to pay about $250. That's one reason to get a thinkpad with a multiburner in the first place.

 

The Zs are more rigid than the Ts. The Z61m I saw did not use the super slim drives of the T models.

 

I'd recommend setting it up with an external dvd burner, if u wont be buring dvds while on the road.
Probably better dvd burning too with an external burner.

 

I may decide and just do that since i still have a NEC 3550A DVD burner from my desktop i parted out and sold. My Z61m has a DVD-ROM in it at the moment. I'm going to check to see if i can't upgrade the optical drive in it though because the Z series don't use the slim drives like the T60 and so i don't think it looks proprietary. I'll see if i can't swap out my burner in my E1505.

 

I just took out the Sony DVD-RW in my E1505 and compared it to the DVD-R in my Z61m and they are exactly the same size. I see no reason why you can't buy most any aftermarket slimline DVD-RW from Newegg and it work.

 

Oh the Z61t uses the same optical as the T series.

Check the tabook to see which optical the Z61m uses, could be the same as the R series. It's a bigger heavier optical, and costs about $100 less (smaller costs more because of the extra manufacturing/engineering challenges and expense to build small)

 

Agreed... i've seen the heat associated with burning DVDs kill a number of laptops.
Burning many dvd's in a laptop probably isn't a great idea.

 

I somewhat doubt there is even a remote chance that me burning DVD's is going to burn up my Z61m. Something like that would definitely be an extremely rare occasion because i haven't seen anyone complaining about burning up their laptop here on the board.