My Z60t story-some questions and information from sales rep

Well, I too have been waiting for my z60t but called again today, and apparently it finished final configuration yesterday and a tracking number should be issued soon.

I just got off the phone with a representative and his reason for the delay in shipping the models was that the chip provided by Intel was not compatible or up to standards for IBM, so they sent all of them back and just now received the replacements from Intel. I sat there grinning the whole type at such a story, but hey, it could happen. I hope he is right about my notebook showing a tracking number sometime soon.

My question being, is the 1.4 Celeron M comparable to the pentium m 1.7. Obviously there will be difference in speed just because of the clock difference, and I am aware of the lack of the power saving technology, but will it still work well?
I am planning on adding 1 gig of ram to the stock 256, and will mostly just surf the internet and use it for university work. The problem is I am usually power hungry, and even if I'm not going to use a system to the fullest I still like having good system. I picked this model up because after the $100 rebate I should get the system at about 800 shipped, and this is the best deal I could find on a portable, widescreen, and IBM quality notebook. If anyone knows anything about battery life with the celeron m and 4 cell, could you let me know. Here is my config:

1 SYS.2511EH CONFIGURED SYSTEM
02/24/06 $878.20 $878.20
1 2511EHU LENOVO THINKPAD Z60T 2511 - CELERON M 360 1.4 GHZ - 14" TFT
1 40Y6792 CTO 4 CELL 2.6 AH LI-ION BATTERY
1 40Y7031 LENOVO THINKPAD 11A/B/G WIRELESS LAN MINI-PCI EXPRESS ADAPTER - NETWORK ADAPTER
1 40Y7900 MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION - LICENSE AND MEDIA
1 40Y8641 CTO CD-RW/DVD-ROM COMBO V ULTRABAY SLIM
1 41N2983 LENOVO THINKCENTRE HARD DRIVE - 60 GB - SATA-150
1 73P3852 LENOVO THINKPAD MEMORY - 256 MB - SO DIMM 200-PIN - DDR II


Essentially I am looking for you guys to instill some confidence in me that this unit will work for Word, Powerpoint, internet, and do it well. At home I do all of my work in my 20" intel iMac, and this thing screams through everything so I just want something more portable than my previous 15" powerbook . I will post up my impressions if I do magically get this system sometime next week.



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Alright, well my z60t finally came today. I changed my order and picked up one of the available, in stock ready to ship 2513-w18 models.Specs are as follows:

1.86 Pentium M
40Gig HD
1 gig Ram
CDRW/DVD
Intel GMA 900
7 cell battery


As I heard the UPS guy walking up the stairs I ran to the door and held it open waiting for him to make that final step. Finally I had the 11.50lb package in my hands and able to get back into doing some research work for school.

So I ripped the box open and found the packaging to be very minimal, which I definitely like. Everything that I need was there, only had to open up a few wrappings and my notebook. Plugged in the 7 cell battery and plugged it in.

Weight:

Not bad at all, 5.1 lbs sounds like about right. The 7 cell battery really is adding some bulk to the unit, and while using the system in my lap or carrying it around the center of gravity is definitely shifted towards the back because of the battery. Definitely not something you would call "heavy" but noticeable. Carrying the laptop around in my Crumpler Hee-Goer was nimble. I was strutting around the library like a champ.

Design:

Anyone who describes the design of a Thinkpad as being dull hasn't seen one sitting on a table by itself from a distance. As you walk up and see the thin, flat black you are no doubt intrigued. With iBooks, Powerbooks, and Dells rampant at the University it is refreshing to see a different design. Having the system just one night, people were walking by staring at the mysterious black unit. One guy even stood behind me while using it just checking out the system.

I'm a die hard widescreen man. After using a 2005fpw and 2405fpw, 15" powerbook, and now 20" iMac I've been spoiled in using windows side by side. Now that I wanted another light laptop, I was instantly sold on the shape.

This is a flat black unit, and my first thinkpad, and without a doubt the system is beautiful. The 14" widescreen is a perfect portable yet usable system. Had the 4 cell battery provided adequate battery time, the system externally would have looked flawless.

I have, however, noticed one minor issue on the notebook. When closing the lid, the left side doesn't seem to snap into place like the right side. Pressing down will cause some movement up and down. I am not sure if this is the design or not, just something I noticed when carrying it around.

Casing outside of the display is just plain tough. I just tried jamming my fingers into the back to try and create any sort of ripple, and could not produce any. Definitely nice, althought I doubt the screen will ever face that kind of abuse.

Display:

The resolution is definitely good for the size of screen. I always prefer having the highest resolution possible, and am willing to trade off smaller fonts in order to have more on the screen but this will definitely work.

Brightness is a mixed situation. Earlier in the day, when there was more ambient light in my surroundings, the screen was pretty good, with some difficulty in viewing if not at the proper angle. I found myself having to adjust my head or tilt the screen every once in a while. However, as night fell, the screen was excellent. At the highest setting, brightness is definitely perfect.

I wish, though, that there were more intermediate levels for brightness. Coming from a 15" powerbook I had who knows, maybe 20 different levels that I could adjust to my likings.

Performance:

With the 1 gig of Ram, and 1.86 Pentium M I am having no problems doing anything at all. Word starts up instantly, web browsing is done with ease. This system can definitely handle all tasks, except....

Games. Well, I love to get a few rounds of Counterstrike: Source in and I spent many nights hoping for a miracle that it would run on the integrated graphics. After trying it out, it was just absolutely terrible. Way too choppy to even bother with.

I went ahead and downloaded the older Counterstrike 1.6, and that was handled with ease. FPS was between 60-70 at all times. Impressive, but the graphics of the game imo just are not even worth bothering with.

Battery life:

With the 7 cell battery I am getting about 3 and 1/2 hours of battery life, with one notch off the brightness and off and on browsing. Wifi is always on, as I see no reason for even commenting on battery life with this off.

Temperature:

System is very cool, especially compared to my powerbook. Temperatures right at 40 when working with the notebook, running clocked down at 800mhz.

Thinklight:

I just remembered about this option so I tried it out, and feel it would have been better left out. It sounds great, I love light on my keyboards, especially backlit keys but this is just some very dull, orange glow at the top of the screen. Absolutely useless.

Overall:

This is an excellent laptop. Handles everything great, with the exception of games. I'm more of a power user, and prefer higher resolutions so I am going to try out a T42 with SXGA and Radeon 9600. I am hoping that will quench my gaming needs when I need them.

Pricing of the system is decent, $1299. With tax you are right around 1400, so it is not cheap but not too expensive either. If it had a dedicated graphics card, without a doubt it would be worth it.

Having said that, I am waiting for a T42 Refurb that I found for $1000. That is going to save a couple of hundred, and am hoping it will be able to handle some games and appreciate the higher resolution.

 

Well, it sounds like you just want a notebook as an extension to your faster desktop computer (Apple) and if you're on a budget then I'm like you and would rather use the money towards good build and sacrifice a bit on the processor. The Celeron M has a slower FSB (400MHz compared to 533MHz) and less processor memory cache than the Pentium M, and a slower clock speed in your case. Now, RAM should never be underestimated and adding 1GB will definitely help you and you should go ahead with that or you'll be rather unhappy with performance with 256MB (okay, very unhappy). But as long as you upgrade the amount of RAM, I believe for your needs the performance will be fine -- I use an X41 with a Pentium M ULV processor @ 1.5GHz so it's not a whole lot different performance wise to what you're getting and it works just fine for my basic needs, but certainly if I want to do anything demanding the X41 is not the choice -- leave that to a desktop or maybe a large 17-inch souped up notebook if you have capacity to afford two machines (one for mobility, one for performance).

do let us know how it works out!

 

The only game that I may play is a game or two of Pro Evo 5. Would this system handle it?

 

my only experience with a Celeron is on a desktop - it dragged in even navigating Windows.

 

Heh, well I hope that was the last gen of celerons and these new celeron m's can perform decently well.

 

Celeron M is actually just like an older Banias Pentium M, without the speedstepping. It shouldn't suck.

 

Looks like this might have just been another story by the rep. No tracking number after he said there would be one, and my status changed from Packing to now "2-4 Weeks"

 

Alright, well I had cancelled that Celeron M and placed an order for the in stock, buy today, ship today model with:

1.86 Pentium M
1 Gig Ram
40gig HD
XPP
7 cell battery

Cost a couple of hundred more, but this sounds like a much meaner system. And it shows as having shipped today, so if I am lucky I will have it by the weekend. I'll come back with impressions once it arrives.

 

Look forward to the review...hopefully the shipping date does end up being right for you!

 

Shipped one day too late. ETA next monday, wish they had saturday delivery.

 

Review above.