New T61 Thoughts

Since I've been here for a month and a half and have read about and talked about the T61 to death I thought it would be only fitting to add some thoughts now that I actually have the machine. I've had it for about a day to play around with now.

General:

I have a 15.4" T61 WSXGA+ T7500

My 2GB RAM install went very smoothly. The install directions form the manual were very straight forward. The labeling of what screws you need to take out to access what is nice. The RAM I pulled out was a 512MB stick made by Hynix.

It only took 2 days to get from Hong Kong to where I live in California which is impressive.

Purchased 6/25, Shipped 7/8, Arrived 7/10.

I have the Alps keyboard and LG screen.

The look of the entire laptop is very nice. The paint used on the lid has a nice soft texture. Some people described it as "metal" like but I don't think that describes it at all. It's like soft but hard plastic.

The screen is very bright and vibrant. It runs circles around my 2 year old ASUS laptop in screen quality. It does, however have a small bit of screen sparkle going on. I think with matte screens a little bit of sparkle is unavoidable. It is barely noticeable however, unlike the screen on my ASUS.

The single latch lid open is a bad idea. There is one latch controlling two holds for the screen. The problem is that this latch does not have enough spring to it. It also feels like it has a fair amount of friction going on with it. It would have been a lot nice if it were springier. Not a big deal though.

The batteries feet don't help support the laptop. This works well for me since I mostly use it on AC power. My ASUS on the contrary has rubber feet on the battery and it falls forward when the battery is not inserted.

The weight distribution is very back heavy even without the battery. This isn't a big deal but it's a good thing to make note of.

My wireless reception is very good. Better than my old Centrino 2915ABG. But only by a slightly significant margin.

The lid protecting the exrpesscard slot is much nicer than the stupid plastic inserts on my ASUS.

This laptop is dead quiet. I had to hold it up to my ear when I first turned it on to make sure the fans weren't dead or something. If you stress it, the fan is barely audible. Otherwise I can't hear it at all. It's miles ahead of my ASUS in quietness.

The green indicator lights are nice and subtle but I can't help wishing they were different colors for easier identification.

The wireless on-off switch is very useful.

I don't know how some people can put up with the default Vista install. OMG is it bloated. 88 processes? WTF? By comparison my slimmed down Vista builds have about 40 running and XP about 20. The system tray in the default Vista install is a mile long. It's all getting nuked tomorrow morning when I stick in the new hard drive. Going back to XP on it will be a breath of fresh air.

The DVD-RW is very tight. It's impressive. Many optical drives will have very loose and wobbly trays but the DVD-RW on the T61 feels tight compared to my ASUS and many other laptops I've handled.

The palm rests flex a little bit. It's annoying to think that they flex but in use it doesn't bother me at all. In constrast my ASUS has NO flex whatsoever. The T61 keyboard thankfully has no flex though.

I really like the keyboard (Alps) on it. To anyone who is worried about what keyboard they get: don't. Any of the keyboards that come with it are miles ahead of the consumer competition. Likely only the Thinkpad keyboard nazis^H^H^H^H^H^H aficionados will be able to tell the difference.

It gets hot in the back left primarily. Everything else stays relatively cool. More than cool enough to enjoy on your lap.

I love the trackpoint. I had never used one before and now I love it.

The volume keys are very nice to have accessible if you're like me and you use headphones which don't have a built in volume control.

The speakers aren't as bad as I thought they would be. They still suck along with all laptop built in speakers.

I learned that F1 brings up the BIOS the hard way--by frantically hitting the function keys at boot. F12 is a nice feature to bring up a boot menu as well if you're like me and you keep your hard drive as first boot device but may sometimes need to boot from CD.

Unlike many "carbon" lids you will find on HP and ASUS laptops, the T61 lid does not show fingerprints.

The screen cable should not be an exposed ribbon it should be routed through a hinge. I hope Lenovo gets this right in the future. Flimsy exposed cables = not good. It's not a big deal, just hope something sharp doesn't get near it.

The Centrino Pro sticker is ugly. Pink on white? What was intel on?

The 60GB 5400RPM HDD I pulled is made by Fujitsu.

I think that's about it. Phew. If I think of anything else I'll add it.

 

Very thorough review, thanks!

 

Nice to remember what my T61 first looked like to me.
Now if I can only get it back from repair (going on 4th week).

 

Thanks for a great review. Are you able to post any pictures?

Also, what do you think of the viewing angles on the screen?

I'm close to buying a very similar machine.

 

(note to self: never buy an asus)

 

I owned an ASUS several years ago with AMD processor, it running mighty hot most of the time but it was still a pretty good machine.

 

I have to admit my ASUS is a nice machine and I think ASUS is going mostly glossy so their current screens are probably much better in terms of quality. Also the general quality of LCDs has increased in two years.

About the viewing angels: I find that the viewing angles are the same as my ASUS machine. They seem about the same for many matte laptop LCD screens currently on the market. In my experience, unless you're talking about different technologies, the viewing angles are going to be roughly the same.

I thought about taking pictures, but there are many pictures floating around of the 15.4". They look exactly like mine lol.

I also can't help but wish the screen felt more secure closing. It is very secure once closed but since the springiness of the hinge sucks, it feels very clumsy when it closes. In comparison my ASUS has a very nice snap that lets me know it has clicked in place. The T61 is more of a clumsy clunk.

Also the hinges are very nice and tight. I don't know how they'll hold up over time but right now at least I definitely need to hold the laptop in order to open the screen.

 

On the bottom? How hot?
BTW, great review!

 

Nice review, now I have more of a idea of what to expect when mine gets here. I envy your fast shipping, mine seems like it's going to take 3-4 days to get here (Las Vegas).

 

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

I was hoping you could post a picture or two of the screen. The only user-generated T61 15.4" pictures I've seen are of the WXGA screen.

 

I tried taking pictures of the screen but they don't come out well. I'm not sure what they would tell you anyway. The screen is bright and I'm guessing it's 220 nits. My ASUS screen is 180 nits. There's a definite difference between their brightnesses. The screen represents colors well. From what I've seen of the WXGA screens, it looks very similar. If there's any specific difference you want me to name I can try but my camera couldn't tell you anything. It's a cheap point and shoot and the brightness you see is more dependent on what it decides to set the exposure to rather than perceived brightness. It also is horrible at showing details on the screen.

I don't know why some people don't like the screen. It seems like a very good screen. Were it glossy or flexview it would be better, but it's not. I think for a screen of its type and technology it is good. If sony ECOBRITE screens were matte instead of glossy they would look very similar to the LG screen on my T61. I've looked at many matte laptop screens in stores and this is one of the best I've seen. Of course you can't compare it to glossy, flexview, or any other different technology. It is significantly brighter and more vibrant than a T60 I happened pass in a big box shop.

I still can't help but cringe at the default vista install. I have to admit the thinkvantage suite has some nice utilities in it for managing the battery and showing access points. I definitely would not run an X3100 in Vista though. As soon as a window goes off of the screen that window becomes more jerky. I'm guessing it's due to the X3100 in Vista but it might also be present in XP. I'll have to check. I think this is a Vista problem more than anything though and may not be related to the x3100.

Also, the media card reader is RICOH and as I recall with my ASUS' built in RICOH media card reader, drivers are not available for linux. That was a year ago, though, so I could be wrong.

Also I have used Vista now with 512MB, 1GB and 2GB. I can say without a doubt in my mind that the minimum RAM you should run Vista with is 1GB. I would recommend 2GB. Anything past seems to have little benefit. 512MB under Vista is so painfully slow I can't describe it. It felt like my soul was melting. It felt like Windows XP on 64MB of RAM. The difference from 1GB to 2GB is noticeable but slight. The difference between 512MB and 1GB is night and day.

I can say now that the black lid shows dust and particles very prominently. For good or bad. Everything stands out on the jet black surface except grease/fingerprints.

Today I am actually more impressed with the speakers than I was. They do not get loud. They get loud enough to the point where you can hear comfortably. Some speakers will allow you to crank it up and get distortion but the speakers seem to stop right before that point. A quiet audio source will sound quiet. I'm listening to one of the included songs in WMP11 and the audio source is loud, clear and comfortable at maximum volume. The volume on the laptop will definitely not make up for quiet audio sources.

 

thanks for your thoughts

 

Agreed! I believe Lenovo calls it a one handed opening latch, but opening with one hand is pretty difficult due to the way the latch is designed, and the stiffness of the hinges. Don't get me wrong, I love the sturdiness of the hinges, but it's definitely a two-handed task to open this screen.

I'll try to get some pics taken of my machine if xnviews is not able to.


-DT

 

I havent tried running vista on 512, but with 1GB, running vista(vista basic at the time) with the factory preload would make you grow grey hairs. After i disabled a few of the thinkvantage goodies it ran fairly smooth. The addition of an additional gig of ram made the difference between night and day.

 

Here are a few pics of my 15.4 T61. Apologies for the poor quality!



It's a Chicony




Media Card Slot


Love the audio jacks on the side!






6-Cell

 

Great pictures! Thanks!

 

I can attest, that is what it looks like lol. By the way your battery is 6 cell and not 4 cell as you noted. The 14.1" are 4 cell and the 15.4" are 6 cell when you're talking about batteries that don't stick out.

If anyone is curious, I just made a custom XP SP2 install for my T61 is that is 222MB in size . It's a beautiful thing.

 

Wow. Imagine thinking the whole time you only had a 4-cell battery, only to find out you had 2 more babies in there. Simply heaven.

 

I also want to say that the trackpoint and keyboard are a pleasure to use. I'm typing this on my ASUS laptop and the difference in quality is night and day. The T61 wins hands down. I also love the trackpoint, but I already mentioned that. Hard drive install went well and was very easy if I didn't mention it already.

 

Can anyone help explain why I might want the optional Thinkpad wireless USB adapter if I already have the Intel Wireless Link 4965AGN.
Thanks

 

If I am ordering the cheaper WXGA TFT 15.4" screen does it make any difference ordering the NVidia Quadro NVS 140M (128MB) graphics card vs Intel GMA x3100 GM965 w/WWAN?

By the way what is the WWAN?
Thanks

 

I found the answer, I believe to the wireless USB adapter question. It's not really an option. You need it to go wireless.