Review of $225 t60 from Newegg

After purchasing his and her laptops for the wife and I (x120e and x220), we were in the market for a durable machine the kids could knock around. I was also looking for a download machine that the other computer could stream music and movies off of. I had been eyeing a recertified t60 for a few weeks, so when newegg put it on sale for $225, I jumped on it.

Out of the box
Right away I was awestruck with how clean and well-built the laptop was. The entire thing was brand new looking. The lid was absolutely perfect. I would be shocked if the lid was not actually new. The keyboard was spotless as well, with the only sign of any wear and tear being the “designed for XP” sticker that looked shabby. In one word: spotless.

Screen
The 15" screen looked like it was the weak link when I fired it up. It was dim and a little washed-out looking. After I installed the latest Windows 7 drivers and found a bios setting to make the LCD brighter, the weak link turned into strength. Although the resolution (1024x768) is not great, it is nice screen to look at and words and images are sharp. It’s perfect for the kids, who primarily play flash games and watch YouTube videos. For me, it also makes a nice change of pace from the tiny screens of the x120e and x220.

Wireless
The t60’s wireless card blows away the wireless card of our x120e and also beats the card on the x220. Benchmarking and informal tests confirm this. I routinely go to bed downloading torrents at 3MB per second. Also 1080p and 720p YouTube videos have no problem streaming to the t60. It has made for the perfect download machine.

Trackpoint and trackpad
The Ultranav driver has several issues with the t60. The left click trackpoint has issues and the trackpoint in general is buggy as hell in Chrome and Windows Explorer. Luckily this is easily addressed by using the default windows mouse driver. I lose the scroll function on the center trackpoint button, but to me that’s not a big deal. The trackpad is awesome. It’s small, but deadly accurate and the buttons have a great feel to them.

Keyboard
Better than the x220 and x120e, both of which I thought were great.

Battery
The battery that came with my t60 was brand new. After a month and half of use the battery has less than 30 charges on it. With web browsing, screen brightness set at 5 of 7 and power manager set at power saver, I get about 4:15 on a full charge. With those settings power manager is reading about 12W of power usage.

Performance
With the 500GB Momentus XT and 4GB of RAM (only 3GB can be used by the system) I threw in, benchmarks prove the t60 to be at about the same level as my x120e. In PassMark, the t60 bested the x120e with a score of 549. This score would be even higher with an XP installation, but I prefer Windows 7. The t60 also beat my x120e in wPrime. In PCMark 07 the t60 fell about 500 points short of the x120e. In 3Dmark 06 the x120e kicks the crap out of the t60, which scores a measly 272. However, the t60 plays Counter Strike flawlessly and Half Life 2 and Portal on low/medium settings.

Conclusion
When adding the Momentus XT ($90) and 4GB of RAM ($40), I spent about $350 on my t60. In my eyes, this is an absolute steal. It has fulfilled my needs and then some. Truth is when I reached for a machine, I generally pick the t60 over my x120e and the x220.

My t60: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246162

 

Nice review.

 

Thanks a lot for the review. I know Newegg sells a lot of refurbs. Care to provide a link to the exact one you purchased?

 

Newegg.com - Recertified: ThinkPad T Series T60 Notebook Intel Core Duo T2400(1.83GHz) 15" 1GB Memory DDR2 60GB HDD 5400rpm DVD/CD-RW Combo W/Docking Station

 

the fact that it has a 15 inch LCD makes a good candidate for the UXGA or SXGA+ LCD upgrade.

 

Thanks a lot for the newegg link, I'm intrigued.

 

Do you know who refurbished it? If it is IBM/Lenovo then it would be good..

 

The T60 retailed at $2,799 in 2006. Here's the original NBR review. Lenovo ThinkPad T60 Review (pics, specs)

Not a bad notebook, now I'm very interested.

Edit: It's a 32-bit processor... :\

 

Of course that was a top end T60p with the UXGA FlexView LCD and V5200 GPU. It was a lot more than your typical T60. I'd say $1,200 was a better starting point for a low end T60 when it was released.

 

well the t60 can only do 3 gigs ram max. The 32 bit processor is not a big deal.

 

it's recertified, not refurbished.   it's likely a stack of open-box systems that were returned for various reasons, then checked out by newegg and put up for sale.   i highly doubt any parts were replaced on these.

since the GM945 chipset is limited to 3GB max addressable memory, having a 64-bit processor would be of limited benefit in this system.   the processor can be swapped if desired but there's no getting around the 3GB limit.

 

Hrm good catch erik

T60 should be a PGA processor and you can go to any Socket M Core 2 Duo..T7200 is the best deal without spending a boat load of money.

 

According to a slip of paper that came with the laptop, my t60 was recertified by IBM/Lenovo. I have no idea what that actually means.

 

And it comes with a docking station at that price? A great deal indeed.

 

Docks from _60 age weren't very expensive to begin with. Now seeing if anyone is selling an x61_ from that age..

 

Yes, and it was spotless as well. Keep it hooked up to an extra monitor in my office.

 

all very impressive. The T60 is one of my favourite thinkpads model to date (The core duo and core 2 duo still perform strongly), the 14.1 inch 4:3 T61 with the SXGA+ and Intel GPU is also my favourite.... usability and quality.... they are tough as nails.



This is what my friend did to my T60, he tripped over a vga wire after he done his presentation, and the laptop flew across the room with the vga cable still attached. Apparently the Thinkpad hit the wall and cracked the wall a bit.... But the laptop lived to tell the tale another day minus the VGA out, part of the CFRP casing and the magnesium alloy frame. I am impressed and this reinforces my deep respect for Thinkpads.

 

Thanks erik.
Does anyone know if the T2500 can handle modern flash well enough?

 

It says "Docking station included". Any more comments? I imagine you could easily turn it into a desktop computer for web surfing, downloading, watching videos and so on.

@OP, great review. I think a lot of people don't realize this laptop would be fine for pretty much any common task. However, I think its maybe not directly comparable to the X series, since they are a bit smaller and have a different design constraints.

Overall from your review, its a great buy for that price.

 

I can stream 1080p YouTube videos. Performance monitor shows CPU usage between 60 to 80 percent, with two tabs open in Chrome. Obviously, the great wireless card plays a huge roll in this. It also plays my own 1080p home videos. As a matter of fact, I have edited quick 1080p movies with the t60 using the Windows Live movie editor.

 

Alright I'm getting one. Thanks a lot!

 

Please keep in mind that I have the Momentus XT and 4GB of RAM. Even though the system only uses 3GB of the RAM, I have gotten a decent boost with the 2 2GB sticks. I don't know the technical reason, but it's noticeable.

 

The T5500 in my R60e handles flash just fine.

 

My sister still uses her notebook with a Core Duo T2350 1.8GHz processor and that copes with modern flash fine since she's normally watching online video streams all the time so most likely the T2500 should be able to cope too.

 

Ok thanks guys. @OP; I already found a 4GB kit and a HDD that would work from Newegg. Just waiting for pay day and hope the deal will still be there (and in stock).

 

Ya my T60's T2400 handles Flash just fine...though it Flash.