ThinkPad T61 Pics and some Benches

/seconds sp00n's request

 

Yar killin' me, Andrew. So anxious for that review... Oh the humanity, you be killin me!

 

haha my finger is on the trigger on this one... I just need word on the battery depending what that is, then my order is going in.

 

3 hours 41 minutes with the 6-cell under "normal usage"

 

That's plenty

 

It's not bad but also not good, so-so. I wish Lenovo would allow for a 9 cell instead of a 7. Assuming one gets the 7 cell, it would bump it up to about 4 hours and 20 minutes.

 

Yes, it is attached

 

thanks, I got the seven cell, and I'm happy with that time, thanks again

 

That's with the onboard Intel graphics. So with the Quadro we would only get around 2:30

We should have a 1:1 comparison between aa T61 with the Intel graphics and one with the Quadro.

Makes it hard to decide for me; the power of the Quadro or the batterylife of the Intel

 

Will the 15" model have the 6-cell battery stick out? I surely hope not.

 

How is the screen? I plan to buy a T61 but I might change my decision if I can't really use it for Photoshop (I plan to edit photos, near-professional).

 

Umm, not so good, not as bright as I would like that's for sure, and viewing angles pretty poor. But then again, it's the same brightness as with past ThinkPads...I wish they would improve that at some point.

 

Cool.. and my processor is a tiny bit slower, and I'm getting the 7 cell. I'm very happy with that, I wasn't put off by the fake stress test on a maxxed out machine bs.

 

Hi Andrew. That's pretty disappointing to hear, as I'm this > < close to buying the unit.. but I want a decent screen. In your opinion, how does it compare to the Dell D620 (or even the new 630) WXGA+ screen?

 

Is the screen glossy?

 

Most definitely matte.

Glossy reflects too much light, not suited for business use.

 

I haven't seen a D630, I'm sure dimmer since they increased the brightness on that. The T61 is probably a bit brighter than the miserable D620 screen, but not by a ton. I wish I hadn't just used a Fujitsu CrystalView screen, or this might look better.

 

Damn, this is not helping me. I'm still stuck between a macbook and the T61.
Reasons I would go to macbook: OS X, slick, great customer service, bright screens
Reasons I would go to lenovo t61: solid history of company, quiet and not hot, good keyboard (macbook keyboards suck), cheaper for better config.

 

And OS X Leopard to come out in October.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot Andrew.

 

Andrew is the screen on the T61 similar to the T60? My Best Buy has a T60 so I'm just using that to see what I can expect. Also does the point stick really smudge the screen? Seems like an odd design choice if it does. Also, what color is your ThinkLight? =) And how firm is the new LCD lid with the roll cage? I hate how flimsy regular consumer LCD lids feel.

Oh and a real question, is the bluetooth 2.0 with EDR? Or is it standard bluetooth?

Also, can you just remove the optical drive and put a plastic flap or dummy case over it if you just want to go as light as possible? And is there a dummy flap if you want to reduce further weight by taking out the battery? On my old laptop, removing the battery or optical drive just left two giant gaping holes.

I don't remember where I read it, but supposedly the WXGA screen is 180 nits while the WXGA+ screen is 200. I think Dell's Santa Rosa new business line notebooks are also supposed to be bumped up to 200 nits.

 

You just gave me an idea for a mod. lol.

 

yeah I know, and perhaps a newer line of macs as well (but i doubt anytime before Oct). But Leopard I can deal with. It's just a program that you can buy (if it's not more than $200).

 

I couldn't agree more... one of my biggest problems with my T60 is screen brightness... if they could just add 2 or 3 more levels of brightness I'd be much happier. I'm not extremely impressed with battery life either...

Matt

 

So just curious under "normal use" would the quadro still drain the battery that badly?

 

I think as long as it's not doing any 3D work (i.e. Aero) it'll run almost as good as intel's X3100. Shutting Aero off and other needless, but fun, UI gimmicks will help. A lot of users have posted that once you do that, you get similar run times to XP machines.

 

So all this talk how the quadro eats battery is not necessarily from the card actually eating battery that bad, rather it is just from doing more taxing operations on the computer. Since I want the quadro for when I do some light gaming (which will only be when I am plugged in). However when I run off battery I will just be doing basic word processing, excel, maybe a bit of internet. So am I understanding this correct?

 

From what I've read so far, i think the right thing to do is to reserve any judgment until more reviews come out. Right now it's like trying to read under the moonlight. You can sorta bsee some of the letters but not clearly!

 

Some of the battery benchmark tests and comparisons are strange in how they're performed, in that no one buys a T series ThinkPad to watch DVDs on, especially not when running on batteries. It's a business-marketed notebook. Additionally, not one review has compared the same model side by side, one with intel's X3100, the other with any nVidia chip. All the tests are performed differently and with different battery sizes. The T61, for instance, ships with an industry undersized 4-cell battery (the standard being usually 6-cell). Andrew has posted that he's gotten over three hours of use on a 6-cell with normal use, which is about average but admittedly, not great. The 6-cell does add about 100 grams of weight, though.

Several people have pointed out that as long as you set the battery profile management options to shut off everything you won't use (e.g. Aero, Bluetooth, maybe even Wifi, anything), you'll get much better battery life. Of course, you DO have the option of doing gaming and whatever you like on battery, just don't expect to be doing it long.

Regardless, integrated solutions tend to run cooler and are less powerful, which is why they draw less power. If battery performance is that important to you, invest in a second-bay battery (I think it's a 3-cell that goes into the modular optical drive bay) or just forget about light gaming and go integrated.

 

Ya right now I have pretty much decided that I would go with the bay battery just to be safe. Since I will never be running a CD when I am running off of battery anyways. And what you say makes sense cause to me at least it made no sense that a video card would drain the battery substanstially if you are just using word. So is it a safe assumption that battery life might be a bit worse, but not the 1+ hours everyone is saying (again assuming basi, no graphic intensive work)

 

Personally I hardly if ever run laptops on battery power. What I would actually want is an option for a battery compartment cover if I ever choose to go around without taking the battery with me. The more weight I can shed, the better. Be sure to check into how much weight that adds or subtracts, so you know what you'll be lugging around.

I used to think the longer the battery the better, but I often found I HATED running on battery when everything steps down and shuts off.

I honestly don't know, and as Sepandee pointed out, it's difficult to guess anything since the platform is new and very few reviews are out. It also depends on what battery you're running. If you're running 6cell+3cell, I'm guessing you'll be running for at least four to five hours but personally I have no idea why you'd be away from an outlet that long.

I think 2d, business application graphics are used at a pretty constant percentage rate, so let's say there is a 15% difference between integrated and discrete, a totally arbitrary and hypothetical difference.

If on a 4 cell battery, you get 2 hours integrated, but only 1 hour 42 minutes discrete. If the drain rate remains constant, let's say with 6+3 cell, you get 6 hours with integrated, but with discrete, you'd only get 5 hours and 7 minutes. So in that context, you'd lose an hour. But honestly, I have no idea.

 

I know somedays I have class for 5 straight hours, I am not sure what the outlet situation will be there. The T61 I am looking at comes with a 6 cell battery, along with an extra 6 cell battery along with an extra AC adapter.

 

I haven't read this whole thread but my general feeling is that the performance increase is incremental. I read somewhere that the battery life wasn't very good, but there is where I might see some real advantage. The scores from the limited benches here as of the time of this post, aren't generally better than my T60 with an X1400 but potential the power consumption of the integrated graphics might be less.

Long term I have found my T60 WS is a bit bulky but other than that, quite good. My old laptop feels like a toy and time I touch it..

 

Personally, I hate current battery technology. I'm not sure why you got the extra AC adapter, the T61's is so tiny.

Well you know, people expect miracles. Can't blame them though, the way the marketing hype encourages it. I think the only real advantages the T61 has over the T60 is the new lid, webcam option, firewire, DX10 compatibility (to run new games in low quality settings), full hardware h.264 decoding, and media card reader. Most of these things have nothing to do with the Santa Rosa platform, though.

Bulky? Man, you are nuts. It is one sexy beast.

 

Well, some people have it in their office, computer room, family room, etc and don't want to have to dig behind the couch or desk to grab the AC when they take it to class. I can see it being useful.

 

Technically true but Lenovo has direct comparisons here ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf . T61 section contains entries for Nvidia and integrated graphics along with run times "up to X". Presumably this was done using a standard methodology using low or moderate load to show favorable run times. The comparison between discrete and integrated is not favorable with integrated getting approx 50% more run-time.

As a result I just ordered a T61 w/ integrated graphics and 7-cell battery.

 

Ya it will be helpful to have the extra but free is free

 

A lot of good info, Andrew.

Thanks for your patience and for addressing the questions!

 

Yes, thanks Andrew for all your helpful information/!

 

Sigh... the wait and suspense are killing me.

 

I'd like to know if the integrated newest GMA chip is faster than the DISCRETE GFX chips T41p/T42 laptops had (128MB ATI FIREGL T2)?

 

Probably not. The GMA X3100 is pretty similar to the Radeon X300.

 

Andrew, thanks for all the info so far. Can you let us know what the make/model of the wired NIC is please?
I'm checking to see if there are 64bit drivers for everything so that when I get my T61 I'll format and reinstall 64bit Vista Ultimate. WiFi (4965AGN) & GFX (X3100) are already in box with Vista 64bit.

 

I am kind of sad for Lenovo Thinkpads... I am really glad they keep improving their products, but why can't they source a better screen??? The screen is the most important part of the laptop since that's what you are staring at 100% of the time you are using it. Oh well, someday the perfect thinkpad will arrive...

 

Andrew, while we're on the topic of the T61, the Notebook Database incorrectly specifies the graphics card on the T61 as the X1800.

 

True. I guess with me my laptop is always moving around my house, so I don't plant the AC adapter anywhere inconvenient.

Hmm, that's a huge difference, especially from internal testing which is usually "optimistic" about battery life. I can't seem to get the PDF to download, though. Can you post it somewhere?

 

The PDF file is here.

 

Andrew, were you able to get a pre-released D630? I'm just wondering if you have seen the screen or anything of the sort.

 

I'm not sure that you will have to reinstall Vista b/c when I called and asked about this, the woman rep said she was "100% sure" that the Vista Ultimate that is preinstalled with the T61 is 64 bit.

 

Andrew, I am also curious about how D630 is compared to T61. I will appreciate your comments on D630.