Thinkpad T61p First Impressions

My T61p arrived today amidst shipping/tracking errors from Lenovo (Story can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=257750)

So I have decided to write up a mini-review based on my current zero free time. These are just my first impressions of a T61p laptop.

Anyways onto the main event!

Here are the specs for the beast:

15.4" WUXGA 1920x1200
T9300 2.50GHZ Core2Duo
Nvidia Quadro FX 570M 256MB
1GB factory ram with 2x2GB G.Skill 4-4-4-12 installed after arrival
Intergrated Bluetooth
DVDRW +/- Burner
6 Cell Battery (they weren't selling 9 cells I guess when I ordered)
Windows Vista 32-bit Business Edition

So let me go over some quick aspects of the T61p.

Out of the box:
Looks very sleek. I know its only matte black but still, the coating feels very nice on the hand and is rubbery and easy to grip. The silver hinges stand out, but the aluminum pegs are a welcome bold sign of ruggedness. The laptop is thinner than I imagined.

Screen:
So yes, I did get a WUXGA screen with the 1920x1200 resolution. Many did not because of the possibility of a bad screen. I am very happy to announce that the screen is absolutely wonderful. In fact, aside from the ruggedness, I would say its one of the best things about this laptop. I have great side viewing angles and brightness. The vertical angles are not as good. I can honestly say it is a great screen, having owned a few previous laptops from different companies.

Keyboard:
Firm yet giving. It is a wonderful keyboard and I very much like the fact that it is almost silent. I can see why reviewers compare any notebook's keyboard with that of a Lenovo.

Speakers:
Here is the only downside to the system. I did not think to test out the speakers until by chance, after using the ThinkVantage menu to "play media". Much to my dismay I found that the left speaker sounds absolutely horrible as if it were broken, meanwhile the right speaker sounds crisp and overall nice for a laptop speaker. I do wish there was some way to fix this problem though, considering how much the laptops cost you think there would be some way to test for a broken speaker like that. The volume level is alright for watching a movie in a quiet room. It would not be too great for the latter in a louder environment.

Quick Acess Buttons:
The T61p features three sound buttons (mute, vol up, vol down) on the top left hand side above the keyboard along with the notorious ThinkVantage blue button. A little to the right of that is the power button. Aside from that there are no extra buttons. There are however many "built-in" buttons, meaning that the use of the FN key is required.

Performance:
Even with the 1GB stock from the factory, this laptop is fast! I am very pleased with its overall speed and performance, stopping nothing short of extraordinary. The system truly is silent, and I have yet to hear the fan speed up.

I will be uploading pictures the next chance I get, stay tuned!





This concludes my mini-review. I will try to answer any questions that are asked and may do some benchmarking/more in-depth stuff later on!

 

Lenovo might take care of the speaker, give them a call.

 

that's a nice screen you have there!
enjoy your new notebooK!

 

nice little review. i can't wait for mine to get here

 

Congrats Mizol !,
The screen looks great, just like mine but a higher res. Who made your screen LG or Samsung? In the pics that you took, what brightness is the screen at? Thanks for taking pics of the screen for me as promised +1 rep for that. Could you take another pic of the screen close up, leaving the DPI at default, so that we can get an idea of the text size on WUXGA?

My only complaint with mine is Vista and all the crazy stuff it does. My laptop boot quickly, but I see the harddrive being hammered constantly for like 7 mins at startup. Don't know what is going on with that. Once I follow the tweaking guide and clean install, I think it should be very fast(for Windows at least).

Have fun with it!

 

Thanks, I'm using it right now at work alongside the desktop I normally work on. I will take some more pictures and/or screenshots as I get a chance. I might not be able to tonight, but I will make every effort I can (probably late at night) before I get to sleep. I'm also thinking about doing a clean install but I still want to have the hidden partition in case I want to jump back to factory settings and I still want the thinkvantage button, is there a way to do that?

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. As far as the clean install, I am in the same boat and have the same questions. I don't want to lose the partition or thinkvantage button. There is probably a way. I am assuming you have seen Stallen's guide? I printed it out and looked at it. It is very detailed and well written, but seems very involved. This is the next thing I need to look at. In the guide he does mention that the removal of the recovery partition is optional, but I am not sure if there is a way not to lose functionality of the thinkvantage button. Also in the guide he mentions using a Windows disc such as any time upgrade disc or OEM disc. Since we have to make our own recovery discs from the partition, are these considered OEM discs? Can we still do a clean install using them? These are some things I am trying to figure out. I am going to take the clean install slow to figure out which apps I want to keep and make sure I am not hosing anything.

 

clean install and then reinstall the thinkvantage drivers. i think that should allow use of the button (i couldbe way wrong; do you need the hidden partition to use the thinkvantage button?). and i'm definitely doing a clean install and deleting the hidden partition. just backup the entire thing onto dvds (i think you only need 3) and you're good.

 

Well there is an option (not sure if its in the bios) that when you boot the computer you push the thinkvantage and from there you could reformat and bring everything back to factory settings. I know that this option uses the hidden partition and it is something that I want to have just-in-case for the future.

 

By the way, I thought I should mention. I have 32-bit Vista Business, yet it shows 4GB of ram. Not sure if that's normal but from what I have read it should only show 3.2GB.

 

if you backup the entire partition onto discs and then delete the hidden partition, you can still restore your laptop to its factory settings, but you would just have to insert discs instead of hitting the button. probably a little less convienent, but you gain some disc space.

i swear i've read somewhere on here that even though you see 4gb of ram, it's not all being utilized. i don't remember where the thread is though

 

I'll have to look into that. As for now though, its been running apps like butter

 

hey, read this: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=466018

 

Ah interesting. Thanks for the link. I guess I'll have to upgrade to 64-bit in the future if I want to utilize all 4GB.

 

yep, i guess i'll plan on it also, but not for awhile. i really dont think it's necessary unless you want to brag about having 4gb+ ram.

 

I want to be able to run some CAD applications so I'm not sure how well that will work if I upgrade to Vista 64-bit, as I have heard the upgrade comes along with many driver issues.

 

yea, i've heard/read that as well, but i think it's becoming much more compatible with programs that used to cause problems. either way, i still think 64bit is sort of unnecessary at the moment.

 

Enjoy your laptop!