x61 or x61s?

I have gone through the reviews and I am still not sure which one to get. I have decided to go ultra portable for grad school work.

x61: more powerful CPU, less expensive
x61s: better battery life, brighter screen

I don't think I will need WWAN. How would you choose between the two?

Glenn

 

Well here's my 2 cents...

I bought an x61 tablet in June and ended up selling it because I was not a huge fan of the tablet feature, I just won't use it. I've had my x61s now for 2 weeks and I absolutely love it. This thing is fast and it is so light. I got it with the slimline battery and the extended, so i can have it super light and have super long battery life.

One vote for the x61s.

 

You've pretty much summed up the main differences between the two models. Even though the X61 is slightly faster, you won't notice it unless you run CPU benchmarks all day.

The X61s is a little bit lighter than the X61 and also has the optional UltraBright screen. The brighter screen is worth getting the X61s over the X61 in my opinion.

 

Thanks for your input. I am leaning toward x61s.

I tried to customize the laptop on lenovo.com. I would say T7100 would pretty much equal to L7500 in terms of performance. So if I want to customize a more powerful CPU, the x61 is no longer less expensive. So one less reason to get x61.

A few more questions:
1. Do you really need the base? Some say I can just get an USB external DVD ROM. If I want to plug it in at home and have Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, I should not need the base that much, right?
2. And if I get a third party DVD ROM, I can still do fresh install without a problem, right?
3. And where do you get a third party DVD ROM anyway? The base is around $140, so if it's not significantly less than that, I might just get the base as well.

Glenn

 

1. No, the dock/base is optional. You can just get an external USB DVD Writer.

2. Correct. The laptop can boot from the USB port.

3. I got mine from Ebay for around $45 shipped. It's a Pioneer USB external DVD Writer.

 

The X61 I bought (7673A23) came with the X6 Ultrabase docking station and the Ultrabay DVD burner.

I use the docking station for my office where it is plugged in to a 20" inch screen. I have also connected a keyboard, a mouse, a craddle for my Cell phone and a Flash card reader. The DVD burner sits in the bay at the moment. So I use the docking station for what I feel is the true purpose of such - namely turning your notebook into a workstation.

Since I just bought the X61 I haven't yet used it on flights yet, but I plan to buy the matching USB DVD burner from Lenovo. It doesn't need an external power supply to run on most if not all ThinkPads (what I have been told), but in case you use a laptop which cannot provide enough power via USB, you can use the external power adapter.

Last but not least I will buy a 7K200 Hitachi harddisk (to increase performance) and replace the current 5400 RPM 5K160 harddisk. With a bay harddisk adapter, I will then use the old harddisk as a backup drive. The great thing is that you can just plug it in to the docking station (same slot as DVD burner - swapable).

In case you don't care about matching looks for your USB DVD, I would recommend you to go for the Plextor PX-608CU drive, http://www.plextor.com/english/products/px-608cu.html

It doesn't match design wise, but basically does the same as the Lenovo one. It is slim and light weight (great for notebooks) and it is cheaper. Plextor has for as long as I remember made great CD/DVD drives. Making a fresh install with this 3rd party drive should not be a problem at all.