Review of Thinkpad T61p

28 September 2007

Introduction

I have just bought a new computer, a Thinkpad T61p, and I will review it here and a bit more on this blog.

I have dealt with T series for some time now, working in Dassault Systemes in Tokyo in an internship where I repaired Thinkpad that were out-of-warranty; but also, when working in VIA Centrale Réseaux, where I negociated Thinkpad contracts for Centrale Paris Students and dealt with all the selling, and some repairing. Therefore I am not a newbie concerning Thinkpad laptops.

Specifications

  • Core 2 Duo 7500
  • 2 GB of RAM
  • 15,4" WUXGA non-glossy screen (1920x1200)
  • Geforce Quadro FX570 256MB (Can use up to 1 GB)
  • HD, DVD writer, keyboard, etc…
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Media Card reader.
  • Bluetooth, Wifi a/b/g/n. Ethernet 1000
  • Windows Vista Ultimate ( yeah, I know… :’( )

First hardware impressions.

External

  • The 16/10 screen make the laptop more wide than usual, but thinner.
  • The quality of the whole computer is good, even if there is more plastic than before, and it seems still very resistant :D
  • The link between the screen and the laptop is still in metal, and not in plastic like other computers…

News (for me)

  • Older thinkpad used to have 2USB, they got a third one !
  • The Firewire port is very discrete.
  • The on/off wifi button is quite nice.
  • The card reader is very discrete too, compared to other laptops and external card readers… However, I am not sure it reads my old SD Cards, yet
  • Fingerprint is a gadget to me, but might be cool to geek it on Linux :D

Cons

Still no DVI, but a VGA port…

First Start

Woaouw effect

Gosh, the screen is not great, it is awesome, I have hardly seen a higher quality screen. It is the LG/Philips version, and not the Samsung one, for those who wander (Two different screens exists on T61p, the samsung one is supposed to suxx). There are no light leaking, and the precision of 1920x1200 is great. And no, it is NOT too small…

Under Vista, it shows in a very good shape and the graphic card has some good results in games.

Moreover the screen seems to be very well calibrated.

Windows Vista.

Well, windows Vista seems prettier than XP. But slow as hell. I guess I will reinstall it soon.

There is not so much crap on it, except some Norton and Office trial. Some thinkvantage applications might go away, but that is fine.

The computer did not need many restarts to be usable and I had a 4.8 Score in the Vista Performance Center. The graphic card scored a 5.9 under the performance thing. Woauw. Too bad I won’t play games. :D

Rescue

There is a lot of rescue and save your data programs in the thinkvantage thing. I’ll see what I will remove, because of the hidden partition, when I will install Linux. And I did recreate the rescue Disks.

Next time, I’ll install GNU/Linux on it.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf

T61p
Thinkpad
Vista

Comments

  1. On 24 May 24240, 4:43 by powershot sd600 battery

    I set mine up last night. It blows everything else I have out the water… I mean I do have a good reception setup and all, stacked UHF antennas, VHF yagi, tower, LNA etc but this thing pulls in stations that the others don’t even see are there. I only wish there was a more portable version available that didn’t need a separate wall wart. Oh well!!!

  2. On 24 May 24240, 5:31 by Rabid Ron

    i have one for almost 2 years and it works very well and i love it :)

  3. On 22 May 22220, 1:05 by nice laptop

    nice info thank you

  4. On 21 May 21210, 8:23 by Love my lenovo laptop

    Great review thank you

  5. On 15 May 15150, 2:01 by DV2008

    I have problem with nvidia fx 570. It’s too blurry and it really bothers me. Is there way that I can fix it or it’s factory defected?

    thanks

  6. On 3 May 3030, 3:09 by JBK

    No, I don’t like it, I LOVE It.

  7. On 30 May 30300, 7:30 by 3rods

    Do you still like it? I’ve been considering buying a T61p with the 1920x1200 and an add-on ultrabay HD adapter, but I’ve only seen bad reviews of the screen and a few posts saying that the thinkvantage backup won’t backup to the ultrabay HD - which is kind of absurd.

  8. On 13 May 13130, 2:53 by JBK

    @john: yes, I am quite positive, but I can re-check, if you prefer… Just mail me about this issue.

    Update:

    According to http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160888, you can have both.

    My part lookup gives me 42T0360 42T0361 15.4 INCH LCD DISPLAY FRU for my screen, which is LG/Philips.

  9. On 12 May 12120, 6:55 by john

    Lenovo claims that the WUXGA panel on the T61p is only available from Samsung. are you positive that you have an LG panel?

News

All

Conferences

All