The good: The Lenovo ThinkPad R61 has a widescreen display; an internal roll cage protects the LCD; 802.11n Wi-Fi; dedicated graphics; very small AC adapter.

The bad: New Centrino technology doesn't offer outsize performance gains.

The bottom line: The IBM blueprint is still evident in the Lenovo ThinkPad R61, but the addition of a widescreen display and all the latest Centrino Duo tricks make this a ThinkPad that could woo home users along with its legion of fans among business travelers.

Read full review of the ThinkPad R61 »

By Dan Ackerman, CNET.com
May 29, 2007

Not content to just add the latest Santa Rosa specs to its current lineup, Lenovo rolled out two new ThinkPad models, including the ThinkPad R61 (the other is the T61 in the higher-end ThinkPad T series). The 14.1-inch R61 includes all the important parts of Intel's revamped Centrino platform, including the new Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU, extra onboard Turbo Memory (for boosting access times), and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It's still the same black, boxy ThinkPad you've come to know and perhaps love, but Lenovo has started to add consumer-friendly features such as Webcams and optional Blu-ray drives for those who want one laptop for work and play. It's still pricey when configured for power users, but the typically excellent ThinkPad build quality makes this a system that will have a long lifespan.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design
While Lenovo, and IBM before that, has firmly resisted major changes in the tried-and-true ThinkPad design, we were pleased to see the company take two new steps in the right direction. First, the new Lenovos are all available with widescreen displays, meaning that the old-fashioned 4:3 laptop screen is one step closer to extinction. Second, the chassis itself has been reinforced with an internal roll cage, replacing the traditional solid magnesium alloy cover. The slightly concave roll cage, hidden under a composite cover, protects the LCD while helping Wi-Fi reception, which can be negatively affected by an old-fashioned full magnesium alloy cover.

	The R series now with a widescreen display. (Click for larger image)

We're also firm fans of Lenovo's extremely small AC adapters. There's little point to carrying around a lightweight laptop if all the extra room in your bag is taken up by a huge power brick. The Lenovo adapter, in contrast, weighs around 250g and the brick itself measures just 101 x 38.1 x 25.4mm.

The time-tested design includes traveler-friendly touches, such as sturdy steel hinges and a shock-mounted hard drive. The keyboard is one of the best laptop keyboards available, offering an extremely comfortable typing experience. The R61 also features both an eraser-head trackpoint and a touchpad; each has a set of mouse buttons, and the top set includes a scroll button in the middle. Above the keyboard are three handy volume buttons--the extent of the system's dedicated multimedia controls--and a blue ThinkVantage button, which calls up Lenovo's helpful preinstalled support and configuration utility. A Webcam sits on top of the display, although we're not sure how many business users actually need one. We've never Web-conferenced from a laptop, but someone, somewhere must do it.

Features
The 14.1-inch widescreen LCD display offers a 1,440 x 900 native resolution, which is a bit finer than the 1,280 x 800 resolution commonly found on 14- and 15-inch laptops. Text and icons are highly readable, and the screen has a matte finish. While many consumer laptops have glossy screen coatings, which make for a more vibrant multimedia experience, most business systems stick with the matte look, which we generally prefer for its glare-fighting properties.

The ports and connections on the R61 are in line with what you'd expect from a mainstream business laptop, although we'd have liked to see one more USB port and an S-video output. Our review unit didn't have Bluetooth (which is an available option), but it did offer a built-in 802.11n antenna, for the very latest in fast Wi-Fi connection speeds. You will, of course, need a wireless Draft N router to take advantage of it.

Lenovo hasn't released the configuration details for the R61 yet, but we do know there will be numerous hard drive options (our review unit included a faster and more expensive 7,200rpm drive), your choice of Santa Rosa CPUs, including the T7100, the T7300, the T7500, or the T7700, and even an optional Blu-ray drive, which should add around US$400 (S$610.98) to the system's cost.

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