ThinkPad T61 (Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM)

Performance And Battery Life
The Lenovo ThinkPad T61 can be configured with any of Intel's Santa Rosa-compliant Core 2 Duo CPUs, from the 1.8GHz T7100 to the 2.4GHz T7700. Our review unit included the middle-of-the-road 2.0GHz T7300, along with 2GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB) and a 100GB 7,200rpm hard drive. You can bump the hard drive up to 160GB, but the larger drives run at the slower 5,400rpm speed.

Like the other Santa Rosa systems we've tested, the T61 offered excellent performance but fell slightly behind its less-expensive cousin, the Lenovo ThinkPad R61, because our build of that model had a faster T7500 CPU. It was also slower than the non-Santa Rosa Lenovo T60, a long-time laptop favorite. The T60 has a slightly faster, although older, T7600 CPU, showing that the new Centrino Duo platform won't drastically change your computing experience. We expect to see larger performance gains once 800MHz memory is available for laptops later in the year.

In anecdotal testing, the T61 felt fast and was stutter-free, even while multitasking--but we'd expect nothing less from any recent laptop.

While the 128MB Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M graphics card is an option in both the T61 and R61 ThinkPads, our T61 stuck with the integrated Intel X3100 GPU, which Lenovo says will give you better battery life than running a high-powered graphics card. The system ran for an impressive 2 hours 29 minutes on our DVD battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery which sticks out a few inches from the rear of the system. That's a little more than 20 minutes more than the R61, which has the discrete video card option. Keep in mind, our DVD battery-drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use.


System specifications

Lenovo ThinkPad R61
Windows Vista Business Edition; 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M; 100GB Hitachi 7,200rpm

Lenovo ThinkPad T60
Windows Vista Business Edition; 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon V5250; 100GB Hitachi 7,200rpm

Lenovo Thinkpad T61
Windows Vista Business Edition; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 100GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Service And Support
The laptop comes with three-year international carry-in warranty at the Lenovo service center. The system battery, however, has only a one-year carry-in warranty. For Singapore users, an alternative to making a trip to the service center is to send it via the postal service for free during the warranty period. On Lenovo's support Web site, you can register your warranty after which the site will automatically detect your machine configuration and offer the appropriate support. A knowledge database is available for simple troubleshooting. Updated drivers, manuals and software upgrades can be downloaded as well. If the issue requires a professional assistance, a telephone helpline is available during working hours from Monday to Friday which will dispatch a technician onsite if required.

• Most Popular

• Upcoming

Latest Downloads

 

What's Hot