February 11th, 2008Review of Lenovo T61
An ordinary trend these days in the laptop market is to plan great-looking products that fall apart with no problem. Quite a few producers can be held guilty on this front. Laptops tend to have some problem or the other, ranging from out of order hinges to fading screens and finishes that can get with no trouble scratched. One producer who takes care to avoid these issues is Lenovo. Having present at birth the excellent ThinkPad range, the company has taken care to continue building laptops that are not only very good in presentation, but offer extremely sturdy external and protection.
In light of this, Lenovo lately upgraded their very popular T60 to the Centrino Duo platform and upgraded the screen to a widescreen model. Does this new iteration live up to the Thinkpad standing?
Design and Features:
One appealing thing that never changes about Lenovo is the essential all-black design of their laptops. The T61 is no dissimilar in this high opinion. It follows the same basic color philosophy that has been in place for over a decade now.
However that’s where the judgment ends. Compared to previous generation products the T61 is far sleeker. It employs a slimmer design, has sharper edges and sports a very good matte finish. There are two variations on the finish though. The top of the laptop (i.e. the lid) has a very soft and almost silky feel, whereas the piano area is a lot more textured and looks more commonplace.
The physical construction of the laptop is top-notch as usual. The plastic used is quite stiff and sturdy, and the hinge packs in the normal titanium reinforcement. The keyboard area continues to impress. It offers plenty of space for contented placement of hands and this makes typing much easier. The keyboard itself is as good as still the keys offer a very contented elevation, good spacing and a smooth texture that makes working long hours on the laptop a non-issue.
As is the norm with Lenovo, both track point and track pad mouse are on offer. While the track point offer a very good working experience, the latter is unsatisfactory. It’s small, badly placed, and offers terrible usability. I feel it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. While we admire Lenovo’s effort to offer a wealth of options, this is a bad move. A small piece more attention – such as expanding the track pad area and offering better traction – would have improved the experience.
The LCD panel of the T61 is a 14.1 inch widescreen affair, with a native resolution of 1440 x 900. This offers more working area and is a welcome change. However, the panel’s brightness and contrast leave a lot in the direction of be desired. It’s at best average and although it’s good enough for document work, if you are a multimedia enthusiast you’re better off looking at other Lenovo models. It’s a pity that the Flex view alternative that was available on the T60 is not easy to get to on this model.
The placement of the connectivity ports too has changed. Earlier the USB ports were placed in a horizontal manner, but now they are placed upright. This is a bit of a nuisance, as one has to struggle to use them and some unnecessary fiddling is required. Connectivity-wise the laptop is decently ready. It offers three USB ports, Fire wire, and a dual-layer DVD-RW. For a more comprehensive list, please check out the requirement table here.
Performance:
The T61 is based on the Centrino Duo stage and comes with a T7300 computer clocked at 2 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, and a 100 GB HDD. Graphics are powered by an Intel X3100 graphics chipset, which while not being anywhere nears a gaming solution, has sufficient juice to run Windows Vista contentedly.  For checking the performance of the laptop, apart from our normal range of PCMark/ Futuremark/ Battery life tests, we introduced a new Wi-Fi range test. Under this new test, we examined how far the laptop’s internal aerial could hold a Wi-Fi signal and relations member speeds.
With its mid-level processor and basic-level graphics card, the T61 suffered in the performance stakes. What’s worse, it shipped with only 1 GB of system memory and only 100 GB of space. In an era where Acer is offering entry-level laptops with 160 GB space and 2 GB RAM, these specifications are simply unacceptable.
This was reflected in the PCMark score (3875) and the 3Dmark06 score (725). In the battery life tests too, the laptop proved average. On a full charge with medium level of work, it achieved 3 hrs 04 minutes of usage before dying. On a full all-out intensive run, we barely squeaked to 2 hours before the battery packed up.
In our Wi-Fi test, the laptop was astonishingly very strong. It was able to achieve good speeds of around 23 Mb/s. It was also able to hold a signal a lot better than most laptops at the maximum possible distance that we set. At this point most laptops start downshifting to lower speeds or just lose connectivity. The T61 was able to easily hold a indication and file transfer speed was constant.
The T61 is a mixed bag. On the one hand it offers a strong, unbreakable body and good Wi-Fi performance. On the other it suffers from slightly underpowered specifications, a lousy track pad, and an average screen and battery. Prices for the Lenovo T61 start at Rs 86,000.
If you’re looking for a reliable and strong laptop that will last for years, look no further. The T61 will steadily march on long after most of today’s laptops take up residence in a junkyard. It does suffer from some issues, but with some legal upgrades such as a faster processor and 2 GB of RAM, it will stand you in good stead.
