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Lenovo Thinkpad T61 Is Here!

Short Review of the New Thinkpad T61

last updated September 28th, 2007

Lenovo launched the Thinkpad T61, the newest in the T-Series line of notebooks. Here's some of the new things the Thinkpad T61 is shipping with:

  • Up to a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU "Santa Rosa" chip set. This is the fastest Core 2 Duo to-date with a big leap in performance.
  • 2GB of fast RAM (up to 4gb capacity)
  • Updated Graphics- The T61 is the first Thinkpad with dedicated graphics memory
  • 802.11n Wi-Fi and long-range antenna

And let's not forget the tried-and-true aspects of Thinkpads that still remain: The keyboard. Full sized, flat, great for touch typing. Lots of reviews have said it's the greatest notebook keyboard around for style and speed.
The case. No other laptop case I've ever had can take a beating like my X31 case could. Full of titanium and it looks great.

Here's what's not so hot: Battery life. The default T61 battery is a 4-cell Li-Ion make and only gets 1 1/2 hours with normal use. That's just unacceptable for a business laptop. However, there's a cheap fix: Upgrade, and go for the 7-cell for $20 extra. (Gets you 2 1/2 to 3 hours.)

Prices on the T61 run from about $1000 up to the ultimate, $2200 version with all the bells and whistles. UltimateNotebooks.com users have paid an average of $1400 all said and done. UPDATE: With this update, it's been about five months since the t61 was release and Lenovo is starting to kick in some great discounts. Use the Thinkpad t61 rebate code USXYPWWP at checkout to get yours for under $980. Who said thinkpads were too expensive?

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March 17th, 2007
Word is out that your favorite family of business laptops is going to be releasing the next in the T Series around May 15th. The T61 launch coincides with that of the Intel Santa Rosa chipset core-duo-- So it's not much of a stretch to say it will be included in the spec. I'm sure we'll have more interesting details in the coming month, but, for the moment, here's a nice little blurb about the screen: Screen res will be up across the board and Lenovo will be putting in the option of a WSXGA+ resolution 14" widescreen where before you could only get 4:3. 4:3 will still be a choice (for all you old-school cats).
As for the case, expect the T61 to be wrapped in the T60 body.

T61 price

In the above article from May 16th you said the average price out-the-door for UltimateNotebooks.com users has been $1250. I just joined up and wonder how to get a deal like that. I haven't been able to get it that low on the Lenovo website even with the discount they are giving for Memorial day. Is there some coupon code or somthing?

re:

hm, I took a quick spin on the site and was able to get to the checkout page for $1,060. That's with the default options including the slowest Core 2 Duo (T7100 1.8GHz 800MHz 2MBL2). So, I definitely think it's possible to get out the door cheaply. If I were going to buy one, I'd upgrade the processor to this one the "Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)" just to make it as future-proof as posisble. Then, I'd go to NewEgg and get another 1gb stick of memory for a lot cheaper than Lenovo has it for.