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Lenovo Laptops
Lenovo
ThinkPad x61
Lenovo X61
Review
Though the optical drive is
not integrated, everything else about this business
portable is top-notch, especially battery life.
In the ThinkPad X61, Lenovo
has introduced its successor to the ThinkPad
X60. The X61 uses Intel's Santa Rosa mobile
processor. Otherwise, it's the same light, sophisticated
ultraportable as the earlier model; like the
X60, it lacks an integrated optical drive but
offers dazzling battery life.
This 3.6-pound X-series member goes to the top
of our list of ultraportables for mobile professionals.
Our X61 test unit, with a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300
processor and 2GB of DDR2-667 SDRAM, earned
a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 75, which is
tops among currently tested ultraportables.
The extended-life four-cell battery lasted an
amazing 6 hours and 14 minutes.
The bright, 12.1-inch screen
and the keyboard might feel a bit close at first,
but the cramped feeling quickly goes away. The
keyboard has no touchpad, but the eraserhead
pointing device is first-rate and easy to acclimate
to. The usual nice touches found on Lenovo keyboards,
such as volume buttons and a one-press launch
of the recovery system, are also present.
The UltraBase docking station
adds four more USB ports (for a total of seven)
as well as legacy parallel and serial ports.
In addition, the modular optical drive has a
side release, so you can swap with one hand
between an optical drive, a second battery,
or a second hard drive (those are optional accessories).
Including the base, which is easy to snap on
and off, the unit's total weight is a little
over 6 pounds.
Our review unit, which included
an UltraBase docking station with a dual-layer
DVD burner, costs $1724 (as of July 27, 2007).
The great performance and features, and its
reasonable price, make the X61 our current top
choice of ultraportable.
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