I purchased my 15” IBM
(oops, Lenovo) ThinkPad R60 for Rs. 53,000, although the market price
at that time was Rs. 73,000. Why a ThinkPad, and why not a Dell
Latitude / HP NX Series... hold on, this reviews just started! Lets
first get on with the specifications:
Also, this review is not showing up with proper formatting on mouthshut, I don't know why. Can someone help me on this.
The ThinkPad R60 has a:
Intel Core Duo
T2300e (1.66 Ghz, 667Mhz FSB and 2MB L2 Cache)
512MB DDR RAM
(667mhz speed) (most laptops in this range have 533 or 667mhz
RAM)
60GB 5400rpm Hitachi
HDD (beware of 4200rpm slow HDD's)
DVD-RW drive
(8X max DVD Burn speed, also 24X CD-RW)
15” TFT LCD
(not a wide screen, but normal 4:3 aspect ratio, and not glossy
coated, unlike most consumer laptops e.g. Dell Inspiron 6400, HP
dv2000)
6-cell Li-on battery
(par for the course)
Intel
GMA 950 in-built Graphics
Intel
3945 802.11 a/b/g wifi adapter
3
USB2.0 ports, 1 IEEE 1394 port, Video-S out, Gigabit Ethernet.
56Kbps Modem and Bluetooth
And a 3-year dealer
warranty in addition to the 1 year standard warranty.
Now the
reason why I chose the ThinkPad over consumer laptops was the fact
that I needed a laptop to work with, not just watch movies, or play
games, so the ThinkPad. Also, the fact that Lenovo offered the best
price pushed the ThinkPad into contention.
Let us now analyse the
ThinkPad R60 under various aspects, shall we?
1. Looks and Build
Quality and Ergonomics:
Errr....
not much to comment on the looks of the ThinkPad R60. It's black in
colour, and... thats it. Oh yeah, it comes marked as an IBM ThinkPad
R60 on the cover, as Lenovo have the rights to use the IBM name on
the laptop for the next few years.
Coming
to build quality, I must say that the ThinkPad is nice and solid.
Yes, it's an all-plastic body compared to the higher end
built-with-metal ThinkPad's but its still a lot more solid than a
consumer HP or Dell. The screen cover is strong, and if you press the
plastic cover, you wont find any ripples on the screen. This, of
course, makes the laptop a few hundred grams heavier than what you
would expect from something around this size (I think it's around 2.8
kgs), but I have gotten used to the extra weight. Of course, I would
like to say that even if id DOES feel solid, please don't drop it too
often ;).
2.
Screen Quality:
Now
the ThinkPad is not a laptop which has been designed for watching
movies only. That being said, it does not come with a nice widescreen
with which you can nicely watch your widescreen DVD's. But that
doesn't mean that it is too bad for such a task. DVD's play nicely,
and the colours are vivid enough for me. Still, take a look at the
screen at a showroom to decide for yourself. The advantage of a
normal aspect screen is that there is more vertical area, and I find
that useful while working on Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, or
Powerpoint Presentations. The screen has a good horizontal view angle
but bad vertical view angle. What that means is that, horizontally,
if you change your viewing angle a bit, the screen will still appear
normal. But if you move your position too much in relation to the
screen vertically, the colours will appear washed out. Keep in mind
that this fault in there in most business laptop screens. Consumer
laptops are not as sensitive to this problem (at leas those with
glossy screens, but then glossy screens act like mirrors).
3.
Performance:
With the
Intel Core Duo and 512MB RAM, the ThinkPad felt sufficiently fast for
most applications. But the pre-built IBM ThinkPad software means that
the laptop takes an age to load Windows XP. So I tweaked the programs
which start on startup (using msconfig), and not it starts up much
faster. The ThinkPad can also handle gaming... a bit. By a not I do
not mean just Solitaire. The ThinkPad can handle 3-year old games,
but something like Doom 3 or NFS: Carbon is probably asking for too
much. Still, I was able to enjoy Half Life 2 and NFS: Most Wanted at
low settings. Also, the arrow keys are a bit smaller than the other
keys, which was a bit irritating while playing NFS: Most Wanted.
Otherwise, get an external keyboard and mouse before you bang up the
laptop sown keyboard ;). The DVD burner works fine, but not as fast
as in a desktop, and when you are burning DVD's the vibrations are a
bit disconcerting.
4.
Ergonomics:
Now let me
bring you to a part of the ThinkPad I really like: it's keyboard. I
initially wasn't used to it, but it has really grown on me. The keys
are nicely spaced, and have a nice, soft, tactile feel to them. In
fact, I have now found that I type faster on that keyboard than on a
normal keyboard (but then, I do not have phenomenal typing skills ;).
The Touchpad is a bit smaller than usual but should pose no problems.
The Trackpoint is another options for using the mouse. I found both
options to be quite fine, but, of course, no substitute for a full
sized mouse.
5.
Sound Quality:
Probably
the weakest aspect of the ThinkPad is its pathetic speakers, but this
is a common problem with most business laptops. The sound level is
really too low for listening to Music or Movies (according to me),
but then the problem is not with the sound card but with the
speakers. Attach a pair of external speakers, or use a pair of
headphones, and the sound is loud and crystal clear. In fact, then
only about 30% volume level is needed for most needs, as the speakers
give a nice, responsive sound.
6. Wi-fi, Battery life
and other aspects:
The
ThinkPad comes with its own Internet accessing software in addition
to the built-in Intel one. In fact, this catches more signals than
the Intel software. Speed is normal, which is of course dependent on
the Internet Service Provider. The 6-cell Li-on battery claims to
prove around 4 hours of battery life. In reality, let me point out
the house of usage gotten with various stages of use:
2 –
2.5 hours of so with watching a movie with full screen brightness
3 –
3.5 hours with medium screen brightness and doing things like typing
and listening to music
2 –
2.5 hours with the same + Internet surfing
1.5 –
2 hours with the same + maximum screen brightness
1.5
hours with gaming
The
battery life is acceptable. There is a 9 cell li-on battery option
for those who seek more battery life. Also, a medium screen
brightness seems to be the best compromise between battery life and
screen brightness for routine activities like typing and surfing he
web.
So
thats it then for the Lenovo ThinkPad R60, a no-nonsense laptop which
provides the basics needed for office productivity while throwing in
a bit of entertainment at the side.
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