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IBM ThinkPad Z61 Notebook Review

The Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Z61 - we will review today,it is a thin and light design with great performance, more connectivity and more multimedia than other models. It has LCD widescreen and solid titanium cover and sports Intel's Core Duo processor. Even more, the IBM ThinkPad Z61 built in web cam, FireWire connector media card reader etc.

Design and Build

The IBM ThinkPad Z61 is more durable compared to other models of the Z series notebook, IBM Z61 has solid titanium cover on the outside and the inside is made from rugged and sturdy high quality plastic. You could feel solid when open the screen as the display was supported by two metal hinges. The metal hinges will provide necessary strength to the laptop screen, so you can open the laptop by both your hands, almost no wobbling when open. So this is different from the plastic hinges commonly seen on other laptops. In addition to the metal material of the screen, there have shiny EVDO antenna cover which is attached to the screen. Also, the IBM Z61 is very thin and light, features one inch thick and 4.17lbs without drive. Although the titanium adds some style on it, IBM Z61 still professional looking .

Screen and Display

The IBM ThinkPad Z61 features a 14.1″ widescreen LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 800, and it is the 1440X900 WXGA screen with 200 nits of brightness and can starts out at 4.5lbs. Although the IBM Z61 laptop's brightness is not very high which compared to other models, it is enough to meet the ordinary business and entertainment applications. It is heavier and larger than the X60 series but lighter than the budget R models.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The IBM ThinkPad Z61 laptop's keyboard is not changed too much from the other series IBM. I t has not slop in the keys, you can type at high-speed as possible. There is a fly in the ointment: the keys will make a lot of noise when operate it. It provides a protective cover for keyboard to prevent any accidental spills. The IBM ThinkPad Z61 has a five-button touchpad, two buttons at the lower side and three at the top, you will easy to move across the touchpad. And there is not scrolling pad prepare for you when you need it. The IBM ThinkPad Z61 built in the integrated fingerprint reader which is integrated into the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). It greatly save a lot of time and effort when logging into Windows, that is very useful.

Heat and Noise

As we know, The lenovo z61 has three vents to dissipate hot air, respectively on the left side, bottom and back of the laptop. The heat will get warm under normal use, but the temperature will become a bit strange after a long time use .The temperature will be reach 59 degrees when docked or on power, and the temperature will be reach 78 degrees when running benchmarks. The microprocessor-controlled heat pipe can keep away heat from the CPU. When the built-in 2GHZ processor, your laptop will definitely become warm after little time of normal use ,and you won't hear the noise at all.

Wireless and Networking

The IBM ThinkPad Z61 built in the Intel 3945 WiFi card and Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet card as the networking purposes. And the connection is so solid and hasn't any slowness or a disconnect , it also came with an integrated Verizon EV-DO wireless WAN (WWAN) card option. Wireless networking on IBM ThinkPad Z61 through 802.11a/b/g . The modem port is local at the left hand side

Ports and Connections

The IBM ThinkPad Z61 reveal a full range of ports.And the system has three USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, S-Video, VGA out, and a PC card slot. And Fire wire, three USB ports, security lock, and PC card slot are on the right side of laotop. 3-in-1 card reader, IR port, and a WiFi/Bluetooth on/off switch, headphone, and microphone jack. on the front. Then the microphone jack. Ethernet port, VGA-out port, and modem port are on the left side. We can find that there is a integrated webcam at the top left side of the screen. The camera remains well hidden, so it's not easy to find. Good for video conferencing. The webcam has 30 million pixels, you can capture image and video resolution of 640 × 480 .

Battery Life and Sound

The lenovo ThinkPad Z61 powered by 4 cell battery, it can definitely offer more than three full hours if you operate your laptop totally on the battery. The speakers on the BM ThinkPad Z61 are designed on the sides of the keyboard. It is suitable for the laptop , the sound emanating from them was pretty decent.

ThinkPad Z61t specs as follows:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
Memory: 2GB (Up to 4 GB), 667 MHz DDR2
1GB RAM and Bluetooth
Display: 14.1″ widescreen, 1440×900, WXGA+
Hard drive: 100GB Hitachi Travelstar 7200RPM
Optical: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max
Wireless: ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe, Bluetooth, Verizon WWAN
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
OS: Windows Vista Business
Weight: starts at 4.5lbs when using optical drive (4.17lbs without)
10/100/1000 Ethernet
Dimensions: 13.1 x 9.0 x 1.2″
Battery: 4-cell or 7-cell (3.7hr or 6.25hr life)
Built-in Camera and microphone

Pros:

Solid and sturdy build
Great Performance
Excellent keyboard
Numerous connections
Lots of Connection Options
Minimal Bloatware

Cons:

Unit gets heated up
Speaker quality poor
No DVI support even with docking station
Heat issues
Screen could have been better
Expensive

About the Author

The Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Z61 - we will review today,it is a thin and light design with great performance, more connectivity and more multimedia than other models. It has LCD widescreen and solid titanium cover and sports Intel's Core Duo processor. Even more, the IBM ThinkPad Z61 built in web cam, FireWire connector media card reader etc.

What graphics cards are compatible with IBM Thinkpad R51?

I have an IBM thinkpad r51, and would like to update my graphic card. The new card needs to have a minimum of Pixel Shader 2.0. Are there any graphics cards I can buy that would be compatible with my computer? And where can I purchase them?

Laptops are almost never upgradable when it comes to the video card except for buying a new laptop. Sorry but you'll have to live with what you have or upgrade to another machine.

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