Business traveler in the market for an ultra portable simply must consider the Lenovo ThinkPad X61. It has power to spare and all the features they’re likely to need.
With a chassis clad in matte-black, the 3.5-pound Lenovo ThinkPad X61 is compact, feels solid in the hand, and is very comfortable to carry. Its 12.1-inch display, which also has a matte finish, features a 4-to-3 aspect ratio, giving it a decidedly old-school feel given today’s glossy wide-screen models. (For a business portable, this screen shape is still the right choice, however.) Below the display, you’ll find a comfortable, spill-resistant keyboard. For security, the notebook came equipped with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) circuitry, a fingerprint reader, and Lenovo’s pre-loaded Client Security Solution software.
In addition to the integrated Intel 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi connectivity, the X61 has embedded wireless-broadband hardware. The X61 also offers a good selection of ports and connectors, though it lacks an optical drive built into the chassis. A drive does reside in the snap-on X6 UltraBase, however, which was included with along with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. (The UltraBase attaches to the X61’s bottom and adds 1.4 pounds to the weight.)
The most unexpected feature, though, is the X61’s performance. The unit came with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU that, combined with 2GB of RAM and a 7,200rpm 100GB hard drive, delivered very good performance for its class. The ultra-portable scored a respectable 4,000 on Futuremark’s PCMark05 test, and it even handled multimedia tasks reasonably well.
Battery life from the extended eight-cell battery was acceptable, if not stellar: The machine lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes on the DVD rundown test, which should translate to over three hours in normal use.
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