IBM ThinkPad R60

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

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

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

a bit of entertainment at the side.