The best T60 review...

[darrenf]

...that you'll never read:

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/main.asp ... oardid=424

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/main.asp ... oardid=297

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/main.asp ... oardid=420

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/main.asp ... oardid=422

By far the most profesisonal photographs of the T60 that I've seen. They also dissected it and it's clear that the internals have been seriously rearranged.

Observations:

The wireless card connector is narrower than mPCI. Proprietary?

RAM is now stacked and both cards are under the touchpad in the palmrest. That will make adding/changing the second stick a little more difficult.

The fan has been moved off the mainboard. The heatsink/cooler takes up a lot of footprint.

If the author of the review is correct, the bluetooth module has been separated from the modem and moved into the display housing beside the inverter board.

I still can't quite tell, but I think that they have switch about half of the screws from phillips to torx/flathead. I could be wrong about this. They may be phillips/flathead combos like the one on the memory door of the T-4x. Does anyone have a better picture?

The IR port has a purple LED inside. Does the T4x have that? I've never used the IR port.

When will they stop putting IBM on the freakin case?

The ThinkVantage Productivity Center software looks pretty clean -- I like it.

The specs show the PCMCIA slot as type I/II. Since the PCMCIA slot is on the bottom, wouldn't it support a type III card as long as no ExpressCard is installed? They do say that the ExpressCard can be single- or double-height, so the omission of PCMCIA type III support is all the more glaring.

The power connector is a stand-alone connctor that interfaces to the motherboard by wire. BRILLIANT! I'll never have to resolder another motherboard-mounted power connector. This should drop the repair cost in a wort-case scenario from ~$500 to ~$20!! The same goes for two of the three USB connectors.

It *appears* that there are two wirless card slots (what would have been mPCI in the T4x but they are smaller now). Would one of them be for the Verizon card (suggesting that it's discrete rather than integrated with the WiFi card)?

The rollcage is much more substantial than in the T4x. With the keyboard and palmrest removed, one is looking at a whole lot of rollcage. The same areas (over the HDD and ODD slots in particular) were covered in perforated sheet metal and plastic in the T4x (IIRC)

Discuss...

-darren

[lithium726]

Those cards arent proprietary, just mPCIe cards.

im liking that roll cage, a LOT. it does look a bit thicker than the T4x though

[own6volvos]

The IR port doesn't have a purple LED

Its just that the camera used was picking up the Ir light shown through the bezel. Some cameras can detect it, others can.

It actually looks a LOT like a z60m, but narrower. So much just looks shrunk a bit. Almost all traits are shared with its "wide-load" brother.

EDIT: Is it me, or are there fullsize images floating around on the side? those thumbnails don't really show that much.

[donking!]

Hey, great find. Those are amazing photos. Gives much more of a sense of what the notebook is like. Cleary Lenovo has redesigned the T series a lot. But it does look very solid and thought out. I find that encouraging. And now I'm all impatient to receive mine!!

Too bad I can't read Korean. Would love to know what the review says. Neither Google nore AltaVista's translate functions worked for me on these pages.

[darrenf]

EDIT: Is it me, or are there fullsize images floating around on the side? those thumbnails don't really show that much.

Click on the link below most of the pictures in that article and you'll get a larger pic. Still not full-sized but better.

-darren

[darrenf]

The IR port doesn't have a purple LED

Seriously? What causes the camera to pick that up?

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/lgibm/re ... 0_a03b.asp

-darren

[own6volvos]

The IR port doesn't have a purple LED

Seriously? What causes the camera to pick that up?

http://www.nottes.com/notebook/lgibm/re ... 0_a03b.asp

-darren

Some just do, it all depends on the sensor used. Many small security cameras will do the exact same thing.

[Rose]

and there it is again.
main airintake at the bottom of the base.

[pundit]

The power connector is a stand-alone connctor that interfaces to the motherboard by wire. BRILLIANT! I'll never have to resolder another motherboard-mounted power connector. This should drop the repair cost in a wort-case scenario from ~$500 to ~$20!!

I repeat, BRILLIANT!

Being the klutzy sort, the first thing I plow through on every single laptop I use---whatever the brand---is the power connector. Yanked cables, dropped computers, tripped wires... you name it. Invariably it will end up being one portion of an all-encompassing monolithic motherboard; which is not pretty.

This is most excellent.

[a_d_y_a]

interesting tidbits in MobileMark tests


Performance Benchmarks
T60 - 274
T43 - 219
T42 - 205


Battery Life Becnhmarks
T60 - 206
T43 - 306
T42 - 340


Systems Specs were

IBM ThinkPad T42
Windows XP Professional; 1.8GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 32MB; Fujitsu MHT2040AH 40GB 5,400rpm

IBM ThinkPad T43
Windows XP Professional; 1.86GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon X300 64MB; Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7,200rpm

IBM ThinkPad T60
Windows XP Professional; T500 2.0 Ghz Core Duo; 1 GB DDR2 533MHz; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 80GB 5,400rpm



WOW!!!
I am missing something, or T42>T43>T60??

[own6volvos]

WOW!!!
I am missing something, or T42>T43>T60??

Something is off on those specs, and the battery life could only be that different if the others were 9 cell, and the t60 was 6 cell.

Every aspect outside of the new design is better.

CPU
GPU
RAM
HD (and interface)

[RaysMD]

are they trying to say that the 14" LCD is improved?

[RonS]

The pictures are nice, but too bad it's not in English. What is that, Korean?

[ajazzman]

You can translate the pages using this site:

http://www.worldlingo.com/

I translated the pages from Korean to english and it did a decent job.

[astro]

^^ Hehe... This auto-translator comes out with some great stuff...

I think this lays to rest some of the questions about whether Lenovo have been complacent in designing the T60. It definitely appears to be (to quote another poster) "completely engineered". For one, they have given away the serviceability of the RAM so they could have more freedom with the internal design.

I am somewhat surprised to see that they didn't perforate the roll cage, I would have thought that would make it just that extra bit lighter and not really decrease its strength.

The other thing I notice is the bevelled edges on the T43 are "slimming", it seems to be thinner than the chunky T60, but in fact they are exactly the same size. On that note, i think the reason for increasing the size of the right lid hinge was not to make it symmetric (for looks), but to increase strength, because the edges have been taken off the palmrest (a good thing, IMO) where the T43 screen used to mould to.

Just my 2c.

[beingblue2068]

What make me interesting in the reviews are a couple of things.
firstly, the new dock of T60 will have DVI connection.
secondly, T60's 14.1 LCD is brighter than T43's.

Lenovo seems to do some good works...

[astro]

Actually, I did notice something I really didn't like and that was how they seem to have moved the microphone pickup to the palm rest (pic) where it could easily be blocked by, well, your palm.

[darrenf]

Actually, I did notice something I really didn't like and that was how they seem to have moved the microphone pickup to the palm rest (pic) where it could easily be blocked by, well, your palm.

Agreed. This was discussed earlier and it is clear that it couldn't be located in the original location because that area is now all fan and heat sink. I think just about *any* location would be better than where it wound up. Putting it in the lid near the light would have been my choice, but the flourescent backlight and inverter might have introduced interference on the line.



-darren

[darrenf]

According to the translation (and, upon closer inspection, the writing on the bottom of the laptop), these are weep holes to let water drain from the keyboard tray, routing it away from the CPU and sensitive system components. Sweet!

I had heard rumors that one could pour water into a ThinkPad and that the laptop would keep running, but I didn't want to try it on a T4x!!

-darren

[RonS]

firstly, the new dock of T60 will have DVI connection...

The Dock II also had a DVI port.

[RonS]

firstly, the new dock of T60 will have DVI connection...

The Dock II also has a DVI port (T4x line).

[K. Eng]

Darn... those pics are really good

Keyboard styling aside, I like the T60 design a LOT more than the T4x design... these pics are seriously making me reconsider thinking about buying a Z series. Decisions... decisions...

[darrenf]

Update: after reading the painful Korean->English translation, it appears that the laptop *may* sense water intrusion and hibernate. Here's the translation, let me know what you think:

The keyboard to be able to ask and to be able to pour out and rightly the internal furnace in order not to be able to soak into, will be becoming the drainage control and it will be able to store the data which will be in the process of working in order, delay it does as a favor an hour, it pours and the keyboard dignity spill way which asks and it follows until the bottom it flows and and and the drainage ditch it leads and and and falling in, it comes out.

-darren

[donking!]

Oh man, reading that translation was like reading Heidegger.

I am somewhat surprised to see that they didn't perforate the roll cage, I would have thought that would make it just that extra bit lighter and not really decrease its strength.

I also wonder why, if they're throwing all that magnesium alloy in there for the roll cage, they don't make the bottom of the notebook and the palm rest out of magnesium alloy too.

The other thing I notice is the bevelled edges on the T43 are "slimming", it seems to be thinner than the chunky T60, but in fact they are exactly the same size.

Yeah, I definitely noticed the slimming effect on the T43 versus T60. I'm pretty convinced that the design of the T60 for durability and some functional elements (processor speed, heat dissipation, battery life) has been significantly improved. But the dropping of the slimming effect from the T43 is just one more indication to me that Lenovo is taking steps backwards in terms of visual design.

[darrenf]

My guess is that, by making the base out of CFRP instead of Magnesium alloy, the laptop doesn't transmit impact to internal components as directly as it would with a rigid outer shell.

-darren

[hoya]

secondly, T60's 14.1 LCD is brighter than T43's.

What is your source of information on this? As far as I can tell, Lenovo is using the SAME lcd panel suppliers that it uses for the T43, with the addition of a TMD supplied 14" SXGA+ panel.

[a_d_y_a]

secondly, T60's 14.1 LCD is brighter than T43's.

What is your source of information on this? As far as I can tell, Lenovo is using the SAME lcd panel suppliers that it uses for the T43, with the addition of a TMD supplied 14" SXGA+ panel.

same supplier can get better cant they..

[Sottozero]

firstly, the new dock of T60 will have DVI connection.


Lenovo seems to do some good works...

Does anyone know what the max resolution of the new ThinkPad Advanced Dock is via its DVI port? I believe the old ones were limited to a measly 1280 x 1024.

[darrenf]

Does anyone know what the max resolution of the new ThinkPad Advanced Dock is via its DVI port? I believe the old ones were limited to a measly 1280 x 1024.

FYI: This was defeatable by using non-IBM display drivers, IIRC.

-darren

[RonS]

The 1280x1024 DVI limit was eliminiated by the stock IBM drivers about 1.5-2 years ago. I drive my 24" 1920x1200 display right off the Dock II's DVI connector using the stock drivers.