Weight measurements: Thinkpads + Accessories + Others

[dr_st]

In the past couple of weeks I've been playing around with my digital scale, measuring the weight of various Thinkpads with various configurations. Hopefully other Thinkpad geeks/addicts on the forums can find the information interesting.

I remember pianowizard posted his own measurements a while ago, in this thread, and I think there are other similar posts.

The digital scale is pretty accurate, perhaps too accurate (supposedly down to 1 gram). This means it will pick up very subtle differences that are caused by differences in configurations (e.g. number of RAM sticks, number of miniPCI/PCIe cards, which fan, which optical drive, etc.) This can all probably accumulated to 50-100 grams of deviation, given the same basic configuration (screen size, battery size, optical drive).

For convenience, the approximate conversion formula is 1kg=1000g=2.2lb.

The table below shows the measurements of several units of the following families: T42 (14"/15"), T60 (14"/15", non-wide), T61/T400 (14" wide only), as well as the odd member - an X61.

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Laptop	  Bare	No Battery **	4cell	6cell	7cell	8cell	9cell
T42 14"	 1790	 1980				X		2300		X		X		2435
T42 15"	 2150	 2340				X		2645		X		X		2790*
T60 14"	 1810	 1970				X		2280		X		X		2435
T60 15"	 2135	 2290				X		2610		X		X		2770
T61 14W	 1980	 2140				2355	 ?		2550	  X		2635*
T400 14W	1885*	2045*			  2260*	?		2455*	 X		2540
T410 14W	------ see third post below ------
X61(12")	1180	 1180				1400	 X			X	1620		X

Weights are given in grams, rounded to the nearest 5g.
Bare - no battery, no Ultrabay
* Means weight was not actually measured but extrapolated from previous measurements
**No battery - with no battery and with standard optical drive in ultrabay
X means machine said battery size does not exist for machine in question
? means no measurements were taken because battery was not available

The individual weights of accessories are given below:

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Item							Weight (g)

T4x/R5x battery, 6cell		310
T4x/R5x battery, 9cell		460
T/R/Z/W/SL battery, 6cell	315
T/R/Z/W/SL battery, 9cell	480
T/R 14W battery, 4cell		225
T/R 14W battery, 7cell		405 (extrapolated)
T/R 14W battery, 9cell		505
Tx10 battery 55++, 9cell	 475
X6x battery, 4cell			 220
X6x battery, 8cell			 440

Power Adapter 20V, 65W		345
Power Adapter 20V, 90W		440

Curved bezel optical, T4x, PATA	  190*
Straight bezel optical, T6x, PATA	160*
Curved bezel optical, Tx00, SATA	 145

Weights are given in grams, rounded to the nearest 5g.
* Means weight is averaged across different optical drive models in the category

Analysis:

First thing to notice - the T42 (probably all T4x) and T60 are not only very similar dimension-wise, but also weight-wise. The difference measured for the bare machines with matching screen sizes is 15-20 grams (less than 1%).

When loaded with batteries and opticals, the weights may deviate more, because there accessories themselves have varying weights. Interestingly, the batteries for the T4x/R5x are a bit lighter than the newer models, but the curved bezel optical drives are quite a bit heavier (by ~20%), as seen by the chart above.

The surprising thing is that the T61 and T400 despite very similar form differ by about 100 grams with the same configuration (with the T400 being lighter). Some of it is due to the lighter optical drives, and some of it is probably due to the lighter keyboard with less backplate support. With that said, such a difference will probably not be noticed in real life.

The 14" wide T61 is surprisingly heavy. Configured with the 9cell battery it is a full 200 grams heavier than the T60 with a similar battery, and weighs as much as a 15" T4x/T60 with a 6cell.

Finally, I got the opportunity to weigh a few interesting legacy / non-Thinkpad systems:

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System									Weight (g)
IBM Thinkpad T30 14.1"				2415
Macbook Pro 15.4" Unibody			2465
Compaq Evo N610c 14.1"				2550
HP Compaq 8510p 15.4"				 2755
HP Elitebook 8530p 15.4"			 2860
HP Elitebook 8540p 15.6"			 2900
DELL Latitude D820 15.4"			 2950

The T30 being in the same format but thicker than the T4x/T60 is also about 120 gram (5%) heavier. The Compaq Evo, which was a direct competitor of the T30 is even more so (over 2.5kg for 14" with a regular battery seems a lot by today's standards).

The Macbook Pro 15.4" is an amazingly thin and light machine. Under 2.5kg it remains the lightest 15.4" machine I have seen to date (although rumors are some new thin 15.6" models approach this weight).

The HP's workstations are quite heavy, and the newer ones (with metal chassis instead of plastic) are even heavier. They all have a standard 8-cell battery which sits flush with the system. The latest generation has a 15.6" 16:9 screen and a numerical keypad. Somewhat surprisingly, the DELL D820 is even heavier, despite being mostly plastic.

[dr_st]

Added measurements for T410 above.

T410 with travel bezel (no optical) and 9-cell battery weighs ~2.27kg. From this I derived the other weights, based on weight of T400 SATA optical (compatible).

I must admit I'm beginning to like the T410 more and more. It seems they really done quite a few things right with it. Despite being slightly thicker, it is not only lighter than the T400, but also lighter than the T4x/T60 14"! Quite surprising that the battery actually weighs a bit less than the previous 9-cells, even though it has more capacity.

[dr_st]

Added measured weight of HP's 85X0 workstations above.

[dr_st]

Got my T410 today, here are more accurate weight measurements:

No battery, Travel bezel: 1775g
No battery, DVD-RAM: 1895g
6-cell battery, Travel bezel: 2105g
6-cell battery, DVD-RAM: 2225g
9-cell battery, Travel bezel: 2240g
9-cell battery, DVD-RAM: 2360g

Which makes it the lightest 14" T series ever, short of the T400s/T410s, which are really T/X hybrids.

The DVD-RAM drive only weight about 130g, the travel bezel is 10g.