Thinkpads Forum

This is my first post and want to say this forum has been a great resource for information regarding ThinkPads. I am in the process of replacing my A31P 1.8 P4M, 1GB RAM, 64MB Fire GL7800, 60GB 7200 RPM hard Drive(upgraded myself)...

I'm looking at the T60P 2613H5U with 2GB of RAM (will upgrade to 4GB when RAM prices drop).... But I just noticed that the Z61P is listed as having a maximum of 4GB and now has the Fire GL and resolution are up to 1920x1200.

My question is what are your overall thoughts of the two in performance, build quality, and any other factors that may come to mind.

I need a reliable high powered machine, I'm an IT consultant, travel weekly, and these two fit the bill but I have never used a Z series before and wanted some advice in the area. I never really looked at them as workstation replacement class machines but I could be wrong.

They are equally fast, but the Z61p is seriously more heavy than the t60p, so if you travel frequently then you should consider that.

the Z61p is about 1/3 heavier

That is what I wanted to hear, as I really want a wide screen laptop. How is the build quality in comparison to the T60P... I'm not to worried about the weight, all that time in the gym pays off...

Does anyone know if it is upgradeable to 4GB for sure? I'm seeing defferent specs depending on where I look.


thanks!

You might consider waiting for the "T61p" or equivalent which should be coming out shortly (within next couple of months). That is what I would do if I were in your shoes.

Additionally, the screen brightness on the Z series, in my opinion, isn't nearly as good as it is with the T series Thinkpads.

So the T series will have an upcoming wide screen model? Anyone have any details?

The Bard wrote:Additionally, the screen brightness on the Z series, in my opinion, isn't nearly as good as it is with the T series Thinkpads.

Is this true even with the 61p having the WUXGA? Although it does not have the Fexview with IPS...

Wide screen is overrated. You actually get less screen area for your money than a standard 4:3 screen. The argument that you can place windows side by side easier does not apply if you just get a higher resolution screen to begin with. If watching dvd's with a 16:9 screen is REALLY that important to you than go with the Z61p. If you want a thinner, lighter, and in general more durable laptop, go with the T60p. Although you lack the memory card readers, and S-video output with the T60p. In general, the T series line has been considered the top-of-the-line business line, while the Z series is geared more towards media-centric applications. Also, to my knowledge, all current thinkpads are limited to 3GB rather than 4GB of memory. I don't remember why, do a search of the forums for the reasons why.

The Z61p is 1920x1200 and the T60p is 1600x1200 so more screen will equal more space. I could not care less about watching DVDs, my TV is perfect for movies. Screen space does matter when working with large landscape documents for hours at a time. What also matters is the quality and brightness of the display and with Flexview the T60P has the advantage here. My desktop 24inch LCD has quite a bit more room then my 21 inch desktop LCD... Of course the 24 inch 16:9 has 12.5% more screen space then a 21 inch 4:3, while a 15.4 has only 2.6% more then a 15 inch. The 2.6% is negated my the flexview and the overall brightness of the screen. So at the moment I’m leaning heavily towards the T60P due to this. I’ve been using my A31P with 15 inch1600x1200 flexview since 2002 and am happy with the screen. But as always I’m looking to upgrade but at the moment it doesn’t seem to be in par in the screen quality department.

I will admit that I will occasional play Tiger Woods golf or Madden on my laptop, nothing like some games to relax me on the road. Even with the FireGL cards if you use the Omega ATI drivers you get near desktop performance… But that is not the main purpose of the machine, business is what I use it for.

As far as memory limitations that is a Windows XP sp2 limitation but you can modify the boot.ini file to get around it. At this point I'm Running Vista build 5472 on my desktop and laptop so as long as the bios can detect 4GB the Vista OS will see it and use it. I had to make the change on my desktop when I upgraded to SP2, as it only detected 3GB afterwards. If I’m missing something and it’s an inherent Thinkpad limitation let me know.

The Z61p is 1920x1200 and the T60p is 1600x1200 so more screen will equal more space. I could not care less about watching DVDs, my TV is perfect for movies. Screen space does matter when working with large landscape documents for hours at a time. What also matters is the quality and brightness of the display and with Flexview the T60P has the advantage here. My desktop 24inch LCD has quite a bit more room then my 21 inch desktop LCD... Of course the 24 inch 16:9 has 12.5% more screen space then a 21 inch 4:3, while a 15.4 has only 2.6% more then a 15 inch. The 2.6% is negated my the flexview and the overall brightness of the screen. So at the moment I’m leaning heavily towards the T60P due to this. I’ve been using my A31P with 15 inch1600x1200 flexview since 2002 and am happy with the screen. But as always I’m looking to upgrade but at the moment it doesn’t seem to be in par in the screen quality department.

I will admit that I will occasional play Tiger Woods golf or Madden on my laptop, nothing like some games to relax me on the road. Even with the FireGL cards if you use the Omega ATI drivers you get near desktop performance… But that is not the main purpose of the machine, business is what I use it for.

As far as memory limitations that is a Windows XP sp2 limitation but you can modify the boot.ini file to get around it. At this point I'm Running Vista build 5472 on my desktop and laptop so as long as the bios can detect 4GB the Vista OS will see it and use it. I had to make the change on my desktop when I upgraded to SP2, as it only detected 3GB afterwards. If I’m missing something and it’s an inherent Thinkpad limitation let me know.

maximus_ wrote: I'm looking at the T60P 2613H5U with 2GB of RAM (will upgrade to 4GB when RAM prices drop).... But I just noticed that the Z61P is listed as having a maximum of 4GB and now has the Fire GL and resolution are up to 1920x1200.

My question is what are your overall thoughts of the two in performance, build quality, and any other factors that may come to mind.

I need a reliable high powered machine, I'm an IT consultant, travel weekly, and these two fit the bill but I have never used a Z series before and wanted some advice in the area.

Greetings and Welcome to the Forum...

I have (see signature line) both the T60 series, and the Z60 series. I purchased the Z60m when they first came out just to see what they were like, as I had many questions like yours. As a long time T series user, I was interested in the wide screen for the obvious reasons. I am very happy to report that build quality on the Z series is every bit as good as the T series. Just a different material in the case. My T60 (15") has the Flexview screen which is outstanding. However that said, I must report that the (15.4") display on the Z is very bright, clear and has great colors. The most noticeable difference in the viewing angle, which of course on the Flexview is much wider than the conventional TFT viewing angle on the Z. This is only beneficial in my opinion, if you truly need the wide angle because you have others looking at the screen with you. The downside, is there is no privacy when working in an open environment, as everyone can see your display.

Regarding performance, mine is a Pentium as it was the only choice at the beginning of the year when I made this purchase. Now that the Core Duo is available I am sure you would be very happy with the performance, especially since mine is quite fast as it is. Not as fast as the core duo, but nicely optimized with good speed.

Regarding the weight difference, I hardly notice it and carry the Z on a daily basis when I want to work on a widescreen. It's a non issue, plus it's less than .5 lbs. difference. I can say from personal experience that these two are very nice computers and after years of being very bias towards the T series, I can say now that the Z is very worthy of the ThinkPad name and is a fine choice.

My ThinkPad(s) are mission critical to my work and that is why I have used them for over 10 years with great success. I cannot think of a better laptop for those of us who use them as the tools to do our work with.