Thinkpads Forum

As travelling engineer, I am going to buy either a T60p with the 15"flexview display or a Z61p with the 15.4" widescreen. Either would be configured with a 2Ghz processor, 2Gig RAM, the V5200 graphics card, a 7200RPM drive, DVD burner, Thinkpad wireless a/b/g, XP Pro and fingerprint. My goal is to have a desktop replacement that will be quick and do a good job running AutoCAD, MathCAD, Primavera, and Quicken in addition to lots of email and all the MS Office apps. I may go to Vista and Office2007. I spend a lot of time in front of the sceen and will not be playing much games or doing image or video editing. I can't decide between the regular 15" screen and the 15.4" wide screen. Can you folks out there help me choose a screen shape? I'm concerned that since I've been used to a 15" screen (R51e), the reduced height of the widescreen will be a bother. Thanks!

Since the Z61p screen is not an IPS panel the decision is easy

Welcome to the forums, David!

I suspect that you would not miss the physical height -- it's about a one-inch difference in display panel height (9" vs 8"), but you do get additional pixels: 1680 pixels across instead of 1400, while the vertical pixel count stays at 1050.

The Flexview display is indeed very nice, but if you have been satisfied with your R51e's current display (assuming here that it's not Flexview), that may not make a difference to you.

Some sizes and weights to consider:
R61 15": 13.1" x 10.6" x 1.47-1.58", 6.6 lbs
Z61p 15" wide: 14.1" x 10.3" x 1.47-1.58", 7.3 lbs
T60p 15" Flexview: 13.2" x 10.6" x 1.2-1.4, 6.3 lbs
T60p 15" wide: 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.13–1.34", 6.1 lbs

You can see that the Z61p is the heaviest, with the T60p options 1-1.5 lbs lighter. The widescreens add an extra inch of width to your current R61, although they are just slightly less deep.

The T60p widescreen has, I think, the nicest form factor, although it will be more expensive than the Z61p.

Just my 0.02 here.

I will NEVER own another WS laptop. NEVER.

I consider it a sales gimick (watching movies) and truly hate them. If I want to watch a movie, I find it FAR more enjoyable on a TV.

I also find myself scrolling vertically much more on a WS laptop than a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (I do a LOT of data analysis and writing).

Just my opinion (since you asked ).

Excellent comments all. Thanks!!

What is the flexscreen and why is it different and/or better than the regular screen? Is it in any way worse? My current R51e has a 15" screen and it is OK. I would not want anything smaller. I don't think it is a special screen.

I understand pixel count and I have found that laptop displays only really preform up to their capacity if used in native resolution. If that means that the widescreen display will either be small text or weaker performance, I will stay with the standard format.

Tom - are the numbers you quote display size or case size? If case size, do yo have the display (viewable) sizes? My R51e display size is 9" high x 12" wide.

Also - is there any better place to buy Thinkpads pricewise other than Lenovo's web site?

Brent - You seem to own almost the exact model I want to buy. Do you like it? Are there any bad things? How about battery life?

Also, Is any real difference in the wireless options? a/b/g but thinkpad vs Intel or other?

Flexview is an S-IPS panel that provides more accurate colour reproduction (maybe not critical for your applications) and a wider viewing angle.

A widescreen will not inherently be better or worse performance -- text size (with Windows XP) depends on the dpi (dots per inch) density of the panel.

15.1" 4:3 SXGA+ panel is 12.08"x9.06" and 116 dpi. 15.4" 8:5 WSXGA+ panel is 13.06"x8.16" and 129 dpi. The end result is that the text is about 10% smaller, all else being equal.

It looks like Windows Vista will, for the first time, provide flexible adjustment of text and other display element sizes to compensate for high-dpi displays. However, while the basics work nicely, I have not yet had an opportunity to test that with a wide range of applications.

Until tomorrow, Lenovo's Thanksgiving sale (ends 11 December) probably has better prices than anyone else ...

brentpresley wrote:I also find myself scrolling vertically much more on a WS laptop than a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen

How could this be a problem if the T60p and the Z61p that the OP is considering have the same number of vertical pixels (1050)?

DavidR wrote:Brent - You seem to own almost the exact model I want to buy. Do you like it? Are there any bad things? How about battery life?

Also, Is any real difference in the wireless options? a/b/g but thinkpad vs Intel or other?

Well, my T60p is cobbled together from spare parts (no warranty). That's what makes her special


I LOVE the screen on this machine. If you can FIND one with a 15" UXGA flexview, BUY IT (Hydis, the company that made them went belly up). You won't regret it.

My observations:
1) heat has NOT been an issue. Sure, she gets warm, but all laptops do. This is NOT like P4 laptops used to get (scorching hot).
2) Core 2 Duo is king. The performance of these chips is simply stuffing. It chews through EVERYTHING I have thrown at it.
3) Did I mention HOW BEAUTIFUL the flexview screen is?
4) weight - this is one of two of my only complaints. It is about 1lb heavier than my T42 14" was. But the extra space on the screen makes up for it. Borderline a pain for the frequent flyer. You might want to invest in an ultraportable as well if you travel a lot.
5) Battery life is OK. Having the high end display, graphics card, hard drive, and CPU means that I get about 90min on a 6-cell with average usage. This could be much better, but unfortunately one of my FAVORITE power tweaking utilities (Notebook Hardware Control) hasn't been make Vista compatible yet. If I could drop the voltage down on the CPU some I could possibly get 10-15% more battery life.

Hope this helps.

pianowizard wrote:

brentpresley wrote:I also find myself scrolling vertically much more on a WS laptop than a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen

How could this be a problem if the T60p and the Z61p that the OP is considering have the same number of vertical pixels (1050)?

Because I wind up resizing the word document that I am looking at to the full width of the screen. Therefore less of it is displayed vertically.

brentpresley wrote:Because I wind up resizing the word document that I am looking at to the full width of the screen. Therefore less of it is displayed vertically.

I see. By contrast, I compensate for the smaller text by sitting closer to the laptop, so I don't have this problem of having to scroll up and down more frequently.

Well I bought it. Please tell me it is not a mistake!

ThinkPad T Series T60p
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0GHz)
Windows XP Professional
15.0 SXGA+ TFT Flexview Display
ATI Mobility Fire GL V5250 256MB
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
60GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Limited Warranty

DavidR wrote:Well I bought it. Please tell me it is not a mistake!

ThinkPad T Series T60p
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0GHz)
Windows XP Professional
15.0 SXGA+ TFT Flexview Display
ATI Mobility Fire GL V5250 256MB
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
60GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
1 Year Limited Warranty

Very nice the only thing I would have recommended was adding another hard drive.....You seem to have upgraded everything but the 60GB seems a little small I would have went with at least a 100gb total capacity imo....

brentpresley wrote:

DavidR wrote:Brent - You seem to own almost the exact model I want to buy. Do you like it? Are there any bad things? How about battery life?

Also, Is any real difference in the wireless options? a/b/g but thinkpad vs Intel or other?

Well, my T60p is cobbled together from spare parts (no warranty). That's what makes her special


I LOVE the screen on this machine. If you can FIND one with a 15" UXGA flexview, BUY IT (Hydis, the company that made them went belly up). You won't regret it.

My observations:
1) heat has NOT been an issue. Sure, she gets warm, but all laptops do. This is NOT like P4 laptops used to get (scorching hot).
2) Core 2 Duo is king. The performance of these chips is simply stuffing. It chews through EVERYTHING I have thrown at it.
3) Did I mention HOW BEAUTIFUL the flexview screen is?
4) weight - this is one of two of my only complaints. It is about 1lb heavier than my T42 14" was. But the extra space on the screen makes up for it. Borderline a pain for the frequent flyer. You might want to invest in an ultraportable as well if you travel a lot.
5) Battery life is OK. Having the high end display, graphics card, hard drive, and CPU means that I get about 90min on a 6-cell with average usage. This could be much better, but unfortunately one of my FAVORITE power tweaking utilities (Notebook Hardware Control) hasn't been make Vista compatible yet. If I could drop the voltage down on the CPU some I could possibly get 10-15% more battery life.

Hope this helps.

I have the 15" UXGA Hydis Flexview, but the colors seem rather washed out as compared to my external LCD.

It is a nice screen though.

DavidR wrote:Well I bought it. Please tell me it is not a mistake!

Well, it depends on the price.

brentpresley wrote:Just my 0.02 here.

I will NEVER own another WS laptop. NEVER.

I consider it a sales gimick (watching movies) and truly hate them. If I want to watch a movie, I find it FAR more enjoyable on a TV.

I also find myself scrolling vertically much more on a WS laptop than a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (I do a LOT of data analysis and writing).

Just my opinion (since you asked ).

That really depends on resolution more so than just ratio though.

You'd do exactly the same amount of scrolling if the vertical resolution of each display was the same.

I personally do not understand the 16:9 vs 4:3 debate, as I use both and get on fine with either, and I am a video editor so I work with a lot of widescreen material yet I also do programming, which is also equally suited to 16:9 or 4:3