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Which one to buy? x61 tablet or x60 tablet?

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:07 am
by mrhardware
Hello fellow Thinkpad enthusiasts!
I have enjoyed my T40p for over 4 years now, and I will never buy a non-Thinkpad laptop, ever!
I just love the overall quality feel of thinkpads, and call me crazy but I think that they look stunning!

Here in Norway the high end thinkpad models are VERY pricey, I got my T40p for half the price, and still had to pay $3800 (with todays exchange rate)! Even though it was pricey I have never regretted buying it.
Now, after 4 years I fell that it would be nice with a new one, but this time I would like a ultraportable, so I really want a x6x :-)

I'm going to visit my familiy in the US in august, and found out that thinkpads are half the price over there, so I'm planning to order one and ship it to my relatives and bring it home when I get there...

I really "need" a display with at resolution of at least 1400x1050, and as far as I've found out, I'll have to get one of the tablet versions(?).

My T40p has the 8(?) cell high capacity battery, and I have also bought the extra ultrabay slim battery (I've managed to get 10+ hours out of it! Lowest backlight, no wireless, slowest CPU speed). So, my new laptop needs to have long batterylife.

I very seldomly play games, but I watch quite a bit of HD studd which can be pretty CPU intensive.

I also love the extra speed that a 7200RPM gives, but I don't need more than 60GB of storage.

---

1.
I'm a bit confused when it comes to batterylife. I read somewhere (think it was a Cnet review) where they said that the x61 actually had shorter batterylife than the x60...? Has anyone compared the batterylife of the x60t to the x61t?

2.
What are the pros and cons of the x60t and the x61t when compared to each other?

When I get these two questions sorted out, I may need som help with further configuration :-)
Thanks very much for all your suggestions!

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:15 am
by tomh009
Apples to apples (same test, same OS etc), the X61 series has slightly better battery life.

X61 essentially gives you a faster integrated graphics chipset, the ability to address 4 GB of memory (with a 64-bit operating system), support for the turbo memory option and the 2x3 antenna option for 802.11n. Whether these make a difference to you should probably be the biggest consideration in deciding between an X60 and X61. (Personally, since I expect to keep my system for three years, the 64-bit memory support was the deciding factor for me.)

If you are buying in the US, you can use this page to check whether th models you are considering have warranty coverage in Norway:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... yle=lenovo

P.S. Welcome to the forums!

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:26 pm
by mrhardware
Aha!
Well then I guess I'll go for the x61 :-D

I read the Anandtech test about the turbo memory thing (http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3009) and it seemed promising! But is it worth the $50?

The on the x61 order page it says "ships within 3-4 week", but I read somewhere in here that it's not always true. I'm leaving my family in Indiana on monday 13. august. I know that it isn't possible for any of you to guess an exact arrival date, but what do you gurus think, if I order the laptop tomorrow will it arrive in time?
On the x60 tablet order page it says is supposed to "ship in 1-2 weeks"...

The 802.11n isn't really that important, but of course the 64bit support is very nice.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 5:33 pm
by tomh009
For $50 I would take the turbo memory. Although you could wait and buy it afterwards as well.

If you want a quicker delivery date, it would worthwhile checking resellers like Euclid Computers.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:18 pm
by mrhardware
So I can install the Turbo memory myself? Thats great, thenerds.net sells the 1GB turbo memory for only $26!

But I'm very worried about the 3-4 weeks delivery date. But it seems that Lenovo has a sale or something now so it will be much cheaper to buy it directly from them, only $1633!

How is this setup?
ThinkPad X61 Tablet $1,633.00
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo L7500 LV
12.1" MultiView WVA SXGA TFT
512 MB PC2-5300 SDRAM DDR2 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
60GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
ThinkPad X60 Tablet 8 Cell Li-Ion Battery

PS! I already have two 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM 667MHz laying around, so thats why I only "need" 512MB...

If you guys don't think that it will arrive in time then I'll just have to go for the x60 tablet (with a Core 2 Duo)
ThinkPad X60 Tablet 6365CTO $1,688.00
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo L7400 LV (1.50GHz, 4MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
12.1" WVA SXGA+ TFT
512 MB PC2-5300 SDRAM DDR2 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) 60GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm Serial ATA (2.5")
Integrated 1Gb Ethernet
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
ThinkPad X60 Tablet 8 Cell Li-Ion Battery

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:53 pm
by tomh009
The price is very nice ... but you won't get a projected ship date until you place the order. Once you do that, if the date looks bad, I believe that you could still cancel the order and order another model instead (maybe someone with personal experience with Lenovo direct can confirm though).

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:22 pm
by Trekk69
I believe you have to order 1gb from lenovo in order to get the Turbo Memory, just to let you know

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:27 pm
by tomh009
Trekk69 wrote:I believe you have to order 1gb from lenovo in order to get the Turbo Memory, just to let you know
... but if he buys it separately (as he is proposing to do) then he won't have that constraint.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:32 pm
by Trekk69
Good point, thanks.
I guess its just good knowledge to know just in case

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:28 am
by mrhardware
I emailed my relatives and they said that they could order whatever I wanted, and then they would charge it to their credit card (it not possible to use foreign CC's). So with that obstacle out of the way, I have a got few more small questions to ask...

Which WLAN card should I buy?

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [add $25.00]
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ [$0.00]
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Free upgrade for a limited time.

When I order, is the projected shipping date somewhat reliable?

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:27 am
by mgags7
mrhardware wrote:I emailed my relatives and they said that they could order whatever I wanted, and then they would charge it to their credit card (it not possible to use foreign CC's). So with that obstacle out of the way, I have a got few more small questions to ask...

Which WLAN card should I buy?

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [add $25.00]
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ [$0.00]
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Free upgrade for a limited time.

When I order, is the projected shipping date somewhat reliable?
Get the AGN card.

The projected shipping date is very unreliable in my experience. I ordered an x60 on 6/12, projected shipping date was 6/26, it shipped on 6/21. I returned that in favor of an x61, ordered 6/29, projected shipping date 8/1!!!! It shipped three days later on 7/2. WTF

Either way, I would like to know if the motherboard is different or something if you don't get turbo memory from lenovo, the "socket" is still there correct?

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:43 am
by tomh009
The slot is still there, yes.