Z61m User Review

[illc]

This is a user review of the Z61m, model number 9452E8U.

I border on OCD when shopping, particularly when it's something as expensive and important as a computer. I found this forum very useful during my search, so I wanted to add my thoughts for anyone who may be considering this laptop and laments the inability to try one out in person. I'll try to avoid all the agonizing details on how I narrowed it down to thinkpad vs. thinkpad, and try to keep my comments specific to the system I actually bought. Lastly, let me preface by saying I am more likely to note and comment on the negatives than the positives or neutrals. So let me say right up front that so far I am pretty content with my purchase, and for me that says volumes about this machine relative to other systems on the market.

(One more note, when I refer to my last laptop, it was a Compaq Evo-n800 with comparable specs.)


Stock System Specs
================
- 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB 5400ATA HD, ATI x1400 GPU

Upgrades
=========
- RAM to 1.5GB total

Industrial Design / Ergonomics
=======================
- Very nice black finish that manages to be slightly glittery and matte at the same time without being either dull-looking or stupid looking (like the awful glossy black shine of the HP/Compaqs). While reading thinkpad reviews I was wondering what all the fuss was about with the business-black traditionalists. Now that I have it in person, I get it. It looks both appealing and professional, which is quite the feat. I probably would have opted for the titanium cover had I the choice, but I now think I favor the subtle all-black sleeper look.
- The oversized "ThinkVantage" button is a little distracting for some reason. And what, was "PadVantage" already trademarked or did it just rhyme too well? There's a lot of dead space next to the ThinkVantage key that could have been used for customizable hot keys. It also seems kind of half-assed to add dedicated volume keys, which I use quite often, and stop there leaving 3" of unused space. I would have either demoted the volume controls to Fn-keys to be consistent or added a few more frequently used functions like the ThinkLight, sleep, display brightness, etc...
- The frame is sturdy as advertised with a few exceptions: the thinkvantage button cover plate area and the bottom of the back of the display housing are disappointingly flimsy. The right side of the hard drive cover is also a little squishy, and not quite flush for some reason. The display hinging is rock solid, but the display flexes more than I thought it would with the rollbar design. Since the hinging is so tight, I've been careful to pull open the display from the center, as I don't want to find out whether flexing the screen five times a day for the next three years will cause any deterioration. That said, this display housing flexes much less than anything I wrenched on in stores.
- The trackpad is positioned too low for my tastes, as I have to either rotate my wrist more than usual to use it or take my hand off the palm rest. That's bad news for RMI concerns. I also tend to try to touch on the area between the trackpoint buttons and the touchpad. I realize there has to be dead space there so your thumb knuckles don't hit the touchpad and I will probably get used to this, so not a big deal. The touchpad is also on the small side, but this is not a problem for me as they're usually larger than is really necessary. In any case, I've been using the trackpoint almost exclusively.
- The speaker grills extend to the bottom of the keyboard, but are only functional in the first 1.5" where the speakers are actually located. This wasted space could have been used for better speakers, dedicated keys, or a retractable beer holder. It was probably a good aesthetic decision to go with the faux speaker plates, but they're about as useful as a whale tail on a civic and just a little silly when you realize your vaunted business laptop is a little vain after all.

Features
========
- The fingerprint reader is very cool, very convenient, and so far very reliable. It took a little trial and error to learn how to swipe properly (move at a steady medium speed, roll your finger a bit at the end, and press your finger firmly). Once I got the hang of it, I could even trick it into registering my palm print.
- The trackpoint of the UltraNav is great. It's not as accurate as the touchpad, but keeping your hands on the keys and having the scroll feature easily makes up for the loss of control. The three-pack of different nub cover styles was also a pleasant surprise. I really loathe the auto-calibration though -- if I leave my finger on the nub, it adjusts for my idle finger pressure and when I lift off it starts to drift. Turning down the sensitivity setting would probably fix this, but that makes the cursor move too slow.
- There is no integrated webcam on model number 9452E8U! I have to admit I got burned on this one. I really wanted an integrated webcam after using my brother's MacBook. A video call vs. a voice call is like a voice call vs. an email. Video is so much more personal, and that's nice when family is far away. And video conferencing is a must for my remote consulting work. I know I can just get a webcam, but the less I have to carry around the better, and having the camera integrated into the display housing is so much more convenient and likely to be used. Anyway, this is a great feature for those of you who order the appropriate models.
- The ThinkLight is a nice feature that I was excited about, but it's pretty dim. I read on this forum that the amber color (instead of white) was for better night vision, which I'll buy, but I have a hard time believing that having it so dim also somehow helps night vision. And a brighter LED is not a concern for the battery. This is a useful feature, but the light level neuters it.

Display
=======
- This is a nice screen with a surpisingly good viewing angle. Subjectively speaking, meaning I move my head or the screen until I could no longer read the screen, it's usable up to at least +60/-60 degrees horizontally and +45/-30 vertically for images, and even better than that for text. I realize it's hard to relate my ballpark numbers to actual specs, but suffice is to say that it's a big improvement over the display on my last laptop. I was actually expecting it to be worse after reading about the matte style displays on ThinkPads.
- 1680x1050 native resolution is well suited to the 15.4" widescreen. I have 20/20 vision with minor astigmatism and my eyes strain just a little bit with the font size, so any higher resolution would be overboard for me. But I really needed the extra screen real estate, particularly for using Matlab. I used to have to switch back and forth between overlapping windows and spend a lot of time making sure a corner of each window showed through so I wouldn't have to constantly use the task bar or alt-tab. Now I can easily put the script editor side by side with the command window and I don't think I lost any width on either. In fact with the smaller font at this resolution I may have gained space when side-by-side. (I'm coming from 1280 horizontal res.)
- The screen brightness setting doesn't go high enough. I actually don't like overly bright displays and usually I like to turn down the brightness, but on this display I prefer the highest setting, which is adequate, but I would like to be able to turn it up when necessary. The max brightness actually dims when you switch to battery power (this is not the power scheme turning it down, this is the maximum getting dimmer).

Video
======
- I don't do any gaming, but I do watch movies and dowloaded video such as TV shows from iTunes. The video playback with iTunes is really flakey, but once I finally get it going it's relatively free of hiccups. However, this has been my experience with iTunes video on every machine I've used. I've found the playback is helped by using the "max performance" power scheme, which removes some power-saving limitations that are otherwise placed on the hardware when running off battery power.

Audio
======
- The speakers aren't loud enough at highest volume. Much like the display brightness, the max volume is adequate, but in certain environments you would like to be able to turn it up. I read a lot of comments to the effect that this is a business machine, and a laptop at that, so don't expect much from the speakers. Well, it's not like I expect 20-20000Hz, undistorted, dobly surround sound. I know laptop speakers will sound crappy, but they should sound crappy at high volume if I want to crank them up.
- Speaking of sounding crappy, these speakers are like a bowl of rice krispies when I've got music playing. I'd look into doing a mod to replace the speakers, but I can hear some snapping cracking and popping through headphones as well, in either iTunes or Media Player. So basically the SoundMAX integrated audio is a real turd, which is a huge disappointment since I listen to music pretty much nonstop. I can live with the speakers, but having poor audio going out the phones port is unacceptable. I'm going to have to blow some money on a PCMCIA audio card to solve this.
- The system beep is WAY TOO LOUD! How do I turn it down? By the way, this is a case in point of a minimally functional speaker being able to speak loudly, albeit poorly.

Connectivity
===========
- On first try I had no problems hooking up my new Sony Ericsson W810a cell phone. The Memory Stick Pro Duo pops out of the phone and plugs right into the 4-in-1 card reader (note that the Z61t has a 3-in-1 card reader that I think leaves out the memory stick support). I also easily connected the phone using infrared, USB cable, and bluetooth (not built-in to this model of the Z61m, but I have a USB adapter). Props to Sony-Ericsson for quality hardware and software, but the laptop definitely gets a nod for having conveniently placed IR and the 4-in-1 card reader. Later, I tried transferring a file to my computer via IR, and after bumping the phone slightly the trasfer utility froze everything. I eventually had to hard reset the laptop. Chances are good that the transfer utility is just a big MS POS.
- WLAN reception has been excellent. As good or better than my last laptop which had the WLAN adapter and antenna built into the corner of the display, which is good for antenna polarization and lobing performance.
- I tried connecting my iPod via USB. More like diePod. The system locked up until I hard reset and disconnected the iPod and/or killed iTunes. After upgrading to iTunes 7, it now recognizes the iPod about 75% of the time after 3-4 minutes of iTunes freezing. It's hard to blame the laptop for Apple and MS not playing nice with each other, but then again my last windows based laptop had no such problem with the same iPod.

Software
=========
- Bloatware is minimal, as has been duly noted by all. I haven't decided whether to keep the Symantec Client Security yet. I hesitate to assume that it is slowing the system more than any other solution would and then wind up with something slower or lurking Symantec remnants. From what I've read, it seems that the Corporate edition may not be as bad as the consumer Norton version. I read in another review that Symantec falsely claimed the license was expired after two weeks instead of three months, and the same thing happened to me after two weeks. The message said that I would be protected but that I could not download anymore updates. However, I just downloaded an update today and my license expiration date in the "About" area is the three month date.
- The ThinkVantage has been useful on many occasions and hasn't been a nuisance yet, so those are good signs. Usually the vendorware is annoying, useless garbage. One eyebrow raiser, though, is that I turned off the message center and told it not to start at logon. Then about a week later it's back in the taskbar, giving me useless messages. I killed it again and hopefully it stays dead this time.

Hardware
=========
- At first I thought the DVD multi-recorder (Matshita UJ-850) was really slow. iTunes was ripping tracks from the drive at only 5x. Then I found a setting for CD-ROM speed on the Advanced dialog box of the Global Power Settings tab of the Power Manager. MP3s could then be imported from CD at 10-12x, which is what I was originally expecting. This drive is also a power hog if you have to run it while on battery power. It sticks a big gulp straw into the battery and sucks it right down. And I wasn't even recording anything in this case, just installing MS Office. I know optical drives are inherently power needy, but this one strikes me as particularly bad. Though I may just pay more attention to the battery now with this big neon green battery icon on the taskbar. (Incidentally, I think the power manager is a good example of useful vendorware).
- The battery life is fairly short. I could buy an extended life battery pack, but I will mostly be using it on the AC adapter so this will only annoy me when on a plane or waiting in an airport or coffee shop that has no outlets. I think watching a 2-hour DVD while on battery is probably out of the question. A more efficient optical drive and a conservative power scheme might get through a movie.
- I have mixed feelings about the Active Protection for the hard drive. It activates whenever the laptop is tilted slightly, which is pretty often when working on your lap, and the faint click noise as the needle is pulled off the platter can be distracting. However, I haven't noticed the frequent disengagement slowing down performance (except for video hiccups when running from HD), and the system can be simply turned off or suspended so this is at the least a nice bonus feature. If only the hard drive was the only thing at risk when you drop your laptop on its head...
- No built-in bluetooth. Again, get the right model or configure properly and this will be built-in. Maybe there is an open slot inside the machine I can transplant an aftermarket bluetooth adapter into.
- No EVDO either on this model, but I really didn't want it anyway. Mobile data pricing is outrageous, and it won't be long before WiFi or WiMax transmitters are as ubiquitous as cellular basestations. Besides, I just found out I can connect my new cell as a modem if I ever need to.
- The hard drive is sufficient. All I really ask of it is to be quiet, and it's doing that. Strangely, it needed to be defragged almost right out of the box. The hidden partition for restoring the system is a nice feature, but if I ever need to upgrade the hard drive I'm not sure that there's a way to image the partition and everything onto the new drive to hang on to this feature.

Size and Weight
==============
I debated at length over whether to get the Z61t or Z61m. I was worried about trading off size and weight for a dedicated GPU and bigger screen with better resolution. I looked at other laptops in these sizes in person. The 15.4" size just "felt" better to me. And I've been getting RMI from mousing with a desktop PC, so I was also worried about having enough palm rest real estate to rest my hands comfortably. I decided the Z61t was too small and I would prefer a T60 over it since it is about the same width as the Z61t and just a little heavier. Since I mostly use this machine as a desktop replacement, I went with the larger Z61m and I've been very happy with that decision. It is not as heavy and thick as I feared and it is plenty portable for my purposes, which include a 3 mile bike commute with this thing strapped to my back. I would not have an issue traveling with it. Being able to work with windows side-by-side was really a deal-maker for the widescreen format, and will easily be one of the most notable improvements over my last machine.

Noise
======
- Surprisingly quiet fans. The fan on my old laptop sounded comically akin to a jet engine winding up.
- I almost have to put my ear up to the fan vents to hear the hard drive at all.
- Occasionally there is a high-pitched whining/buzzing/digital noise that is extremely annoying. It sounds like the young offspring of a cicada and a dot-matrix printer. I think the PD could amplify it and use it to disperse crowds. This noise occurs only on battery power. I couldn't tell by listening whether it was the CPU, GPU, RAM, HD, or bus, so I started poking around and tweaking battery-power related settings. Changing the power scheme to max performance and disabling ATI's PowerPlay didn't kill it, but I finally found the solution. It's the processor's power-saving feature of automatically turning off its clock when the system is idle long enough (and "long" to a processor is a very small fraction of a second, so this noise was pretty consistent when present). To turn off this option, go to the Global Power Settings tab in the Power Manager and click Advanced under "Power management options". On the Advanced dialog box, choose "Disabled" for the power management of the CPU. I've since re-enabled the similar setting for the PCI bus, and the noise hasn't returned, thus I've singled out the CPU clock feature as the culprit. Simply switching to the "max performance" power scheme won't change these settings because they require a system restart to take effect.

Heat
======
This machine is a champion heat dissipater. I can work with it on my lap indefinitely and not get hot in the knickers. I haven't run it flat-out yet, but I don't generally run that kind of work on my lap anyway. The palm rests don't often get warm enough to tell whether it's my hands or the machine heating them up. The fan exhausts also don't put out a jet stream of hot air like my last machine did, so I can finally divest of my paperweight collection. I hardly notice it exhausting at all since it happens so quietly and calmly.

Miscellaneous Weirdness
====================
- The system beep fires sometimes when typing (I've found lots of combinations of pressing 3+ keys at a time that cause this, e.g. f+r+e). Did I mention how loud the system beep is? It's like your mom yelling in your ear every time you type sloppily. Really annoying, as I am a careless typer. By the way, this is not just a multi-keypress courtesy warning, otherwise I couldn't type ";lkjfdsa" all at once, like I just did, without it beeping, which it just didn't. Short of disabling the system speaker through the device manager, I can't find a way to fix this bug.
- I activated the security chip and it really seemed to slow down the system so I decided to deactivate it. I had to do a lot of separate changes to reverse the all changes made during activation, and I still get the feeling things are a bit slower even after cleaning out the startup services. I don't know if the slowdown was real or imagined, but I will give it another try now that I've added another 1GB of memory. Is anyone succesfully/happily using the security chip?

Notable Pros
===========
- Solid frame
- Nice display
- UltraNav is a major differentiating feature
- Fingerprint reader
- Very quiet (except for the issue with the unclocked CPU)
- No heat issues

Notable Cons
============
- max speaker volume and max display brightness should be higher
- totally unacceptable audio quality
- no webcam or bluetooth on this particular model number
- short battery life

Overall Impression
===============
Due to the noted letdowns, I guess you could say I was expecting an Acura and I got a Honda. While this is a very solid all-around laptop, it's not quite the badass I had hoped for, however unrealistically. Even so, I am happy so far with my choice and its performance and would make the same decision in retrospect. If these reliable three weeks turn into a reliable three years of heavy use, I will be ecstatic.

[Rno]

Nice review!
The only thing i'm missing are the pictures
Some nice pictures of the height of the laptop in perspective would be awsome!

[mister_lake]

I have model 945039U of z61m...this thing gets so hot it's intolerable to have it on my lap for more than a minute.

[illc]

I have model 945039U of z61m...this thing gets so hot it's intolerable to have it on my lap for more than a minute.

That's very peculiar. The model I have really runs cool, even when powering through some pretty hefty processing loads. I've had it on my lap for about 30 minutes as I write this, and the underside is just a little warm. Barely noticeable until I checked with my hand.

I think your model has the same GPU as mine -- maybe you have a larger hard drive that runs hotter? Or the extended life battery? You could try letting it warm up for a while, then unplug it and take out the battery, then pop the hood and do a touch test to see what's putting out all the heat. (Using a wrist strap and staying away from the ICs of course.) Maybe you've just got a bum part that could be replaced by lenovo.

[mister_lake]

it's hot right under the trackpoint..whether I'm on battery or not..
I assume the CPU is in the far left corner looking from the top...not very hot in that area.

I just took the cover off for accessing the HDD..it's not too hot.

so...either WIFI or GPU, right?

[mister_lake]

okay..definitely my wifi card. its an intel abg ...

this kinda sucks...do you think I could get lenovo to swap it out?

[JohnDrake]

To speed up the system considering uninstalling CSS. Leave the fingerprint reader software alone, however.

To get rid of the beep on the keyboard, go to device manager. Under view, show hidden devices. Under view, show devices by connection. Look for the device called "Beep". Disable this device.

If you want the screen to stay at max brightness even when on battery, this can be set in the bios.

Be sure to run this on your system...very nice updater from Lenovo:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4ZKMCT

Be sure to burn off a set of recovery CD's.

[ZaZ]

[quote="mister_lake"]okay..definitely my wifi card. its an intel abg ...

this kinda sucks...do you think I could get lenovo to swap it out?[/quote]

Can't hurt to ask.

[illc]

okay..definitely my wifi card. its an intel abg ...

I have the same wifi card. Yours might be bunk or it's possible that it just gets that hot if your inbound WLAN signal is real low -- the output power probably adjusts according to the received signal strength, and the more power it needs to transmit to sustain the link the hotter the card is gonna get. If you open ThinkVantage Access connections from the system tray, it shows the current transmit power. I have not seen mine change from 25mW output power, and this level does not cause me the heating problem you're seeing.

To verify it's the wifi card, you could turn off the radios from the switch on the front and see if the heat issue gets better. I just turned mine on in an area where I get no signal and the power went up to 32mW. That's not significantly more, but the transmitter might be less efficient if it's maxed out. I'll leave it on for a while and see if mine gets hot under the trackpoint.

[illc]

Be sure to burn off a set of recovery CD's.

I'm not sure exactly what I need to do to create recovery CDs... Is there an automated way to do this through ThinkVantage or some other utility? If not, are you suggesting I backup the entire hidden partition to CD?

[GomJabbar]

I'm not sure exactly what I need to do to create recovery CDs... Is there an automated way to do this through ThinkVantage or some other utility? If not, are you suggesting I backup the entire hidden partition to CD?

No, he is not suggesting you backup the entire hidden partition to CD. There is a program that should be on your ThinkPad to burn the CD set. You only get to do it once until you perform a restore to factory contents. Most users find it beneficial to use a CD/R for the first disc, and a DVD+R or DVD-R (I don't remember which DVD format the multiburner will support.) for the second. You can use all CD's, but it will take maybe 8 CD's to burn the entire set.

Go to Start > All Programs > ThinkVantage > Create Recovery Media > Product Recovery, to make the set. There is also an option there to create a Rescue Media CD. This is 1 CD that allows you to boot into Rescue and Recovery when the hard drive won't boot.

FYI, using the Product Recovery Disc set will restore your hard drive to the software state as it came from the factory (including Windows and all IBM/Lenovo software and drivers). All existing data will be deleted in the process.