Lenovo ThinkPad R61 Reviews

May.17, 2008 in Lenova

Although Lenovo’s R series of ThinkPads has always delivered exceptional value, it’s lacked the sleekness of the venerable T series. With the ThinkPad R61-14W, Lenovo adds a thinner build, a widescreen display, and Intel’s Next Generation Centrino Processor technology to the security and durability we’ve come to expect. Add in discrete graphics, and you’ve got a pricey but powerful productivity partner.
The Lenovo ThinkPad R61 represents just about everything a business thin-and-light notebook should be, with its comfortable, durable design, cutting-edge wireless connectivity, and top-notch application performance driven by Intel’s Santa Rosa mobile platform. Poor battery life kept it from earning higher marks, however.

This notebook isn’t blazing fast or powerful like most workstations or gaming laptops, but it handles all normal applications really well. It does not lag at all with the 80GB 5400rpm stock hard drive. Once I put the Seagate 7200rpm hard drive in, it just got faster.

# Processor: Intel T7300 Core 2 Duo (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)
# Chipset: Intel Mobile 965 Express chipset (Crestline)
# Graphics: Intel X3100 (Integrated graphics card)
# Operating System: Windows Vista Business 64-bit
# Display: 14.1” WXGA+ 1440 x 900
# Hard Drive: 120GB 5400RPM
# Memory: 1GB

Lenovo ThinkPad R61 Reviews from Pc Mag

Pros

Various widescreen options and resolutions. Only 5.5 pounds. Heavenly keyboard and dual pointing devices.

Cons

No Wireless WAN options.

Lenovo ThinkPad R61 Reviews from Cnet

The good: The Lenovo ThinkPad R61 has a wide-screen display; an internal roll cage protects the LCD; 802.11n Wi-Fi; dedicated graphics; very small AC adapter.

The bad: New Centrino technology doesn’t offer outsize performance gains.
The bottom line: The IBM blueprint is still evident in the Lenovo ThinkPad R61, but the addition of a wide-screen display and all the latest Centrino Duo tricks make this a ThinkPad that could woo home users along with its legion of fans among business travelers.