X-bit labs

Santa Rosa + Vista: Three Notebooks Reviewed (page 13)

Category: Mobile

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 11/04/2007 | 04:18 PM ]

The speakers of Lenovo Thinkpad T61 are on both sides of the keyboard. They are pretty loud, but the sound quality is average. We have long known about the drawbacks of solution like that: with the notebook top closed the sound becomes badly muffled.

However, the cooling system of this mobile computer is its indisputable advantage. They have designed a totally new cooling solution for Thinkpad T61 that includes new airflow system and a cooler with uniquely shaped fan blades. It runs absolutely noiselessly while cooling the notebook components efficiently and keeping the casing temperature pretty low. The air is taken in through numerous holes in the bottom of the notebook, and ousted through the left and rear sides of the case.

Thinkpad T61 we got our hands on was equipped with Core 2 Duo T7300 processor running at default 2.0GHz and featuring 4MB L2 cache.

The notebook also features 2GB of dual-channel DDR2-667 SDRAM that ensured high performance results in the majority of benchmarks.

Even in 3D tests Lenovo Thinkpad T61 looks very good as well, although Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M graphics card is positioned as a 2D solution in the first place. However, Quadro NVS 140M is based on the latest generation G86 DirectX 10 chip and features 16 stream processors, i.e. twice as many as GeForce 8400M G installed in Asus A8Sc.

The battery in this mobile system aroused pretty diverse feelings. The thing is that despite its relatively standard capacity of 67.6Wh (6 cells) it stands out dramatically at the back of the notebook. It not only looks awkward, but also increases the notebook size, which may cause some inconveniences. The alternative battery offered by the manufacturer that fits into the notebook dimensions consists of only 4 cells, which may be too little for a contemporary mobile solution. To be fair I have to say that Lenovo Thinkpad T61 is a highly economical system. Our tests showed that it can run on a 6-cell battery for up to 3 hours.