The Lenovo Z60T Thinkpad – Road Warrior Delight

Michael Gartenberg | October 06, 2005, 03:37 PM

I first saw the z760 series over the summer at the Lenovo analyst event and was really impressed with what I saw. For the last few days I've had a chance to use the Z60T and it's a killer machine. While as a "road warrior" I generally prefer really small computers for travel but using this new ThinkPad has started to change my mind. First, even with the widescreen, WXGA resolution screen and built in DVD burner, it's still less than five pounds so while it's not as small as the X series, it's still pretty light. Unlike other units in this class, battery life is really good as well, I get about four hours with the seven cell battery. That's more than enough for me for most trips. While there's a lot to love in this unit, including a/b/g WiFi (so I can stream content off my MediaCenter PC), Bluetooth, three US ports, a 1394 port and an SD reader, what really sets this machine apart is integrated EV-DO. No more looking for a Starbucks, just click and connect. Unlike other WAN integration efforts from Sony using EDGE and Cingular, which is nice, EDGE capability just doesn't compare in terms of performance to EV-DO. Combined with the fact the unit I'm testing also has a 2gz processor, a gig of RAM and a 100gb hard disk and you have a machine that can pretty be much be a desktop replacement. You just can't get those specs in the really ultra-portables just yet.

The ThinkPad utilities all have been updated by Lenovo and they remain in my opinion the best of breed for mobile computing. I had no problem restoring my system even after intentionally corrupting several Windows files or copying critical work off the machine when I intentionally messed up with Windows not boot (not that getting Windows to not boot is that hard). This ThinkPad also offers a few other niceties, first, there's a Windows key, the first on any ThinkPad I know of. Even more shocking, my unit isn't standard ThinkPad black but actually a shiny Titanium (in fact, the lid is actually made of Titanium). Overall, Lenovo has done a fantastic job moving forward the evolution of the ThinkPad line and Z60 is likely to be a big success in both the business and consumer markets.