Making a great laptop… even greater, First Look at the X60s from Lenovo

Michael Gartenberg | March 07, 2006, 03:28 PM

I really liked the SZ series from Sony but the lack of high speed integrated wireless and a keyboard that I never really got used to (the keys were just too broad and not quite deep enough for my tastes) sent me back to using the x41 Tablet on my last trip.

Now, the ThinkPad X series by Lenovo has been one of my favorite lines of laptops since I discovered the fabulous X40. Followed by the Tablet PC version of the X41, it was hard for me to imagine how Lenovo can improve on a pretty great product. The answer is the new X60s. I've been using one of the new machines for a few days and I'm totally blown away by what's been added. It doesn't seem like much but added all together, and you have the perfect notebook for road warriors.

First up is a new core duo processor from Intel running at 1.66ghz that's nice and speedy. Add in a 100gb HD (my older 40gb was starting to feel really cramped if I wanted to keep video on the hard drive for airplane viewing), 80211 a/b/g, Bluetooth, a cool fingerprint reader and you've got a pretty nice upgrade to the older x41. But what really makes the new X60s is the fact that it has integrated EVDO. Yep, the feature first introduced in the larger Z series has now made it down to the form factor that I love. Broadband everywhere. Add in 8 hours or so of battery life (and up to 11 hours with the external battery) and you have a powerful computer that is pretty much ubiquitous. There's a nice docking station that lets you add an integrated optical drive (but it kind of kills the form factor). While I miss the Tablet functionality, I'll take that trade off for now. Look for a full review soon.