Lenovo ThinkPad R61 review

Lenovo’s latest ThinkPad is the first-ever widescreen model in the R-Series line. Pitched squarely at the corporate market for running mainstream applications (for premier performance you’ll still want the T-Series), the ThinkPad R61 (from £580 ex. VAT) also boasts an all-new Top Cover Roll Cage, improved cooling system, enhanced wireless connectivity, as well as longer battery life. It also comes pre-installed with Vista Business. Is this the best ThinkPad ever? Not quite, but the R61 is still an excellent all-round business workhorse and has helped raise the profile of the R-Series.Featuring the latest Intel Centrino Duo (aka Santa Rosa) mobile technology and widescreen display, the ThinkPad R61 is built for business. Not only is it the most practical in terms of features (think business), its engineering is second to none. Take the new Top Cover Roll Cage for instance. In addition to the original hard disk drive magnesium roll cage, the new roll cage provides rock solid reliability with top to bottom protection. The new honeycomb-designed roll cage helps to cushion the laptop’s LCD, reinforcing the screen and helping reduce stress on the display structure and Wi-Fi antenna.

According to Lenovo, the new Top Cover Roll Cage reduces the stress on the LCD screen by 25% on average when the machine is dropped compared to previous ThinkPads. Combined with features like the ‘air bag like’ sensor of Lenovo’s Active Protection System and a shock-mounted hard disk drive, the ThinkPad R61 provides one of the highest levels of physical protection in a system today. The keyboard is still among the best on the market (although there’s slightly too much flex for us), and the TrackPoint is precision incarnate. We still love the wholly-black design of the ThinkPad too - it cries out professionalism.

Starting at 2.47kg (336×237x 30.6mm), the ThinkPad R61 is available with a choice of specifications. Take note though: even fully specified it isn’t going to blow your multimedia socks off. Lenovo offers a choice of Intel processors up to a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 14.1- (1280×800 or 1440×900) or 15.4-inch (1024×768 or 1680×1050) display, up to 4GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, and up to 120GB hard disk drive capacity (non-raid). All models in the range come as standard with a TrackPoint and single-layer DVD recorder. To enhance the multimedia experience, Lenovo offers a choice of graphics options: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 or more powerful nVidia Quadro NVS 140M (128MB).

You can also opt for an integrated 1.3-megapixel Web camera with the ThinkPad R61, as well as an integrated biometric fingerprint reader and a smart card reader. You can even upgrade the modular DVD drive to a Blu-ray burner, hard disk drive, or an extra battery, but Lenovo doesn’t make this clear on its Web site. As with the T61 Widescreen, you can customise the card slots by picking two of the following: PC Card slot, ExpressCard 34/54 slot, SmartCard reader, or an SD card reader. Our review unit came with both PC Card and ExpressCard 34/54 slots. Other connections are pretty standard, including three USB ports, 4-pin FireWire 400 port, VGA-out, headphone/line-out, external microphone/line-in, and Expansion Bus port (for Dock II/Mini Dock or Port Replicator II).

Lenovo has addressed wireless performance with the Ultra Connect II. This connectivity design helps reduce the effect of conductive material and LCD noise, boosting WLAN performance and eliminating the need for external antennas. The laptop offers several different connectivity options such as 802.11n, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and V.90 data/fax modem. Unfortunately there is no Wireless WAN (WWAN) option. When used with Lenovo’s excellent Access Connections utility (simply press the dedicated blue button on the keyboard), Ultra Connect II helps provides an easy to manage wireless experience.

Lenovo touts 15% longer battery life with ‘Battery Stretch’. Whether it’s finishing a presentation or watching the end of a DVD-Movie, Battery Stretch allows you to select and manage options like minimising refresh rates and disabling radios and Bluetooth options in the Power Manager ThinkVantage Technology software to maximise the life of the 4-Cell Lithium-Ion battery. This is a really neat feature, and should prove useful for long-haul flights. Having said that, we still only managed to get around 2h 15m operating time. More familiar ThinkVantage utilities include Access Connections (to manage network profiles and connections), Rescue and Recovery (for backing up and restoring files), and Active Protection System (hard disk drive accelerometer).

Lenovo’s R-Series used to play second fiddle to the T-Series, offering cut-down features and less performance for budget-strapped businesses. The pedigree gap is now closer, and the ThinkPad R61 is a very good laptop which should certainly be considered if you don’t need the premier performance of the T-Series. The new model is more media-friendly than its predecessors too, it now has widescreen and Blu-ray options, and the inclusion of 802.11n is great for heavy wireless networking. All models in the range share the same excellent built quality, and you’ve got a choice of adding more layers of security depending on your business needs. If you can do without WWAN and cutting-edge 3D graphics, the ThinkPad R51’s build quality and manageability should give it a long lifespan and prove excellent value for money.

Review provided by: www.biosmagazine.co.uk