Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m laptop review by PC Magazine

Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m laptop review by PC Magazine Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m
REVIEW DATE: 11.14.05
BOTTOM LINE:
Though the widescreen display and titanium cover of the Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m aren't typical of a ThinkPad design, the quality, features—and keyboard—remain pure ThinkPad.

PROS:
Great performance. Terrific battery life. Titanium cover.

CONS:
Heavy.

COMPANY:
Lenovo

SPEC DATA
Price: $2,299.00 Direct
Type: Business, General Purpose
Operating System: MS Windows XP Professional
Processor Name: Intel Pentium M 760
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 100 GB
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon X600
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW (Plus Minus)
Wireless: 802.11a/g
Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
System Weight: 7.1 lbs
EDITOR RATING:

By Cisco Cheng

The latest laptop from Lenovo, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m ($2,299 direct) is a far cry from the portable matte-black boxes business users are accustomed to. It's a hefty desktop replacement covered in titanium, with a 15.4-inch widescreen and a bulky weight of 7.1 pounds. The Z60m is a sturdy, impressive system—though not exactly road material.

Our test system was configured with a 2.0-GHz Pentium M 760 and 1GB of RAM, which boosted its scores on our performance tests. And a nine-cell battery gave it an impressive score on MobileMark 2005, coming in at 6 hours 3 minutes of battery life. For those who work with 3D applications, the Z60m has ATI Mobility Radeon X600 discrete graphics. Its gaming scores were above average for a notebook, so believe it or not, gaming is possible on this ThinkPad. (For more testing results check out the Lenovo's ThinkPad Z60m's benchmark chart.)

If the titanium cover is too shocking, you can opt for the traditional matte-black finish. The 15.4-inch widescreen has plenty of room for writing and viewing Web pages. Even though the "m" in Z60m stands for multimedia, the antiglare screen is more suitable for work than for watching DVDs. The transreflective screen found on the HP Pavilion dv4000 is better suited for contrasting images, such as high-resolution photos and DVD-quality videos. Not forgetting the security needs of business users, Lenovo builds in a fingerprint reader and includes TPM (Trusted Platform Module).

* Desktops and Notebooks for Every Budget

You can configure the Z60m with an integrated EV-DO antenna, but our review unit didn't come with one. The antenna is better suited for a smaller system that is likely to be carried out of the office more often, like the Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t. We tested the EV-DO on that system, and the throughput rates were very acceptable.

The keyboard continues to live up to the ThinkPad moniker, and a newly added Microsoft Windows key gives users access to all the shortcuts available in Windows applications. Like the smaller Z60t, the Z60m comes with three USB ports, a FireWire port, and a rarely seen S-Video port. The 3-in-1 card reader is a first for a ThinkPad; it accepts SD, MS, and MS Pro formats.

The ThinkVantage suite, included on all ThinkPads, has gone through a major makeover recently. With just a press of the Blue ThinkVantage button, the ThinkVantage Productivity Center pops up. You can launch maintenance tasks, manage your connections, back up your system, and more. A utility called Rejuvenation lets you restore your system while preserving vital settings like printer drivers, connectivity settings, My Favorites, and even files in your "My Documents" folder. The Away Manager gives the user more control over antivirus software and Windows utilities. Away Manager operates in conjunction with Whisper mode, which lets you maximize performance on selected tasks without affecting other applications.

Though we don't recommend commuting daily with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m, it's a very formidable desktop replacement notebook for your every business need—and for having a bit of fun.