Good Thinking: Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z61p

Who says desktop replacement laptops have to be clunkers? Not Lenovo. Their new ThinkPad Z61p packs the power of your standard tower, but in a frame that’s only about 1.5 inches thick and weighs under 6 pounds. All that with a 15.4-inch widescreen display attached to it. Lenovo should thank Intel for this more bang for the pound ratio. The ThinkPad has the latest Intel with 2.0 GHz and 2MB cache.

OK, Intel’s dual-processor hotrod can’t take all the credit. How’s 1 GB of standard memory, expandable to 4 GB, do you? Combine that with the Intel 945PM “Napa” Express Chipset and an ATI Mobility Fire GL graphics card, and you have a business laptop that basically can do as it pleases, as fast as it pleases.

Oh, and as long as it pleases. When this state-of-the-art Thinkpad notebook is sleeping, it is a prime energy converter. It’s earned the EPA Energy Star10 award for using less than 15 watts of juice when sleeping. So despite the dark, business like chassis this notebook is trying to be green.

And speaking of mobile technology, the Thinkpad Z61p comes with proprietary technology such as UltraConnect antennas, which hook up the wireless LAN signal in most places in the world. Or ThinkVantage Access Connection utilities, which help you bounce your notebook effortlessly between your wireless and wired Internet connection.

And this portable work station features top-notch security features that you’d expect in a business laptop. The ThinkVantage technologies include a fingerprint reader, a password manager, and the Client Security Solution so that administrators can control the security of all the office’s ThinkPads. Lenovo’s new Z series notebook arrived on the market July 25, so get the Z61p while the getting still is good.

By Matthew Brodsky – Laptopical

Tuesday, August 01, 2006