Product Notes: Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet

November 14th, 2006

Lenovo announced the ThinkPad X60 Tablet today, which is their second-generation Tablet PC and is closely related to the ThinkPad X60 and ThinkPad X60s lightweight laptops. The X60 Tablet is one of the first Tablet PCs that will be able to usefully run Windows Vista, which will integrate tablet capability into its Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

The ThinkPad X60 Tablet is a substantial update from last year's ThinkPad X41 Tablet. Among other things, it upgrades from a Pentium M to a Core Duo processor (important to handle the overhead of tablet functions), significantly improves the included pen, and adds significant choice in displays.

Several notes when ordering a ThinkPad X60 Tablet:

1. The ThinkPad X60 Tablet retains much of the same basic design as the ThinkPad X60 lightweight laptop, but is slightly larger and heavier. It weighs from 3.7 to 4.6 pounds, depending on screen type and battery size.
2. Having at least 1.0 GB RAM is essential for the optimal functionality of a modern single-spindle Tablet PC or laptop, especially since almost all such models (including the ThinkPad X60 Tablet) use Intel's integrated video.
3. There are three display types available with the ThinkPad X60 Tablet. The first is the standard XGA pen-enabled display. The second is a XGA screen that is a touch screen (in other words, it will work with a finger or a generic stylus instead of requiring the included pen). The third screen is SXGA+, adding 87% more pixels in the same physical area and thus making more mappable pixels available for such areas as handwriting recognition. Information Systems & Computing (ISC) will add further guidance in this area when the cost deltas involved are clearer, but both the touch screen and the SXGA+ screen are attractive choices.
4. As with any 'road-warrior' laptop, ISC suggests purchasing both a high-capacity (8 cell) and a low-capacity (4 cell) battery along with an extra AC power adapter for the ThinkPad X60 Tablet.

See ISC's Tablet PC Purchasing Guide for more configuration hints. As of November 2006, configuring a ThinkPad X60 Tablet to these specifications can be done for approximately $2,250.

ISC believes that Tablet PC users with up-to-date hardware specifications (i.e. Core Duo) will be among the first to legitimately consider transitioning to Windows Vista, which has integrated tablet capability.

ISC sees the ThinkPad X60 Tablet as sharing the class-leading Tablet PC position with Toshiba's Portégé M400. As such, there is very little reason to consider purchasing the previous generation ThinkPad X41 Tablet. The Computer Connection will have at least one X60 Tablet configuration available shortly.

--John Mulhern III, Senior Project Leader, ISC Technology Support Services (November 14th, 2006)