I tried for a year to locate this model of Z61T with a Titanium lid. Thanks to the generosity of a Forum Member, I was able to get this machine for very little money. It had a bad LCD. Everything is fixed now and below is where it currently sits as far as configuration. I couldn't be more stoked about it...it's the Holy Grail for me

Product: ThinkPad Z61t 9440-AMU

Original description:
T7200 Core 2 Duo (2GHz) >> Now a Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33Ghz
2GB RAM >> Now 3GB RAM
120GB 5400rpm HD >> Now a 320GB WD Black
14in 1280x800 LCD >> Now a 14in 1440x900 LCD
Intel 950
CDRW/DVDRW
802.11n wireless
Bluetooth
Modem
1Gb Ethernet
UltraNav
Secure chip
IEEE 1394
Fingerprint reader
Camera
4c Li-Ion batt
WinXP Pro >> Now Linux Mint 8 - Helena

Let me be among the first to congratulate you and state that I believe this was one of Lenovo's finest creations. It belongs in a ThinkPad museum.

very nice Harry..I've owned a few of these....excellent shape..

Ron

How can that be the Holy Grail without a FlexView LCD? Okay, I'm just kidding. That ThinkPad looks fantastic.

Ed, Ron, thanks for the comments. I agree about this being one of Lenovo's finest creations. There's something about it that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye with the rounded edges, yet it is a very solid machine to run and use. There's one thing I've never seen in a Z series that this machine has, it has factory Wireless N. The antenna on the side of the LCD is actually the third N antenna.

Edit: goofyGAguy ... I won't tell if you don't . A Flexview T60P is also a Holy object ...LOL

Wow! I'm speechless. Never knew Z* series were so cool. And the specs are terrific! I'm really green with envy...

Great machine, Harry.

I adore the Z61t as well. For a period of time I owned a very cool unit which I bought on these forums, but eventually passed it on, since it wasn't use enough. I already have too many systems .

But if another opportunity presents itself to get one with the right specs at the right price, I may find it hard to resist again.

This unit is even nicer than what I owned, with all the extras (Bluetooth, Fingerprint), and a very fast Core 2 (I wouldn't even bother with upgrading it to T7600). And it has the key features that I would find mandatory for a Z61t - DVI support (only available on the C2D machines) and WXGA+ LCD.

The only difference between your taste and mine, is that I actually don't like the Titanium lid and prefer the classic black.

Congrats Harry! Nice machine and nice pics!

Glorious machine! No wonder you're so chuffed to bits with it!
Well done!

Thanks for the comments guys. I really didn't post these pics to receive accolades though (but it's appreciated), rather I thought it would be interesting for many members to see a Z machine up close. I'm sure many of you have never seen one. I'm interested in comments on features and design too, negative or positive. At the end of the day if I've convinced anyone that it's worth it to look for one to collect or to use daily, then I am happy.

Very slim, very small, very cool!. Makes my A31 look really fat lol!


I haven't seen one of these "up close" before, in fact the only two ThinkPads I've EVER seen in real life are the A31 and the R40. Never seen any others in real life!

Me for instance... Are these models popular in the US?

It's ironic that the Z61t wasn't a good seller for Lenovo at the time. At the end of the production run, you could get a stripped down model with a Celeron CPU for $399 shipped. I was lucky enough to grab a couple and I still see one of them that now belongs to a friend from time to time.

I'd have to say that popular is probably not a term I'd associate with the Z models. They were offered for a short time off of the Lenovo US site. I am not sure if they were ever offered worldwide or not. According to TABOOK, they were introduced in May of 2006 and withdrawn from marketing in September of 2007, never to be seen again. The rarity of the higher end Z61's is due to the fact that only (2) models were ever released with the WXGA+ LCD and the T7200 combination. Even the one pictured in this thread is not one of those. It started life with a WXGA LCD.

Perhaps you might consider making the leap to Windows 7 with a solid state hard drive. This would take you from "Holy Grail" directly to that mythical "Ascension".

But for now, congrats on having a classic.

This just goes to show how product positioning and branding is important. Z61t was never popular, because for its name, it was considered inferior to the T series. Whereas in fact, it had _almost_ everything present on a T and even some more things that weren't. Build quality was also just as high. But big corporations who were used to buy T40, then T41, T42, T43, automatically went for T60, and did not even consider that the Z might be just as good in many ways.

I do know of one very big company which used Z61t for its laptop fleet at one point, but I am sure that compared to the penetration of the T series it's a drop in a bucket...

Nice!!! That would the the computer I would want if I had to get widescreen. I have seen very few pictures, and even fewer with the titanium lid (looks nice). I like the centered screen and the small bezel (I had an acer once that could have had a 15 or 16 inch screen instead of the 14, the bezel was so big)

Nice Catch

Nice! I have heard about these machines, but I have actually never seen one. From what I have read, I thought these were simply oddballs, but this is in fact a nice looking machine. Wow.

Today this automatically turns into an icon and something worth preserving and keeping, just because it has the "IBM Thinkpad" logo. If it was in my possession, this machine would have stayed the way IBM/Lenovo created it, with no processor or other significant upgrades. That would have kept it more genuine in my eyes.

But that's all up to the owner.

I think Z models were offered worldwide as I saw them offered even here in Latvia (!) in some local internet shops. Unfortunately, it was out of my price range at that time as I was just a university student in those days. It seems that I bought an R51e instead. If I remember correctly Z models were marketed as multimedia ThinkPads and being completely non-multimedia person I did not pay any special attention to them. The Holy Grail for me at that time was T60. But now I can really appreciate how brave the design of Z series was. I suppose that at the time of release many die hard ThinkPad users complained about the round corners, widescreen and silver lid etc., all the stuff as one can read now about the ThinkPad Edge. It may be that that was the first time were the phrase "This is not ThinkPad" was invented.

I'm pretty sure the i Series would have gotten a couple of these comments in their time.

Looks like a very nice machine, Harry, and can't argue with the specs. Nice pictures, too.

I've always been fond of the round-ears Thinkpad. If only one could get an IPS screen for them reasonably cheap.

These models were one of few I was able to handle at a local "staples" store before I ever owned a thinkpad.

Regarding businesses, my local school district distributed one to my father as a work machine, so they did get used in businesses.

It is definitely an oddball machine. I found one brand new for my girlfriend for quite a steal about two years ago. It was just what I wanted for her, standard resolution screen, no finger print reader, core 2 duo. The only thing I was unhappy with was the vista preload at the time which I have no grown to appreciate.

I don't think that -All- core 2 duo Z61t's have the DVI pass through as there are specific model numbers that had the DVI pass through which do not incorporate all of the ones that could have a Core 2 Duo IIRC (my girlfriends for instance)

Great pictures, gorgeous machine.

Regarding the build quality, I find that my mothers T61 4:3 is a more robust design with better fit and finish namely at the joints of the bezels and such. I will take comparison photos one of these days.

I love them, yours is awesome.

Any Z61t could have Core 2 Duo, but as far as I know all the Z61ts that were released during the Napa Refresh cycle (autumn 2006) and had Core 2 Duo factory installed, had DVI passthrough capabilities.

Your saying that your girlfriend's is one of them, but doesn't have DVI? What is the model number?

Thanks for the comments so far. I'm glad to see that we have so many here who agree on the qualities of the Z series. Just a point of reference, the Z61T pictured here does have DVI capabilities and I have tested that in an Advanced Mini dock. I am trying to get Lenovo to unlock 1600x900 in BIOS for this model too, but that is a personal preference for my external LCD...

Its a 9440-CTO with a T5500 on the build sheet (i am looking at the box) when I checked that model number was not supposed to have dvi pass through I could have misread the info that I found. I dont have a dock to test so I have never confirmed one way or another.

From the looks of things I guess I was just mistaken somehow :/

Also the 9440-AMU like Harry has looks to be the only model that had the atheros N card and that model did not come with a WXGA+ so really Harry you have the best possible start point for your ultimate Z series

Cunha, thanks for the information. You got me thinking about the Ultimate Z series, and what that machine might look like. I'd guess....

T7600 Core 2 Duo
3GB RAM (Chipset limitation)
160GB Intel X25-M SSD
14in 1440x900 LCD
Intel 950
CDRW/DVDRW
802.11n wireless
Bluetooth
Modem
1Gb Ethernet
UltraNav
Secure chip
IEEE 1394
Fingerprint reader
Camera
7 cell Li-Ion batt
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

I'm not a WWAN user, but some would need that. I'll have to look at the SATA controller on this model.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 64177.html

Edit: Can't find any information on the SATA controller on the Z61T, but I suspect it's SATA (not SATA II) because it's the same vintage as the T60, which was SATA only.

Edit 2: Here' s an interesting statistic - look at the weight.

Dimensions for z61t

Depth 9 in
Height 1.2 in
Weight 4.4 lbs
Width 13.1 in

Dimensions for t60p with a 14.1

Depth 10 in
Height 1.2 in
Weight 5.5 lbs
Width 12.2 in

It's a CTO, so in fact there are hundreds of custom configurations, and the hardware manual won't be able to tell you which parts are included in your machine. There were dozens of CTO configurations without DVI support, and just as many with...

In case of a CTO, the only way to find out which board you have installed (other than testing DVI or disassembling the machine), is going to Lenovo's site and bringing up the parts list for your specific unit, based on model and serial number.


While Z61t is lighter than a T60, this is not a fair comparison. A T60 will only weight 5.5lbs with a 9-cell battery and only if it is also loaded inside with two RAM sticks, WiFi/WWAN/third antenna. On the other hand, 4.4lbs with Z61t is only with black lid (not titanium, and 4cell battery), and even there I think it still ways a bit more (towards 4.6lbs), even though I cannot be sure, cause I never weighed it.

Harryc, congrats on this wonderful Thinkpad!



People surely did complain about the widescreen, but the Z61t wasn't the first to have a silver lid. My 9-year-old 240Z has a silver lid.



I saw a Z-series at Staples as well several years back. It was a 15.4" model and I thought it looked repulsive! The 14.1" Z61t is a much better-looking machine IMO. I actually owned one for a while and liked it very much.



"4.4 lbs" might be the "starting weight", which means the smallest battery, the lowest-resolution screen, one stick of RAM, no wireless cards, and the optical drive replaced with a travel bezel. The non-titanium Z61t that I owned weighed 4.71 lb, which included a 1440x900 screen (most likely slightly heavier than 1280x800), the optical drive plugged in, a wireless card and 4-cell battery. Can't remember if it had one or two RAM sticks, but that wouldn't matter much since a typical SODIMM weighs only 0.015 lb.

Wow -- really cool photos, Harry! Your Z just needed a "True ThinkPadder" to give it a really good home and care for and appreciate it's finer qualities I totally enjoyed your photo review --

@ emtee3511 ... and thanks to you for selling it to me .