Digital Trends

Lenovo ThinkPad X61s August 8th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Wireless

The X61s includes a built-in wireless Ethernet card that runs at both B and G speeds. Lenovo offers an N speed card as well, but it was not included in this unit, so we have no way to test its functionality (and yes, we do have an N router on hand!). It also includes Bluetooth functionality as well, which is appreciated.

Extras

Since this notebook is targeted at Small Business users, Lenovo includes a rather large suite of software tools designed to improve the computing experience, improve uptime, and assist in data recovery. The tools are collectively named ThinkVantage and have been a ThinkPad mainstay for many years.

You can access these tools via a physical button on the notebook labeled “ThinkVantage” or via a desktop shortcut. When you use either of these options, a menu pops up on the left side of the screen and presents myriad options, such as back up your data, defrag your hard drive, download system updates, find wireless networks, get help, and so forth. Most of the utilities are very helpful, with a few exceptions.

ThinkVantage Productivity Center Screenshot

First off, this notebook comes with a 90-day trial of Norton Internet Security, which is a program we absolutely loathe due to its ineffectiveness and its inherent ability to consume system resources while simultaneously wreaking havoc with network settings and connectivity. So, we uninstalled it, and installed the free version of AVG Anti-Virus. The only problem is there’s a tab in ThinkVantage that runs a virus scan, and apparently it hooks into Norton, because once we uninstalled Norton, the tab disappeared. We’d appreciate it if this software would work with protection suites other than Norton.

There’s also a built-in backup utility, which is handy, but has a few problems as well. When you start the utility, there is only one option, and that’s to “back up my data.” When you run it, it backs up the entire hard drive, which is a waste of space; if the drive fails, having your old installation of Windows won’t do you much good. And, it creates another problem: when you want to restore files, you have to navigate the root directory to find your files, which can be confusing for the average user. There’s also no way to tell what data is in what backup set. You can search for files, but you have to use commands like “*.mp3” to find music, and once again, the average user will not know how to do that.

The updating utilities and task scheduler are very useful, however, because you can set them to defrag the drive and clean up the disc when the machine is idle. We also liked the networking options.