Lenovo ThinkPad X60s

Stay connected and curbs on competition are essential for business travellers, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X60s ($ 2299 direct) can help you do both. The latest ultra ThinkPad is an update to the ThinkPad X41, maintaining an ultralight weight and integrating Verizon EV-DO. And as it has a battery life of over 7 hours, no trip is too far for the X60s.

The X60s is a pleasure to carry, weighing a mere 3.5 pounds. Even if it is only about five ounces heavier than the X41, X60s comes standard with extending battery life, which is included in our test price. The weight gain is negligible considering the battery life incredible that you can get. (The battery has a new design, so it is not compatible with the old ThinkPad X40 and X41).

As I mentioned earlier about times before 1000, ThinkPad keyboards have the best of any notebook, and the X60s is no different. I also adore the TrackPoint pointing device, which is the only option you have on this system. (Touchpad addicts should consult the Sony ultra SZ170P.) X60s of 12.1-inch screen is good enough for most passengers, but as a writer, I prefer a larger screen. The SZ170P has a wider (13.3 inches) wide (and a built-in optical drive, for that matter) and its system weight is only 3.8 pounds.

The protruding antenna found on the side of the X60s is for the integrated EV-DO radio. EV-DO is a way to get broadband wireless speeds as using a cellular phone signal. It covers more areas than Wi-Fi, and it beats paying for hotel broadband. But the technology is still a little too expensive for my tastes, ranging from $ 59.99 per month with a service contract of $ 79.99 without one.

Although roaming Manhattan, I always received download speeds of over 750 Kbps. I was able to gain access to my e-mail, surf the Web, and even download video clips nonfrustrating rates. Adding to my pleasure was Lenovo wireless client, Access Connections. With him, I was able to create profiles for EV-DO and for three of my Wi-Fi connections and a wired LAN. With a button, I could easily spend a profile or simply turned off all wireless radios when I needed, for example at the entrance on a plan.

In addition to Access Connections, you get a multitude of other utilities with the press of the button ThinkVantage. You can choose to back up your hard drive or restore it to factory defaults if you become a victim of spyware. The maintenance utility runs disk cleaning, virus scan, and disk backups when you're away from your computer. Enabling Whisper mode allows you to control how much of your system resources are used by each application. It is effective for preventing background-running programs such as virus scans or you slow down.

The X60s has a fingerprint reader, who works in collaboration with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Lenovo has added an additional USB port (for a total of three), and the system has a FireWire port and an SD memory card slot. It also comes with the Ultrabase docking unit, which incorporates an optical drive and in many other ports of connectivity, but the process of docking the X60s was more difficult than I had imagined. I had to press the notebook relatively difficult for connectors break in. It took several tries to dock successfully.

A better solution, as far as I'm concerned, that the system would be to have an integrated optical drive. The Sony SZ170P integrates a dual-layer DVD + R, and manages to stay under four pounds-if you do sacrifice battery life for this luxury. If you're like me and take shorter trips or use the laptop mostly during the shuttle is good. But for some, longer battery life assets almost anything Constitution. The X60s, which uses a low voltage Intel Core Duo processor, the 1.66-GHz L2400, is designed for longer battery life so that the processing power. You can configure the unit with the most powerful processors such as the Core Duo T2400, which is in the SZ170P, but you run the risk that the palm rests and the base will be uncomfortably hot. Even with the stock L2400 processor, I noticed that the X60s was warmer than the SZ170p, but it does set a better job of keeping the palm rests and the base fee. On the other hand, the X60s gives good results but can not keep up with the SZ170P on our Internet content creation and Office productivity tests. For those who do not have much outside Web surfing and editing of Microsoft Office documents, however, the X60s has more than enough processing power; whole, it beats its predecessor, the X41 by 59 per cent on our performance tests. If you worry about the compatibility with the Vista line, upgrade to 1 GB of RAM.

If you're looking for an ultra, you have a difficult decision. The Sony SZ170P is a very convincing, but with its short battery life and slightly larger footprint, it is better suited for daily commuters than for frequent travellers. The ThinkPad X60s is our Editors' Choice, a perfect companion for those who spend most of their time traveling.

See how the Lenovo ThinkPad X60s measures up to similar systems in our side-by-side laptop comparison chart.