Top 5 All-Purpose Laptops (4)

Lenovo ThinkPad T60



CPU: 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200
Display Size (inches): 14.1
Wide Screen: No
Total HD Size (GB): 100
Min. Weight (lbs.): 5.7
Price When Reviewed: $1899


This lightweight business laptop has capacious battery life and ships with Windows Vista Business.

A very nice corporate laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 is ideal for on-the-go executives who chafe at ultraportable limitations. It's big enough to have a 14.1-inch screen and a first-rate keyboard, yet plenty light enough to carry, at 5.7 pounds. Battery life with the nine-cell upgrade included with our $1899 (as of 5/9/07) review unit was superb.

Our test machine came with Windows Vista Business and featured a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 processor and 1GB of RAM. It performed well in our tests. In the WorldBench 6 Beta 2 suite, the T60 scored a slightly better-than-average 69. In battery testing it endured for almost 5 hours on a single charge of its upgrade battery, one of the best times we've recorded for a Vista laptop. Better yet, ThinkPads have a modular bay that can hold another battery (instead of the dual-layer DVD rewritable drive), so you can work off of two batteries at once.

The T60 is a sturdy, slim unit with the ThinkPad's classic black case. Among many useful features, the great keyboard includes browser back and forward keys, and touchpad and eraserhead pointing devices. The screen is of a standard aspect ratio--instead of the wide-aspect design most notebook vendors have switched to--and it uses a matte rather than a glossy finish, but it's reasonably bright and not at all bulky. All of the basic connections--USB, audio, video, and communications ports--are present, including an ExpressCard slot. But the unit lacks a FireWire port and memory-card slots. The stereo speakers are a bit weak.

The flexible pricing starts at $1200; optional extras include broadband wireless, a fingerprint reader, and a larger 160GB hard drive. You can also request almost any flavor of Windows Vista or XP.

The ThinkPad is not ideal if your idea of good laptop includes media buttons and loud audio. But if the best balance of portability and performance is what you need, it could be the perfect addition to your carry-on gear.