A Look at the IBM/Lenovo X60 Tablet PC
By Tahelia Powe Wagner, ALLTP Staff Reviewer
In 2005, Lenovo introduced the first ThinkPad Tablet, The X41T. Now, the X41T has a successor, the X60 Tablet, and Lenovo has made some exciting improvements, not the least of which is switching to the Intel Core Duo Processor.
Review model configuration: 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo L2500 Processor; 1GB RAM; 5400 RPM 100GB hard drive; Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics; 12.1" XGA MultiView/MultiTouch display; 8-cell battery; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2. Per Lenovo, this would place the weight of the device at about 4.23 pounds (3.76 pounds, if the four-cell battery is used).
The X60’s construction seems very solid. The base doesn’t flex, and there is no flexing evident when turning the display on its hinge. When in laptop mode, the screen is stable. The holes for draining off liquids that might be spilled into the keyboard were confidence-inspiring, though they were not tested. The profusion of ports and slots and wireless connectivity options leaves little to be desired.
The X60 has a wealth of ways to connect to external devices and the world. It has three USB ports, one on the left side of the keyboard, and two on the right, which should make at least one port convenient to use in any of the four orientations. There’s also a four-pin Firewire connection on the right side. A standard VGA connector can be found on the left; microphone and headphone jacks are on the opposite side. The Gigabit Ethernet adapter, which has the connection/data lights often so useful in troubleshooting network connectivity issues, is on the left, while the fax / modem port is on the other side, next to the power. In addition to Bluetooth, there is also Infrared (left). The WLAN is 802.11a/b/g/n. Wireless connectivity was mostly reliable, even when the machine was taken into areas where other devices eventually lost connection. There is also the option of adding built-in EVDO connectivity (not available on the review unit).
Other features include a PC Card / Express Card/34 (via USB adapter) slot, a Secure Digital slot, a fingerprint reader, a NavDial and various buttons, some of which are programmable. There’s also a sliding switch that could be used to lock the power button against accidental activation and another slider to turn on/off wireless radios. Working with the fingerprint reader and the ThinkVantage Fingerprint Software was not as easy as with, for example, the Motion LE1600 and OmniPass; the ThinkVantage software often reported that the scan results were too short. Perhaps this was in part due to the fact that the reviewer was a short adult with short fingers.
The brightness of the display was sufficient for working, even when competing with daylight from a large window. This was to be expected with the review model’s indoor/outdoor transflective display. The screen was prone to showing the oily marks left by fingers when using the touch display, or by a palm resting on the device while using the active digitizer, but this did not hinder usability.
As with the X41T, the speaker is on the bottom of the device. On some surfaces, this leads to muffled sound. Cradled in the arm in tablet mode, the sound was functional, but not great. It was possible to train and use Microsoft’s speech recognition using only the microphone input on the LCD bezel. Text input on the X60 was somewhat of a mixed experience. The keyboard was mostly a delight to use; however, there was a change in design from the X41T’s keyboard that might have made things a little confusing. Lenovo added a Windows key, which is a good thing, however, keys in that area were made narrower. Whenever trying to use the left “Ctrl” key, the “Fn” key invariably would be pressed, and the changes might have been a factor in that. While Lenovo's efforts in combining the two types of digitizers are to be commended, the touchscreen, very useful for interacting with the operating system and applications as long as no data needed to be entered, was less than efficient for inputting text or Inking notes. Vectoring was one reason; the other was that the passive digitizer simply was not sensitive enough to the strokes of the stylus. It was possible to use the touchscreen for text entry after installing a third-party application which placed a condensed virtual keyboard on the screen; as with a cell phone, text was entered by tapping the virtual keys one to three times. Even when using the pen and active digitizer to work, the desire to turn the passive digitizer off was strong. Although only input from the pen is noticed when it is in range of the active digitizer, if then pen was lifted too high during normal use, then vectoring would occur, or the focus would shift to what is under the palm or wrist. If the passive technology had the palm rejection and precision of the Fujitsu P1610 or the Asus R2H, there would not be any issues. While something approaching a pen-on-paper feel is preferred to a slick writing surface, there seemed to be a little too much resistance.
Samples of writing on tablet digitizers. The first two were written on the Lenovo ThinkPad, first using a stylus and the touchscreen, then with the pen and the active digitizer. The third sample was written using the Asus R2H, an Ultra-Mobile PC with a touchscreen.
In addition to the ThinkVantage software, Symantec Client Security came installed on the machine. The instinct to remove it was suppressed, just so the performance could be observed. If the Symantec software had any impact on the X60’s operation, it really was not noticed. Also packaged with the machine were Adobe Reader, DiskKeeper Lite, Google Toolbar and Desktop, and ActiveRotate, which allowed the display to use the built-in accelerometer to detect the tablet’s position and change the screen orientation accordingly.
Other than having to kick-start the Tablet Input Panel occasionally, there were very few performance issues. With 40 or more Firefox tabs open in up to three windows, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, 1 to 2 Windows Journal sessions, a couple of Windows Live Writer windows, Media Player and a VPN connection all going, it was still no problem going back and forth and getting work done, at least for two or three days. At that point, when the ThinkPad got sluggish, a reboot brought the machine back to its normally responsive state.
Lenovo claims the battery life for the eight-cell version is up to 7.5 hours. While this was not fully investigated, it was noted that the battery just seemed to keep going for hours. It was an extremely pleasant surprise to use the machine on battery for one hour or so, put it into Standby overnight, then come back to it and find it still had over 75% (around five hours, according to the battery monitor) of its charge. The device never needed to be hibernated or shut down the whole week it was being put through its paces, which was definitely a plus, since it would come out of Standby in under ten seconds.
The X60 is IT department-friendly, not just because of the data/activity lights on the Ethernet port, but because stickers on the bottom of the tablet provide the MAC addresses of both the wireless and wired network interface cards without the necessity of having to turn on the machine first. Also, inscriptions on the bottom give clues as to what screws and holes lead to various parts of the computer, such as the memory and the hard drive. And lastly, reloading the operating system and software back to fresh-from-the-factory state is the simplest matter; no image CDs or DVDs or proprietary drives are required. Simply push the ThinkVantage button at boot (be quick about it) and use the resulting menu!
Overall, the ThinkPad X60 is a really nice device. While the touchscreen is not that useful for writing of any kind, in applications where little more is needed than selecting radio buttons or drop-down menus, or for moving from one window or page to another, it could shine. When writing is needed, the active digitizer is ready for work, and it does a good job, as long as the passive digitizer is not allowed to intrude. Being able to add the WWAN connectivity feature means a mobile professional can be connected more often without the fuss of external PC cards or tethering to a mobile phone, and that can only be seen as a huge benefit.