Lenovo ThinkPad X61s: Slim, light and "cute"

[@justinspoerle1739]

I am the second owner so congrats on being the third! I loved that machine and the 4GB DDR2 kit went to a good home before heading to you to keep a X61 running for a ham operator in my local club! Bios is flashed to accept full SATA III speeds so putting a more modern SSD in does make a difference. Cheers!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks again for sending it my way, what a cool piece of kit.

[@iamdmc]

very generous of you, Justin I could never part with my X61 collection - too much nostalgia for me

[@neildissanayake7942]

Sata 3? Or sata 2?

[@justinspoerle1739]

@@neildissanayake7942 Sata II full speed though.

[@SebisRandomTech]

That X61s looks to be in pristine condition! A version of that with more modern internals would be awesome.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Agreed! Hope you've been well Sebi, loved your recent videos.

[@ComputerClubShow]

I’ve been daydreaming about making a raspberry pi compute module motherboard replacement for my x61. Faster than the Core 2 Duo? Maaaaybe not. But it’s fun. So far I’ve made a PCB to convert the keyboard to usb. Next I might try to rebuild the battery.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I know somebody that had a similar project to put a Pi in an X130e, pretty sure it's on hold. For me, modern OS support and good battery life would be a huge success.

[@iamdmc]

@@ComputerClubShow imho looking at the Raspberry Pi 4 internals, the SoC will only be SLIGHTLY faster than the X61s with L7700 (especially pin-modded to run 30% faster!) Your best bet (form factor wise and computer power wise) is the Lattepanda Delta 3, which might just fit. They're not cheap, and imho you'd want to replace the original panel for a 5:4 12" panel (some LED-backlit QHD screens will just barely fit in the X61s frame). It's been on my list for a while and I'll probably do one up after I finally submit my thesis (the bane of my existence) so keep your eyes peeled on the reddit ThinkPad forum

[@jan5504]

@@iamdmc wow bro that's interesting goodluck!

[@iamdmc]

From my experience of buying the X61s in 2007 (upgrading from an X31) I can tell you this: it was like having the future in your hands. The slim bezels and ultra portability were like nothing else on the market, and for that it still holds up today. As I've said on Sebi's video and the reddit ThinkPad forum: The X61s should be appreciated in the same way as you treat a classic car. Appreciate it from afar, and drive it rarely. Interestingly, the original models to leave the factory still had the "IBM ThinkPad" logo, as this machine was designed by IBM but had been built by Lenovo (as Lenovo had purchased the ThinkPad brand around the time of the X41) It had its downsides (no webcam, no trackpad, severely underpowered, ran hot as a toaster, thin width meant that the plastic palmrest always cracked around the hinges) it was then and still is now my favourite ThinkPad of all time, followed very closely by the T480s. Also, the Compact fluorescent-backlit, XGA, TFT LCD is eye-bleed territory in 2022 (piss poor viewing angles, low brightness), but back in 2007 it was totally usable and comparable to other tech on the market. Nowadays you can upgrade the panel to the BOE Hydis SXGA+ IPS-like (AFFS) LCD (whose backlight has degraded to 50 nit max brightness) OR upgrade that to an LED backlight (although the kits are expensive and sometimes produced banding due to a poor diffusion layer). IMHO as someone who's done both, it's not actually worth it as you won't be using this for any length of time in 2022. I have several in my collection, including the OG. It's the only ThinkPad I could never bring myself to sell, and in my opinion was the PEAK of ThinkPad Also minor corrections to the video: -the original X61s came with 1GB or 2GB of RAM, with a maximum supported of 4GB. Eventually when larger modules came to market, it became obvious that it actually supported a max of 8GB, although this was total overkill due to the CPU being the (severely) limiting factor -you had 4 battery options not 3: 4-cell prismatic (flat), 4-cell round, 8-cell round, and 4-cell docking connector slice. I had/have all of them, some still in brand new condition (aside from the obvious cell degradation). 4-cell gave approx 2-4 hours, and the 8-cell gave approx 6-8 hours. During long study sessions with the 8-cell and low screen brightness I sometimes got 9h or more "all day battery" ;) -the pins near the RAM Connectors are a SIM card tray, for 3G WWAN cards to use. 4G/LTE was a LOOOONG way off back then.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for all the information and corrections. 👍 Much appreciated.

[@iamdmc]

@@LaptopRetrospective great vid - I enjoyed it

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Cheers!

[@MegaManNeo]

The pre X200 series of ThinkPads is lovely to look at in general for its small form factor. Really well treated machine there too! It's good to see these being in the hands of someone who knows how to handle tech.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Agreed, happy to be the next caretaker.

[@ComputerClubShow]

I put an AFFS (IPS equivalent) screen and LED backlight in my x61 and it is sooo much nicer to use. It’s a bit finicky to fit everything back in but I’m glad I did it.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I can only imagine the improvement that would be. Good call. I suspect there would be even less room in a X61s but who knows.

[@kosztaz87]

Could you let me know which LED backlight kit did you use? I am thinking about LED modding my X61 and X32 laptops, but I just can't find any good information on LED backlight kits, that would properly function, meaning proper brightness adjustment, no flickering, and correct colour temperature. Is the kit the you used satisfactory in these regards?

[@iamdmc]

Before the LED mod the AFFS (grandfather to IPS) screen I bought with CCFL backlight only had 50 nits PEAK brightness! Yes it's worth it to LED mod the display, although it is a bit risky... even riskier than dremelling off the plastic and metal tabs on the AFFS screen haha

[@gordslater]

5:00 that connector near the RAM slots is for a SIM card for the optional WWAN card that fits in one of the miniPCIe slots edit: WWAN card is accessible on splitting the top of the case apart under the keyboard layer (6:46 "underneath the palmrest...") so not very accessible to change the SIM card, which may be required when travelling overseas, so the SIM card clot is taken out to a more user-accessible area instead. It's basically on the back side of the motherboard so quite close to the WWAN card slot.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for the clarification Gord!

[@anthony8890]

I am lucky enough to own a few ThinkPads from a T41 up to X1 carbons, all of which have been kept in mint condition by me. I have 2 x X61 and a 61s, along with the docking station and still to this day they are my favourite from factor laptops I own, along with my 12 inch MacBook. I love the functionality of the ThinkPads, not so much today due to their age but they served me very well back in the day. I love your channel and the deep dives you take into the older machines, great work! It's very much appreciated by me. Thanks

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Sounds like you have a solid collection! Glad you enjoy my videos. 👍

[@anthony8890]

@@LaptopRetrospective Collection is one word for it haha. Currently sitting at over 40 computers total, 18 of which are laptops. Starting to run out of space!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@anthony8890 I know your struggle. 😂

[@anthony8890]

@@LaptopRetrospective haha it’s never ending right? There are always more to add! I’ve got my eye on a few at the moment :/

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@anthony8890 Oddly enough the ones I'd add at this point I'll probably never see in person.

[@ProjectMercuryMarauder]

I miss the older ThinkPads!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I love older ThinkPads, thankfully I don't have to miss them, but I like my modern ones for the heavy lifting of today.

[@iamdmc]

We all do :( IMHO the only ThinkPad that ever held a candle to the X61s for me was the T480s (last ThinkPad that David Hill worked on). Coincidentally, after Mr Hill's departure, the ThinkPad build/design quality, aftersales support, all plunged. I miss HillPads

[@sheepbunmonster]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought these were cute haha. Great video as always!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I know I'm running a risk calling a laptop, a ThinkPad cute, but I mean just look at it!

[@JH-no8sy]

This laptop is a beauty! Was definitely well taken care of, congrats! I’ve got a bit of a collection going, still hunting for one of these.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Good hunting!

[@fuelhemi426]

Still use my Frankenpad x60s/X61s. Truly great machine.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Franken eh? What have you done to it? 🤔

[@fuelhemi426]

@@LaptopRetrospective it was an X60s, that model doesn’t support 64 bit OS’s, just swapped the mobo for an X61s and that was it. It works.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Wonderful! Yes, that 64 bit support is critical.

[@Veg-Power]

absolutely love the formfactor, the looks, the keyboard and 4:3. I actually still use a machine like this for work on the go. An X61 with OCed T8300 with LiquidMetal, 8 GB DDR2, SXGA+ AFFS screen, 1 TB SSD with Linux. Very usable :)

[@iamdmc]

OC'd T8300 with pinmod? Did you do the LED backlight mod on the AFFS screen too? I wouldn't be crazy enough to use liquid metal on anything mobile, especially the much rarer T8300 version of this board!!!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Those are some impressive mods, well done.

[@Veg-Power]

​@@iamdmc didn't do the LED mod but should do it. I have a T8100 Board, too. I used LM on several devices now, so I am confident with using it. I also want to learn to solder CPUs so that I can decide which CPU I want on all the retro ThinkPads :) And maybe RAM if its completly soldered down.

[@iamdmc]

@@Veg-Power if you can desolder, reball, and resolder CPUs you have a bright future

[@mistrotech8894]

This is a great candidate for game streaming from my at-home workstation with sunshine and moonlight! I just bought the tablet model for $35 (hope I wasn't scammed) and tested streaming on a Core 2 Duo T5470 and GMA X3100 with one of my other older laptops, and it did relatively well with minimal latency at 1280x800.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's impressive!

[@Kubaak01]

Fun fact: this can run any MS operating system from Windows 2000 with official support all the way to Windows 11 - unofficially of course, but it meets all the hard requirements. I actually did install 11 on it and it runs surprisingly well - not completely bug free but serviceable. If you wanted a machine to dualboot 2000 and 11 this is the one :-)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

True!

[@findtruth7]

The x61T tablet version. was the best laptop I ever had in my life. The x61s in my opinion is the best compact laptop with an unmatched keyboard. Those days were the best, Im sick of laptops with only two or three ports and that can break easily.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

There is something indeed special about it.

[@JH-no8sy]

I call most newer laptops future paperweights, because that’s what they will be in about 5 years. I don’t care if it makes it weight a bit more, give me my ports!

[@airborneranger-ret]

Overall nicely done. I have an X61. DId not know there was a X61s version

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it. The s variant I feel was an experiment to see what they could do at the time to thin things out. Realistically, it isn't 'that' much smaller.

[@iamdmc]

​@@LaptopRetrospective Sorry but I have to disagree. The X61s was several mm thinner than the X61, and if you had the "ultra light" screen option it was a bit thinner and lighter still. The downside was that the -s was restricted to L-series low voltage CPUs (L7300, L7500, L7700 -actually that was only in the X61t tablet) with a very minimal heatsink, while the X61 came in the "full" T7300, T7500, T7700, and later T8300, T8500, with larger full copper heatsinks and a very limited batch of T9500 that were given as gifts internally in Lenovo/IBM.

[@basicforge]

I've owned an X60t for years and have made good use of it.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's awesome, what use does it get?

[@basicforge]

@@LaptopRetrospective I used it for years in my development of Liberty BASIC, snd more recently I used it as a web server.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Very cool, I'm thinking of using this one around the house, maybe give my X220 some time off.

[@neildissanayake7942]

I've been looking for one of these to use as a dedicated blogging/no distractions machine. It is simply ...too cute of a machine to not have 🤣

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks so Neil. 😂

[@ted-b]

She is a cutie! Looks like a full size SIM card slot, in the memory bay.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, its neat how they slimmed it down, but didn't seem to lose much connectivity. Possibly the era before port removal was a big thing to consider.

[@bflmpsvz147]

actually the format is called Mini-SIM - there has been a full-credit-card-sized SIM way before in the 1990s :)

[@hawkeye454]

Truly a nice machine!!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Sure is!

[@Norrecito]

I own two X61s's and surprisingly they have a slight variation in their design when comparing them to the one you are showing here. One has the IBM-like design together the "old" Thinkpad logo while the other one uses Lenovo branding. That one has a WIFI antenna on the top right corner of the screen which you can pull up to extend it. It looks neat :) The only thing I hate about these machines, is that if you want to fix the CPU fan (they can jam) or just replace the thermal paste, you have to take out the entire motherboard (it is mounted on the underside of the motherboard)...so you pretty much have to take it fully apart.

[@iamdmc]

yeah that's true re: CPU but it's actually a very quick 20 minute max job (Less once you've had practice) You'll also want to replace the CPU heatsink/fan to the copper-only model if you have the worse sheet steel model like I did haha.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I've seen that antenna variant before and I'm trying to remember the story behind it. It was uncommon during this era to see a mix of IBM parts still being used since they were still in inventory.

[@Norrecito]

@@iamdmc Took me an hour the first time but I also had to fix the fan. I'm only disappointed because in the "T" series, you could do the same without having to take off the display and take out the motherboard. Anyways, fan errors seems to be quite common for both the X60 and X61s (at least for the ones I have picked up for cheap) so if you are willing to memorize the process you can get many working in no time.

[@Qrani]

I recently bought an X61 (not the slim variant), they're neat laptops. The form factor is the main thing that is cool about them. What I find interesting is that the X6x chassis actually has the smallest footprint by area of any 12" ThinkPad, yet has the largest display. 12.1" 4:3 is about 70 square inches, when 12.1" 16:10 and 12.5" 16:9 are about 66 square inches. I also like the lack of touchpad. Of course it's not great for anything like a daily driver. The display is still too small and low resolution, as well as not very color accurate or bright. The performance isn't great, and while Core 2 Duo is usable in the modern era, it's not exactly enjoyable. To be fair this can also be said of basically any 12" laptop, especially compared to the 15" workstations I've always used.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The 12-13 inch form factor is the sweet spot in my opinion.

[@oussama4629]

i'm really sad for not having these kind of devices. perfect size and IO with no compromises. i don't want a 15mm laptop along with multiple dongle. computers are not about getting the job done effectively anymore; it is a business oriented toward our pockets

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It's a complex situation where the needs/desires of the majority and more specifically the business/large volume customers dictating trends. It's always been that way but now with everyone using a computer and not a minority, the landscape has completely changed.

[@segbed]

I wish this model has touchpad, otherwise it is brilliant machine, which I any way plan to get. As for more big tp my favorite is t60p 14".

[@Nurse_Xochitl]

More IO than most modern laptops, and more upgradable/repairable!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Definitely some things to like. Sadly the CPU and other components reveal its age.

[@Nurse_Xochitl]

@@LaptopRetrospective well at least there are lightweight Linux distros that can help make it at least a little bit faster.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

True!

[@PurblePink8678]

@@Nurse_Xochitl Linux is just garbage for me, though I still test it in VMs occasionally. But the stuff that I would do if I had any model of the X61 would've been light retro gaming and schoolwork with Windows Vista Ultimate, just cuz I think that is the best matching OS for this lineup of ThinkPads since all models of the X61 were released in '07.

[@Nurse_Xochitl]

@@PurblePink8678 I use Linux now. Windows is just garbage to me. I despise Big Tech in general, they've become woke and greedy, and their shit is becoming worse and worse to work with (higher resource usage, more bugs/crashes, etc.) and Linux has been rapidly improving.

[@JJRamirezP]

Is there any web market where to find X61s?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

eBay and other similar venues.

[@nickthaskater]

How does this have slimmer bezels than the X200 series... Sheesh.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I know right?

[@AnonWalrus]

"kawaii desu yo ne?"

[@LaptopRetrospective]

はい、そうです！ (Google Translate)

[@AnonWalrus]

Just have to say, your vids are good. One of the reasons why I got a Lenovo Miix 520. Succinct, clear and informative. The Thinkpad videos were a great introduction to the Thinkpad line and idea. One possible project in my mind is probably to make a beast of a T480 (maybe in the far future haha). Cheers!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks so much for your support! Glad you enjoy the videos. Lots more to come.

[@ken830]

Calling this a "retro" machine makes me feel old. =(

[@LaptopRetrospective]

You should hear what gaming consoles are called retro now. 😂

[@ken830]

@@LaptopRetrospective My most recent gaming console is the Wii. Probably bought around the same time as my x61s. 🤣

[@cristianooliveiraamaroferr4522]

Greetings! My name is Cristiano Oliveira. I'm from "Brasília" Brazil. The peace of Christ Jesus! Very nice video. I have a ThinkPad X61. Indeed, I would like to purchase a more advanced motherboard that is capable of supporting two coolers (fans), an i9 processor, and DDR5 memory RAM with a maximum capacity of 64 GB for my retro ThinkPad X61 Laptop. If you could recommend a place where I can purchase a high-quality motherboard that meets all these criteria for my retro ThinkPad x61 chassis, I would greatly appreciate it a lot. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Stay with God!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Short answer, it doesn't exist. If you have deep pockets somebody on 51nb might make one but custom motherboards are a premium thing. Lots of risk involved. I love the idea but they are rarely worth it. That's without talking about being stuck with old battery tech.

[@mikgigs]

of course it exists, a chinese retrofit company is doing it..browse for 51nb project...you can have a modern laptop in the skin of x61

[@mikgigs]

@@LaptopRetrospective wrong, it exists - 51nb

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Good thing I mentioned 51nb in my original comment. They aren't realistic though sadly.

[@mikgigs]

@@LaptopRetrospective yes, they are!