Core Duo ThinkPad R60, ThinkPad Z61m and Z61t Revealed

College Bookstore websites listing laptops students can purchase for the 2006 - 2007 school year have revealed that the Lenovo ThinkPad R60, ThinkPad Z61m and ThinkPad Z61t Core Duo based notebooks should be arriving to us fairly soon.

The University of Tennessee kindly lists the yet to be announced ThinkPad R60 with the following configuration:

• Intel Core Duo T2400
• 14" XGA display
• 512MB RAM
• 60GB HD
• CDRW/DVD
• Win XP Pro
• Release Date: April/May
• Price: $1,299

The Thinkpad R60 will be the update to the existing R52.  The R-series of ThinkPads is basically a budget version of the flagship T-series of ThinkPads which were recently refreshed to the T60.

The Z60 widescreen series of ThinkPads were released last fall, although shipping was much delayed and they have only been available in any volume in the last couple of months.  Nonetheless, the refresh of the Z60m (15.4" screen) and Z60t (14" screen) in the form of the Z61m and Z61t are on the University of Tennessee bookstore website and configurations are marked as follows:

ThinkPad Z61m

• Intel Core Duo T2500
• 15.4" WXGA+ display
• 1GB RAM
• 100GB
• DVD RW,
• ATI X1400 Graphics with 128MB
• Fingerprint reader
• Release Date: May 16th?
• Price: $1,929

ThinkPad Z61t

• Intel Core Duo T2500
• 14" WXGA display
• 1GB RAM
• 100GB,
• DVD RW
• Fingerprint Reader
• Win XP Pro
• Release Date: May 16th?
• Price: $1,999

According to forum member Asics who called the University of Tennessee bookstore to inquire about purchase, the representative indicated May 16th as the for sale and release date of the Z61m and it's almost certain the Z61t would be released about that date too.

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Link to UT bookstore website: http://bookstore.asa.utk.edu/uccs/pdffiles/lenovo.pdf

As further confirmation of the R60, the University of North Carolina Greensboro lists this notebook on their site as well.:

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Link to UNC Greensboro website: http://its.uncg.edu/Laptop/About/