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This page has three sections. A summary, the review, and the reasons which led me to choose this computer. If you are looking for the details of how to install GNU/Linux on this computer, and how much of it I got to work with GNU/Linux, please see my x61 Debian setup page.
After a few days, the x61 tablet seems to be a good laptop. It is notable not for what it is, but rather for what it isn't. Its only1 exceptional2 features are the tablet and the touchscreen. In terms of speed, it doesn't blow me away. In terms of size, it isn't tiny. But, unlike my old laptop, it:
To top it off, it hasn't yet given me any significant unpleasant surprises.
So, as long as it doesn't seriously break3, I think I will be happy with it.
In much of this review, I compare the x61 to other computers that I'm used to, particularly my old laptop.
Before this, my home computer was a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop, which had a 15" screen, a 900 Mhz Pentium III CPU, a 20 gb 4200 rpm hard drive, and 384 mb of memory. The computer was purchased in the year 2000.
At work, I currently use a Dell Precision 490 115 gb 15000 rpm hard drive, dual core 3 Ghz Xeon with 8 Gb of memory (purchased in the year 2007).
My Lenovo x61 tablet has a 100 gb 7200 rpm hard drive, a dual core 1.6 gHz CPU, and 3 Gb of memory.
So, compared to your typical 2007 home PC, my old home computer is a little slow, and my work computer is a little fast. The specs of the x61 are in the middle.
I've only been using the x61 for a few days now.
My old home computer (Inspiron 8000) didn't feel terribly slow for most tasks. However, there were some common tasks at which it was annoyingly slow:
And there were other things that you would want to be really fast but which took a little bit of time (such as logging in to Xfce, or starting Python or Octave or Aptitude).
And every now and then, the computer would practically freeze up because it was busy with something (like opening a new window in Firefox).
My work computer is the only computer I've ever used that is, by my lights, decently fast at every everyday task (none of the tasks in the "annoyingly slow" list are annoyingly slow; the tasks that you would want to be really fast are; and it doesn't freeze up when it's busy with one thing (because it has a dual core CPU)).
The x61 is not nearly as slow on the annoyingly slow tasks, but it still slow enough to be "annoying" on some of them (particularly loading a big email folder). Most of the things that you would want to be really fast are not nearly instantaneous like on my work computer, but are fast enough that you don't mind (with the exception of loading Octave). It has a dual core CPU, so it doesn't freeze up when it's busy with one thing.
In summary, I don't feel like I never have to wait for the x61, but at least it can open a webpage rapidly or open a new window in Firefox, frequent tasks which were annoyingly slow on my old computer. It's also significant that it doesn't usually freeze up when it's busy.
A humorous footnote: when I first got the computer and it booted up into Windows Vista, I was horrified to see that basic tasks like opening windows were as slow or slower than they had been under GNU/Linux on my old 900 mHz laptop! I even started checking the system stats to make sure there wasn't some mistake, like maybe I had accidentally received a slower hard drive than I had ordered. I was relieved to see that, once I installed GNU/Linux and xfce4, basic tasks were the same speed as my old computer, or in some cases faster. So, Vista seems to be noticeably slower than GNU/Linux.
It takes about 12 seconds from pressing the power button to get the the Grub bootloader.
Vista takes about 30 seconds to get from the Grub bootloader to the login screen, and about 1:30 to load all the preinstalled junk on the desktop after you login (so about 2 minutes total, although if I removed some of the preinstalled junk this would probably speed up). Vista takes about 45 seconds to shutdown.
Debian GNU/Linux with Xfce4 takes about 30 seconds to get from the Grub bootloader to the (text-mode) login screen, and about 40 seconds from the time I type "startx" until the Xfce desktop is loaded and has resumed my terminals and emacs windows. Debian GNU/Linux takes about 30 seconds to shutdown.
Debian GNU/Linux takes about 10 seconds to sleep (hit Fn-F4) and about 8 seconds to wake up. Debian GNU/Linux takes about 30 seconds to hibernate (run command "hibernate" as root) and about 30-40 seconds to resume from hibernation (the computer boots as normal, but then loads a memory image sometime after Debian starts booting).
I've had a 20 inch external monitor now for a few years, which obviates the need for a large screen on the laptop. Because of this, all other things being equal, I would prefer the laptop to be as small as possible (by which I mean, I'd choose a bigger laptop because it has more performance or features than a smaller one, but I won't choose a bigger one just because I want it to be bigger).
This 12.1" laptop passes the dinner table test, meaning that I can put the laptop next to me while eating dinner without me having to stretch to peer over the top of the laptop in order to be able to see my long-suffering girlfriend (unlike the 15" Dell Inspiron 8000, which was too tall to see over unless I sat up very straight like a prairie dog). It doesn't take up a huge amount of space at the table, but it does still take up "a little too much" -- you have to hog a little more than your fair share of table space in order to put the laptop next to your food. Ideally, a laptop would have the footprint of a pad of notebook paper.
One problem I had with my old 15" laptop was that, on airplanes, if the person in front of me puts their seat back, there wasn't room to open the laptop on the tray table. I haven't tried it yet but I expect that the 12.1" x61 tablet won't suffer from this problem4.
The shape is a little awkward. With the docking station attached, the shape is notably awkward -- this encourages you not to take the docking station (and therefore the optical drive) with you. Even without the docking station, the battery protrudes in the back a little bit, which makes the shape a little awkward to carry, and which makes the footprint larger.
With the docking station attached, the computer is fairly thick. The built-in keyboard is a little higher up off the table than even my old 15" Dell Inspiron 8000. So if you use the built-in keyboard and the docking station, make sure that you have a low table if you don't want to get RSI problems.
The keyboard is a little uncomfortable, at least coming from the 15" Dell Inspiron 8000. The keys feel like they are a little small, and the Fn key is where I am used to the Cntl key being (on the Inspiron 8000, the Cntl key is all the way on the left on the bottom row, and the Fn key is to the right of it -- on the x61, the Fn key is in the leftmost position), and the Cntl and Alt keys are the same size as normal keys on the left, and extra small on the right (bigger keyboards have extra large Cntl and Alt buttons on both sides). Of course, if you want a small computer, there's no getting around a small keyboard. The solution is just to use an external keyboard.
I don't care about laptop weight that much, so I haven't been paying much attention to that. It is certainly lighter than the Inspiron 8000, but it's not so light that it's like carrying a paper "notebook". Weightwise, I guess it feels like carrying a moderately heavy textbook.
In summary, although it wasn't something I needed or even expected, I was hoping that the switch from a 15" to a 12.1" laptop would give me a machine that was ridiculously small and convenient, which you would take everywhere just because it was so easy to do so; a machine that actually justified the usage of the term "notebook" rather than "laptop". This didn't quite pan out; the 12.1" x61 tablet is indeed much more convenient than my old 15" laptop, but it's not as convenient as, say, a thick 8.5 x 11 book. On the other hand, I'm not disappointed there; as I said, ultimate convenience would have been a nice bonus but it was not really expected (I am well aware that no computer today is capable of being as small as a book and simultaineously so fast and capable that you never notice a delay in any basic task -- still, that's the ideal, and in a decade we'll probably have it).
If you want a computer that is so small and convenient that you find that you take it everywhere, just because you can, I'd recommend the OQO. I have an OQO model 01+ (review and GNU/Linux tips here