LapTop

Lenovo ThinkPad X61 ultraportable notebooks with the new 45-nanometer Intel Core 2 Duo processor, codenamed Penryn, will be available starting this month, according to an announcement from Lenovo.

The refreshed Thinkpad X61 12-inch laptops will be available with the Core 2 Duo Penryn T8100 at 2.1GHz and T8300 at 2.4GHz, both with 3MB of L2 cache.

Select retailers already offer the Penryn-based X61 sub-notebooks. At MacMall, the preconfigured X61 with the T8100 processor, 1GB of system memory, and a 120GB hard drive is priced at $1,549.99, while the same laptop with the T8300, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB HDD costs $1,609.99.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X61 systems feature a 12.1? display with 1024 x 768 resolution, the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, support for 802.11a/b/g/draft n wireless networking, and Gigabit Ethernet LAN connection. In select models, there are a wireless broadband module, Bluetooth, and a fingerprint reader. These laptops have three USB ports, a PC Card slot, Secure Digital card slot, Firewire, and a VGA output. An optical drive is available via the separately sold ThinkPad X6 UltraBase docking station.

Regarding operating systems, there are Windows Vista and Windows XP Professional choices.

Currently, it is not known if and when the PC maker is going to release the Tablet PC version of the ThinkPad X61 notebook with the 45nm Core 2 Duo chip.