It’s been nearly a year now since IBM sold off their PC division to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo and I’ve been eager to see what the result of this sale has been in terms of new products.

While I don’t expect many people cared about the fate of the desktop machines, the IBM ThinkPad series of laptops have gained something of a cult following for being tough as boots and having some of the best keyboards in the business. Will Lenovo create a worthy successor to this iconic laptop line?

Apparently, yes.

Recently we saw the launch of the new “Z” series of Lenovo branded ThinkPads - the z60m and the z60t. They both sport a widescreen display - a first for these machines - and you can also specify a titanium lid to offer the screen a little more protection.

The z60m is billed as a “desktop replacement” machine and comes with a choice of CPUs peaking at the 2Ghz Pentium Mobile. You can specify up to 1 Gig of RAM and you get a 15″ (widescreen) display plus an ATI X600 mobility graphics card for killing time on the train.

The z60t model on the other hand goes after the mobile market with a vengeance. A smaller display, hard drive and battery contribute to a weight of just 5lbs (2.2 kilos).

They both look very accomplished - full reviews can be found at www.notebookreview.com (z60m and z60t)