So here it is. The few leaks about the X300 have only served to heighten the sense of expectation as Lenovo produces – arguably – the most notable laptop of the last five years. And PC Pro has the first full review.
So what makes the X300 so darned notable? Certainly, in photographs this doesn’t appear any match for the lusciously designed Apple MacBook Air, with the traditional sober black ThinkPad look being very much in place.
And, in terms of footprint, it’s not that much different from the ThinkPad T series: they measure 313 x 255mm, this measures 317 x 226mm.
The crucial stats appear elsewhere: the X300 is just 22mm thick and weighs a mere 1.45kg. Yet it still includes a 13.3in widescreen TFT, a full-size keyboard and an optical drive.
The optical drive means it can’t be compared to the MacBook Air; the high-resolution widescreen and no-compromises keyboard pushes it into a different realm from Sony’s TZ series and the Toshiba Portégé R500.
Make no mistake: this is a new form of laptop.
So who’s going to buy it? Certainly the type of person who’s on the move a lot of the time, and certainly someone who needs to exude a professional image. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is just for big business: whether you work for yourself or are part of a huge corporation, the X300 will fit the bill.
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The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the X300 for the first time is that it exudes quality. Grab it by the corner and there isn’t the slightest flex: it’s rock solid.
Start tapping away on the keyboard and you’ll be instantly reminded why ThinkPads have been praised for their typing attractions for over a decade: the travel is distinct, the keys are all generously sized and there’s no irritating function doubling.
Unlike the ThinkPad X61, the X300 includes a trackpad. Sensibly enough, it’s a wide-aspect unit to match the widescreen. Equally sensibly, Lenovo hasn’t abandoned the trackpoint, and existing ThinkPad fans may rarely use the trackpad at all. And, if you find you brush against it while typing, moving the cursor to a random part of the document, you can quickly disable it by pressing Fn-F8.
The screen is generally a pleasure to use. It actually feels larger than its true 13.3in diagonal, and that 1,440 x 900 resolution is a big leap over the 1,024 x 768 of traditional 12.1in screens. For example, it means you can have the taskbar in the right-hand part of the screen (a notable improvement over having it on the bottom as it makes navigating open windows so much easier) and still have plenty of room for a spreadsheet.
Technically, it’s a decent screen too. Contrast is excellent, so you’ll see details in even the darkest screens. It’s not without its faults – the LED backlight is a tad uneven, so the shade of white at the bottom of your Word document will vary a little – and the colours are a little pale, but there’s nothing here that would put us off buying the X300.
The one issue worthy of note is its vertical viewing angles: unless you position the X300 lid at its optimum angle – roughly 110 degrees – you won’t get perfect contrast.
Performance
Although the screen isn’t perfect, we’re happy enough with Lenovo’s decision to use LED technology as the super-slim lid reduces weight and lowers energy demands. This emphasis on power frugality runs through the rest of the X300 as well.
The processor, for instance, is an ultra-low-voltage unit that’s so new that originally even Intel couldn’t tell us exactly what it is: it showed up as an L7100 in Device Manager, but Intel has informed us the CPU is actually the SL7100.
(For those who like tech specs, it’s built on the 65nm Merom core with 4MB of L2 cache and uses a 800MHz front-side-bus. The package size is just 22 x 22mm, with a 2mm height – this, combined with a 12W TDP, is one of the reasons the X300 is so small.)
Helped along by 2GB of RAM, the SL7100 pushed the ThinkPad to a score of 0.68 in our benchmarks – a total more akin to a 1.6GHz processor. That’s still half the speed of the very quickest laptops, but for most uses the X300 will be more than fast enough: it’s processor-intensive tasks such as video editing that will show up the L7100 CPU in real life.
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the speakers, too. Clearly, they’re never going to pump out much bass, but whether you’re indulging in late-night gaming or listening to music they’re up to the task thanks to clear reproduction and no distortion.
Movie soundtracks sound just as good, and even away from the mains the ThinkPad has no trouble playing DVD films. (Don’t tell anyone, but we quickly forgot we were meant to be analysing the quality and just started watching the movie.)
The final core component worthy of note is the hard disk. At launch, the X300 will only be available with a 64GB solid-state-disk, which means in practice that, after Windows has had its way, and setting aside Lenovo’s hidden recovery partition, you’ll be left with around 40GB of storage space.
Clearly, for a lot of people that’s not enough, and if you do need more space then hang on until April when Lenovo will be releasing a new batch of X300s with SATA hard disks inside.
There are some obvious benefits of solid-state-disks in ultraportable laptops such as this, though. First, reliability: no moving parts means less chance of failure, especially from knocks.
Manufacturers also claim a speed advantage thanks to inherently faster transfer rates, and though we don’t dispute this we’re yet to see a big difference in our real-world benchmarks.
Undeniably, though, a solid-state-disk also uses less power than its hard disk counterpart, and that means it doesn’t generate as much heat. The end result: better battery life.
The choice of long-life components undoubtedly helps Lenovo to extend the X300’s battery life, and, even with the smallest three-cell battery in place, we were pleased to find the laptop lasted just shy of four hours under light use: 3hrs 58mins, to be precise.
It’s theoretically possible to extend this further by ticking the Battery Stretch option, which kicks in at around 25%. This offers the option to automatically apply aggressive power settings.
Of course, four hours isn’t enough for most people, and in reality most usages will be closer to three hours. If you’re pushing the processor to its limit, expect a life of just over two hours: the X300 lasted 2hrs 8mins in our intense-use benchmark.
That’s why Lenovo offers a further two battery options: a six-cell extended battery (compared to the three-cell standard unit) which adds an extra few millimetres of thickness to the X300; and an additional three-cell unit, which can slot into the optical drive bay.
At launch, the X300 will ship with a six-cell battery as standard, and as soon as we get a sample we’ll post the results here.
It’s no surprise to see Bluetooth and 802.11ag wireless in the X300, but we’re pleased to see draft-n available courtesy of the Intel 4965AGN chip.
Better still is the WAN networking, with an internal 3G modem (which supports HSDPA) as standard with the UK models. Lenovo isn’t forcing you to choose one supplier over another, but a Vodafone SIM is bundled.
There’s speedy wired networking thanks to a gigabit ethernet controller, but Lenovo drops the dial-up modem; if you want this, you’ll have to buy the external modem that plugs into one of the three USB ports.
All this flexibility once again underlines the X300’s superiority (at least in terms of features) over the MacBook Air, which only has one USB port and wireless LAN to its name.
Previous owners of ThinkPads will be well aware of the extra software Lenovo – and before it, IBM – loaded on to try and improve the Windows experience.
Called ThinkVantage Technologies, their physical sign is a rectangular blue button next to the volume controls. Some of these are rather basic to be called technologies – “Get support now” simply takes you to the Lenovo support website – but others are extremely useful.
For instance, select “Back up now” and within a few minutes a message will pop up that says a backup is complete. That’s how things should be.
We also like the Find Wireless Networks tool. This gives a graphical breakdown of nearby access points along with a guide to their signal strengths and whether or not they’re encrypted.
There’s plenty more to enjoy, including a full guide to all the ports on your new laptop, so the Front view labels all the key features visible from the front and gives a brief explanation of what they do.
The X300 benefits from some clear labelling anyway. You can see there are two USB ports down the left-hand side because two logos to the left of the keyboard indicate their location. Likewise the microphone and headphone sockets.
We’re also fans of the ThinkLight: press Fn-PgUp (it’s no coincidence that these are the bottom left and top right keys) and the keyboard is bathed in light – perfect for dark conditions.
But we’ll leave our biggest words of praise to the Rescue and Recovery interface. If things go horribly wrong, just press the ThinkVantage button as the X300 starts to boot up and you’ll enter a Linux-like OS. It starts by offering some very simple options: restore from a previous backup, go back to the factory fresh disk image, or copy files to an external drive.
Click the Advanced link, though, and you’ll get access to a web browser, allowing you to download patches even if Windows absolutely refused to work: a potential lifesaver.
One minor grumble is that there’s no docking station option. Lenovo points out that most people just used the X6 UltraBase docking station for the optical drive, so it’s hardly vital for the X300, but there’s no disputing that a docking station is neater on the desk than a USB port replicator.
At least Lenovo has put some thought into the replicator’s design. It’s designed to stand vertically rather than lie irritatingly on a desk, and you can actually hook up a monitor (up to 1,280 x 1,024 resolution) permanently to it.
Continuing our list of compromises, regular Economy flyers may also be put off by the idea of a taller lid. Even though there’s little between the X300 and a 12.1in subnotebook – the X300’s lid measures 236mm high to the X61’s 216mm – it could make the difference in some situations.
The large bezel is a minor black mark against the X300 too. It not only gives the unit a retro feel, it also makes us wonder whether the screen could have been even larger.
We’re disappointed to see only a D-SUB at the back: a DVI-I port would have allowed a digital connection to a TFT display as well as an analogue connection if needs be.
We’re huge fans of the X300. Sure, it has its foibles and it won’t be the right choice for everyone. And, call us demanding if you like, but we’d have liked to see another hour of battery life from the three-cell battery.
But, unlike the MacBook Air, it doesn’t sacrifice usability to hit a certain weight. In fact, unlike the MacBook Air, it’s clearly been designed with usability rather than marketing in mind.
The keyboard is simply fantastic. The screen, while not perfect, offers an ideal resolution for the target user: the professional on the road.
Build quality is superb and, though it won’t rival a desktop PC for speed, it’s more than fast enough to be used as an everyday computer. There’s even room for a little after-hours entertainment.
This kind of laptop is never going to be cheap, and the X300 isn’t either. But you’re paying for some incredible design and a low, low weight.
When Lenovo releases models with mechanical hard disks and lower prices, it will become an even more attractive choice. And, if you don’t need the benefits of solid-state technology, wait for the new models. But if you’re after the last word in reliability, usability, quality and portability, your money won’t be wasted.
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