Note battery life does drop under intense use: with the CPU pushed to the limit, the X301 lasted for just 2hrs 4mins in our test. If battery life is your priority, though, you can buy an additional three-cell battery to slide into the bay normally occupied by the DVD writer.
This leaves us with mixed feelings about the X301. The X300 broke new ground for laptops, being exceptionally thin and light but also – unlike headline stealers such as the MacBook Air – extremely usable.
The X301 delivers some improvements over its predecessor, but considering the high price we’re a little aggrieved that the screen and keyboard aren’t among them.
Despite this, it remains a fine design and business travellers with generous budgets should certainly put it on their shortlist.
However, and this is the big problem for Lenovo, products like Sony’s SR Series offer much, much better value at around £650 exc VAT – and while it gains 450g, it doesn’t lose much in the way of usability. In the face of such strong competition, we can’t recommend the X301.
Warranty | |
|---|---|
| Warranty | 3 year(s) return to base |
Physical specifications | |
| Dimensions | 317 x 236 x 22mm (WDH) |
| Weight | 1.520kg |
Processor and memory | |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 |
| RAM capacity | 2.00GB |
| Memory type | DDR3 |
| SODIMM sockets free | 1 |
| SODIMM sockets total | 2 |
Screen and video | |
| Screen size | 13.3in |
| Resolution screen horizontal | 1,440 |
| Resolution screen vertical | 900 |
| Resolution | 1440 x 900 |
| Graphics chipset | Intel GMA 4500 |
| VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
| HDMI outputs | 0 |
| S-Video outputs | 0 |
| DVI-I outputs | 0 |
| DVI-D outputs | 0 |
| DisplayPort outputs | 1 |
Drives | |
| Capacity | 128GB |
| Spindle speed | N/A |
| Optical disc technology | DVD writer |
| Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 |
Networking | |
| Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
| 802.11a support | yes |
| 802.11b support | yes |
| 802.11g support | yes |
| 802.11 draft-n support | yes |
| Integrated 3G adapter | yes |
Other Features | |
| Wireless hardware on/off switch | yes |
| Wireless key-combination switch | yes |
| Modem | no |
| ExpressCard34 slots | 0 |
| ExpressCard54 slots | 0 |
| PC Card slots | 0 |
| USB ports (downstream) | 3 |
| PS/2 mouse port | yes |
| 9-pin serial ports | 0 |
| Parallel ports | 0 |
| Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
| Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
| 3.5mm audio jacks | 2 |
| SD card reader | no |
| Memory Stick reader | no |
| MMC (multimedia card) reader | no |
| Smart Media reader | no |
| Compact Flash reader | no |
| xD-card reader | no |
| Pointing device type | Touchpad, trackpoint |
| Speaker location | Below keyboard |
| Hardware volume control? | no |
| Integrated microphone? | yes |
| Integrated webcam? | yes |
| TPM | yes |
| Fingerprint reader | yes |
| Smartcard reader | no |
| Carry case | no |
Battery and performance tests | |
| Battery life, light use | 126 |
| Battery life, heavy use | 396 |
| Overall application benchmark score | 0.78 |
| Office application benchmark score | 0.83 |
| 2D graphics application benchmark score | 0.82 |
| Encoding application benchmark score | 0.67 |
| Multitasking application benchmark score | 0.79 |
| 3D performance (crysis) low settings | N/A |
| 3D performance setting | N/A |
Operating system and software | |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business |
| OS family | Windows Vista |
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
