Aimed at business users, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100 is an ultraportable and affordable notebook that has more grunt than your average netbook.


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This 11.6-inch notebook weighs 1.5kg and fits easily inside a small bag. The X100e makes do without an optical drive but comes with three USB ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, D-Sub out, Ethernet, and microphone/headphone combo jack.

In terms of specification, it utilises AMD’s Athlon Neo Processor MV-40 (1.6Ghz), ATI’s Radeon HD 3200 video card (500MHz), has 2GB of RAM, and 250GB of storage. It comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Professional (32-bit), Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Tools and Online Data Backup, Microsoft Office 60-day trial, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Configuration Tools.

Opening the lid reveals a full-sized and spill-resistant ‘island-style’ keyboard that has well-separated and curved keys. Lenovo has also included its TrackPoint pointing device and a multi-touch touchpad that allows you to zoom, scroll, and rotate. As the touchpad’s buttons are located along the edge of the notebook, it can accidentally be pulled upwards, especially while opening the lid. The unit also comes with a low-light-sensitive camera that can be used for both normal and poor lighted areas.

 

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Like the ThinkPad Edge, the X100e comes with Power Manager 3 that changes power settings (High Performance – High Energy Savings), adjust power plans, check battery life, and show battery status. The Access Connections toolbar is located on the Windows Taskbar and shows you the wireless network’s signal strength as well as help you connect to available networks. Finally, it also comes with the ThinkVantage Toolbox that shows you the overall health of the notebook.

The 11.6-inch HD display has a native resolution of 1366×768 and can get very bright. The speakers are located at the bottom of the notebook and could get loud without sounding tinny. During our video playback test, the X100e lasted 167 minutes, which is surprisingly short for a notebook with a 6-cell battery. Lowering the brightness and using the headphone jack can extend the battery life. The unit charges from 0 to 100 per cent in about one hour 40 minutes.

The Lenovo X100e is the perfect netbook alternative, thanks to its noteworthy specifications, big HD screen, battery-saving features, and in-built hardware/software support. It is available now for $999.