Lenovo X300 In-Depth Review
Overview
| PROS |
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| CONS |
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| Bottom Line | Great mobility, decent performance, understated looks |
Lenovo is known for developing useful, if uninspiring notebooks for business. With a market that prides itself on exterior design innovation, it's tough to get noticed when your creativity is trapped underneath the plastic. At least we thought it was tough until we saw the Lenovo X300. Touted as the "No-compromise Ultraportable," the X300 brings all the features you've come to expect in business laptops into one of the smallest spaces since the MacBook Air. An optical drive and 10-hours of battery life in a package that's as light as the MBA? We'll see.
Let's compare the dimensions of the two laptops, for posterity. Both are 13.1" ultraportables. The X300 weighs in at an astonishing 2.93 lbs. (1.33 kg), with the MBA at an impressive 3 lbs. (3.36 kg) pounds stock. The X300 sizes up to 12.5" x 9.1" and the MBA at 12.8" x 8.94. The specs are nearly identical, although when you view them side by side they look anything but. It's important to note that our test system was closer to 3.32 lbs (1.51 kg), although that included the optical drive and 6-cell battery. Although the system claims a 10 hour charge with the 6-cell and swappable 3-cell battery (in place of the optical drive), our configuration puts the claim closer to 6.5 hours. That's still a 3,000 mile flight across the US with power to spare.
Features and Technology
This notebook starts at $2,548 if you purchase directly from Lenovo's website. Our unit went for $2,936 all said and done, which is a hefty amount to shell out. However, it's labeled a no-compromise machine for a reason. Processing power comes from an Intel Core 2 Duo SL7100 rated at 1.2 GHz. It's a processor designed to sip power rather than gulp it, and contributes to Lenovo's claim of a 10-hour battery life. Two GB of DDR2 RAM running at 667 MHz, with your choice of either Windows Vista Business or XP Professional. At the time of this review, either is included in your bottom-line price tag. Our unit came with XP Pro.
The 1440 x 900 LED backlit display is combined with a 64 GB solid state drive, which further cements Lenovo's commitment to a no-compromise laptop and longer battery life. The internal optical drive is even swappable with a 3-cell Li-Ion battery. The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 won't help you win Call of Duty matches, but it will pay for itself with exceptional efficiency over more powerful cards.
Lenovo shifted their stereo speakers toward the front, where they sit to the outside of your wrists. The placement is welcome because you're closer to the speakers (you don't need to pump up the volume and drain the battery). Unlike the MacBook Air, these speakers offer full stereo playback. The palm rests (and all other touchable surfaces) are covered in rubberized paint for a more pleasant feel. The "roll cage" has been upgraded to take jarring bumps and falls, and with the solid state drive, less moving parts means less fail.
Small details like the new paintjob and keyboard spotlight give you an idea of how much thought went into the design of this machine. The biometric reader is a welcome addition for notebook security, although we're waiting for Lenovo's VeriFace technology (found in the new IdeaPads) to make it to their business notebooks. It was a cool feature that worked really well in practice, and we just want to see more of it.
We're also excited to see an integrated webcamera built into the top bezel. We're not as wild about the 1.3 Megapixel resolution, although you can't have everything you want, right? The webcam does serve the purpose of every feature on this notebook, which is to extend business functionality.
Connectivity, Performance, and Conclusion
It's no secret that a business user needs to stay connected. Lenovo doesn't want you hanging your head in shame if you can't keep up with the latest in wireless communications, so they blessed the X300 with Wireless-N WLAN, GPS-capable WWAN, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, WiMax, and optional WUSB.
That's not including wired connections, like Gigabit Ethernet, three USB ports, VGA, Line-in, and Line-out. If you can't connect with the X300, it wasn't meant to be.
Performance
We used PCMark 05 and 3dMark06 to assess the capabilities of the X300. Lenovo's "no-compromise" laptop did have to make a few concessions in the graphical power category, which put the unit at the back of the pack. However, it still scored closely to more multimedia-centric notebooks, like the Toshiba F45.
We expected the 1.2 GHz Core 2 Du to falter against more powerful competition. When you drop a processor into the super-low voltage category, you're going to take a processing hit. However, the difference wasn't nearly what we expected.
The X300 barely trailed notebooks with 50% more processing power, like the Toshiba F45. We were impressed with what seemed a strong behind-the-scenes showing from the solid state drive.
Conclusion
Lenovo's X300 is an incredible machine for the high-powered businessman. It's a powerful yet understated, efficient yet effective laptop with an unbeatable set of connectivity options. The battery life, while not quite the 10 hours claimed, is tough to replicate in the real world. The ability to swap out the ultrathin 7 mm optical drive for a 3-cell battery is a welcome option that can be a lifesaver in the right situation. Although the sticker price of nearly $3000 can dissuade potential consumers, we can honestly say that if you need what the X300 has, you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal.
Lenovo is even touting the X300 as their "greenest" laptop ever, pointing out the energy-saving solid state drive and LED backlit display, as well as the lack of mercury in the screen. For those keeping score it received an EPEAT gold rating, meets the European Union's Reduction of Hazardous Substances standards, and is Energy Star 4.0 qualified. I'm sure some crafty accountants can make use of that information come tax season.
This review was a real eye-opener when it came to comparisons with the MacBook Air. Both systems feature similar dimensions with negligible price differences (for a similarly-equipped model), although the Lenovo X300 packs enough features into the glass-fiber construction to makes you wonder why anyone would pick the MBA. However, marketing wars are won with all five senses, and not from a tech specs sheet. No matter which notebook you eventually choose to fanboy behind, we're happy to recommend this laptop to anyone willing to look under the skin and give the X300 the attention it deserves.
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