Its here! Lenovo ThinkPad X100e full Launch Review, Videos and Specifications

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has now set the benchmark for NetBook and entry level UltraPortables for 2010. The design is outstanding, it looks quite frankly, stunning, and it feels solid, just like a ThinkPad should. And at an entry price of $449, it’s excellent value.

<– Review and Buy your ThinkPad x100e Now!

The ThinkPad X100e has been specifically designed to be comfortable to use. Combining a lovely 11.6″ High Definition display full sized keyboard, MultiTouch touchpad and the iconic ThinkPad TrackPoint, the X100e really is a delight.

Lenovo designers have incorporated a new style ‘contemporary’ island keyboard, which feels responsive and firm, with little or no noticeable flex while typing. With the slightly enlarged keys and the removal of little used keys to give extra space, it really is comfortable and a joy for extended use.

Visual Change

Visually the ThinkPad X100e breaks with a longstanding ThinkPad tradition. It comes in colours other than black! With Heatwave Red, Arctic White, and for the purists amongst us Midnight Black, we can have a funky looking X100e or stick with convention and go Black.

With the ThinkPad X100e open however, nothing changes, the nice looking modern style ‘island’ style keyboard is black, with black palm rest, screen frame and touchpad. For the ThinkPad Geek in all of us, we have the red TrackPoint and red highlights on the mouse keys. I know that’s only a small visual element, but its just so ‘ThinkPad’, and well, it just looks good!

Aesthetically, the ThinkPad X100e could be a smaller ThinkPad T400s. It just looks right. Now, as for color choice, from a personal point of view I didn’t like the white, loved the Heatwave Red, but mine will be in black. It reminds me of a much loved IBM ThinkPad 240x I used to own and you can call me stickler if you like but in black the ThinkPad X100e really does look like an enterprise class Ultraportable. It’s almost perfection.

AMD Power

In a further break with tradition the new ThinkPad X100e comes with a range of AMD processor options including AMD Athlon Neo Single and Dual Core and AMD Turion™ X2 Dual Core Mobile Processors. Running in an UltraPortable the size of the ThinkPad X100e the AMD Turion™ X2 Dual Core Mobile Processor is a great choice, and one we had predicted Lenovo would make for the new X100e. Not only does it keep the cost down, it delivers exceptional performance and long battery life.

At launch, Graphics come courtesy of an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip AMD VISION Pro Technology which should deliver outstanding performance on visual applications for both productivity and entertainment. AMD VISION Pro Technology has been optimized to work with Windows 7 to achieve an advanced visually powerful and rich experience and what we saw on the truly beautiful 11.6″ LED backlight display certainly impressed us.

From the start, the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 and AMD M780G with ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics will be available with further AMD Athlon Neo and Turion options available later in Q1. The choice right now has to be the AMD M780G which incorporates the ATI Avivo™HD3 Technology video decoder to seamlessly decode and playback HD-DVD and Blu-ray content.

We haven’t tested any games yet, and whilst we don’t expect to be able to play Halo 3 or Crysis, this little wonder should handle most other stuff at lower frame rates and certainly will allow us to check in on our World of Warcraft Level 80 warrior whilst we are on our travels!

ThinkPad X100e, the Super NetBook!

So where does the ThinkPad x100e sit in the rapidly convergent small Notebook, NetBook, Ultraportable niche? Well, Lenovo wants to categorize the ThinkPad X100e as an entry level UltraPortable, and we think that’s were it should sit. It certainly crosses the line from NetBook, moves a step up, and completely redefines the form factor.

With Professional-Grade Features, the performance needed to support corporate operating systems like Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, the ThinkPad X100e goes way beyond NetBook. Incorporating Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Technologies, hardware and software tools that help Enterprise IT professionals deploy, manage and maintain their PCs the X100e is sure to be a winner with corporate’s and according to the feedback Lenovo has been getting, the ThinkPad X100e is just what they are looking for.

Like all other ThinkPad products the X100e is globally available and features global technical support along with a variety of warranty options.

Disappointments?

So are there any disappointments? Yes, a couple. The biggest of which is that we don’t think that the ThinkPad designed team have been as innovative as the could have been with the X100e. The ThinkPad team in Raleigh, North Carolina, have a long tradition of designing some of the most innovative and superbly engineered notebooks and UltraPortables ever made.

The original ThinkPad T20, the superb ThinkPad 240x, the ThinkPad 701 Butterfly, the original ThinkPad X Series, and recently the X300, the ThinkPad T400s, the outstanding W700, the list is endless.

They had the opportunity with the ThinkPad X100e to raise the bar so high that no other manufacturer could ever hope to match it. The bottom line is that the X100e could have been lighter and battery life at 5 hours with the 6 Cell is not quite good enough. And where is the finger print reader? Isn’t this an enterprise level notebook? And only VGA out? Where is the HDMI port to play back all that great HD content?

The real icing on the cake of course would have been an optional UltraBase and that is something we had hoped the boys in Raleigh would have designed in to the package. An Ultrabay would have provided so many more options, just like the grown up X Series the ThinkPad X100e emulates. With an UltraBay for optional Optical Drive, additional Hard Drives, Battery, plus DisplayPort, HDMI and multi monitor connectivity.

Grips over, the ThinkPad X100e is superb.

Now, grips over, and having got that off our chest, the ThinkPad x100e, at an entry price of $449 really is a superb little notebook and truly does redefine the NetBook, morphing into to truly useable entry level UltraPortable. Its a fact the 60% of NetBook’s never leave the home or office. We don’t see this happening with the ThinkPad x100e.

With the power to handle most Office tasks and entertain on the go the ThinkPad X100e should become the de facto standard for today’s working traveller. Add to that the fact that with the more powerful optional AND Turion Processor which will be available later in the 1st Quarter, this new baby ThinkPad really does redefine the word UltraPortable.

ThinkPad X100e Specifications.

Processor – AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 and AMD M780G with ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics at launch with further AMD Athlon Neo and Turion options early Q1

Operating System – Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Home Basic (32 bit), Windows 7 Home Premium (32 bit), Windows 7 Pro (32 bit), Windows XP Pro (32 bit), DOS (minimum support)

Display/Resolution – 11.6 inch HD (1366×768) LED backlight 200 nit

Memory – 4 GB maximum (2 SD-DIMM slots)

Hard Drive Options – 160 GB, 250GB, 320GB HD 5400 RPM

Graphics – ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics

Audio – Stereo speakers, built-in mic

Integrated Comms – Realtek 802.11n, optional Bluetooth, GB Ethernet, optional WWAN Gobi card

Ports and Slots – 3 USB with 1 x powered, VGA port, 4-in-1 card reader slot, GB Ethernet port HD audio, combo headphone/mic-in

Camera – Low-light camera, High Sensitivity WebCam

Weight – 1.36 kg, sub 3 pounds, with 3-cell battery and 1.50 kg, 3.3 pounds with 6-cell battery

Dimensions – Starts at 11″ x 7.5″ x .6″ front to 1.1″ rear

Keyboard – 6 row, IOS full size, spill resistant, new design, UltraNav TrackPoint and multigesture touchpad

Battery Life – 2 hours with 3-cell 2.2Ah battery, up to 5 hours with 6-cell 2.6 Ah battery

Included Software – Skype for Business, PC Doctor for Windows, Rescue & Recovery, Password Manager, Presentation Director, System Update, Access Connections, ThinkVantage Utilities

Pricing Starts in the US at $449

Optional extras include a USB Multi Burner, a USB Port Replicator with Digital Video, matching ThinkPad X100e Sleeve, and a USB Secure Hard Drive.

ThinkPad X100e – The Bottom Line

The ThinkPad x100e is now the new industry benchmark and creates a new ‘Super NetBook’ category. Competitors like HP, Dell and Acer will eat their hearts out when they get their hands on an X100e. No other laptop brand has the sheer cachet of the ThinkPad, and the X100e interprets that so well.

Make no mistake, despite the odd gripe, the ThinkPad X100e is a truly outstanding notebook. However you want to categorize it, as a Super NetBook or entry level Ultraportable, it does the job extremely well. Its small light and powerful, has excellent graphics, a superb screen and an excellent keyboard.

Add to that, the fact that it also looks ‘the business’ Whether you’re on the sofa, in the coffee shop, the airport lounge or in a boardroom meeting, the X100e is going to look good. At a starting price of $449 the ThinkPad X100e is the one to beat in 2010. Go buy one!

ThinkPad X100e Video Review

David Hill, ThinkPad Lead Designer on the ThinkPad X100e