Lenovo ThinkPad X300 First Thoughts Review

by Andrew Baxter

The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 is the latest addition to the ThinkPad family and has recently been garnering a lot of attention. The ThinkPad X300 is a 13.3" screen ultra thin-and-light notebook designed for the traveling business type of person -- the executive road warrior if you will. But let's be honest, suit or no suit, with the type of technology and cool engineering crammed into the X300 everyone's going to be a little bit curious about this notebook, and envious of anybody that has one.

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Our ThinkPad X300 has the following specifications:

• Processor: 1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 (800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
• Graphics: Intel X3100
• Screen: 13.3-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900, 300 nit) LED backlit display
• Memory: 2GB (up to 4GB configurable)
• Storage: 64GB SSD
• Optical Drive: Ultra-thin DVD Burner
• Wireless and Communications: Intel 4965AGN (802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi), BlueTooth 2.0 EDR, Intel UWB, GPS, Verizon WWAN (EV-DO)
• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion extended life battery
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, Monitor out port, AC adapter, headphone/line-out, microphone/line-in, Gigabit Ethernet
• Dimensions: 12.4" x 9.1" x 0.73" - 0.92"
• Weight: from 2.93lbs with 3-cell battery and no optical drive to 3.32lbs with 6-cell battery and DVD Burner in
• Port Replicator: Via USB
• Input: Full sized keyboard, trackpoint navigation, touchpad, fingerprint reader
• Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista (in various flavors)
• Other Features: Integrated web camera
• Warranty: 1-year

The pricing on the X300 is going to start at around $2,400, our configuration is closer to the $3,000 mark since it's fairly loaded with options. Needless to say, this isn't something John Doe consumer will be dropping their money on in place of an $800 Dell.

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Build and Design

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The ThinkPad X300 is as solid as you get in terms of build quality. The internal chassis and roll cage uses an advanced carbon-fiber / glass-fiber material that provides both strength and light weight. The case material is made of magnesium, you can press as hard as you want anywhere on the body of the notebook and it simply will not flex. Like any ThinkPad, the X300 is designed for (accidental) abuse and drops, and we're guessing the X300 might be even more able than previous ThinkPads to take a beating and keep going. As with any ThinkPad, you of course get a double latch mechanism with button release to make sure the screen is held down when it is closed and being carried.

The ThinkPad X61 on top of the X300 size comparison (view large image)

The build quality leaves no doubts and shows improvement over previous ThinkPads, and the design also makes some significant strides as well. That said, there's nothing crazy going on here, the black boxy look of a ThinkPad is still very much so intact. However, the glossy bottom bezel area and the cool light illumination on the ThinkVantage button and power button add a nice touch, and add to the usability. The speakers located on the corners of the notebook also add a nice design accent. The heat vent grills are painted black to blend with the rest of the notebook design, you don't see any copper colored internals. The screen is centered for those hung up on symmetry. And last and probably most important, the X300 is thin, thin, thin making it cool looking by that fact alone.

Apple MacBook Air on the left, ThinkPad X300 on the right (view large image)

ThinkPad X300 supporting the Apple MacBook Air (view large image)

Input and Output Ports

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The number of ports the X300 has is fairly good, certainly much better than the Apple MacBook Air provides, but you're still left a bit wanting. Here's a run down of the ports:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Audio out, microphone in
• Monitor out
• Kensington lock slot

Key things missing are any type of expansion port, there's neither PCMCIA or ExpressCard. There's no type of media card reader, something I sorely miss having on a notebook. There's also no option for a docking station, you have to go with a USB based port replicator to get the additional ports you would want at a desk. Obviously engineers had to make design trade offs and you can't have it all. Personally I would really have preferred an SD card reader and lose a USB port, but when you're out of room you're out of room I guess.

Left view (view large image)	Right view (view large image)
Front view (view large image)	Back view (view large image)

Performance and Benchmarks

Let's get this straight, the ThinkPad X300 was not built to compete with your Quad Core processor loaded desktop. The name of the game with thin travel notebooks is using a low voltage processor to conserve power and reduce heat build-up. The ThinkPad X300 uses an Intel 1.20GHz Core 2 Duo L7100 processor that's quite capable of running office applications and performing any general web related tasks, but will not serve well for 3D graphics applications or any heavy duty rendering tasks. The Intel X3100 will allow you to play a few light games, maybe even Half Life 2 on low settings (see our Intel X3100 review for more details), but in general you'll want to stick to e-mail, web browsing, Office and photo editing tasks. That's enough for most, and certainly enough for on the go business travellers.

The SSD storage really goes a long way to improving certain aspects of performance, the all important boot-up time is a mere 27-seconds from the push of the power button to the Windows hourglass dissappearing. It only took 32 seconds to boot-up, have the wireless connection enabled, and a browser window open on my homepage. That is amazing, the ThinkPad X61 I use takes more than double that amount of time to boot.

Let's take a look at a few basic benchmarks so you can get an idea of how the X3100 stacks up.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, this processor benchmark program is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, it measures the amount of time to run a set amount of calculations.

wPrime comparison results (lower scores means better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 @ 1.20GHz)	118 seconds
Apple MacBook Air (Intel Core 2 Duo P7500 @ 1.6GHz)	68 seconds
Asus Eee PC 701 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76 seconds
Dell XPS M1330 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.20GHz)	38 seconds

You can see from the results in WPrime the ThinkPad X300 L7100 processor is slower than the MacBook Air and Sony TZ, but it's pretty hard to actually perceive this performance difference with everyday applications you would be using.

PCMark05 is a benchmark that measures the overall system performance, so it considers the processor, hard drive, memory and OS as part of the mix. Since the ThinkPad X300 has SSD on board it actually fairs pretty well with this benchmark:

PCMark05 benchmark results (higher scores are better)

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 @ 1.20GHz, Intel X3100)	3,467 PCMarks
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)	2,478 PCMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	3,283 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	2,446 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

The MacBook Air we reviewed did not have SSD, which would explain why the MacBook Air beat the X300 in WPrime with its faster processor, but lost in the PCMark05 match.

HDTune measures the storage performance of a PC, the numbers from the SSD are most impressive, certainly better than your average 5400 RPM hard drive and this benchmark goes to show why the ThinkPad X300 performs well in overall tests:

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Screen

The 13.3&quot; WXGA+ screen on the X300 is nice and bright, with its 300 nit LED backlit spec. The screen real estate you get with WXGA+ on the 13.3&quot; form factor is actually more than you'd expect, you can quite comfortably fit a couple of web browser or spreadsheet windows open next to each other and compare and contrast things. The viewing angles are decent, although as with any non-IPS notebook LCD screen, once you get to a certain viewing angle the colors do start to invert.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Keyboard by day... (view large image)

and in the dark(view large image)

The full-sized keyboard on the ThinkPad X300 has zero flex, it's as good as every previous ThinkPad's keyboard (fantastic) and then some. Lenovo has added a matte finish to the keys so that they don't wear and get all shiny over time. Those that are ThinkPad veterans will appreciate the fact the blue enter key remains and the red striped mouse buttons are back. People that like a touchpad and complained about it being missing on the ThinkPad X-series now have nothing to complain about, a generous sized touchpad with scrolling areas is in place on the X300.

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The palm rest area is pretty neat, it has a rubberized paint finish so it both feels and looks nice. It's very smooth, almost satin in feel. A fingerprint reader sits just to the right of the top mouse buttons.

Audio

How about this, the X300 actually has good sound and speakers that are well positioned! For an ultra thin notebook, that's astounding. The ThinkPad X61 I have contains a puny speaker on the bottom of the notebook, so this is something of a quantum leap for audio quality on the X-series. ThinkPad X300 equipped executives will never have to tote their external speakers to watch DVDs by night in their hotel rooms again. I like the new style

Battery

Lenovo offers the choice of either a 3-cell or 6-cell Lithium-Polymer battery that rests at the front of the notebook. The 3-cell is lighter and has a quoted life of up to 4.3 hours while the 6-cell is heavier and has a quoted life of up to 6.5 hours. You can also get a Lithium-Polymer option bay battery if you yank out the DVD Burner and put that in instead. That gives you an exta 3 hours of quoted battery life.

We'll have more detailed battery life tests in our final review, but for now we'll assume these battery life quotes are probably a bit high for real world usage.

More to Come

As of this writing we've only had the ThinkPad X300 for a few hours now so once the honeymoon is over we're sure there will be more to complain about, but right now it's a big thumbs up on this piece of engineering from the ThinkPad labs. Key things we'll want to find out is how the battery life holds up, how the heat is when under stress, whether installing a bunch of applications slows the performance down and how such extra features as the camera and GPS work out. Stay tuned for the full review next week. We'll also do a comparison of the X300 to another notebook you may have heard of called the MacBook Air from Apple.

More Videos

ThinkPad X300 compared to ThinkPad T61

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ThinkPad X300 Wireless Options

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Bootup Time Comparison of the X300 to the X61

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Wow, awesome machine. Take that MBA !

 

Woah, that is so cool. I want one.

 

I think it is even worse than the already over priced stupid Thinkpad X series , maybe it is not over priced in US but in Asia , EU and else where it is hugely overpriced.

Just to get this super slow and weak performance that can not even beat a P4 model of 2004 or 5, my father will be saving up lots of coins, amazing!

Wow , I am very shocked , thinkpad so special , so great , if it were not a Thinkpad , then would you love it my dad?

Oh well , Iguess he just wanna get the thinkpad name on his lappie , that is all about think thinkpad hype.

I compare an X61 with many others but I do not see any difference in build at all , in fact , I like the Lenovo 3000V200 much better.

And I believe I do never need any thing smaller than XPS M1330 or SZ any way.

With this kind of seriously compromised CPU power ,what I can do with it?

If I just needed a small laptop , I would buy a Toshiba R500, a HP Business 2710p or a Sony TZ, they are much cheaper and much easiler to find in my area.

But I am sure as it is a Thinkpad , so many of IBM lovers will rave about it and it is going to be rated so so so highe, I am so impressed, it is unbeatable jsut because it is a thinkpad.

Look at all mag sites PC mag or like that kind are all sponsored by Lenovo , so you will never see bad honest review of it in these sites.
Maybe I hate it too much , but to be fair , we have to criticise this with serious passion as we did against the MBA.

I dont hate Lenovo but Thinkpad, I will take a lenovo non-thinkpad any day over this.

Well , I need to know how to tell my father not to buy it , it is no longer a great lappie.

And I want him to save his money......................

 

Oh man, that is one beautiful machine! I wonder how long it'll take before that price is a third of what it is now?

I know, it's fun to dream.

 

If only I had three grand to spend . . .

 

Thanks a lot for this nice little review. I'm a bit sceptical about the lack of power since I would be using it from time to time to playback 1080p encoded videofiles. I don't really think that those would play flawlessly, wouldn't they?

 

The rest of your ranting is pretty unreadable, so I just chose this part.

If you don't need something this small or light, why complain? It's not catered to you nor does it have anything you need, so of course you won't understand it.

You were expecting a difference in build quality? Were you shopping for Adamantium or something?

 

I'm saving my pennies to buy the non-SSD version whenever that comes out.

BTW, what happened to the price of laptops dropping over time? The manufacturers managed to convince us all that we should start paying more and more for less and less.

 

It's slower than the U7600 chip that offers better battery life? I'm going off to get the other ultraportables instead.

 

Soooooooo sick. In your face, MBA!

 

I'd take this over a MacBook Air any day, were it not for the insane price. The HP Compaq 2510p seems like a much better deal IMO.

 

jesus christ Andrew, can your hands be any more steady? I thought my video frozed up...

 

Looks like an awesome notebook, definitely better than the Macbook Air.

 

Wow, those are the best pictures I've seen of this laptop. Great job! Looking forward to the full review...

For the review, please keep things in the context of the ThinkPad line more than a comparison to the Macbook Air. I understand the two machines are similar, and some people are deciding which to buy. But I think there are more ThinkPad users thinking about upgrading. Also, many people are curious about how this Lenovo built ThinkPad will compare to the IBM days.

 

1) Learn to speak english
2) Actually back up your claims!

I'd call you a Apple Fanboy...except well you only mentioned Apple once. I find it hard to believe what you claimed about PC Mag and all loving Lenovo...maybe you should ask CNET.com and others why they love their Apple products?

I for one would love to get something like this...if not for the high price tag.

 

Thank you, Andrew!
There is an apparent difference between T's 14.1'' and X's 13.3''.
Now I know what to do...

 

QFT

Also, the very last video doesn't work for me - Youtube says it's unavailable.

 

Yeah I'd pick the 2510p too But the X300 does look very cool

 

Isn't Lenovo gong to offer this later on with an HDD? That will bring the price way down and make it attractive to a lot more people.

 

Yep, great looking machine, fairly high price point. Pretty much what I figured, this is a definite "business" notebook, with raw performance a secondary concern.

I like the fact that the X300's touchpad has actual scroll areas, makes it a tad easier to use (I don't use the touchpad on my ThinkPad much, but it's nice to have it there just in case), plus the traditional color accents are back. The traditional, boxy styling is a plus, as well.

The thing is, really, until Lenovo introduces a slightly more customizable model, I don't see it shipping in large quantities. Once they introduce a mechanical HDD, at the very least, I'll predict a much higher shipping volume, as a lot of potential users are put off by the cost of the SSD, and would be just fine with a standard HDD.

Still...nice review, glad to see someone get theirs.

 

Sexy machine...

Too much so for my wallet, however.

 

I wish they had the same CPU as the MBA. I think that is the biggest concern for all.

How does the Verizon add in card affect weight and battery life?

Does this model have WiMax as advertised?

 

sad that u r in/from Thailand (555+), but what do you care about?

If you don't like it, don't look at it.

 

Does it have Spill-proof??

 

How come this doesn't have a proper docking station?

 

wow this is inferior to an X61 in just about every way except that it has the optical drive and the backlit screen (does the x61 have a backlit screen? i dont even know)

why not just buy an x60 with 2 high-capacity batteries, 1/3 of the price and even more portable

is the x62 still coming out or what?

 

i'm also curious as to whether or when they will be offering the non-SSD version. 64GB is just not enough storage space to make the price worthwhile for most people.

 

Agree, faster CPU would be great. Is the Sony Vaio TZ's U7600 @ 1.2GHz an ultra-low voltage CPU? If so I'm confused why it was benchmarked faster than the X300's L7100 @ 1.2GHz low-voltage part?

Am I right to assume that the Verizon EV-DO is via an installed MiniPCI card? Will it work with Sprint as well?? Will Lenovo have an HSDPA option later? I'm hoping to eventually see cheaper flat-rate laptop data plans with the carriers' push towards unlimited cellullar plans, and I doubt Verizon will ever be the cheapest.

I'm also curious if Andrew has the equipment to test the WiMax? Does it work on 2.5GHz frequency?

Ditto for the Wireless USB. Since the X300 just relies on USB for port replicator connection (without the bandwidth for high-resolution monitor out, etc), I figure they should go ahead offer a Wireless USB port replicator for the wireless convenience...

 

you guys may want to retest the wprime. it shouldn't be twice as slow as the tz with the same clock speed, especially since this is a newer chip. i remember people having problems with running wprime in vista (assuming you were using vista...though from the video, it doesn't look like it):

 

BTW does the DVD burner support dual layer? How about LightScribe?

And does the X300 bundle in any GPS navigation programs (perhaps as a trial)?

I thought I saw Andrew's video showing the Google Maps website on the browser somehow making use of the GPS information -- how is this achieved?

 

Please show me a benchmark that will show that a P4 will beat the Core 2 Duo. Just because it's slower-clocked doesn't mean it's pure crap.

There's no such thing as "ThinkPad hype," as you seem to call it. ThinkPads have attracted a loyal following over the years due to their sturdy build, keyboard, etc. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean everyone who does is a fanatic about them.

By the same virtue, everyone should hate Acer because you seem to fill every post you make with BS about your own dealings with them.

Great, that's your opinion.

Great, once again, that's your opinion. No one cares.

Really, now, you don't hate Lenovo, but you hate the ThinkPad? Curious.

OK, rave all you want about us TP lovers. It's not helping you, me, or anyone else. Neither are your posts that just say "avoid Acer, they suck."

You always manage to insert your utterly over-inflated ego into all of your posts. Stop posting crap about stuff and get a life.

 

They should just have make a external CD drive out of it and put in the USB card reader and a PCMCIA/Expresscard.

I think if you wait a little, the Latitude E will be out and cheaper too.

 

Please keep it civilized in here - there is no need for a flame war.

 

Regarding a mechanical hard drive...

According to Darthkim (I think it was him/her, I haven't double checked) over at the Ars forum, who pretty accurately called the X300 and Latitude E series before further leaks and confirmations, there's going to be a replacement out within six months of the initial release. There's also going to be a mechanical hard drive. I don't know if the mechanical hard drive is going to be available before the 2nd release. There are some rumblings of them trying to squeeze a 5400 RPM drive in, so I'm thinking we might not see it until the fall. But, maybe they are planning to throw a 1.8" mechanical drive in within a couple months, and try to get the 5400 RPM drive in for the bigger update.

I imagine we'll see Penryn and Montevina with the fall update, so I think it's going to be worth waiting if we can. I'm hoping for 1.4Ghz or 1.6Ghz thanks to the wild success of the 45nm process, but 1.2Ghz with longer battery life would be great too. Maybe we'll see the much anticipated SATA2 Samsung SSD's, too, or hey, maybe even these 1.8" Mtron drives which are supposed to be right around the corner.

I wonder if as SSD's gain traction we'll see notebooks offered with different speed classes, to mimic the rotational speed options we have now.

 

You beat me to it.

The 1.33GHz U1500 in my Sony G11 scored 124.581s. However, the G11 only managed 1,554 in PCMark05, which shows that, overall, the X300 is in a different league.

It's an interesting machine but I'll hold onto my money until someone comes up with a similar machine with 14.1" WXGA+.

John

 

Look elsewhere if you want 1080p encoded video file playback. This won't be powerful enough for a smooth experience.

I agree, a little sick of seeing MacBook Air comparisons so I will try and shy away from that a bit and focus on the features of this notebook.

That's rumor, there's no such confirmed update.

I haven't exactly checked for WiMax yet and not sure if I'll be able to test that. But it is documented as being included. I doubt I'll be testing it though, I have no real way too and it's not very relevant at the moment.

They couldn't fit in the necessary part on the bottom to provide that, too skinny.

Yes, it does. And the drains to take liquid out the bottom.

In the product documentation I have from Lenovo it indicates it's a "PCI Express Micro Card". Now, I'm not sure what a Micro card PCI Express is, I'm assuming they meant Mini and it's a typo.

Kevin ran it once and I did it twice, we're actually showing the highest of the three scores. It's actually an SL7100 that's been documented on the web as using 12 watts of power as opposed to the 20 watts the MBA uses so it is significantly lower in its power demand and abilities. See more here: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08...-processor-similar-to-MacBook-Air-chip_1.html

No dual layer or lightscribe. There's no bundled GPS navigation programs, there is an application within the ThinkVantage software suite that detects satellites and you can launch Google maps, Microsoft Live maps and it uses your lat/long reading to show where you are. It will work with applications such as Streets and Trips though, so you can buy applications that are more robust for it to work with.

I just realized I forgot to include a video showing the bootup time of the X300. That's in now and here it is for reference too:

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Intel does come up with surprises but I would be astonished if they would have the cheek to sell a Core 2 Duo with only one core working. Plus it has more than double the power consumption of the U1500's 5.5W.

Best try some other benchmarks or another version of wPrime. Also does the performance tab in Task Manager show two cores working?

John

 

Fantastic review Andrew!

Lenovo really listened to the customers with the X300 didn't they? I mean decent, solid speakers, LED backlit screen, tiny form factor, almost every wireless capability under the sun, a flush battery, etc., it's all good.

Lenovo did an excellent job with this. I definitely wouldn't mind resting my palms on that rubberized paint, that's for sure.

My favorite part of the review: "We've only had the ThinkPad X300 for a few hours now so once the honeymoon is over we're sure there will be more to complain about..."

You da man Andrew.

 

What's up with only wxga+ on a 13 inch screen? I know some people will like this, but many (me) won't like not having the wxga option. For the price of this this thing you could almost get both an SZ and a m1330. Other than that I like it.

 

request!

since you guys got both the MBA and the x300 in your hands.. which had the better screen, in terms of contrast, color reproduction and brightness?

I know thinkpads aren't generally known for their screens, but im pretty curious..

 

I'm interested in the WXGA+ panel.

I hope next week you test it, make some videos of view angles, brightness and so. Then disassemble it and get info about the manufacturer or ask Lenovo.

 

After seeing the comparison pictures, I prefer the X61s (especially since its a lot cheaper).

 

Very nice videos , the new angle and zoom helps with the extra details . I'd give Andrew rep for this but he's already got too much .

 

I think its pretty good, except the price which can be justified by all the wireless options. Certainly this notebook is ahead of time. Thinkpads generally are slower due to security software present, when compared to a clean installation notebook. L7100 can't be slower than U7600.

 

Great looking laptop...thx for this mini review!
P.S does it have illuminated keyboard????

 

lenovo naming schema (some speculation - just one crazy idea, after lunch):

1. previous (with ibm)
ibm tp t60 r60 x60
lenovo n100 v100

2. now (lenovo drops ibm)
lenovo tp t61 r61 x61
lenovo n200 v200

3. next (numbers match)
lenovo tp x300 t300 r300
lenovo n300 v300

4. future (lenovo drops tp)
lenovo n400 v400 x400 t400 r400

 

Why did you put the Macbook Air on top of the Thinkpad and not the other way around? I'd love to see how the MBA get crushed by the Thinkpad.

 

Hi,

I really want the X300 - the only thing I'm worried about is the processor. Can any one tell me how it compares to the processor in my current laptop, which is a Z60M with a Pentium M 2.0 Ghz. How does the two compare performance wise?

Thanks in advance,
-J

 

Screen question:

I assume the screen is anti-glare, but I haven't seen that written anywhere. Is it anti-glare, or is it glossy?