Key Specs
1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-402GB RAM
320GB hard drive
None
11.6 inches (1,366x768 native resolution)
ATI Radeon HD 3200
3.3 pounds
1.1x11.1x8.2 inches
Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
PC history has made it easy to assume every ThinkPad is black, expensive, and Intel-powered, but it's time to think again. Available in crimson, the ThinkPad X100e delivers a very usable 11.6-inch screen and full-size keyboard in a 3-pound package. X100e models start at just $449 (our tested configuration rang up at $549), and at price points like that, ultraportables like these might just put another nail into the netbook’s coffin. The AMD Athlon Neo processor that this unit uses is no barn burner, but the X100e is still faster than most netbooks and should prove fine for typical office tasks.
For years, critics have chided that, like a Model T, you can get a ThinkPad in any color you wanted as long as it’s black, and Lenovo has finally relented. The X100e is available in black for purists, but the crimson satin finish makes a statement and works well on a compact notebook like this. We don’t think it’s as sharp as the high-gloss finish of the similarly sized (and priced) Fujitsu LifeBook P3010, but since it’s a ThinkPad, we’ll take whatever panache we can get.
Weighing just 3 pounds with the standard battery or 3.3 pounds with the six-cell, the X100e is very portable. Aside from the red chassis, another design change from other ThinkPads is the Chiclet-style keyboard. The full-size keys have a full 2mm of vertical plunge and are comfortable to type on, although the keyboard still doesn’t have the crisp action of the traditional ThinkPad one. As with other ThinkPads, you will find both a TrackPoint pointing stick and a touch pad. The touch pad is a decent size for an ultraportable, and it supports multi-finger gestures for scrolling, zooming, and so on, but the touch-pad buttons are too slender for our tastes. We also wish Lenovo had included dedicated multimedia-control and volume buttons; as it is, you’ll need to press a Function-key combo for most tasks.
Of course, as with most other 3-pound ultraportables—with the exception of the wildly expensive Toshiba Portégé R600—the X100e doesn't have a built-in optical drive. The selection of ports and slots is basic but functional: three USB ports, VGA, LAN, headset, and a four-format memory-card reader that supports the SD, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro flavors. There is no ExpressCard expansion slot, but since Lenovo offers embedded wireless broadband connectivity as an option, that’s less of a pressing need. Some businesses, though, may miss the ThinkPad-typical fingerprint reader.
We're not sure how much the fingerprint reader would have added to the cost, but a solid state drive (SSD) would have added at least a few hundred bucks. As a result, the X100e has no SSD option at all. Unlike a regular hard drive, an SSD drive has no moving parts, which makes it a good fit for ultra-mobile notebooks and business notebooks. (That's because if you drop an SSD-equipped laptop, the chances of losing your data, at least due to a drive crash, are slim to none.) Lenovo makes up for this, however, by adding active hard drive protection to both hard drive options (250GB or 320GB, as in our unit). With this protection, the laptop can sense when it's being bumped or when it's falling, and parks the drive heads to prevent data loss.
In terms of 3D performance, the X100e’s comparisons are a bit better. It managed a score of 1,175 on 3DMark06 at 1,024x768 resolution, thanks to the ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics processor, which is a notch above the usual Intel integrated graphics we see in netbooks and budget-price ultraportables. This score is about 200 points better than the average for ultraportables tested to date and a good 850 points higher than the average netbook. Still, that sort of showing isn’t going to let you use the machine for high-frame-rate 3D gaming.
As is appropriate for a business machine, Lenovo keeps the preloaded software to a minimum. The X100e comes with Windows 7 Professional (the 32-bit version), a 30-day trial for Norton Internet Security, and a 60-day trial for Microsoft Office. You also get Lenovo’s ThinkVantage tool set, including a password manager, a backup-and-restore utility, system diagnostics, Connection Manager (Lenovo's proprietary utility for controlling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity, where it's available), and more. Also, Lenovo backs the X100e standard with a one-year warranty, and upgrades are available.
If you need an ultraportable on a budget and can live with merely adequate performance, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is a contender. It delivers good looks, a sharp screen, and a comfortable keyboard in a very portable, extremely affordable package.
