5 Takes On the Lenovo ThinkPad X300

After Apple stole the show with their amazing Macbook Air, it was easy to overlook Lenovo’s announcement of their own 18.5mm thick, 1ish kilo laptop—that, by the way, features a 13.3-inch display, 64GB SSD, DVD burner, EVDO, WiMax, GPS, 3 USB ports, and a blessed swappable battery.

And at US$2,680.00 (2GB configuration), it may seem a bit expensive…but compared to the Macbook Air’s US$3,098.00 (solid state configuration), it seems like a steal. So what did the reviewers think? Here are five takes on the ultraportable:

PCMag
Like the MacBook Air, the X300’s wider dimensions allow not only for a bigger screen but also for a full-size keyboard, and who better to take advantage of this than the makers of the ThinkPad keyboard. It’s arguably the best typing experience on a laptop keyboard, better than the Air’s oversize phone-pad keys.

CNET
The matte-finish display itself features a 1,440×900 native resolution that’s sharper than that of the MacBook Air and other similarly sized screens, resulting in text and icons that are a bit smaller than you’d expect…The trade-off: more screen real estate for multitasking and, when it’s time for a break, beautiful video.

CMP Channel
It’s cool. Not stylistically, but thermodynamically. Two hours into testing, running a movie, the keyboard’s temperature never got above 30 degrees C and the fan vents never climbed above 33 degrees. The only way this could run cooler was if it were dead.

Notebook Review
How about this, the X300 actually has good sound and speakers that are well positioned! For an ultra thin notebook, that’s astounding…ThinkPad X300 equipped executives will never have to tote their external speakers to watch DVDs by night in their hotel rooms again.

Walt Mossberg
I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a hefty price tag.

- It’s too bad that the X300 didn’t hit the market with something other than the solid state drive option. Shave several hundred off the price and you’d have a total Air killer on your hands. But if you have the money and like the OS (XP comes stock, by the way), it seems like the Lenovo X300 is a no-brainer.