David Flynn15 February 2008, 2:08 AM
In a cheeky piece of marketing, Lenovo has unveiled its new super-skinny ThinkPad X300, which squeezes in everything that Apple's MacBook Air left out but still fits into a manilla envelope.
UPDATE: Turns out the X300 is based on the shrunken 65nm processor -- the same one that's used in the MacBook Air. Still a tasty machine though, in terms of what's included.
Lenovo is about to raise the stakes in the ultra-thin laptop stakes with its release of the ThinkPad X300. Codenamed ‘Kodachi', after a short yet lethally effective Japanese sword, the X300 will be launched at the end of this month and is expected to be the first in a new wave of downsized Windows notebooks based on Intel's new 45nm Penryn mobile dual-core processors.
 Envelope thin: the 13.3in ThinkPad X300 combines full functionality with a slim profile and light weight... and what's that sitting under the notebook but a manilla envelope. Curious reference that. |
Of course, the X300 is the second in that wave if you count the MacBook Air, but the Air obtained its ground-breakingly slim profile through many sacrifices that have drawn criticism. Pundits discussing the MacBook Air have frequently commented that although it is the "thinnest notebook in the world", it must also be one of the most underfeatured notebooks in the world as a result.
The ThinkPad X300, on the other hand, squeezes in everything that Apple's MacBook Air has left out, yet still manages a sufficiently skinny and slightly tapered profile under 2.5cm and weighs just 1.4kg (including the battery).
That checklist includes a DVD drive, Ethernet, three USB ports and a removable battery. Customers will be able to choose between Vista and XP, and we've got our fingers crossed that the 3G HSDPA module available on other ThinkPads also appears on the menu (even if it's locked to Vodafone rather than being open to any 3G network).
On the flip side, however, we're hearing that the X300 will only ship with a 64GB solid state drive rather than give customers the option of going for a larger and much cheaper hard disk. If this is true, you can expect the X300's price to start north of $3,000 and perhaps nudge $3,500 in any premium configuration.
Like the Air, the X300 has a 13.3in widescreen panel which is pretty much the ‘sweet spot' for a no-compromise notebook - it allows for both a squint-free screen and a full sized keyboard.
And as mentioned earlier, the X300 is powered by Intel's very latest Centrino platform (officially called the ‘Santa Rosa Refresh') with the fresh-baked 45nm Penryn mobile processor (not the older-style CPU in the Macbook Air).
This continues the Centrino trend of boosting performance while at the same time extending battery life and, crucial for thin-and-light notebooks, reducing thermals so that less complex cooling systems are required. The MacBook Air is built around an space-efficient re-packaging of the 65nm Merom processor which reduces the size of the laptop's main board but delivers no wins in power efficiency or battery life.
Some will suggest it's not kosher to compare the built-for-business ThinkPad X300 with the Air, which aims for the hearts and wallets of consumers. But such comparisons are inevitable and unavoidable: in the same way that every mobile phone with a touchscreen UI was stacked against the iPhone, so has the Air set the benchmark for ultra-thin laptops.
Lenovo will launch the ThinkPad X300 to the Australian tech media in Sydney on February 27th, so we'll report back the next day with the skinny on this skinny sub-note.