Gadgets and Tech Reviews

Friday, August 22, 2008

Is this the Apple MacBook Killer?

Yeah, I know, somebody more famous said this line decades ago. That "somebody" knocked out several world-class challengers to the throne of "the greatest" during those days.

But that "somebody" did not know the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 back then, the latter now among those vying for the best, super-skinny laptop -- pound for pound.

In the other corner, of course, is "someone" I’ve yet to meet and play with.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 I’ve met, and glad to have made its acquaintance.

From what I’ve heard, "somebody" beat Lenovo to the punch when it released, with so much hype, allegedly the world’s thinnest laptop.

Lenovo, I heard from the grapevines, rushed to take the challenge and, a few months or so, birthed a super-sleek three-pound baby in the ThinkPad X300 -- make that exactly 3.12 pound, battery included, and a just a shade below an inch think..

First impression: I liked the conservative black slab design that housed a full 13-inch scoreen and full keyboard.

The ThinkPad X300, I'm glad to find out in a short while, is not crampy with its built-in DVD drive, three USB ports, a wired ethernet jack while boasting of a rugged solid-state drive.

The internal chassis and roll cage, according to specs included in the box, uses an advanced carbon-fiber/glass-fiber material for both strength and weight. The case material is made of magnesium, designed for accidental abuse and drops, and for more peace of mind, a double latch mechanism with button release to hold the screen closed.

The speakers are located on the corners of the notebook, the heat vent grills, painted black, goes well with the overall looks.

The ThinkPad X300 sports an Intel 1.20GHz Core 2 Duo L7100 processor that’s more than enough to run office applications and any general web related tasks.

The 13.3" WXGA+ screen is eye-friendly with its 300 nit LED backlit spec. The full-sized keyboard has zero flex, a matte finish to the keys for durability, with a well-sized touchpad with scrolling areas. The screen feels larger and that 1,440 x 900 resolution is a big plus.

The palm rest area has a rubberized paint finish, very smooth, close to the fingerprint reader.

I gave the X300 quite a go the short I had it, and found out it has good sound and speakers. Sound-distortion is alien here. All you get is the good grooves, baby.

Watched a couple of movies, played a game or two, and I loved it. Hey, what can I say, I'm that easy to please.

Of course I felt bad when the time came to return the X300 to its rightful owner. I'm just glad that I met, and had a grand time.

What’s this? I heard "somebody" wants to really challenge the Lenovo ThinkPad X300. Oh yeah, well bring it on!

4 comments:

PFVan said...

As an avid user of books somebody makes, I'm quite impressed with the ThknkPad. Still, my next book will probably be made by somebody. The X300 only makes me hope that someday, somebody will license their OS again.

Anonymous said...

Ethernet should be capitalized. It's a trademarked name. Besides and on-topic, the main problem with the X300 is the piss poor operating system it uses. "somebody" has built a better one, twice as fast too. While I can appreciate the built-in optical drive and advanced construction materials, the actual use of the computer system would be frustrated after a few minutes exposure to any number of the 120,000 viruses out there it is subject to.

Anonymous said...

There's no point in comparing fruits- the OS is what counts. I'm quite happy with all of somebody's hardware designs, they all stand out and are beautifully made- but the true dealmaker is the OS. Only somebody has that OS, and Dell, Lennovo, HP, and even SONY can do all the colorizing and promotions they want, with Jerry Seinfeld wearing a mask, selling his soul and speaking upon their behalf- that special someone has my business.

Anonymous said...

What are we comparing here?

An elegant OS-unlimited Macintosh vs. that butt ugly oh-so-80s-ish black thing that runs swiss cheese and geek-ware OSes.

Maybe you should compare that black slab to an HP, Toshiba, Dell, etc., because this comparison doesn't fly.

I want to run Mac OS X. Why would I want to own anything but a Mac?