Lenovo Thinkpad X100e

Full Review

The Lenovo Thinkpad X100e is a thin and light ultraportable laptop aimed primarily at business users interested in a compact laptop to use while on the go. It has a 11.6-inch form factor (like many of our large screen netbook recommendations), comes with an excellent keyboard and touchpad, and a matte screen.

Design
The X100e is a cross between a netbook and a traditional Thinkpad, and it hasn't received as much facelift as the 13-inch Thinkpad Edge (a good looking Thinkpad, finally!). There isn't a hint of gloss anywhere on the Thinkpad X100e, not even the 11.6-inch screen, so don't worry about fingerprints or a cleaning cloth. With so many glossy notebooks doing the rounds lately, it is nice to see the Thinkpad X100e's all-black non-flashy, business-appropriate attire--it is a Thinkpad after all. The X100e's form factor is slightly larger than the 10-inch Ideapad S10, and it holds its own in a boardroom. The Thinkpad X100e, with its six-cell battery pack, weighs a cool 1.5-kg, and is very well built--the hinges are tighter than normal, and overall the X100e doesn't feel cheap or a compromise, staying true to the Thinkpad's legacy. The six-cell battery bulges out of the Thinkpad X100e's spine, and this actually aids while holding the X100e with its screen lid open.

Usability
The Thinkpad X100e isn't exactly sleek but feels nice to work on. The 11.6-inch screen is non-glossy (a rarity these days!) and supports a maximum screen resolution of 1366x768 pixels. For business users, matte screens are ideal for viewing text for extended hours, as they're generally a little easier on the eyes compared to glossy ones. The Thinkpad X100e's screen isn't ideal for multimedia usage, but spot on for a regular business user. A minor miracle on the Thinkpad X100e has to be the dual-touch input (conventional touchpad plus trackpointer navigation) squeezed into such a tiny form factor--and both work marvelously well.

The traditional touchpad is gesture-enabled to zoom into images or scroll through pages, but the trackpoint pointing stick is a much convenient way to navigate the mouse once you get used to the concept. Unlike the Thinkpad X301, for example, the Thinkpad X100e sports a spill-resistant keyboard with isolated, island-styled keys that are slightly curved and just as excellent for typing. Ports placement is also well thought out on the Thinkpad X100e -- VGA port and Power port are placed on the back. Despite its dimunitive size, the X100e is excellent for typing and maneuvering the mouse on the screen, and better than the Acer Aspire 1410 ultraportable or the HP Pavilion dm1 which have a similar form factor.

Hardware Features
The Lenovo Thinkpad X100e has the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 1.6-GHz processor in it, previously seen on the MSI Wind12 U210 netbook. Complementing the modest processing power you get 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD3200 onboard graphics. There is no room for a DVD drive, but three USB ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, VGA-out, Ethernet, and audio jacks are splashed across the X100e's sturdy chassis. You don't get an HDMI port (seeing how this is a business machine), but Gigabit ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth (on request) connectivity is included on the X100e.

Lenovo also offers part of its ThinkVantage software suite on the Thinkpad X100e, which includes Active Protection, Access Connections, and Power Manager. And unlike mindless bloatware found on notebooks and netbooks these days, the X100e's proprietary software suite is actually quite useful from a data security and usability perspective. Lenovo also offers services like end-of-life data and asset recovery services, beyond the 1-yr warranty, which further bolsters the Thinkpad X100e's case as a business machine.

Performance
The Lenovo Thinkpad X100e's performance is somewhere in between the Acer Aspire 1410 and the HP Pavilion dm1 ultraportables. The Thinkpad X100e's PC Mark 05 score's lower than the ultraportables from Acer and HP, but it has a better graphics adapter on it--apparent from its greater 3D Mark 06 score compared to others. In real-world usage, the Thinkpad X100e fared better than most large screen netbooks we've reviewed. And from a business user's point of view--primary usage being predominantly sifting through productivity suites, browsing the Web, exchanging emails, tuning into some occasional music (generally not much multimedia usage)--the Thinkpad X100e gets the job done just fine.

Watching movies was also pretty good on the X100e, despite its non-glossy screen. The notebook handled 720p HD videos smoothly without any stutter, but had trouble coping with a 1080p video. Its onboard speakers are good, nothing great--we recommend headphones, though, if you're a music lover. Its six-cell battery lasted for 4 hours 15 minutes (on a conservative battery plan and medium screen brightness) while I browsed the Web over Wi-Fi, and wrote this review on Microsoft Word--which is pretty decent battery life, not exactly netbook-esque. However, we stress that the Thinkpad X100e's combination of matte screen, its fantastic keyboard, and trackpoint navigation method is just something you don't see on many notebooks in the market.

Bottom Line

Unlike the Acer Aspire 1410 or the HP Pavilion dm1, the Thinkpad X100e's priced significantly lower - it sells for Rs. 29,000. Sure it may not have great processing power, but it has sufficient enough to get things done--and better than a netbook. Moreover the X100e has a great combination of matte screen, keyboard and touchpad (and trackpoint) -- hallmark of a true Thinkpad. If you ever wanted a low-cost business ultraportable laptop, or an affordable Thinkpad for that matter, the Lenovo Thinkpad X100e is a no brainer.