lenovo.jpgThe Lenovo ThinkPad X300 is the latest addition to the ThinkPad family and has recently been garnering a lot of attention. The ThinkPad X300 is a 13.3″ screen ultra thin-and-light notebook designed for the traveling business type of person — the executive road warrior if you will. But let’s be honest, suit or no suit, with the type of technology and cool engineering crammed into the X300 everyone’s going to be a little bit curious about this notebook, and envious of anybody that has one.

Battery life is quoted as between 4.3hrs and 10hrs, depending on whether you pick the three or six cell standard batteries, together with replacing the DVD burner with a secondary three cell power pack. A “Battery Stretch” setting can be set to kick in when reserves are down to 25%, which gets even more draconian with the settings to let you finish up whatever you’re working on. In our tests, the X300 managed to play a DVD for 127 minutes until the movie cut off (with the battery at 5%); with very light use the three cell battery just fell short of four hours. Recharging from completely exhausted to a stated 100%, with the X300 powered on but idle, took 2 hours and 21 minutes.
A Traditional Look and Feel, Only Thinner

The plain matte-black, squared-off exterior of the X300 is either classic, familiar, or dull, depending on your perspective. It looks like just about every ThinkPad that has come before it, but leaner. Whereas the classic ThinkPad T-series is 1.2 inches thick, the slightly tapered X300 measures 0.7 to 0.9 inches thick.

At a mere 2.9 pounds with a 3-cell battery (and the swappable bay empty) and 3.3 pounds with a 6-cell battery (and a DVD burner in the bay), the X300 is also lighter than its footprint would lead you to believe. And we’re happy to see Lenovo went with a diminutive power brick (0.6 pounds); too often a hulking afterthought of a power adapter adds back the precious ounces engineers painstakingly shaved.

Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Review from CNET -

The good: Extremely thin and light; sleekest ThinkPad yet; built-in DVD burner, plus WWAN, GPS, and wireless USB.

The bad: Solid-state drive comes at a high premium; touch pad’s location makes it easy to accidentally graze while typing.

The bottom line: The ThinkPad X300 breaks new ground by packing a broad display, full-size keyboard, and nearly every feature a mobile user needs into a sleek, lightweight case.

Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Review from PcMag -

Pros = 13-inch widescreen on a 3-pound ultraportable. Built-in dual-layer DVD burner. Integrated EV-DO antenna. WiMax-ready. Three USB ports. Unprecedented resolution in this weight class. Excellent battery life. Environmentally friendly.

Cons - No SD slot. Very expensive. SSD drive is your only option. Low-voltage processors can bog down performance in Vista.

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