14 DAY TRIAL // Not that Apple was enjoying too much popularity with the MacBook Air launched and all, but competition is already on the way for the world's thinnest notebook. The X300 ThinkPad from Lenovo promises to be the best choice for the mobile PC user, as it sports key features that the MacBook Air lacks.
Yes, you guessed it. The optical drive is among the features that the X300 sports and the Air doesn't, but that's not enough to convince a laptop user to spend $3,000 on the high end, solid state drive version, since Apple's is just 100 bucks pricier. It would also need to sport more USB ports, a cellphone modem and a removable battery.
Which it does, and given that it starts at $2,476 "for a stripped-down model and at $2,799 for a preconfigured retail version with a half-size battery," I can seriously imagine some people totally forgetting about Apple's sexy thing. However, the SSD, full-size battery and DVD drive configuration is $3,000. The X300 offers the same storage capacity for the SSD version, just 64 gigabytes.
By now, you're probably wondering: ok, but size matters today, so how thin or thick is it exactly? Well, as I was reading through this article up on The Wall Street Journal, I found that it isn't as thin as Apple's Air, but it isn't very thick either. In fact, according to Walter S. Mossberg, writing for the upper mentioned source, "in what are likely to be its most common configurations, it is heavier than the three-pound Apple" failing "to make the three-pound cutoff that typically denotes a 'subnotebook.'"
To kick the Air's butt even more, the Lenovo laptop even sports "GPS location-finding, the ability to connect to new wireless USB devices and future support for a forthcoming wireless network standard called WiMax," according to the same source.
So starting next week, when the X300 goes on sale, we'll finally be able to determine who's buying looks and who's buying features, because as much as I appreciate Apple products, the choices are obvious for the laptop worker and for the superstar. Still, there is one more important aspect to mention: Apple's Air starts at just $1,799, so yeah, you're not exactly rolling in features, but you are rolling in style.
The X300 will be available at lenovo.com and at limited number of retailers.