Lenovo X300 review: Mossberg impressed
That thin and light X300 from Lenovo isn’t quite as thin and light as the MacBook Air, but it’s darn close. So how does it fare in a review from Walt Mossberg? Better than you might expect considering the X300 is a Windows machine and Walt believes that
“both the Mac operating system and the software that comes with it are superior to the Windows operating system and built-in software offered on the ThinkPad“
Having said that he notes the advantages the X300 provides in a similar sized package: higher screen resolution, more ports, optional GPS and WiMax support, an optical drive and removable battery. There are two battery sizes available for the X300: a half-size and a full-size. This allows for a non-optical drive configuration where a half-battery can be used in its place, which gets you around 6.5 to 7 hours of battery life. I suppose I can see why Walt calls the 64 GB SSD “paltry” in size, but if I can run XP on an Eee PC with 4 GB of storage, I can certainly run XP or Vista with 64 GB and rely on the cloud for storage. It’s not something everyone can (or wants to) do, but it’s doable for those who are truly mobile.
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Wow, Mossy saying something good about a non-Apple product? Very impressive. Is that a pig I see flying outside my window?
Call me old fashioned, but I’ll take more local storage over less any day — and I use the “cloud” a lot now.
I don’t have a problem with 64Gb on a laptop like this either and I don’t know what Mossberg is complaining about (especially since I don’t remember hearing him criticise the MBA for offering a 64Gb SSD option).
More storage space is alway great but I rarely fill the 80Gb drive in my P1610 (the only time I did was when I stacked it full of movies for a 24 hour flight – not something I want to repeat anytime soon) and would happily sacrifice 16Gb for the performance and battery life improvements that come with an SSD.
There are a few nice looking ultraportables coming out soon like this, the P1620 and 2133. Now all I have to do is decide which one suits me the most and try and find some extra money from under the cushions that my girlfriend doesn’t know about :)
Rumor has it that the X300 may also offer a 120GB hard drive option. Although it has more ports than the MBA, it is my understanding that the X300 has no SD slot, no PC slot, no IEEE 394 port, and no modem.