Product Reviews

There's been a raft of laptops claiming to be the world's smallest or lightest recently, and the ThinkPad X300 is the latest to join the party. Lenovo claims that it's the thinnest 13.3in widescreen laptop available but, while it isn't quite as slim or elegant as Apple's MacBook Air, at 24mm it's the thinnest 13in laptop we've seen with a built-in optical drive.

You may be wondering why the X300 is so expensive. The main reason is the solid-state hard disk, which costs several hundred pounds. Its 64GB capacity, however, is only just over half that of Toshiba's R500-11B, which costs just £1,095 including VAT.

The R500 is also around 350g lighter than the X300, but has a smaller, lower-resolution 12in screen and feels a lot flimsier than the ThinkPad. The X300's great build quality is down to a mixture of carbon-fibre and glass-fibre construction. The screen still flexes a little, but the display didn't ripple when twisted, showing that it should withstand life on the go.

Being wider than the R500 gives the X300 extra space for a keyboard, and we were happy to find that it was up to the usual excellent ThinkPad standard. Keys are the same size as a PC keyboard and layout is excellent. Our only gripe is that the Ctrl key has been moved to accommodate the Fn key. It's good to see both a touch pad and a touch stick, as you can use whichever input

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device you prefer.

The 13.3in screen is a first for a laptop and has an ideal resolution of 1,440x900, which gives considerably more working space than a 1,024x768 or 1,280x800 screen. It has great contrast and the LED backlight is bright and even. Viewing angles are a little limited, but as long as you use it face on, it's not a problem.

The X300 is designed purely with mobile professionals in mind, so it's no surprise to see a fingerprint scanner paired with a TPM 1.2 module to keep your data private. There's also a built-in HSDPA modem for fast mobile broadband. When you're near a hotspot you can switch to the 802.11a/g/Draft-N WiFi, and there's Bluetooth capability, too. The 1.3-megapixel webcam may also prove useful, but the trio of USB2 ports and a VGA output will probably be more important to most users.

The standard three-cell battery lasted for almost five hours in our light-use test. The solid-state disk certainly plays a part in this, but Lenovo's Battery Stretch feature also turns off components such as the DVD writer, wireless radios and sound to increase battery life. You can work away from the mains for longer by replacing the DVD writer with a secondary battery for £98 including VAT. A six-cell battery for the main compartment that costs £119 including VAT is also available.

Another reason that the standard battery lasts so long is the low-voltage Core 2 Duo SL7100 processor. This means the X300 isn't a great performer: it managed only 104 in our benchmarks, despite the generous 2GB of RAM. It's still more than fast enough for Microsoft Office and web browsing, though.

Overall, we like Lenovo's X300 - it's one of the most usable ultra-portable laptops around - but the premium for the low-capacity solid-state hard disk is too high. Standard hard disk-based models will be available soon at much lower prices, so if you don't need a solid-state disk, these models will be well worth waiting for.