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Lenovo ThinkPad X100e review

in Laptops

Verdict

Combining netbook portability with Lenovo's ThinkPad quality, the X100e is an absolute steal

Review Date: 15 Jan 2010

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £344 (£404 inc VAT)

Overall Rating
5 stars out of 6

Features & Design
6 stars out of 6

Value for Money
6 stars out of 6

Performance
3 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

Details
Part Code NTT2FUK
Review Date 15 Jan 2010
Price ex VAT £344
Price inc VAT £404
Overall rating 5 stars out of 6
Features & Design 6 stars out of 6
Value for Money 6 stars out of 6
Performance 3 stars out of 6
Warranty
Warranty 1 yr return to base
Physical specifications
Dimensions 282 x 189 x 30mm (WDH)
Weight 1.470kg
Travelling weight 1.9kg
Processor and memory
Processor AMD Athlon Neo MV-40
Motherboard chipset AMD 780G
RAM capacity 2.00GB
Memory type DDR2
SODIMM sockets free 1
SODIMM sockets total 2
Screen and video
Screen size 11.6in
Resolution screen horizontal 1,366
Resolution screen vertical 768
Resolution 1366 x 768
Graphics chipset ATI Radeon HD3200
Graphics card RAM 384MB
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 1
HDMI outputs 0
S-Video outputs 0
DVI-I outputs 0
DVI-D outputs 0
DisplayPort outputs 0
Drives
Capacity 250GB
Hard disk usable capacity 233GB
Spindle speed 5,400RPM
Internal disk interface SATA/300
Hard disk Hitachi HTS545025B9A300
Optical disc technology N/A
Optical drive N/A
Battery capacity 5,200mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT £0
Networking
Wired adapter speed 1,000Mbits/sec
802.11a support no
802.11b support yes
802.11g support yes
802.11 draft-n support yes
Integrated 3G adapter no
Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch no
Wireless key-combination switch yes
Modem no
ExpressCard34 slots 0
ExpressCard54 slots 0
PC Card slots 0
USB ports (downstream) 3
PS/2 mouse port no
9-pin serial ports 0
Parallel ports 0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 0
3.5mm audio jacks 1
SD card reader yes
Memory Stick reader no
MMC (multimedia card) reader no
Smart Media reader no
Compact Flash reader no
xD-card reader no
Pointing device type Touchpad, trackpoint
Audio chipset Comexant SmartAudio HD
Speaker location Front edge
Hardware volume control? no
Integrated microphone? yes
Integrated webcam? yes
Operating system and software
Operating system Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
OS family Windows 7
Recovery method Recovery partition, burn own recovery discs
Software supplied Lenovo ThinkVantage suite
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use 6hr 34min
Battery life, heavy use 2hr 17min
Overall application benchmark score 0.43
Office application benchmark score 0.34
2D graphics application benchmark score 0.53
Encoding application benchmark score 0.53
Multitasking application benchmark score 0.32
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User comments

Where can this be bought for £404 inc VAT

Even the Lenovo employee discount site has it at £404 with only a 128MB video card.

By paul1315 on 15 Jan 2010

Try here...

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X10
0e_Ultraportable_Laptop_NTT2FUK/version.asp

By SashaMuller on 16 Jan 2010

BenSearson

A proper business netbook at last!

By BenSearson on 16 Jan 2010

Yes I would agree with the previous post, it's a netbook as the performance rating clearly shows, so why is this tested as a laptop.
From the description at laptops direct, quote: "he X100e is an ultraportable laptop, so it offers all the performance of a standard laptop ". Personally I would dispute that, it's a netbook with a single core and no hyperthreading unlike the atom, but with poorer battery life. Still apart from the rather ugly screen surround I suppose there may be a niche in the market for this, but the performance is way down on most culv based ultra portables.
I am looking for an ultra portable at the moment, but this isn't causing my plastic to twitch.

By stokegabriel on 16 Jan 2010

paul1315,the ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics use shared system memory, probably dynamically.

By stokegabriel on 16 Jan 2010

it is absolutely a great netbook. but i would not call it an ultra portable when it's 30mm thick.

By stasi47 on 17 Jan 2010

Performance comparison

How would this compare to my old but trusty IBM X41? Would there be any noticeable difference in the (lack of) performance when processing photos and the like.

By alistairtwigg on 21 Jan 2010

Comparison to a T42 Thinkpad

I've had the same thoughts as alistartwigg, but regarding a T42 Thinkpad. Passmark rates the CPU slightly better than the Pentium M 1.6 in my T42, and the extra RAM would surely help when running a few apps...

By Fevvahz on 3 Feb 2010

AMD vs Intel

I'm afraid I have no idea how the CPU would compare to Intel's previous generations, but if the one thing putting you off the X100e is the limited performance of the single core CPU, then I believe a dual-core model will be out sometime soon.

By SashaMuller on 4 Feb 2010

But no DVD drive...

So not quite a business laptop/netbook, then. What a shame.

By JohnGray7581 on 5 Feb 2010

Is a DVD drive essential?

I'd argue that it's far from essential these days. Would be faster to install software over a Gigabit network, and if you really, really need an optical drive, then buy a USB one for £20/£30 or so. Problem solved.

By SashaMuller on 6 Feb 2010

Findings after buying one

I bought one of these, hoping to improve on my Lenovo 15" model. I find the X100e too hot to have on one's lap for long, and, though relatively light overall, it's quite a little 'lead brick' on your legs after a while. Otherwise quite good all round. The trackpad buttons on the near edge are annoying for 'lap' use, as it is easy to foul them with your clothing. I ordered the onboard 'mobile broadband' WWAN model, but there is no SIM card inside to make this work, and there are no instructions or help files on this. After some research and many phone calls, apparently I now have to fill out a Returns Request. Not sure if they're proposing to send me a SIM, or swap the whole machine, or send out the Mossad to get me. I went back to my old 15.4" model, and it was like a breath of fresh air to use, by comparison, albeit bulky to lug around.

By ni_com9 on 18 Feb 2010

*cough* second hand x60s *cough*

By gavmeister on 19 Feb 2010

*cough* x200 with 2 years year left on warranty, or X61 with one *cough*

£500 and £300 respectively. see corporate resellers on ebay. Must get a glass of *cough* water.

By gavmeister on 17 Mar 2010

No dual core for Western Europe...

It seems the dual core version (X120e)will not be available here. Instead, Latin America, Japan, Australia and Western Europe should content themselves with the ThinkPad Edge 11in... http://www.reghardware.com/2011/02/15/lenovo_no_uk
_thinkpad/

By Selina on 16 Feb 2011

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