Lenovo ThinkPad X41

There are some software tweaks as well. Press the blue Access IBM button and you'll see an explanation page about your new purchase - not generic to ThinkPads, but customised to the X41 - and which also provides a shortcut to its Protect & Recover feature. This not only allows you to back up data, but provides an easy way to recover the system to its original factory state - the only downside is that this disk image consumes disk space, with 51.9GB left from 60GB.

We're disappointed with the warranty: one year's return-to-base cover pales in comparison to the three years' on-site cover provided by the likes of Dell with its business notebooks. Then again, ThinkPads are less likely to need repairing than any other notebooks around - as shown time and time again by our Reliability survey.

With the single caveat of buying the eight-cell extended-life battery, we have no hesitation in placing the X41 on the A List: its combination of low weight, unrivalled build quality and data security make it the ideal ultraportable for the business buyer.

Author: Tim Danton