Lightweight, but not on the wallet
12 August 2008
Lenovo’s X300 is lightweight enough, but dragged down by Windows Vista – and the price tag.
Can you remember the first notebook computers? They were pretty hefty and cumbersome. You couldn’t rest one of them on your lap comfortably. I remember trying to take one on a bus and some old woman complaining that I was taking up half of her seat with the computer. I bit my tongue, despite the temptation to tell her that I was going to work to pay the taxes for her pension and to subsidise her bus pass. Back then, I was young and angry, but still polite to my elders. I also remember thinking that I had £2,000 worth of equipment in this PC case and I wasn’t going to risk putting that on the floor to be kicked or pinched, even if the thief was unlikely to make too fast a getaway as it was pretty heavy.
Now I have a dinky little laptop of my own, which costs less than half of that late 80s version, in fact it is already cheaper in the shops than when I bought it a couple of years ago. Just as with performance, storage and price, there is always room for improvement. The penalty of a large screen on a laptop is that is becomes a bulky item and while lighter than they used to be, they can still cause a strain when you lug them around for hours at an exhibition, even with the most comfortable, ergonomic carrying case. My worst mistake was to take just my laptop with me before leaving for San Francisco airport and “just do a bit of shopping and sightseeing first”. Ah, those fateful words. Have you seen the hills in San Francisco? Imagine that, even with just a couple of kilos strapped to your back. It nearly put me off my stride at Macy’s.
So when I heard about the Lenovo X300, the slim, lightweight notebook with a 13.3in screen, I was keen to see for myself just how lightweight could a decent-sized notebook be? As it turns out, incredibly slim and well-built. What else would you expect from the world’s fourth largest personal computer manufacturer, which is partly owned by IBM? The Chinese company was trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange as Legend since l994. Five years ago, it underwent an image change and became Lenovo, retaining the first part of its original name and adding the Latin for ‘new’ to reflect a mood of innovation and change. It has a strategic alliance with IBM, which has an eight per cent stake in Lenovo, whereby customers have preferred access to IBM’s customer service, worldwide distribution and sales, warranty services and leasing and finance.
It is enviably thin; about two-thirds the depth of my Toshiba Satellite when closed. It measures just 26mm when closed with savings in the thickness of both the screen and the base. It is a good 3cm narrower at 318mm, yet still with the requisite 14in/35.56cm (13.3in/33.78cm) screen. The X300’s lid is nearly all screen, which is aesthetically sleek and neat. It weighs 1.5kg or around three and a half pounds, compared to over five pounds for the Satellite. That can make quite a difference over a few hours on those San Fran inclines!
When not being carted around but in use, the Lenovo has the right workhorse credentials. It has Intel Centrino Mobile technology with a Core2 Duo SL7100 processor running at 1.2GHz but with no L2 external cache but wireless options for the kind of freedom that a light portable can give.
Aesthetically, the X300 is nothing innovative; black matt exterior, predictable keyboard. Of course, for some uses, a snazzy chrome or colour exterior can be off-putting, and it is a case of function over form when looking for a computing workhorse. Here, there is a reassuringly solid feel despite the lightness of weight.
The lightweight specs also make you do a double-take when looking at the price tag. Lenovo is asking £2,100 (£1,820 ex VAT) for an unimpressive 64GByte hard disk size and two 1024MByte or 4GByte RAM running at 667MHz. It goes to some lengths to compensate with LAN and WAN using Intel’s Wireless WiFi but no infrared port for wireless communications at 54Mbit/sec, for 802.11a, 11Mbit/sec for 802.11b, 54Mbit/sec for 802.11g and over 100Mbit/sec for 802.11n. Network speeds are 10Mbit/sec, 100Mbit/sec and 1,000Mbit/sec. The battery life is just under four hours, again, not spectacular, but not the worst either.
The structure of the X300 is as solid as the more established brands. There is a reassuring dull thud when typing. It is as solidly built as my Satellite and has the IBM ThinkPad’s signature red joystick in the middle of the keypad. This was a surprising discovery for me, I became a convert of the joystick, something I had always turned my nose up at before. When I had mastered the dexterity required (tutored by Hayes Minor) it became clear that it is a neat and effective alternative to a mouse and I was soon nippily navigating around the screen using it.
I am not a convert, however, to Microsoft’s Windows vista. Urrgggh, is all I can say. The thing is shipped with Windows Vista and Windows Vista Business is the recommended OS. This is a bit of macho posturing, as a computer that runs Vista is considered more robust. Vista requires better graphics and memory than XP, according to software analysts. It also requires more patience... or cunning. To get around the Vista installation, Windows XP recovery CDs can be bought and loaded on to a notebook to switch OS. The fact that so many PC makers offer XP Restore disks for sale is telling, even if it is predominantly in the business market. Perhaps consumers just put up with things. Thankfully, on the X30, I could access Windows 97-2003, so I was happy – behind the times maybe, but happily working away on the X300 without wanting to hurl it through a window. Why does Microsoft fiddle around with a winning formula? It already has most people using its OS, so don’t wind me up by changing the icon which means I can save or open up documents. Whatever happened to plug-and-play as a concept for software? This was like learning Windows all over again; the traditional menu bar is hidden in some programs, buttons move according to application, all the formatting pallets were moved, nothing is where it ‘should’ be, and I had real trouble saving as there is no facility to save to specific files or folders. Interestingly, the new document menu has a blog option, which belies the profile of business use, yet no PowerPoint. I am not so sure that it is truly tailored for business use. In fact, Vista begged the question, “Why?” throughout this review.
When a notebook is so light and small that it cries out to be carried around, battery life is a deal-breaker. Vista has a bad reputation for draining notebook batteries, although Lenovo and HP both use their own power management settings to extend the battery life. The X300 is speedy on the whole. Vista can be slow to start-up and shut-down, but once it gets going, opening menus is speedy.
Once you have used the Restore disk and are up and running on XP, there is little to gripe about with the X300, as long as the price can be offset against your tax bill. Does the weight reduction make the X300 worth the £2,000+ price tag? It depends what price you put on convenience and portability. I suspect business users may find the storage capacity limiting and, for the sake of about £1,400 differential, take a hit on the scales instead.
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