The Lenovo ThinkPad X301 notebook is an updated version of the ultrathin ThinkPad X300 laptop that Lenovo released earlier in 2008. The newer Lenovo ThinkPad X301 notebook will offer Intel low-volt processors. The Lenovo ThinkPad X301 will also include a solid-state drive with 128GB of data storage capacity.
Lenovo is updating the cutting edge of its ThinkPad notebook line with the
X301 laptop, which will include new, low-volt Intel processors and a larger
solid-state drive option, and builds on
the
company's much-talked-about ThinkPad X300 notebook.
Lenovo released the original ThinkPad X300 laptop in February and the
ultrathin
notebook
received a number of favorable reviews and drew comparisons to the Apple
MacBook Air. The X300 and the X301 each measure less than 1 inch thick and
offer a 13.3-inch LED backlight display. Both laptops also weigh about 2.9
pounds.
The
MacBook Air, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 line and even the recently released
Dell
Latitude E4200 notebook, which weighs 2.2 pounds and has a 12.1-inch display,
are beginning to show the limits of how far PC vendors are willing to push
mobility in both the consumer and enterprise markets.
While these types of ultrathin, ultraportable laptops remain an expensive
alternative to more mainstream notebooks that weigh more and have larger
displays, vendors are continuing to tinker with their laptop designs in order
to keep bringing these types of cutting-edge designs into the market in an
attempt to distinguish their products from other notebooks.
IDC defines the ultraportable category as
laptops weighing less than 4 pounds and with a 12-inch display or smaller.
However, the types of ultraportable notebooks that Lenovo and Apple have
developed are more robust than
the
types of low-cost notebooks or "netbooks" that use the Intel Atom
processor or chips from Via Technologies.
Where Lenovo has made improvements is with the Intel processors. The
ThinkPad X301 offers a pair of not-yet-released Intel ultralow-volt processors
that the PC vendor lists as the U9300, which has a clock speed of 1.2GHz, and
the U9400, which has a clock speed of 1.4GHz. The two chips have 6MB of Level 2
cache and a 1066MHz front side bus.
The original X300 used an Intel SL 7100 processor with a clock speed of
1.2GHz and 4MB of L2 cache. These newer low-volt Intel processors are not
listed on the company's Web site and Lenovo did not disclose the chips' thermal
envelope.
In addition to the new processors, the Lenovo X301 will support DDR3
(double data rate 3) memory, which consumes less power and is faster than
standard DDR2 memory.
Intel
introduced DDR3 memory support when it released its Centrino 2 platform in
July. The memory options are 512MB, 1GB or 2GB of RAM.
The other significant improvement to the ThinkPad X301 is its data storage
capacity. While the original X300 offered a 64GB SSD,
the X301 offers a choice of either an 80GB or 128GB SSD.
The X301 will also have DisplayPort and VGA video ports to support multiple
displays. The X300 and X301 both offer the option of an ultrathin optical DVD
burner that measures 7 millimeters.
The Lenovo X301 is available Aug. 26 for a starting
price of $2,599. The 128GB SSD option will be available in September.
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