Playing around with a new gadget is the best way to beat the Monday Madness and avoid doing any real work. Thanks to the fine folks at Lenovo, I’ve spent the entire morning mucking around with a ThinkPad X300, the thin, light laptop that’s seen as a competitor to the Macbook Air. A head-to-head comparison is a tad tough, however, as this is an SSD model, while my Macbook Air is an HD model.
On a superficial level, the Macbook Air is just a beautiful machine. The ThinkPad x300, on the other hand, has the all-familiar (stodgy yet solid) feel. A detailed review will follow later, but for now, all I can say is I’m glad it’s running Windows XP and not Vista. If you have any specific questions for me, leave a note in the comments. And if you can’t wait for the full review, I suggest you check out Walt Mossberg’s review. He likes it.
Lucky you! Here are 3 questions:
You don’t like Vista in general, or is it something about Vista on the X300?
How easy is it to carry the X300 around the office? Not too wide to be picked up single handed? (I love my X31 for the ease of moving it around).
Do your friends at Lenovo have an ETA for the non SSD version?
Jean,
I actually don’t have a problem with Vista, but not sure if it would make sense of this machine which has limited amount of “drive” space. I love it on a T60/T61 which are solid and powerful machines.
X300 is very very portable, almost equal to Macbook Air.
Overall I’ve found Vista way more reliable than XP. The ONLY exception is Outlook which is completely flaky in Vista land. The other apps — like word and powerpoint are far faster and more stable in Vista land. Vista is also much stricter on third party apps, so when they choke I can practically kill -9 them.
Om,
How would you compare the screen on the X300 to the Air? I think it has a higher resolution, but the Air’s screen is absolutely stunning when compared to just about any other laptop I’ve owned. I’m a recent convert to the Mac…with the Air being my first Mac. I don’t regret the move at all, but just curious if Lenovo (which does make great laptops) has put a superior screen into the X300.
I just bought a new Sony Vaio with Vista. I was reluctant to make the move from XP to Vista, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I think many of the issues have been worked out.
I’m curious how the new ThinkPad compares to ultra lights like Vaio. I love my 13″ screen and only 4 lbs.
Nitin,
I have to say, there is nothing I hate about this laptop so far, but the screen on Macbook Air is far more “stunning” and easier to use than this one. Nevertheless, there are still many things i love about the X300.
Frankly, I love the keyboard the most. I still haven’t gotten used to the chicklet style keyboard on Air, and much rather use the Macbook pro keyboard.
@austin and victor,
I have no issues with Vista at all, just I don’t think this is a device made for Vista, which needs a lot more oomph. I loved Vista on T61, not so much on the X60. So clearly it is an issue of compute power.