Computing: Lenovo ThinkPad X300 vs Apple MacBook Air – Review – 70

In theory, celestial angels should be breaking out in blissful chorus at the new ultra-portable notebooks, which bin unnecessary bloat while retaining all the virtues of the modern notebook. Or so they say.

Here comes the reality check: in the same way that you can’t make your Saturday morning omelette without breaking eggs, you can’t have an ultra-portable notebook computer without some sacrifice.

Both of these state-of-the-art ultra-portables are quite amazing in their own way, but despite each having 13.3-inch screens and slipping easily into an A4 envelope, they’re as different as a Range Rover and a Porsche. The MacBook Air is deeply desirable and quite possibly the sexiest notebook ever. Looking every inch a perfect distillation of Apple’s aesthetic and design principles, it provokes lust, envy and a need to touch in everyone who sees it. Not a single line is out of place and every extraneous feature has been left in the design studio.

The X300 carries a bloodline as unique as the Air’s. It’s unmistakably a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad and that’s no bad thing, but it’s a functional business tool, not a design statement. Its good looks (for a PC), purposeful intent and practicality will delight corporate types, but à¼ber-cool it ain’t.

Where the Air is about compromise dictated by its form factor and ultra-portable nature, the X300 is more about Lenovo’s ability to crush the required business technology into a small and light chassis. The Air makes do with less of everything, especially connectivity, with a solitary USB port, no Ethernet (a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is available) and the glaring omission of an optical drive. The X300 is still very much a road warrior’s weapon, with three USB ports, Ethernet, DVD burner, fingerprint reader plus options for Gigabit Ethernet and (as trumpeted by the “Connected by Vodafone” sticker) 3G Wireless.

Apple will argue that an optical drive and Ethernet are unnecessary, with users able to wirelessly access networks, buy from iTunes and use optical drives on other computers to load programs and CDs. I don’t buy that: this is New Zealand, where the wireless hotspot is a fairly rare beast and silver discs are still being relentlessly slotted into my notebook as I try new music, watch DVDs or archive content. An external Apple SuperDrive is available for the Air ($159) but at 139 x 139 x 17mm it’s a piggy of a thing to lug around with such a nimble notebook.

The X300 is an impeccably built and well-considered business notebook. The familiar charcoal black finish, logical ThinkPad layout, sleek rubberised surface, competent speakers, bright screen and excellent ThinkVantage control suite make it a pleasure to use.

The Air is also beautifully constructed and features Apple’s usual brilliant ergonomics, new multi-touch touchpad, great screen, clever software and ease of use… but why on Earth does it have a single tinny mono speaker? SSD (solid state drive) storage is standard on the X300 (optional on the Air) and this flash-based memory is a good thing because boot-up times and power consumption are substantially reduced, while durability is superior because there are no moving parts.

Neither unit is intended to be a desktop replacement, but their performance is compromised (that word again) and dragged down to entry-level standards compared with equivalently priced notebooks. The review MacBook was the lower spec version with an 80GB hard disk drive and 1.6GHz processor that never felt sluggish, just average. But even the faster model (1.8GHz CPU and 64GB SSD storage) would of course get a swift beating at the hands of a MacBook Pro and would struggle against a MacBook.

The X300 would be equally outclassed when faced with a mid-range conventional ThinkPad, but despite an even slower 1.2 GHz CPU, the Lenovo’s get up and go is reasonable. Don’t imagine that it’s going to run Crysis or heavy multimedia applications, but that’s not its forte. The X300 will fulfill all the requirements of a busy professional’s day, play DVD movies and light games, and with a battery life ranging from around four hours to as much as ten hours (with multiple batteries), it has the potential to outlast the Apple with its single sealed battery.

Just like the X300, the Air will dispatch day-to-day applications with ease. But Apple users tend to be seriously into their multimedia, especially at this price point, and the Air simply doesn’t pack the processing or graphics power they’ll need. Mac users focused primarily on portability and coolness will be happy, but power users will have to pack on a pound or two and look elsewhere in the range.

So the X300 has many bells and whistles and its middling performance doesn’t affect its suitability for its intended purpose, but there’s a vast compromise lurking in the wings, and its price will make even seasoned corporate buyers cry. Yes, it’s driven by the high cost of the more robust solid state drive, but that’s a mighty hefty outlay for extreme portability. All in all, it’s a good buy at a corporate level for users who simply must lose computer weight, but only the well heeled need apply if the cash is coming out of their own pockets.

The Macbook Air, on the other hand, is a conundrum. It somehow missed out on bells, whistles and performance, plus it will struggle to match the needs of a portion of its market. Yet its glamour, portability and utter coolness make up for some of that and the base model redeems itself a little further with a $2999 price that is steep but not horrendously so. The price tag on the higher spec model is just too much to justify the marginal added performance. If you have to have the thinnest, sleekest and sexiest notebook around and you can live with the Air’s frustrating limitations, stick with the 1.6GHz model and you’ll be smiling.

BRETT GIDEON

Details

Lenovo ThinkPad X300 – Ulra-portable Notebook Computer – from $4498

Specifications

Hard Drive: 64GB

Memory: 2GB RAM (max 4GB)

Processor: Intel 1.20GHz Core 2 Duo

Display: 13.3-inch LED backlight WXGA+

Connectivity: USB x3, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi Link 4965AGN, Bluetooth 2.0

• DVD multiburner

• Fingerprint reader

Weight: 1.3kg

Dimensions: 23.4 x 318 x 231mm (H/W/D)

Pros

• Thin and light

• Swiss Army knife functionality

• Durability

Cons

• Oh Lord, that price

• Limited performance

Verdict

High-end ultra-portable for high-end  professionals

Apple MacBook Air – Ultra-portable Notebook Computer – $2999 (1.6GHz) $5139 (1.8GHz)

Specifications

Hard Drive: 80GB hard disk or 64GB flash

Memory: 2GB RAM

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (1.6 GHz and 1.8GHz)

Display: 13.3-inch LED backlight 1280 x 800

Connectivity: USB 2.0 x1, AirPort Extreme, WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n),

Bluetooth 2.1

1x Micro DVI port

Weight: 1.36Kg

Dimensions: 19.4 x 325 x 227mm (H/W/D)

Pros

• Thin, light and gorgeous

• Cool. Very, very cool

• Not unbearably expensive (1.6GHz model)

Cons

• Connectivity and performance limitation

• Absolutely, unbearably expensive (1.8GHz model)

Verdict

Form over function – heavily flawed but still desirable