Stick one into a ThinkPad design, and you have the ThinkPad X120e, an update to last year's ThinkPad X100e (which had AMD's Neo processor). The ThinkPad X120e is the latest "netbook alternative" for business from the team at Lenovo. Lenovo has done a magnificent job giving the keyboard a full-size feel, but the 1366 by 768, 11.6-inch display suffers in comparison to the 12- and 13-inch displays of other ultraportable laptops. Given the choice between characterizing the X120e as an underpowered ultraportable or as a wonderful netbook.
The "ThinkPad" brand name is one of the few names that is virtually synonymous with business notebooks. These laptops regularly combine solid build quality, excellent keyboards, precision TrackPoints (that red dot in the middle of the keyboard) and fantastic warranty support. Matte black, solid, and unassuming, the ThinkPad X120e's design emulates the look of most ThinkPads. It screams professional, but it's hardly something that will turn heads. Being more than an inch thick doesn't help, but the tapered front end helps slim the look and offers a lip for easy pick-up on coffee tables. The X120e hasn't changed a bit compared with the ThinkPad X100e, and that includes the unfortunate bulging battery on the back end. With a laptop that's not exactly svelte, we're surprised that the battery couldn't have been better integrated.
The ThinkPad X120e comes in various configurations starting at $399 for an E-250 Fusion CPU, 2GB of memory, and a 250GB, 5400-rpm hard drive. Our X120e test system came equipped with the slightly faster E-350 CPU, 4GB of memory, and a 300GB, 7200-rpm hard drive. Those burlier components carried the X120e to a WorldBench 6 score of 57 a far higher mark than traditional netbooks tend to receive, but lower than a typical pricier ultraportable would get. The stronger configuration of our review unit ratcheted up the price to $650 pretty steep for a netbook.
Video performance with the Fusion CPU/GPU ranges from excellent to mediocre. With codecs supported by the graphics hardware (Radeon HD 6310), it delivers smooth playback of 1080p video. With codecs handled by the CPU alone, though, it's limited to 720p, and even then playback sometimes isn't as smooth as you might like. Gaming frame rates approached playable, falling just shy of 30 fps in Unreal Tournament at 800 by 600 at medium resolution. That's a tantalizing near-miss, but it's still a miss. Simpler games will fare better.
The X120e carries the netbook-standard three USB 2.0 ports, but business users will appreciate that Lenovo includes both VGA and HDMI video outputs. The ethernet supports gigabits speeds, you get Bluetooth on board, and you can choose between b/g/n and a/b/g/n wireless.
The unit is a tad larger than the average netbook at 11.1 inches wide, by 7.45 inches deep (add about 0.75 inch for the six-cell battery), and 1.16 inches thick. It's also a bit heavier at 2.93 pounds and 3.31 pounds (when equipped with a three-cell or a six-cell battery, respectively). Our test configuration's six-cell battery powered the unit for nearly 5.5 hours impressively long, considering the performance. The system tested came loaded with Windows 7 Professional, but you may choose Home Premium 32-bit or 64-bit, if you prefer. Office 2010 Starter is on board, and Norton Internet Security is available for user installation.
Lenovo's marketing preferences aside, the X120e is not an ultraportable: Its screen is too small and its performance is too slow. We're not even sure why the company would want to match it against full-fledged ultraportables. But the X120e is the best netbook going. Though it's a little pricey, one typing session will convince you that the $450 starting price for this model is more than worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment