Lenovo's X300: a quest to build the perfect laptop, revealed

While we wait for the official launch now pegged for February 26th, it seems everyone and their brother has gotten a piece of Lenovo's X300 hawtness. Now Businessweek has a complete behind-the-scenes look at Lenovo's 20 month journey to build the perfect laptop. A journey which saw Lenovo's Senior VP in charge of laptops, Peter Hortensius, screaming to his assistant, "Phyllis! Get me one of those interoffice mail envelopes!" upon the dramatic introduction of the MacBook Air. A worthy read into a product Lenovo hopes will provide them with the same halo effect as that other Apple product.

[Thanks, Jacob L.]

[Pro7 @ Feb 15th 2008 6:21AM]

Nice one, it would be awesome with a Gefroce 8600M GT.

[OneLove @ Feb 15th 2008 12:11PM]

yeah, what's with the crappy x3100

[YoYoYo @ Feb 18th 2008 7:30PM]

Why on earth does Intel even try to make video processors anymore? And why on earth does anyone buy the damned things? We should band together and force all retailers to put a gigantic "Warning: Intel Video Onboard" sign on all devices that lack PCI-E ports to replace them.

[Ethyriel @ Feb 15th 2008 7:28PM]

To piss off all the jackasses who know nothing about portability and make absurd criticisms of a machine that's not marketed towards them.

[YoYoYo @ Feb 18th 2008 7:33PM]

Portability requires performance on par with a c1998-1999 TNT2/GeForce 1 video card? An MX 200 or MX 400 still outperforms current offerings from Intel - To market Intel GPUs at all to anyone but the most dull business users is something I simply cannot wrap my head around. Why on earth can't they at least try to keep up? Matrox still exists - buy them out, and they'd have talent enough to at least catch up with the 6-series Nvidia cards. Surely they could manage that much with minimal power usage.

[Jon @ Feb 15th 2008 6:42AM]

If the specs are true, then I would say that this is close to the perfect notebook for me. Lighter than my X31 but with a slightly larger screen, optical drive, 3 USB and removable battery to boot. All encased in sexy ThinkPad bento box black. Nice.

[j_g_puff @ Feb 15th 2008 6:45AM]

Very nice-lookin', but does it have a Tandy Sound System and Super VGA display? I sure hope so.

[ZSX @ Feb 15th 2008 6:48AM]

What a great article, and a fascinating insight into the laptop design process. My only disappointment is that the original design, for a 10" laptop with a butterfly keyboard, was canned for the current 13" incarnation.

I would really prefer a 10" screen for an ultraportable - hope that the original design will eventually see the light of day.

[Jagannath A @ Feb 15th 2008 7:00AM]

nice article.. worth a read

[pablot @ Feb 15th 2008 7:04AM]

Nice build!
http://images.businessweek.com/mz/08/08/pop_0808_42covsto.jpg

[Ty @ Feb 15th 2008 7:08AM]

Ummm, it runs Windows.

Different box same smell.

What a pile of junk.

[ard buijsen @ Feb 15th 2008 7:09AM]

euhmmm, perfect and windows... Something doesn't seem right here.

[Jkswiss @ Feb 15th 2008 7:12AM]

Umm, fanboi.

[Smiley @ Feb 15th 2008 7:34AM]

Ummm, it'll run Linux perfectly.

Same (good old) minimalist box, same (good old) OS-agnostic smell. Only with top-notch technology updates.

What a nice piece of industrial design.

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 11:10PM]

Not having OSX is plus.

I installed Leopard on my PC and it's like Ubuntu, only you know, without all the applications.

Windows XP is great for overall use, especially if you like to play games. If you don't like games, then something like Ubuntu is great, but Leopard just isn't. Nothing special about it, crappy software on slow and expensive hardware if you get it from Apple.

[Craig @ Feb 15th 2008 7:43AM]

The X300 looks very nice. But anyone looking at the Lenovo should also consider the Fujitsu P8010; very nice (similar) specs in a package weighing a quarter of a pound less than the X300.

[wickedpheonix @ Feb 15th 2008 7:47AM]

Reading that article made me wonder if Apple has a couple spies at the Lenovo facility...

[Jake @ Feb 15th 2008 7:47AM]

They REALLY need to hire a designer. Lenovo's hardware is the ugliest on the market, which is a pity since apart from their design they're quite good.

[Smiley @ Feb 15th 2008 9:01AM]

Sorry, but that just shows you don't know what design actually is. The Thinkpad designers are probably the 'rivals' the Apple design team respects the most. They're highly regarded in the industry and have pulled a number of 'first'. I am of course talking about *designing* an extremely complex piece of machinery that a notebook is.

But since you're talking about *aesthetics*, you'd like to know that this part has also been thought out: it is reminiscent of a bento box, small, black and as minimalistic as possible. That means thinkpads are never a fashion statement (which also means they don't have embarrassing shiny shells and huge advertisement-style logos), but that also means they never look outdated (which is definitely not the case with older powerbooks, mind you).

Besides, do you know of many notebooks that end up at the Museum of Modern Art?

[Rob @ Feb 15th 2008 7:53AM]

I predict:

The hinges will break in about 6 months.

[John @ Feb 15th 2008 5:22PM]

I predict:

IBM/Lenovo hinges are among the best on the market and are probably one of the least likely to break. Says an owner of 4 Thinkpads with perfect screen hinges after years of use, and 3 Dells with hinge issues

[pkpowerhouse @ Feb 15th 2008 9:19AM]

have you ever owned a thinkpad before?

the hinges are and always have been top of the line.

[Scott @ Feb 15th 2008 11:22AM]

The hinges on my circa 2003 X40 are like two little blocks of solid steel.

[Ethan @ Feb 15th 2008 5:14PM]

What do you mean "like" They are.

(Either that or magnesium)

[PynkFloydd @ Feb 15th 2008 7:57PM]

I have an older Thinkpad X40 and Dell x300 (two business laptops with almost exact hardware specs).

The Dell has a circle lightly burnt into the LCD because Dell wanted a thinner LCD top and didn't reinforce it. The Dell also has a cracked palm rest (lack of reinforcement)and broken hinges. Meanwhile, with the Thinkpad's roll cage...I could punch the laptop while closed and it'd be safe. (I dare you to do that with a MacBook!) The screen also overlaps the bottom to prevent any hinge issues while dropped...also probably the toughest hinges on the market.

The reason people love Lenovo is because you could drop it out of a window (while running) and have absolutely no issues with them. ...not to mention they're completely optimized for maximum battery life.

You see lots of comments with people talking about their X30. If memory serves me right,
that's around a 5-6 year old laptop. A 5-6 year old laptop that is in perfect condition that still gets used daily.

[Rob @ Feb 17th 2008 3:21PM]

John: my think pad hinges have broken.
Pkpowerhouse: yes.
Scott: so are the ones on mine (still broke).
Ethan: correct they are steel (or at least the blocks that hold one end of the hinges are - the other end is plastic)

[Karl Viklund @ Feb 15th 2008 8:31AM]

That design will always make me think of IBM.

[John D @ Feb 15th 2008 8:41AM]

The Lenovo\IBM design is a classic. It may not be flashy, but I think it's quite attractive. Business oriented - it looks like it can get things done. I have a Z61t, and I love it. I like it more than the Dell Latitude D series, which I have for work.

[tom @ Feb 15th 2008 9:28AM]

The trackpoint on latitude is unusable and but mouse button is caved in

[John D @ Feb 15th 2008 8:46AM]

Oh, and did I mention the oh-so-satisfying keyboard click that accompanies a ThinkPad?

[fashionista @ Feb 15th 2008 9:00AM]

Great quote in the article from the chief designer:
"I'm a bit tired of looking at silver computers," said Hill. "I'd never wear a silver business suit."

[wizzle @ Feb 15th 2008 10:43AM]

you'd wear a grey one.

[mj @ Feb 15th 2008 9:39AM]

seems there is no comparison between two products as Lenovo includes DVD drive + Ethernet port (which mysteriously lacks from polluted air)

[mj @ Feb 15th 2008 9:41AM]

what is so consumer freindly about polluted Air apart from being slim ?

[Ken @ Feb 15th 2008 1:24PM]

Awesome article (Business Week).

I want one...but I don't want to part ways with $3000.

However, when my current new Dell Vostro 1400 dies (few years?), I bet something like the X300 will be affordable to me - if anything, if the SSD was $100 vs. $1000, that would help a lot.

[Omar @ Feb 15th 2008 8:45PM]

Lenovo is not IBM...

I was a huge fan of thinkpads, until IBM made that awful mistake of selling laptop bussiness to a cheap-fabrication-low-quality-chinese-company... I've switched to mac @home and work... I have to say there's no comparison to OS X...

[SuitCase @ Feb 16th 2008 12:37AM]

This seems a bit gratuitous for a computer that looks like any other X-series. Expensive, reasonably small and light, etc.

What's so remarkable about it? I can understand stories about the creation of the Air which actually had a remarkable goal - to be super duper thin and consumer-friendly. But this one? I don't understand the angle here. IBM\Lenovo have released this kind of laptop every year or so for a decade, and this is just the latest spec bump.

[Ted @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:43PM]

I think the X300 is definitely a cool laptop... but I agree with you SuitCase it's not anything all that new or exciting from the thinkpad line... I think that the only reason it's getting so much publicity all of a sudden is because it is a direct competitor for the Air and was looking at release soon after the Air was fed to apple's zombies (Not to say that apple doesn't make great products.. but they are masters of mind controlling their slaves with flashy unveilings of unanounced products and lots of advertising).

I read that article in Businessweek last week and I was sad that more of the designers ideas weren't implemented. He wanted to take the ThinkPad aesthetics to apple proportions, with NOTHING on the outside but a sleep matte-black businesslike finish and a latch on the front. Cover up all the stickers and hide the ports behind a cover until you needed them. Plus he wanted it to be a 10'' device with an automatically butterflying keyboard to fit a fullsize in there... I would've liked to see that :(