Walt's full review of the Lenovo Thinkpad
X300 is now available. As usual for the man, you also get the bonus (or burden) of a detailed comparison with Apple's competing product which in this case is the MacBook Air. For those of you who remember Walt's
MacBook Air review, that quote -- "I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation" -- stands in stark contrast to Mr. Mossberg's take on Apple's beautiful but compromised ultra-portable. As Walt points out, the biggest
differences between the two are the selection of ports, built-in DVD or second battery, and a removable main battery afforded by the X300's relatively thick chassis. Of course, the choice of OS is also a consideration since the X300
can't run OS X while the MBA
can run Vista. Walt does lament the fact that the X300 is only offered with an SSD. As such, it's limited to a maximum of 64GB of storage and contributes to the X300's relatively high price tag. It starts at $2,500 with a stripped-down, half-sized battery and no DVD -- $3,000 gets you the more popular full-sized battery and DVD config. Walt's aggressive, full-size battery tests resulted in "weaker battery life" at 3 hours and 5 minutes compared to the MBA's 3 hours and 29 minutes. That said, the Lenovo easily trumps the MBA with 5 hours and 15 minutes of juice when configured with both a full-sized and half-sized battery. The choice seems pretty clear at this point: form or function, which will it be sir?
[Thanks, Jacob L.]
posted Feb 21st 2008 3:41AM
What about us hesitating road warriors, what are we supposed to do?
But but but isnt engadget supposed to be apple biased?
Well, i'm not sure how badly engadget is apple biased (60:40?) but i am sure that most of the readers here are.
Did you have a gander at the voting yesterday.. everytime an apple product was in the lists it won regardless of its competitors.
Fanboism is truly a modern variation on religion.. in a yesteryear we used to have gods to give our lives for. now we only have corporations. i weep for you all!.
It is Mossberg who said "I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation". And, Mr. Ricker is reporting this fact.
Well, yes they are biased. Both Engadget and Gizmodo as well as Mossberg.
look at how Mossberg opened this "review":
"I am writing these words on a new laptop computer that packs a full-size screen and keyboard into a body that’s quite thin and light. And it has a solid-state drive with no moving parts instead of a hard disk.
But this isn’t the much-touted Apple MacBook Air, introduced last month with all those qualities. Instead, it’s a new ThinkPad from Lenovo, the X300. While the two machines are both impressive products, they are different in key respects."
Why would I expect the "mystery computer" to be an Apple one? This is supposed to be a review of the X300, but in the first two paragraphs he just cant help but push Apple's products, like he does in almost EVERY review he writes. Of course he doest push non-Apple stuff when he writes his unsurprisingly positive reviews on Apple's stuff.
Gizmodo just couldn't believe that "uncle Walt" was really that high on the X300 and decided to form their own conclusions:
"It may look like technical tie, but my feeling is that he prefers the MacBook Air. At the end, it's all about the software and Walter Mossberg preference for Leopard (which could be debatable, even while I agree with him) plus the price, physical specs and battery life, makes the MacBook Air come ahead."
And if it's from Engadget's own Thomas Ricker, it's going to be another shill job for the fruit company.
I guess you cant make a good product without all of these supposed "fair" sources dumping as much applesauce on it as possible to make sure no one gets the idea to think too different.
doesnt mean it should hinder their ability to write good concise and informative articles..
@AutoTom,
You're right, but Mossberg is well-known as favoring Apple products, it's not a hidden bias.
@emailtabs,
At least if we worship corporations instead of gods, we can own stock in what we worship :)
Regardless of what the bargain-basement-price-PC folks want you to think, the OS *is* worth something. The fact of the matter is, Apple can't hope to make the diversity of products that all Wintel competitors can. In many cases, then, a given customer might not find the Apple hardware to fit them quite as well as a competitor's product, so they have to decide whether to go with the better (to them) hardware, or the better (to them) OS.
I actually got my hands on the Air yesterday for the first time -- was checking out the new Apple store on 9th Ave and West 14th Street in NYC, and didn't remember the Air until I saw it sitting there. It was pretty cool, actually, but just not a product I'm in the market for. If I was, I would very seriously consider compromising on the hardware in order to have OS X. Depending on what you don't like about the Air, it might be a minor or a major annoyance. Probably the only thing that might bug me is the number of USB ports, which would only bother me occasionally. Using Windows is near-constant annoyance. So, you've got to balance the two :)
... written on my ThinkPad T60 :)
blah blah biased blah.
When does "opinion" turn into "bias"? ...when Apple is involved? when the opinion doesn't agree with yours?
all this "oo noes theyr appl biased!" nonsense is ridiculous. it's just as bad as writing people off as "fanboys" because they like a product you don't. get over yourself. Consider, for a second, that if this blog is apple-biased, and so are its readers, maybe that's because Apple makes some good products, and apparently everyone but you can see that.
and sure, there are zealots/fanboys/etc, but writing off anyone/anything that disagrees with you as somehow irrelevant is the logical equivalent of plugging your ears and going "lal la la la la."
Wow Jeff had the best response I've ever seen in all of Engadget.
Fred, you have presented one of the best non-academic arguments on a blog that I have ever read, enjoyed, and agreed with thoroughly.
As for Jeff, however, I cannot say the same. The fact you brought up the OS is much appreciated, because Mossberg surely didn't. He only evaluated the physical aspects of each device. "If you’re happy with Windows," the only mention of Windows appeared in the conclusion, says nothing about the functionality. Making no comment about which operating system is better, Mossberg's comparisons of the two devices are contrived.
And please don't group all of the fanbois in with the rest of us non-biased users. I don't care who's behind the curtain, only that they're running the best show. I won't comment what OS that may be, as from Engadget's/Gizmodo's/Mossberg's utter infatuation shows that the best experience is subjective and—apparently—requires unconditional love. Only the physical specs matter, and that's all we should be talking about.
P.S. Hardcore Mac fans use OSX86 to run Leopard on PCs because they want a better OS on a better system at a better price. The compatibility can be fixed with patches. If someone isn't willing to patch, then they are either noobs or interested only in using Mac to join the crowd. I have more respect for X86ers' dedication and OS-appreciation than for any other kind of fanboiism (NOTE: they are the only good fanbois of which I know). There's little difference between running Bootcamp and OSX86; Mac makes it arbitrarily illegal to run OSX86 and Windows will sell crack to a soccer mom.
This Mac fan-boy article is worthless and below your editorial standards. For the record, I am an extremely happy Mac user. But this passive aggressive article, which notes the "oh so interesting" fact that Macs can run Windows (because business dictates they must) and PC's can't* run the Mac OS (*false), which means mainly Windows users have no reason to, is wholly worthless. Nevermind that the author does not understand the difference between enterprise customers and consumers.
Please, be serious.
Dabbling in the crack cocaine much? These guys admit to your anti mac clarion call of "form over function!!!!!!"
GTFO
p.s. you're implicitly comparing hackint0shes to Boot Camp? LMFAO!
p.p.s. for the record i think you're full of shizen
wow, a "phanbouy" fighting against a guy who has a "BellyFullaWine"? May the fight begin!! :D
for the record i think the X300 is cool. that's neither here nor there. i just reject these tired cliched cries of bias. holy mother of god the fanboyism is out of control.
To be fair, I've tried to set up a ThinkPad with hackint0sh/OSx86, and the network cards just don't work. So it's not true to say you could comfortably run OS X on the X300; unless something has radically changed, I'd bet you can't. Of course, since I have a ThinkPad to test this stuff on, you can probably guess where I fall on the Apple vs. IBM/Lenovo battle. The New York Museum of Modern Art agrees with me that black and square can be sexy, too.
I aint done witcha yet belly because you're either a lying fanboy or a complete ignoramous i'm sorry to say. because either way you're spreading FUD. now, regardless of the 'reason', the simple fact of the matter is that OSX natively supports dual boot. they are NOT biased to point that out, fool!
but let's address this nugget of feces you unleashed: "fact that Macs can run Windows (because business dictates they must)". WTF? i dual boot and not because i must or anyone told me to. different OSs run different programs so some people like to dual boot. no shit, really?
vista would run so terribly on a mba its hardly worth the bother
@speakafreaka
Yeah, I'd agree that Vista on the MacBook Air is unlikely to be a pleasant experience but, given its specifications, do we really think the X300 will run it any better? I'm not that interested in a DVD drive and definitely prefer OS X over Windows, but the X300 looks like a better computer compared to the MBA due to more expansion ports and a battery that you can swap out yourself. Mind you, on something that small I don't think anyone can expect a high-performance system regardless of the OS running on it but then that's not the point - it's the size and weight that's important.
@Phanbouy:
I don't know what's more ironic, someone blatantly named "fanboy" arguing with another fanboy about a fanboy article referencing another fanboy's review, or the fact that you're in fact doing exactly what you're arguing against (fanboism).
I took a second to think about it, and I've decided that you need to leave. Just go. Re-read your posts and realize how juvenile and nonsensical everything you just wrote (double posts and all) sounds to normal human beings. This is coming from someone who isn't inherently pro-mac or anti-PC. Regardless, I can smell the FUD coming from your general direction a thousand miles away.
At least learn how the f**k to write before you show up and start spamming every comment thread with your pointless and frivolous fanaticism. Oh wait, it's much easier to run around calling everyone else "tools" and "anti-mac gestapo" and, my personal favorite, "complete ignoramous[sic]es." If you're going to throw something out there, back it the hell up with real facts or go suck on a shuffle.
Sheesh, it must be all the Mac Book Air early-adopters feeling all e-peen hurt that's causing this epic clusterf**k of ignorance.
Vote me down, whatever, I don't care.
nerdtalker, i don't own an mba, and my only friggin complaint was fucktards with heads up their asses (a la your avatar) who can't stop hounding engadget every time they mention apple; REGARDLESS of whether positive or negative or the source material mentions apple. why is that so hard for your ass-embedded brain to process?
@Phanbouy
Although your level of trolling is truly unparalleled, I will take the bait and reply.
I don't "own" an MBA either. MBAs have nothing to do with this, room-temperature IQs, however, do. The only thing that's "ass-embedded" here are all your apple products, as well as my estimation of essentially the level of this discussion.
Dumbfucks such as yourself slowly erode my faith in humanity. ***flips the bird***
Two questions, will it blend and can it play doom?
Can it fit in a envelope?
@David S.
Yes.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_08/b4072042350389.htm
2500$?
Well that's quite nicely priced since this is the average price of the *entry level* Macbook Air here in Old Europe.
can it play doom? I have to do it.
wow i've never heard that before especially not 19 minutes ago from another poster on this same article
and I have to mod you down.
cough, Ive installed OSX on a Thinkpad...not legally but it works fine.
You should really get that cough checked out.
MBA is good to have at home. It is not really suited for my notebook use cases. Lack of ports and lack of built-in DVD are serious problems.
Many said that you do not need that when you are out of home/office. But that's not what my experience says: you need more connectivity possibilities when you are out than when you are at home or in office. Especially when you travel, you meet new people and you of course want to exchange information: wider range of connectivity you have better. And MBA has compromised that...
Anyhow, I kindly welcome any addition to selection of sub portables. More choices is better.
I agree with the exception of the DVD drive - you don't really need it any more and a flash memory stick tends to be a better solution. More ports on the MBA would be very welcome - particularly Firewire and Ethernet ports.
I lost count at the mentions of Apple, OSX and the MacBook Air.
In an article on a Lenova laptop.
Engadget get over your effin' Apple obsession and judge goods on their own merits rather than constantly, relentlessly plugging Apple like over excited schoolgirls raving on abut the latest teen idol. It's embarrassing.
Yes, the X300 is a competitor to the Air. And that's the only one reference that needed to be made in the article.
Lenova?
Lenova?
"Lenova?"
No.
RTFA, mofo. "Walt's full review of the Lenovo Thinkpad X300 is now available. As usual for the man, you also get the bonus (or burden) of a detailed comparison with Apple's competing product which in this case is the MacBook Air."
The article's about a review comparing both. Obsession my ass. More FUD. You guys are like the anti-Apple gestapo and won't be satisfied until all references to Apple are removed. Funny, they talk about Windows a lot too, maybe they should get over that. No OS is ever to be mentioned on engadget!!! Tool
It seems like the choice isn't really between form and function since with the MacBook Air you get the beautiful, thin design -- form, and you can boot Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS - function! I'm not sure why these laptops are even compared with one another. Either you want to run the Mac OS or not. If you do, there is no comparison. If you don't, start comparing them as Windows laptops.
Well, the MBA lacks the functions of DVD, ethernet, VGA, WiMAX, 3xUSB, mic port, GPS, wireless USB, and easily removable battery. (Yes, I have screwdrivers; no, I don't have screwdrivers on an airplane.) No amount of installing Windows or Linux is going to fix that. I'll agree that saying "Windows/Linux laptops are bad because they don't run OS X" is a stupid complaint -- if you people really want to run OS X, either pay Jobs his Apple tax (which in this case costs you features, not money) or try a pirated copy. If you're never going to consider buying a non-Apple laptop, why are you reading about something made by Lenovo?
First, in any ultraportable, the form is the function. Otherwise they wouldn't be ultraportables. Weight counts. Size counts. Thin-ness counts.
Other than that, I miss that the "pure CPU horse power" function in the X300. The Air's 1.6 GHz C2D totally wipes the floor with the X300's ULV 1.2 GHz chip, let alone the 1.8. Being 2x as fast in many CPU bound tests counts as function, doesn't it?
To me it's completely obvious that while the X300 and Air are competitors, they make very different trade-offs, CPU power here, DVD drive there, ports here, replaceable battery there. Longer battery life here, drive bay battery extension there.
We have two mind-blowing subnotebooks to choose from now. Isn't it an awesome time to be a gadget freak?
"he choice seems pretty clear at this point: form or function, which will it be sir? "
or how about price? If a person just needs the base model of either one of these laptops the MBA saves you some coin even after purchasing that external superdrive.
The actual quote from the review is
"I can recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a hefty price tag."
so the headline seems more than a bit biased.
The Mossberg X300 review which this Engadged snippet is based on, refers to the MacBook Air multiple times, and even includes a picture of the MBA. So in this case you should be complaining about Mossberg rather than Engadget.
The thing is that nobody expects that old fool at WSJ to be anything other than a biased product pusher for Apple. The real question is that why Engadget, above all the other legitimate, professional reviewers, keeps printing this clown's stuff over them.
The answers obvious, but try to get them to admit it.
Here is what always gets me about Mossberg's reviews. In the MBA review, is there a single mention of competing products from Fujitsu or Sony, who practically invented the sub-notebook market? No, of course there isn't, because it is a review of an Apple product, and as far as he is concerned, they have no peers. But review a Thinkpad, and suddenly you have to mention the MBA more than you do the product you are actually reviewing.
ill take function for 200 Alex....err i mean Thomas.
form, please.
I like the X300's design, and own a lenovo laptop already, but they can't even compare to the design of the MBA.
Maybe in a few months I can find a broken one on ebay and hollow it out and use it as a case for my MBA. (I did the same with a Zune, as a case for a 2nd gen Nano.)
But seriously, I wish the processor were faster. Other than that, the specs look great.
But the case is just so ugly...
All you have to do is put up with:
Slower processor
Higher cost
Bigger (thicker... in fact, almost as thick as normal laptops)
Vista (ugh)
Form (seriously, this thing is ugly)
Less HD space
But, hey, if you're that much of a PC fanboy to go with this, be my guest.
True, but the much better connectivity options cannot be discounted. It's also debatable whether it is ugly - while my computer is a MacBook Pro, and I do think it's a wonderful bit of engineering, I also don't find the X300. Perhaps it's a case of nostalgia because my first laptop was a ThinkPad but I honestly don't find IBM/Lenovo laptops to be ugly, just not glitzy.
Strange, low ranked for pointing out facts (save for the ugly and pc fanboy comments).
Anyway, it hasn't changed it's design in years. Not too many contemporary things have done that, and older laptops weren't too pretty (save for some of Apples).
As for connectivity, you can get a very cheap USB port replicator, and hook up a drive, ethernet, whatever you want.
For a lot of people who use this, wifi will be easier to come by than an ethernet jack.
"Strange, low ranked for pointing out facts (save for the ugly and pc fanboy comments)."
Oh yeah, because it's not possible that someone low ranked you just for the ugly and pc fanboy comments. If you had left those out, I'm sure no one would have low ranked you.
So the Lenvo doesn't have a slower processor? It's not thicker? It doesn't have less hd space?
Silly fanboys.
That's not what I said. Stop being a dick.
Instead of saying "since the X300 can't run OS X while the MBA can run Vista." why not say that OSX isn't compatible with a different architecture? or that it IS written specifically to run on a single platform? Why blame the machine? Why not the software?
simple logic.
Because it's a matter of hardware. One can run most mainstream OSs, the other cannot.
Greg: And this is Steve Job's fault, not Lenovo's. Yet somehow we're always hearing how they suck because they can't run OS X.
@Randall
It's kinda a pointless discussion. However anyone wants to spin it, the Lenovo does not run OS X and that for some people that will be a problem. In that respect it does suck, whatever the reason is for why it can't run OS X. Certainly I don't look at OS X in a worse light because of this and I'm not going to switch back to Windows because of it.
Not at all. Apple made their OS for their computer. You want their OS, go with that hardware. It's not Lenvo's "fault" but it is a comparison between the abilities of the two machines in question. It doesn't even matter who's "fault" it is, all that mattes is that one can run most mainstream OSs, one cannot.
Who the frack cares about 'blame'? That's for haters and fanboys. If you love OSX get a Mac. If you love Windows get a PC. WTF???
@Greg
Sorry, but you're playing semantic games here.
If I say "Mac laptop can run any OS and PC laptops can't," while strictly speaking correct, the implication is that there's something deficient about PC laptops, which isn't true. Technically, any PC laptop *could* run MacOS X - if the maker of MacOS X didn't actively try to cripple it on that platform.
So, of these two statements:
"Mac laptops can run any OS, while PC laptops can't"
and
"MacOS X is a crippled OS because it doesn't run on most PCs while Windows can,"
the latter is a more accurate statement.
Yes, it is because of the OS that PCs can't run Mac OS, but the wording isn't important. The fact is, to get Mac OS on a PC, you have to do some hacking, and it's illegal. The easiest platform for Mac OS, Windows, and Linux, is the Mac (it's the only one). Fact of the matter is, from a comparison point of view, one allows you to use Mac OS, one does not. If a consumer wants Mac OS, this little fact will be a deciding factor.
AHH, Mossberg speaks and the world listens.
Go to Lenovo site and they will "keep you informed". Go to the Apple site and you can order your computer and have it in a day-or just pick one up at an Apple store.
The processor on the X300 is a compromise as is Vista.
I will stick with the Air, thank you
Why would anybody prefer a polished completly useles turd like the MBA over something that is actully good, like the x300?
Operating System.
design. processor. operating system. immediate availability.
plus the x300 just can't match the "woah, that's neato" factor.
Stupid question, but have you used the Air? Or, for that matter, the X300? I think it's a bit of a stretch to call the MacBook Air a "turd". While the MBA isn't for everyone (much like the X300, although it has less restrictions), it's hardly a bad machine and has been well received by a number of reviewers (even Mossberg). Anyway, to point out the patently obvious, if you want a light-weight Mac laptop then you'll choose a MBA.
Well, if function is so important, the MBA wins. Since it runs OS X, it will function better not running running Vista. So, form and function are what make mac users.
Trolls are so totally into spam. Hey, whatever floats your boat: 17news@gmail.com
The MBA is about being sleek and thin, which it accomplishes with all the lust of any Apple product. The Lenovo is about getting things done while being as thin and light as possible, not sacrificing just for the sake of thinness.
Hence the incredibly huge, showstopping .2" of difference in thickness. Personally, that won't make much of a difference to me in the laptop bag.
Of course, the price will make a difference, of both the MBA and x300. I'll stick with my 1.2" thick 12" LCD notebook that cost all of $1000 and runs a full-power CPU, 2gb RAM, DVDRW, and 120gb HD.
I'll try to deal with the shame of not fitting it inside an envelope, although the envelope may contain the $800-$2,000 I saved from not buying the hype of either machine.
Good lord, people. If you're an OSX fan, then there is no question which you will choose.
If you're a fan of or ambivalent towards Windows, then you have a nice choice.
And for people who feel that there is *only one choice* for an computer operating system, whether that singular choice is OSX or Windows: Get over yourself.
For me, the X300 is the clear choice. I'm not an OSX fan (don't dislike it, but don't need it). I *love* the DVD drive for traveling -- I own dozens of DVD's that I want to choose from when I travel. I also don't want to worry about having an external drive when I need it. A replaceable battery isn't an option for me, it's a necessity. It's "thin and light enough." It's clearly not as good as the MBA, but it's big improvement over everything else. The screen resolution on the X300 is a "nice to have" but not essential. I don't think the speed of the processors in either is going to make a huge difference. I also don't think the multiple USB's is a big help 90% of the time.
Again, *for me*, the MBA represents a great 2nd, couch or coffee shop laptop. But the X300 is easily what I want as my dedicated laptop. Let my wife have an MBA.
If Mossberg chooses the Lenovo over the Apple, then that's his choice. It suits him better.
sorry, ron, that wasn't meant to be a direct reply to you, just to the story.
I think just saying form versus function is an oversimplification. I have owned a Powerbook G4 (aluminum) for almost 3 years now. Every time I sit down in front of it I still feel inspired by its looks. It is a work of art. That small boost of inspiration I feel makes me more creative in my working. I owned a Thinkpad back in 1999. A fine laptop. But not inspiring.
I am not in the market for a MBA, will replace my Powerbook with a MBP eventually, but I think sitting at a desk in front of a MBA would be a helluva lot more inspiring than sitting in front of a X300.
This inspiration may not be needed by every type of person. A sense of the aesthetic might not be needed by every type of person. But for the type of person that does feel inspiration from it, Apple machines just have a look that makes me feel I am using a pretty tool, not a glowing, beeping, rough hewn utilitarian computer.
In regards to the argument "PC's can't run on OS X", I've always adhered to the opinion that it is OS X that can't run on the majority of hardware. Windows on the other hand (bugs/3rd party apps unfortunately included) can run on just about any hardware configuration. It should be a strike against OS X that it's limited to one hardware vendor, and a positive mark for Windows that it is not. However, people have turned it around to say that "PC's" (like there's only one manufacturer) can't run OS X. Well they can't, but not because the technology in OS X eludes them.
Not technically true. OS X itself doesn't have any restrictions (aside from the need for EFI, I think) that prevent it from running on non-Apple computers but Apple doesn't provide the support for the hardware (i.e. no drivers). That's just business because Apple doesn't want you not buying its hardware. Call it a black mark against Apple but not the OS as that is quite capable of running on a wide gamut of computers much like Windows. At the end of the day, however, this isn't an argument that needs to be considered when buying a computer - I won't feel more inclined to buy a Windows computer because OS X won't run on it and therefore OS X is somehow more inferior.
I cant stand watching Mossberg's reviews.
There is always such a huge slant toward apple products.
For one.. He keeps saying how the "Lenovo is heavier", and if you can "put up with the heavier Thinkpad", etc.
Heavier???? He makes it like ull be lugging around some weights in your bag!
The laptop is freakin .17 lbs heavier. In any NORMAL user's book that equals 0% heavier.
And Mossberg supposedly reviews products for the normal user, so im not sure as to why he keeps referring to the fact that it's heavier.
And even if he wants to say its heavier (since in reality it is), at least have the decency to give the full facts... THAT IT'S .17 LBS HEAVIER!!!
I don't know where Walt gets his info from. The X300 has the option of using bigger, disc-based hard drives.
Yes, you get low ranked around here if you so much as hint at actually liking an Apple product OR if you so much as hint at pointing out the downsides of anything that isn't made by Apple. Because obviously only Apple products have downsides. And they complain about Apple fanboys? Oh, the hypocrisy!
In any case, doesn't anybody else find it ironic that the X300 only has better battery life than the MBA if it uses two batteries which forces you to forego the internal optical drive? And wasn't the lack of an internal optical drive the big reason fanbois here were pooping all over the MBA? Weren't all the PC fanbois crying about how the lack of an optical drive on the MBA made it useless?
Hey, I support removable batteries, that's a nice feature if you go on a long trip and you want to watch some movies or whatnot. I just enjoy watching the PC fanbois scramble to change their stance on how necessary an internal optical drive is on a "subnotebook" when it turns out that if you just replace it with a battery it beats the MBA in battery life.
I dislike seeing the two being compared.
The MBA is a consumer-level device, and the X300 can be corporate and/or consumer.
Thinkpads are damn near indestructible and easy to deploy in large numbers. ThinkVantage recovery, spillproof keyboards, magnesium + plastic shell, rollcage, active harddrive protection, Access Connections, etc, all got my back, nevermind the best keyboard in the business.
I'm hopelessly hooked on Thinkpads, and the X300 has pretty much everything I want, 13.3" form factor, LCD backlit screen, ThinkLight, THAT KEYBOARD, and they're pretty sexy. I'll hold out for the T400/500 just to make sure all my options are worthy, but yeah. Fanboyism go home.
I've never thought Engadget was too heavily Apple-biased.
I have thought that those who fight tooth and nail to prove that function is more important than form likely in real life find that they themselves are more function than form.
I'll take both. I think the X300 looks waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.
err, just want to say that i own a lenovo thinkpad running windows xp, not x300, but a much larger model which is supposed to be powerful. however, this thinkpad is very unstable; it turns blue screen very frequently, often in the middle of a simple web browsing, without showing any signs that the system is about to break down.
and another huge complain i have is about the nub and the trackpad. i do prefer the trackpad, but nub is fine for me. however, lenovo has squeezed BOTH the nub and the trackpad onto their thinkpad. apparently lenovo tried to keep their traditions while introducing the more popular trackpad, which is utterly unnecessary and very, very inconvenient. the size of the trackpad is squeezed because of that, which means u have to move ur fingers back and forth a lot; and if u want to use the nub? ur wrist/thumb will inevitably touch the trackpad which results in miss clicking.
in short, lenovo thinkpad has been the most irritating thinkpad i've ever used. lenovo is not innovative at all. i dont expect u guys to have the same opinion, but plz at least try the redundant nub+trackpad combo, and compare it with the huge trackpad that's available to MBA before u buy!!
btw i used 2 IBM thinkpads before and i loved them. lenovo seems to be doing more destruction than good.
Sounds like you may have a bad memory chip, if you're getting a lot of random blue screens.
Silly comparison. One machine is for wannabe-fashionistas, the other is business people and others who just want a solid computing platform that is also small and light. Different markets.
Contrary to the implication, people do use Macs for business. I do all my work on a MacBook Pro, for example. Given this I think that the MBA and X300 are competing for exactly the same markets. The problem that the MBA has is that since it is not running Windows and therefore won't be considered by companies who operate Windows-dominated networks. Should Apple ever make much penetration of that market (not much chance since depending on a single vendor for computers is not a good idea) then there's not much to choose between these 2 systems.
Kelmon, even if the Air ran Windows, I am sure that very few businesses would consider it as a company standard laptop, since it has no dedicated LAN port, not enough USB ports, no docking station, and an non-removable battery. I have no doubt that the Air can be used in a business environment, but no medium or large business would invest in it for the reasons above.
function please, MBA's non-removable battery just bugs the hell out of me, that full battery life is truly sexy as well
Let's not be too harsh against Walter, he actually mentions Thinkpad, Lenovo or X300 in 22 sentences while Apple or MBA in only 15 so I think it's wrong to call him biased..
I watched his review on the Air. I thought it as going to be different for a change...damn, from the moment he said "Subnotebook" and "Thinnest", he lost me.
I kind of feel that the Thinkpad is no longer the Thinkpad you think it is. This is Lenovo thinkpad, which does not deserve any bit of the fame it inherited from IBM thinkpad. I am very surprised that a high-tech company with so little innovation such as Lenovo can survive. Just look at the three damn buttons above the trackpad! Believe me after you tried the multi-touch pad on a MBA you'll never want to look at the awkward mouse design on x300 again.