Funny concept, Lenovo -- manila envelope stuffing was just ripe for a demonstration of what all you typical MacBook Air user is going to need on hand -- but we've gotta dock a few points for the shortage of Yael Naïm in this X300 mockumercial. Let it be known that we take our fake commercials based on real commercials based on sexy product war very, very seriously around these parts. Video is after the break.

[Thanks, Lee M]

Just in case you feared that Walt Mossberg was out on some sort of limb when he proclaimed that the X300 would satisfy road warriors everywhere, we've sourced some other reviews from across the intarwebz to ease your mind. Lenovo's über-stealthy ultraportable, which officially went on sale today, managed to impress one critic after another, with the biggest complaints coming from the high starting price tag, omission of a DVI port and somewhat sluggish performance -- which are pretty much expected given the form factor. Outside of that, everyone was practically in love, with praises addressing the delightful keyboard, integrated WWAN and overall usability of such a minuscule machine. But hey, don't take our word for it -- check out the reviews below in full before you cough up your $2,500 (or more), cool?

Read - PCPro (5 out of 6 shiny stars)
Read - CNET (8.5 out of 10 golden trinkets)
Read - Notebook Review ("big thumbs up")

Granted, you knew full well today would be the day that Lenovo unleashed its MacBook Air opponent on the world, but just in case you feared some sort of catastrophic eleventh-hour delay, we're here to inform you that all is well. The 2.9 to 3.1-pound, LED-backlit X300 (that's the one on the left, you know) is indeed available today for those who've been drooling for weeks through "Lenovo's business partners," but of course, it'll take at least $2,799 $2,548 (on the firm's official webstore) to gain admission to this slim 'n trim party.

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.]

Sure, you probably caught a brief glimpse of the X300's innards earlier this morning, but the photos waiting for you in the read link below are what we nerds really crave. Some lucky cat in Los Angeles managed to wrap his paws around Lenovo's forthcoming machine, and rather than booting it up and keeping it a secret, he whipped out the pliers and went to work. You know the drill -- tap that link below for all the guts 'n bolts you can handle.

[Thanks, Loran M.]

As long as Lenovo is drawing a direct comparison between their own X300 and the MacBook Air, we thought we'd go ahead and put them side-by-side for you. So dear reader, how do you define perfection?

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.]

Just in case Walt's teaser shot and pages upon pages of specifications weren't enough to satisfy your curiosity about the forthcoming X300, we've got a pretty good idea the photos waiting in the link below just might. Sure enough, we've come across a number of crystal clear (gasp!) shots of the yet-to-be-released ultraportable, and while it's totally devoid of aluminum, we still maintain that it's undoubtedly sexy in its own way. Go on, you're just one click away.

That X300 preview from yesterday leave you wanting for more? Well since Lenovo doesn't seem to keen about busting this laptop out and giving us the true skinny, we've got some detailed spec sheets to show you in the interim. Just in case you were on the hunt for an ultraportable, Lenovo has gone ahead and compared its new ThinkPad to just about every other tiny laptop under the sun -- with one notable exception. Hit up the read link if the few we collected in the gallery below aren't cutting it for you.

[Thanks, Rabeeh A]

Well, would you look at that. The image we're certain your eyes are fixated on above is indeed the first look at Lenovo's forthcoming X300 ultraportable, and it's being provided courtesy of Walt Mossberg. 'Course, if we were betting souls, we'd guess that nifty office envelope won't be bundled in, but hey, crazier things have happened. As if a photo wasn't enough, Walt also clued us in on a few more specs, namely the inclusion of a removable battery, three USB ports, WiFi, an integrated Ethernet jack and optional GPS / WWAN to boot. Heck, users will even be able to order this 3.12-pound critter with Windows XP if they so choose. You getting all this, Apple?

Nothing much "official" at the moment, but Lenovo is prepping a laptop based on a low-voltage processor similar to that of the MacBook Air, which can only mean one thing: skinny laptop celebrity deathmatch. Lenovo's X300 will run on a SL7100 chip, which is apparently a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo that fits into the same form factor of the 1.6GHz / 1.8GHz chip options for the MacBook Air. However, Lenovo saw it fit to squeeze a DVD-RW drive inside this 13.3-inch laptop, along with 64GB of SSD, all for a "reasonable" price of $2,744 -- at least, if Best Buy's leaked spec sheet is to be believed. The screen is also WXGA+, which we're assuming means 1440 x 900 instead of the 1280 x 800 MacBook Air. No word on a release date, but we hope it's soon -- that kid in Starbucks with the MacBook Air is giving us dirty looks.

[Via Electronista]

Update: Looks like CDW is listing it "around" Tuesday, February 26th, if you want to take that into account. Thanks, Brendan.