As the Centrino 2 train rolls on, we've found yet another standout that has already hit the test bench. The recently revealed SL400 is being aimed directly at mobile business professionals, but it's also potent enough to handle basic 3D gaming and the occasional Blu-ray flick on those intercontinental flights. According to reviewers over at Laptop, this 14.1-incher was pretty swank overall, though a few minor niggles kept it from snagging a coveted Editor's Choice award. First, a number of the ports are recessed, which may or may not grate your nerves, and while overall performance was satisfactory, the sluggish 5,400RPM hard drive was definitely frowned upon. Still, the great battery life, wireless performance and multimedia capabilities enabled it to claim 3.5 out of 5 stars, which means that you should probably give the full review a read before pulling the trigger on blind faith.

Lenovo's heralded "rock solid" design? Check. An ample amount of ports stuffed into a lightweight package? Check. A price tag that's on the good side of reasonable? Check. Laptop has just awarded Lenovo's recently announced X200 ultraportable an Editor's Choice award after determining that what it has is likely what you'll want. Reviewers deemed the travel-friendly machine an "excellent lightweight notebook for mobile professionals who demand the business essentials," noting that the omission of an optical drive wasn't really a deal-breaker for them. The Centrino 2 platform was also praised, and while performance wouldn't please the avid gamer, it should handle most everyday tasks without breaking a sweat. If you've got $1,200 or so burning a hole in your pocket, this might not be a bad way to remove that discomfort.

Calm down, would you? It's not like there's a brand new chipset on the scene or anything, Lenovo, what's the hurry? Lenovo just busted out four new or refreshed lines of ThinkPads, in addition to that new X200 we saw earlier, and those four new IdeaPads. It's pure and utter mayhem. First up is the brand new SL series, which is Lenovo's new grab for the small business set, with prices ranging from $699 to $1199, an HDMI port and Blu-ray option for dual purpose friendliness. There's also going to be a super cheap 3G add-on from AT&T and Ericsson for around $30, and WiMax is in the cards as well. SL will be showing up in SL300 (13-inch), SL400 (14-inch) and SL500 (15-inch) flavors. Also new is the W series (pictured), a workstation line being split off from the T series with ATI Mobility FireGL graphics and Display Port. The T series keeps its chops with Switchable Graphics, which lets you switch from discreet to integrated graphics without rebooting the computer, along with Display Port, while the R series holds of the budget end of things. Many models include options for SSD and GPS, and of course they're all Centrino 2 powered. Interestingly, the introduction of the X200 marks the death of standard ratio LCDs -- Lenovo is officially an all widescreen outfit now. The SL400 and SL500 laptops start at $799 and are available now, while the SL300 and all the others hit in August and range from $899 all the way up to the $1,999 W500.

The details keep coming in on those new ThinkPads we caught wind of earlier this month -- this time it's the SL series, which Lenovo has confirmed is on track for release in the next few weeks. Although the company didn't nail down specs on the business-oriented laptops, it did say that pricing will run from $699 to $1,199, and the machines will be bundled with online backup services and Absolute Software's LoJack theft-protection software. To hit that price point, Lenovo stripped some of the features found on higher-end ThinkPads, like the proprietary docking ports, but users will get a freshened case design that takes cues from the consumer-level IdeaPad line. That's great, guys -- now how about some specs and pictures?

We got specs on Lenovo's rumored ThinkPad X200 a couple weeks ago, but we didn't really know what it looked like until now -- surprise, it looks like the X300. We're not exactly pumped about the removal of a trackpad in favor of TrackPoint nub, but we suppose something's got to give to hit that 2.9-pound starting weight. One more shot at the read link.

[Thanks, Albert]

Hang on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen -- we've got a preposterously large helping of ThinkPad news coming at you tonight. We're talking details and photographs of the forthcoming X200, SL, T, and R series laptops, so without further adieu, let's get to know the X200 a touch better. Preliminary slides are hinting at the following hardware:

• 12-inch WXGA panel
• 45nm Core 2 Duo CPUs up to 2.4GHz
• Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology
• SSDs up to 64GB
• WiMAX / WWAN / GPS / WiFi / UWB / Bluetooth
  
• Magnesium alloy top and bottom covers
• 9.6-hours of battery life on the 9-cell pack
• DDR3 RAM
• 1.3-megapixel camera
• DisplayPort connector
• 3 USB ports
• Starts at 2.93 pounds

If we've already got you hot and bothered, you should probably grab a dry towel before heading on past the break. There's more where this came from.

Lenovo's the latest laptop vendor to go to a mostly-widescreen lineup today, as it retires the 4:3 14.1-inch ThinkPad T61. All that's left in the standard ratio are the 12.1-inch X-series laptops, and even those are something of a novelty in today's 13.3-inch dominated market. It's not a formal move and there's no announcement, but it's clearly a growing trend -- Apple, Sony, and HP don't offer any 4:3 laptops either -- and it's got us wondering what people prefer. Just amongst Engadget editors there's no clear agreement: some of us prize vertical real estate, while others say tiling windows horizontally provides maximum multitasking power, and one ed rocks both 16:9 and 4:3 displays side-by-side -- but that's probably crazy. What's your aspect ratio of choice? Hit us up in comments!

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")

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.]

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?

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]