Lenovo's <link to http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9870940-1.html> much-anticipated competitor to the MacBook Air </link> finally arrived in our office this morning. The skinny ultraportable laptop may look a bit square--it <i>is</i> a ThinkPad, after all--but its 13.3-inch screen, full-size keyboard, and built-in DVD burner earned admiring glances from multiple passersby.
With a 13.3-inch backlit-LED display and full-size keyboard, Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 represents a significant step forward for the ThinkPad line. Our review unit, stocked with a DVD burner and 6-cell extended battery, weighs 3.4 pounds. At its lightest, with a 3-cell battery and an empty optical drive bay, the ThinkPad X300 weighs just 2.9 pounds.
We're proposing a new unit of measurement, the "Jobs," which indicates the thickness of a laptop that can fit inside of a standard interoffice envelope. The ThinkPad X300 is one Jobs thick--or, if you'd prefer, 0.73 inch, slightly thinner than the thickest part of a MacBook Air.
The ThinkPad X300 is just thick enough to include an Ethernet jack, which should thrill most business users. Also on the laptop's back edge are a third USB port, a VGA connector, and an on/off switch for the wireless radios.
Users can remove or replace the battery on the ThinkPad X300--a major advantage over the MacBook Air. Travelers who want even more power can purchase an additional battery that fits into the optical drive bay.
