Lenovo 3000 V100 - First Take
If you can carry a little extra weight in an ultraportable, the Lenovo 3000 V100 is a well-appointed business laptop that offers solid performance for a competitive price.
The 4-pound Lenovo 3000 V100, the company's smallest non-ThinkPad laptop, is placed right between the traditional categories of ultraportable and thin-and light. However, this pseudo-ultraportable is large for a reason: it has many high-end components and features we'd expect on thin-and-lights or midsize notebooks, such as Intel Core Duo processors ranging from 1.66GHz to 2.0GHz, anywhere from 512MB to 2GB of 667MHz RAM, 80GB to 100GB hard drives, and either an internal DVD/CD-RW combo or dual-layer DVD burner. The V100's more ultraportable-like characteristics include a 12.1-inch wide-screen (1,200x800) display and an Intel GMA 950 graphics subsystem. Each V100 has integrated 802.11a/b/g WLAN and optional WWAN from Verizon. The notebook has a 10/100 Ethernet jack, a 56K modem, an ExpressCard/54 slot, a 5-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, and VGA out. A fingerprint reader and 1.3-megapixel Webcam are both optional. In addition to Lenovo's standard one-year warranty, the company sells reasonably priced extensions of up to three total years. V100 configurations range from $1,099 to $2,079.
Our $1,599 review unit came equipped with a 2GHz Core Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 100GB hard drive. This configuration performed admirably, keeping up with competition from the Dell XPS M1210 and the Sony VAIO SZ100. Find out more in our full review of the Lenovo 3000 V100.