Lenovo ThinkPad X120e review: Lenovo ThinkPad X120e

Editors' note: Originally scheduled for mid-February availability, the launch of this product has been delayed until March 8, 2011.

8.1

Lenovo ThinkPad X120e

The Good

AMD E-350 CPU offers long battery life; solid graphics; excellent keyboard; compact, professional ThinkPad design.

The Bad

Throwback rubberized trackpoint eats up valuable space; battery bulge; heavy chassis; more expensive than some other AMD Fusion systems.

The Bottom Line

The AMD Fusion-powered ThinkPad X120e is an 11-inch ultraportable that's better and more affordable than last year's model, making it an even better choice for small-business buyers.

A new wave of AMD Fusion processors aimed at 11.6-inch ultraportables is making its way into Netbook-size laptops, promising a new generation of tiny, well-powered budget super-Netbooks. Stick one into a ThinkPad design, and you have the ThinkPad X120e, an update to last year's ThinkPad X100e (which had AMD's Neo processor). We liked the compact feel and excellent keyboard, but the battery life back then was too short for everyday use.

The new ThinkPad X120e ranges in price from $399 to nearly $1,000; our version costs $579 and has a 1.6GHz AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor--the same one as in the HP Pavilion dm1, the first laptop we reviewed with an AMD Fusion processor.

The AMD Fusion upgrade amounts to a win for this ThinkPad. The X120e offers improved graphics and a markedly better battery life at a lower price than its predecessor, the X100e. Still, that price is significantly higher than a Netbook--or, for that matter, the HP Pavilion dm1, an 11.6-incher with the same AMD e-350 processor, which starts at $450 for a comparable build. A lot of 11.6-inchers will feature this new AMD Fusion platform, which means there will be a lot of choices for interested shoppers. Consider the ThinkPad X120e a pricier, but slightly more professional, spin on the competition. It's also the best ThinkPad budget ultraportable we've seen.

Matte black, solid, and unassuming, the ThinkPad X120e's design emulates the look of most ThinkPads. It screams professional, but it's hardly something that will turn heads. Being more than an inch thick doesn't help, but the tapered front end helps slim the look and offers a lip for easy pick-up on coffee tables. The X120e hasn't changed a bit compared with the ThinkPad X100e, and that includes the unfortunate bulging battery on the back end. With a laptop that's not exactly svelte, we're surprised that the battery couldn't have been better integrated.

Inside, the X120e is a ThinkPad in miniature. A matte screen and the keyboard deck are framed in solid black plastic all around; the screen hinge also mirrors the feel of its larger cousins. A full-size edge-to-edge raised chiclet-style keyboard is the star of the show ergonomically, with great key response and a comfortable layout for typists. Shift and Enter keys are full-size, and there aren't any nonsense side columns of keys squishing the classic QWERTY layout. At the top, there's a narrow row of Function keys; holding down a Function key to activate volume, screen brightness, and other oft-used controls is required.

We're less thrilled about the touch pad. Though the multitouch pad is solidly built, its small, narrow, and wide surface area has a clipped vertical space because of an excess of buttons added by design--namely, both bottom and top buttons. The redundancy has been in the ThinkPad X120e, and many other ThinkPads, thanks to the rubbery trackpoint that still stays lodged in the middle of the keyboard. The top buttons are there for the trackpoint control, for those who prefer a no-touch-pad lifestyle. Enough already, Lenovo; though some might like these nubbins, they're keeping the rest of us from easily pulling off two-finger gestures. It's time to move on, at least in these compact 11-inch systems.

The matte 11.6-inch screen, with a 1,366x768-pixel native resolution, is as good as on the X100e. Glare is significantly reduced thanks to the lack of a glossy screen overlay, and as a result text is much easier to read. Videos and pictures still look sharp, but not quite as vibrant as on some other screens we've seen. The X120e's lid bends back a full 180 degrees, opening up flat with the keyboard base, but the screen's clarity suffers at extreme angles.

Stereo speakers situated under the keyboard at the front of the X120e offer volume that's louder than expected, with a profile that's perfect for spoken word and Web chat. They're better than the average speakers in an ultraportable. An included 1,280x720-pixel Webcam has better low-light sensitivity and overall picture quality than some Netbook-level competitors'. Video quality looked smoothest at 640x480 pixels. For Web conferencing, the X120e has a slight leg up on other 11.6-inchers. To that end, professionals will likely be enticed by the ThinkVantage suite of software tools, as well as the preinstalled Windows 7 Professional operating system.

The ThinkPad X120e has a USB port that charges devices while the laptop's powered off, along with Bluetooth and HDMI-out. These features are all identical to what we saw on the ThinkPad X100e. Our $579 configuration also includes 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB, 7,200rpm hard drive. Though the X120e has an entry-level model priced at a more reasonable $399, that config uses the slower AMD E-240 CPU, and has 1GB of RAM and a 250GB, 5,400rpm hard drive--and no Bluetooth.

The 1.6GHz AMD E-350 CPU featured in our configuration of the ThinkPad X120e includes onboard semidiscrete graphics, part of a new platform named AMD Fusion. These energy-efficient processors are targeted at 11.6-inch ultraportables, designed as a replacement of sorts to the AMD Neo line of CPUs. We've started seeing a flood of AMD Fusion 11.6-inchers hitting stores, and we expect to see even more throughout this year.

The promise of the AMD Fusion platform--better graphics, longer battery life--seems like it's been delivered based on our benchmarking of the ThinkPad X120e. Overall CPU performance is relatively similar to the dual-core AMD Turion Neo X2 we reviewed last year, but slightly slower. That amounts to performance that's significantly better than any Netbook, and approaches the level of processing power one would normally expect out of a full laptop. Yet, it still falls behind the performance of the 11-inch MacBook Air, or Core i7 ULV-equipped ultraportables, such as the Acer Timeline X. Those laptops are also far more expensive.

From a casual-user standpoint, the AMD Fusion platform clearly delivers. Multitasking, HD video streaming, and a multitude of other programming tasks are easily pulled off. Even better, the X120e's side heat vent didn't seem to blast as hot as the dual-core X100e did when we ran multiple programs on it. It works the way we'd expect an ultraportable in this size class to: somewhere between a Netbook and a full-fledged computer.

The included AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics on the E-350 are actually pretty good for such a small laptop. Unreal Tournament 3 played at 40.9 frames per second at 1,366x768-pixel resolution and medium graphics settings, and Street Fighter IV even benchmarked at 25fps--technically "unplayable," according to the game's test, but a great demonstration that AMD Fusion can actually play some games. Casual and even basic mainstream games with low graphics settings should play well on the ThinkPad X120e. Of course, most people buying the X120e aren't thinking of games--but if this system can game, it should also be able to handle some basic graphics work, which could be helpful for some mobile professionals. And, hey, a little Bejeweled 3 never hurt anyone, right?

Juice box
Lenovo ThinkPad X120e	Average watts per hour
Off (60%)	0.54
Sleep (10%)	0.89
Idle (25%)	7.36
Load (05%)	23.24
Raw kWh number	29.92
Annual power consumption cost	$3.40

The ThinkPad X120e's included six-cell battery lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes in our video playback battery drain test. That's a huge step up from the X100e, which barely lasted 3.5 hours. The new AMD processor makes the X120e a true "plane-flight" ultraportable. We expect other AMD Fusion 11.6-inchers to have similarly long battery life; the X120e's battery outperformed the HP dm1, but only by 10 minutes.

Lenovo includes a standard one-year warranty with the ThinkPad X120e. Lenovo's Web site is relatively easy to navigate for downloadable drivers and support. Lenovo also offers a toll-free support number, available 24-7.

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:

Lenovo ThinkPad X120e
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.6GHz dual-core AMD Fusion E-350; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 667MHz; 64MB (Dedicated) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6310; 320GB Hitachi 7,200rpm

HP Pavilion dm1-3005
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.6GHz dual-core AMD Fusion E-350; 3,072MB DDR3 SDRAM 667MHz; 384MB (Dedicated) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6310; 320GB Hitachi 7,200rpm

Toshiba Satellite T215D-S1140RD
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.7GHz AMD Turion II Neo K125; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225; 250GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Apple MacBook Air 11-inch
OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard; 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400 (ULV); 2GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 320M; 128GB Apple SSD

Dell Inspiron M101z
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.3GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K325; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 384MB (Dedicated) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225; 320GB Seagate 5,400rpm

Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T-68U118
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.46GHz Intel Core i7-680UM; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 128MB (Dedicated) Intel GMA HD; 500GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e
Windows 7 Professional; 1.6GHz AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual-Core L625; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 384MB (Shared) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200; 250GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm