-Hi, I'm Scott Stein Senior Associate Editor of CNET.com and this is the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Dual Core; now, we specify that because we reviewed the single core version of this earlier this year.
What it is, it's an 11.6-inch premium "netbook-type device" because these are very different processor in the center of this; it's a Dual Core AMD Turion Neo X2 processor.
Now what that is, it's faster than an Atom processor that you find in most netbooks
and it gives you more of a standard laptop experience.
Now, its not gonna give you as great experience as you are going to get on a Core i3- or a Core i5-type processor on a mainstream laptop, but what you're gonna have with this is pretty good multi tasking and you have some great video streaming capabilities as well.
We were able to stream Hulu and Youtube even up to 720p pretty well with occasional little hiccups and it plays 720p and 1080p video files excellently.
In fact, there is a matte screen, which is kinda nice for blocking glare.
Now, a lot of the looks of this are pretty no-nonsense.
It's a very thinkpad-type design.
The keyboard is excellent and it's a raised key-type design, somewhere between the MacBook on what you find on a lot of thinkpads.
Nothing else special anywhere else, not a huge amount of ports through USB ports, but nothing else.
No HDMI, which is a bit of a drop and no express card slot or anything like that.
Really, there could have been something else.
There's a lot of empty room on this side, which are a bit conspicuous and a large heat vent over here,
which admittedly gets pretty warm when its sitting on your lap, especially when its running dual core processes.
Other than that, we really like the feel of it.
It's a very sturdy design.
Our one gripe is the tract point.
Now, some people love this tract points, it's a little red nubbin that sits between the GHB keys, very common on a lot of thinkpad, notebooks, and gone from every other laptop.
You can use it in addition to the touch pad.
Frankly, we just rather use the touch pad, but what's annoying is that the buttons for the tract point impinge on it
and really reduce the amount of space you have available on that multi touch area really lessens the usability and the ergonomics of it.
Other than that, you know, you'll pretty much see what you're getting.
This configuration has 2 GB of RAM and 250 GB hard drive costing a little north of $600.
That's a lot of money, it's an iPod range, it's certainly not a netbook range.
It also has a little bit of a bulging battery in the back, which unfortunately doesn't meet you that many hours of battery life a little more than 3.
It should be fine,
it's a trade off as far as battery life versus performance on this device.
We really love it for its feel, its sturdiness, and for its keyboard; however, at this point, heading into the fall, you're gonna find a lot of other 11.6-inch devices, they're gonna offer similar types of processors and features that you also may want to look at it.
I'm Scott Stein and this is the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Dual Core.
