Lenovo readying MacBook Air competitor?

Well, hello there.

(Credit: Gizmodo)

If you asked geeks which manufacturer would be the first to take a shot at the MacBook Air, Lenovo probably would not be at the top of the list. Yet a rumored update to the manufacturer's X series line of ultraportables could do just that.

Gizmodo is thanking Best Buy for spilling the beans on the ThinkPad X300, which will reportedly replace last year's ThinkPad X61s. The ThinkPad X300 is said to feature a 13.3-inch wide-screen LED-backlit display, full-size keyboard, and 64GB solid-state drive. (Sound familiar?) Even better, the laptop is expected to include an integrated optical drive, 3 USB ports, and an ExpressCard slot--plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WWAN, and possibly GPS and WiMax connections--in a case that weighs as little as 2.5 pounds. (Though its thickness supposedly tapers from 0.9 inch to 0.73 inch, which if you want to split hairs--literally--would make it thicker than the MacBook Air.) Of course, all that awesomeness would cost some dough: Best Buy lists a price of $2,744.

Frankly, this report doesn't seem all that unbelievable, given the recent news that Lenovo and Fujitsu are readying systems that take advantage of the small-form-factor CPU developed by Intel for the MacBook Air. It is about time for the X series to get a refresh, if only to switch to a wide-aspect display. It's just that, while I heart ThinkPads, I wouldn't have expected to be throwing the solid black box into the arena with a fetish-inducing Apple product.

Sadly, Best Buy didn't blab about the ThinkPad X300's release date, so this is all mere speculation. While we wait for the official announcement to come down (or not), tell me: could this rumored ThinkPad X300 beat the MacBook Air in hand-to-hand combat?

[spilledenvironment]

This would be nice for business travelers because:

It's solid state configuration is cheaper than the MacBook Air's solid state configuration. It includes more features. Its lighter but only a few sheets of paper thicker. It runs Windows without extra cost and time, so it should be easier to use with business servers and such. =) I can't afford any of them but competition is nice!

[fleurya]

Author is looking at this all wrong

Apple has some great products (I own an MBP), but they are not the gold
standard that every manufacturer is gunning for when they come out with
something new, so stop looking it at it that way when someone comes out
with a new product.

Contrary to what you say, I predicted Lenovo among the first to build a
similar product, simply because this type of product is more for the business
market, which is Lenovo's primary market. Of course they're going to build
new smaller products around the smaller chip. Should they continue to use
the bigger ones and not innovate?

Your comparisons of the LED display, full keyboard and SSD are nothing to
mention to state Lenovo is trying to compete with Apple. Those are very basic
components and simply the next evolution in portable computing (except the
keyboard, I think most computers have them anymore). Apple does not own
those technologies, so just because another manufacturer is using them
doesn't mean they're trying to compete with Apple. I doubt Lenovo even
considers Apple a primary competitor. And if they do, they need to revisit
they're business strategy and reexamine Apple's.

[U. Tripps]

good news for price-sensitive consumers, too

Not that a price-sensitive consumer is going to be in the market for a MacBook Air or this fancy little number... but it means we are, at most, a year away from an affordible laptop with a solid-state hard drive.

And Lenovo's feature rich model should hopefully remind Apple that some of us like features! Who wants to carry a separate optical drive to watch a movie on a plane?

[fleurya]

You miss the point of MBA

I agree that most people like more features, but you're missing the point that
Apple is trying to get people to rent/buy movies from iTunes rather than
renting/buying real DVDs. It's actually helpful in that one DVD can wipe out
your battery due to running the optical drive whereas a movies on your hard
drive (especially a SSD) would give you a lot more battery time.

It's kind of sad, though, that Apple continues to make such bold moves in
forcing their customers to use/buy Apple-only products (like iTunes media)
and their rabid fanboys still hate on MS for doing the same thing.

[zarrik]

is this article for real?

There are so many articles like this which talk about competing with the Air. C|Net has been pro-Mac, anti-Windows for a while now, so they love to spin articles to make it sound like Apple is god. The simple fact is that there is nothing to compete with. Like all Macs, the Air is over-priced and under-powered. You buy Apple products for their design, not their functionality. The Macbook Air is an exceptionally uncaptivating product. Seriously, how much demand is there for a notebook that is thin enough to fit in an envelope? My notebook is less than an inch thick, and that's perfectly acceptable. In order to make it so thin, Apple had to take out all the good stuff. The Air is slow and uses old technology. It's much less a thin notebook than it is a giant iPod.

[Alexjhp]

Competetitor,,,, yeah right

My entire school has IBMs the x40 and x40 tablet to people from last year and the x60 and x60 tablet which, the majority have. Then whn something breaks we get an R51 as a "loaner" untill the laptop is fixed. As far as i can see they are all terrible. Flimsy, fast at first but get bogged down really easily, and by that I mean REALLY bogged down. On top of that they are rather flimsy and the tech support is terrible. People's laptops break within half a year and they dont bother sending it to Lenovo because it never comes back on tome and often comes bask even worse. My experience was three weeks to fix a plastic latch only to have it returned with a dead battery, another week to fix that to get it with a broken fingerprint scanner and then another week to fix that, Then finally they did something that the active protection idnt work but a quick reprogramming by the school tech support fixed that. That is the lucky report. The worst is months of being fixed, lost orders, constant breakdowns and "ghosted" computers which mean your hard drive is wiped clean. Everyone is fed up with Lenovo and many go against school policy and get a different computer, which is what i do when my IBM is being repaired, speaking of which it has to be repaired again for the same broken latch. The only thing comparable is the battery life, and maybe the thinness, but hands down the Mac will win.

Bottom line: Lenovo vs Mac is a no brainer, Mac will win, whether by fan support or better product in general.

[kennyy921]

The Thing Is Despicably Hideous

This is the ugliest thing ive seen this week. The Computer is plain hideous,
can PC makers create something marginally attractive?

anyway, the Macbook AIR Sucks. Period. it might be beautiful, but its
outrageous price point, under powered features, non removable battery, and
lack of basic inputs (No Ethernet is Ok, No Optical Drive is stupid ( who the
hell wants to RENT movies from Itunes?, what about my 2000 DVD Movie
collection?, ONE usb? What the hell is that?)

macbook air sucks, for that price, buy a macbook PRO.

my 02¢

-ken

[andrea.b.levin]

One man's fetish is another man's...

For some of us, the solid black box IS a fetish. The Thinkpad - whose quality, granted, seems to have suffered somewhat since the transfer to Lenovo - is still one of the most durable and reliable machines around.

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

I agree...

The Macbook Air sucks.

It won't be hard to build a thin notebook that actually has the necessities notebooks are supposed to have.

Besides, if Apple wants to impress me, they need to make a sub-$500 laptop like Asus.