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The MacBook Air, IdeaPad U110, and ThinkPad X300 are the three hottest ultraportables out there. They all sport unique styling outside. And Intel blue inside.

The IdeaPad U110, like other ultraportables, uses an Intel low-voltage processor

(Credit: Lenovo)

Styling and design are now so crucial in notebooks that when a model arrives in pink the color change alone is news.

Ditto for the styling imperative for some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.

Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you'll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.

Does this have anything to do with nefarious strong-arm tactics on Intel's part? Or just that AMD and Nvidia don't have competitive offerings in this space? The evidence points pretty convincingly to the latter.

Graphics--an increasingly important differentiator in any computer--is the same across all three notebooks: Intel X3100 integrated graphics. No Nvidia option here. No AMD-ATI. Intel across the board. The reason for this is strictly practical. For heat and power consumption purposes, these ultrasmall designs cannot accommodate an extra graphics processor. (It should be noted also that Nvidia and AMD-ATI integrated graphics are typically not used in ultra-low-power designs.)

The processors are all Intel too with some differences. Again, a practical consideration since AMD doesn't offer ultra-low-power x86 processors with relatively high performance.

The newest 11-inch U110 IdeaPad has gone with the Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor. It runs at 1.60GHz and integrates 4MB of cache. The low-voltage L7500 has a thermal envelope (referred to as Thermal Design Power or TDP) of only 17 watts. Much lower than the typical 35-watt Intel mobile processor. AMD mobile processors have similar above-30-watt thermal envelopes.

The 13.3-inch ThinkPad X300 uses the Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV chip running at 1.2GHz. This is a 60 percent package "shrink" of Intel's original Core 2 Duo design and draws a mere 12 watts. Why the shrink? These variants consume less power compared to larger counterparts, giving laptops longer battery life.

The Mermon package shrink featured in the X300 debuted with great fanfare in the MacBook Air. The Air uses 1.6- and 1.8-GHz versions of this Intel chip with a 20-watt TDP.

Similarities between ultraportables extend beyond Intel to storage options too. The Air, X300, and U110 all offer either 4200RPM hard disk drive options or 64GB solid state drives. The 4200RPM drives in the U110 and Air can be real performance bottlenecks if a user pushes the usage envelope. The X300 only comes with a solid state drive.

The solid state drives, while expensive, have proved to be able performers, even bettering high-end hard disk drives in some benchmarks.

Lenovo has taken a page straight from Apple's playbook. The parody of the Macbook Air commercial promoting the ThinkPad X300 ultramobile PC has an effect similar to Apple's series of ads with John Hodgman and Justin Long that put down Windows.

It's not what you would expect from the Chinese company that acquired IBM's PC business, but it works. The ad is getting passed around like candy, and it is really funny and points out the weakness of the Macbook Air. (It lacks some ports and an optical drive.) Expect the Macbook Air crowd to strike back with a parody of its own.

Check out our reviews of the pricey X300 and the sleek Macbook Air.

ThinkPad X300's solid-state drive beats fast hard drives.

(Credit: Lenovo)

Solid-state drives continue to outperform hard-disk drives in tests, providing some consolation for the high price.

The X300 ThinkPad, which starts at $2,900, is one of the hottest--and most expensive--notebooks on the market now. The Apple MacBook Air is another. They both come with solid-state drives (SSDs) that perform better than standard magnetic hard-disk drives. And the X300's outpaces a 7200rpm hard drive by a long shot, according to review site Hot Hardware.

In a test, the X300's SSD "performed 2.75 times faster than the Dell XPS M1730 running dual 7200rpm drives," the review said. That's not all. "The X300's performance was nearly 4.9x faster than the Asus U6S" with a 5400rpm 160GB hard drive.

Lenovo puts it this way: "Faster boot and application load times, extra durability, and longer battery life." You can add stratospherically higher unit price, but the price impediment will diminish over the next 12 months.

SSDs are based on flash memory chip technology and have no moving parts. Hard drives, in contrast, use read-write heads that hover over spinning platters to access and record data. With no moving parts, SSDs avoid both the risk of mechanical failure and the mechanical delays of hard drives. Therefore, SSDs are generally faster and more reliable.

Gizmodo got its hands on what appears to be a photo and detailed specs on Lenovo's lineup of new ThinkPad laptops.

See the photo here.

Looks like the X300 will get some company.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It looks as though both the T- and R-series of Lenovo laptops will be updated this fall, and even more interesting, the first laptop to come standard with a solid-state drive, super-slim X300, will be part of a larger family of notebooks, including an 12-inch X200, 14-inch X400, and 15-inch X500.

Apparently, there will also be a new notebook series introduced, the W-series, intended as a workstation replacement.

Gizmodo does appear to be hedging a bit, calling the information "unconfirmed."

Though the MacBook Air and ThinkPad X300 might be prettier and thinner, Toshiba's outdone them both in a crucial area.

Japan's Toshiba announced Monday that it had bumped the specs of its Dynabook SS RX to include a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) as an option. That's twice the size of the Air and the X300, both of which come with a 64GB SSD. (Note: It's an option for the MacBook and standard on the ThinkPad.) So far, it appears it will be available only in Japan starting next month.

Toshiba upped the Dynabook SS RX's capacity with a 128GB SSD.

(Credit: Toshiba)

The 128GB SSD is an option, and the standard is an 80GB hard drive. Other specs include a 1.2-gigahertz Core 2 Duo U7600 processor and 2GB of memory. With the hard drive, Toshiba promises battery life of just over 6 hours, and with the flash drive, 12.5 hours.

Longer battery life is one of the principal benefits of using solid-state drives in PCs, as well as faster boot times, and because they lack the moving parts of traditional mechanical drives, less chance of losing data if you drop or bump the notebook. Also, they're lighter, thereby enabling notebook makers to slim their PC design down.

There's still a downside to SSDs. Price is the biggest one by far (an SSD option can double the price of a laptop with a traditional hard drive), but it also has the potential to wear out quicker than conventional drives.

Despite that, all the top hard drive makers are getting into the flash business. Samsung's vice president of memory marketing, Jim Elliot, said the company (currently ranked 4th in total hard drives shipped worldwide) expects the market share of solid-state memory to increase from 1 percent used in PCs today to 27 percent over the next three years.

The latest incarnation of the ThinkPad makes its official debut Tuesday.

The X300 from Lenovo is, you may have heard, rather waiflike in size.

Something else that fits in a manila envelope.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Weighing in at just under 3 pounds and measuring less than three quarters of an inch at its skinniest point, the X300 has already been poked and prodded by plenty of tech reviewers.

CNET's own Michelle Thatcher called it her "new BFF" of ultraportables. See for yourself whether promises of 10-hour battery life, a 64GB solid-state drive, a variety of ports, and a starting price of $2,799 are charming enough to lure you in too.

Check out Michelle's full review here.

ThinkPad has slimmed down considerably--just in time for the Oscars!

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The X300 is here! The X300 is here! The last few days at CNET Laptop HQ have been consumed with Lenovo's latest ThinkPad, which first popped up last week. The verdict? It's the sleekest ThinkPad yet, and quite possibly the perfect balance between portability and usability. Check out our full review on the ThinkPad X300 page and, if you missed it, the photo slide show here on Crave.

Though the ThinkPad X300 is totally my new BFF favorite ultraportable, it's not the only alternative to the MacBook Air, as Dan Ackerman points out. Among his suggestions is the Asus U6S, which we reviewed this week.

If the only thing holding you back from buying an Air is its silver case, you'll be glad to know that custom Mac painter Colorware added the MacBook Air to its lineup this week.

Changing gears: Remember the Foleo, Palm's mercilessly mocked laptop-thing? Well, turns out it was simply an idea before its time, according to CNET News.com's Erica Ogg. Then again, CNET News.com's Tom Krazit disagrees: "If the race to develop The Next Mobile Computer really centers around the Eee PC and its offspring, it won't be because of the Foleo," he writes. I say they settle this disagreement like adults, with a thumb wrestling match. But that's just a suggestion.

Other tidbits this week: A company in the UK plans to launch a $195 laptop for students; Alienware and Gateway updated their models with Penryn; Dell expanded its line of Inspirons running Ubuntu Linux; and Apple filed a patent for a multitouch touch pad that recognizes complex gestures. Checking in with Cravers around the world, we learned that a colleague in Asia found a clever laptop station to keep his desk tidy, while colleagues in the UK rounded up some of their favorite tech for travel.

Have a great weekend!

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

Lenovo's much-anticipated competitor to the MacBook Air finally arrived in our office this morning. The skinny ultraportable laptop may look a bit square--it is a ThinkPad, after all--but its 13.3-inch screen, full-size keyboard, and built-in DVD burner earned admiring glances from multiple passersby. We're busy at work on the review, but in between benchmark runs this afternoon, we took some photos of this, the sleekest ThinkPad yet. Take a spin through our ThinkPad X300 slide show, and keep an eye on the ThinkPad X300 product page for the complete review and CNET Editors Rating.

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?