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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The perfect Ultra-portable ... ALMOST"
Pros: Thin profile, solid state HDD, Vista not required, good battery life, ideal keyboard and cursor options
Cons: Non-standard AC power input; no PC/Express slot, larger footprint than any prior X models, limited built out options
Summary: I have had 8 Thinkpad notebooks over the years, including X20,X21,X23,X31,X40 and Z61T. I was really supprised when the X300 arrived and its footprint was like the Z61T, not small like the prior X-models. The X300 is about as thin as the prior X-models without the ultra-base, yet it includes a DVD drive (if you so order).
All around, my XP X300 booted up amazingly fast (because no hard drive), and loading it up to place in service was fast. I charged the battery fully before starting, and then disconnected it from the wall before booting up. I ran solely on battery for the setup, much of which involved loading Office and other software from the DVDs, and transferring files via gigabit Ethernet. When I shut it down for the night after 3.9 hrs, it still registered 33 minutes on the power meter.
The X300 quickly found our wifi, asked for the key, and connected. My unit has 3gb of memory. Surfing, file transfer and setup all seemed much faster than any X or Z model prior. I did not buy WWAN because Verizon will not let you purchase unlimited access, and requires a $175 disconnect fee if you don't pay for a year contract. I felt safer to plan on a Cingular tether GPRS, or Sprint USB WWAN device, because of their plans (including unlimited from Sprint).
I was deeply disappointed that after owning 8 X&Z models, the "Lenovo Standard" A/C plug was missing: The X300 power tip is new and incompatable with any other tip by any manufacturer. This means no free extra power supplies, unless you can find a suitable tip from Targus or iGo.
As I was checking out through the Lenovo web purchasing site, I was offered a rechargeable pcmcia mouse as an option. I bought it, only to realize when it arrived that the X300 has NO PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot. Ugh!
I covet the small form factor of the earlier X models, but the X300's large screen and spacious keyboard may be a plus for some. The X300 is about 3 lbs with optical drive (excluding power supply).
After I had given my credit-card data to Lenovo to check out, a message popped up stating that it would take 3-4 weeks for delivery. I was really irritated because I omitted all the options that included warnings that they would delay shipping. NEVERTHELESS, my X300 arrived in 6 business days, shipped to a small town in the South. Go figure.
I decided to get the X300 after eliminating the Toshiba R500 (bad reviews, 1.75 lb model is discontinued) and the Sony VAIO. I have had prior Sony PCG notebooks that were great (major objection was that the touch pad is your thumb-rest, leading to inadvertent cursor placement while typing), but the Lenovo Keyboard and joystick pointer tipped the scale in favor of the X300. While Lenovo got it mostly right, I am still awaiting the perfect notebook: large on the inside, small on the outside, with standard A/C and PCMCIA interfaces. Now that they have shown a DVD drive in a computer the thickness of the X-31, I hope Lenovo produces a true X-70? with the small footprint of x-40, same thin-ness, and standard A/C and PCMCIA as from the old X series.
- 4 replies to this review
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Thank you for your thorough description of this machine. I am a masters student needing to install a statistics software package onto a laptop. I presently use a 3 year old mac, but can't figure out how to partition it, so am looking for a good computer to get me through the next two years. Weight is a consideration due to an old injury, but I don't want to sacrifice performance for convenience (I did that already with a Sony Vaio, which I am giving away).
The company laptop is a Toshiba, but I can't put my statistics software on it, and don't really like it anyway. It's very unresponsive.
I did have two Thinkpads previously through work, and liked them.
Based on your reviews I am thinking this might be a reliable computer for my purposes. -
Tangible is correct. The power adapters from my X60s work on my X300. Warning: I bought the slim travel power set, thinking that slim means light. It doesn't. It's heavier than my bulkier power supply, even without the cigarette lighter adapter.
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The power supply for the X300 is actually not new with this model. You will also find it on the X61 series. It's a higher-voltage supply, and the new thicker tip protects you from messing up by interchanging it with the old power supply.
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Up to now, I've used it to upgrade older models that had USB 1.1 up to 2.0 and to add Firewire.
We have to assume that, if we keep the computer for 3 or 4 years there may be some upgrade we want - and there is no expansion slot.
Does anyone else find this a problem?
