Is the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e a netbook or an ultraportable? The answer seems to be: a little of bothIt's faster than most netbooks, with a larger, higher-resolution screen; a spacious keyboard; and a bigger hard drive than you'll usually find in lilliputian laptopsYou pay for those extras, thoughIt's a little heavier than run-of-the-mill netbooks and has limited battery lifeThe price is nearly in ultraportable territory, too: The machines start at $499, and the configuration we reviewed costs $599That's a lot for a netbook

Here's the first thing that'll strike you about this ThinkPad, though--it's red! (If you find that color shocking, you can also order the standard ThinkPad black.) If you associate red with speedy sports cars, the X100e won't disappointWith its Athlon Neo MV-40 processor and 2GB of RAM, this ThinkPad scored a 52 on WorldBench 6, a screaming speed for netbooksI didn't notice any drag in opening and switching between applications, fiddling with Windows controls, or browsing the Web

Don't expect powerful video performance, thoughThe X100e turned high-def, full-screen video into something more like a slideshowAnd even at 480p, video stuttered and jerkedLenovo is mostly marketing the X100e to corporate types and must think that they should be working instead of watching YouTube

And this laptop is indeed useful for getting work doneThe 11.6-inch display has a native resolution of 1366 by 768, significantly more than the typical 10.1-inch, 1024-by-600-resolution netbook screenAnd the display is relatively easy to read even from an angleBut I found the on-screen colors a little washed out

The keyboard is full-size, with large Shift and Tab keysThe keys give the kind of solid feedback touch typists needLenovo gives you two options for pointing devices--and that's probably one too manyThinkPad traditionalists can use the company's signature eraserhead pointing stick, which has its own mouse and scroll buttonsThat system works well for those who are comfortable with itBut Lenovo also jammed in a touchpad for all the people who aren't accustomed to the eraserheadAnd there just isn't enough room for the touchpad--the surface is small, and the buttons are tinyThey're about a quarter-inch deep and right at the edge of the laptopIf you miss the buttons (not hard to do), your thumb slips off the laptop entirelyThe trackpad does feature multitouch, but the response is inconsistent--sometimes a two-fingered scroll works just fine, sometimes the trackpad doesn't notice it at all

The X100e comes nicely equipped, and you can add more featuresOur test model had a 320GB hard drive (you can also save some money with a 250GB disk)The laptop comes standard with gigabit ethernet and 802.11n wireless networkingA built-in 3G wireless broadband card is available at an extra costBeyond that, the features are pretty standard--two USB ports on the left, one on the right, plus a multicard reader on the right and a VGA port in the back

For a small machine, the X100e's sound is impressiveLenovo has nestled the speakers on the underside of the wrist rest, which slopes up off the surface of the table the laptop's resting onThat design seems to let more of the sound escape, giving the laptop decent volumeAnd for small speakers, the sound was relatively clean and precise, though understandably light on bass

At 3.3 pounds (3.9 pounds with the power brick), the X100e is a little heavier than other netbooks, but I hardly noticed the extra weightWith the standard battery, the X100e lasted for only 5 hours and 28 minutesThat's anemic for netbooks, but not unexpected given the X100e's more powerful processor

Our test unit came with Windows 7 Professional, a nice upgrade from the Windows 7 Starter Edition on many netbooksDon't look for much else in the Programs folder, thoughAdobe Reader is the only piece of third-party softwareLenovo has also loaded its proprietary utilities, including a password manager and power management appI find Lenovo's utilities more useful than the bloatware that comes on many machines, but that doesn't make them exciting

At 600 bucks, the X100e we tested isn't the kind of disposable computer that many netbooks amount toFor the price, you'll get sprightly performance, a larger display, and a comfortable keyboardBut if you're looking for great video performance or all-day battery life, look elsewhere

Sources : Portable Electronic Accessories