Lenovo X300 notebook

Some describe it as ethereal, so thin it fits in a Manila envelope. Encased in aluminum, Apple’s MacBook Air has been struggling keeping Apple fans from considering other light-weight notebooks. Is buying an ultraportable laptop from a different manufacturer to avoid the crippled hardware of MBA really worth abandoning OS X? This isn’t an easy question to answer.

Realistically, I see only two competitions for Apple’s sub-notebook from those already mentioned by other sites (Gizmodo’s MBA killers are here). The Portege R500 is, strictly, for business users only, boasting a low 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and only 1GB of RAM, which should be enough for the monster that is Vista (though Toshiba also ships them with Windows XP Pro or Business). The Sony Vaio TZ150N is even more underpowered with 1.06GHz Core 2 Duo. The Fujitsu LifeBook S2210 has a laughable Turion processor. That leaves us with the Dell XPS M1330 and the new kid on the block, Lenovo’s X300.

First comes the laptop I almost bought for myself a few months ago. Dell XPS M1330. If you’re not so averse towards Vista, the XPS M1330 offers a 13.3-inch LED screen, similar form factor as the MBA (thicker) but a higher processing power and dedicated NVIDIA graphics. Fr the price, this is the best light-weight laptop out there. Battery will only give you three hours but you have the option of bringing along a secondary battery. It’s crazily cheap with the specs that it has, especially when compared with MBA.

Even lighter and with even more impressive specs, The Lenovo X300 doesn’t look all that different from other Lenovo laptops. The X300, though, is extremely lightweight. It’s a little different from the other ultraportables in that it uses a standard screen (13-inch LED with 1440 x 900-pixel resolution) not a widescreen. It weights all of two-and-a-half pounds. Most interesting is the 2.0 GHz Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core Hybrid LV. Wow! I only understood two words there, “Santa Rosa” but I’m already very impressed. The X300 also has an ultra-thin DVD burner (an optical drive!), which is just great to hear after MacWorld 2008. There is a 3 USBs, VGA out and PCexpress Card 34 slot and room for 4GB of RAM. Cellular 3G and HSDPA are also optional.

Need I say more? I’m not sure the X300 will come cheap, since it’s going to have a standard 64GB SSD, but even with Vista inside I’m not sure I’m going to look at the MacBook Air with anything but pity.