Updated 26 May, 2012, 10:40 am IST

Lenovo X300

19 Apr, 2008, 4:57 pm IST | by Jayesh Mansukhani | Notebooks

Lenovo recently announced the X300, claimed to be among the world’s thinnest high-performance laptops and a direct competitor to the Macbook Air. Ever since that announcement we've been looking forward to getting our greedy hands on it.We were able to spend a few quality hours with the X300, and here is what we think of this laptop.

At first glance the X300 does not appear to be anywhere as slim as the Macbook Air. However, a closer look at its dimensions of 12.5 x 9.1 x 0.73 inches compared to the Macbook Air’s 12.8 x 8.94 x 0.7 inches reveals a different story. They are virtually similar in size, shape, and weight, with the Macbook Air edging out the X300 with its virtually Frisbee like profile. The X300 in comparison resembles a normal notebook, albeit with a slimmer profile.

In a throwback to the ThinkPad days, the X300 retains the familiar trademark black boxy body with the magnesium construction. The lid however is different from other ThinkPads; it has a silky smooth matte finish that feels incredibly good to touch. The same finish has been used around the keyboard area and gives the laptop a sexy appeal despite the monotonous all-black color.

We've seen that the X300 is pretty slim, but the question is: how secure is its body? The answer is "quite hardy". Since it retains the magnesium construction build of its predecessors, it’s got a tight finish all over that does not squeak and gives the appearance that it will weather well over time.

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Moving on to the keyboard, one is impressed again. The keyboard on the X300 is much superior to the Macbook Air's in terms of user comfort, with its soft keys recessed keys. Typing on this keyboard is similar to using a Logitech G15 keyboard in many ways and this makes working long hours a breeze.

As for the mouse, the company's gone for a typical dual-pointer approach, and the X300 has both a touchpad and a track-point. Using either is easy; the only irritant is the horrible location of the touchpad. It’s positioned at an odd angle which makes using the track-point kind of hard as the user’s hand will keep brushing against the touchpad, making the cursor wander all over the screen.

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