Thinkpads Forum

I've seen others on this forum making connections between the X300 and the X40. Perhaps the X300 is a similar advance as the X40 was, in it's day--or maybe it's simply the right timing for us X40 owners to be in the market for a new machine.

But things have changed (ie, the role of Lenovo), and I'm curious about a few things. (Specific questions below) But first,

What I like about my X40 and don't want to loose:

• * Build quality. 3.5 years daily use in Tokyo, & still reliable. Love the keyboard.
  * Battery life w/OEM 8-cell. I use it sparingly; but my original 8-cell still gives me 5+ hours. Brightness 3
  * Portability. Love not needing a "PC bag", rather a protective sleeve in a normal bag works well.
  * Memory expansion. 1.5gb was a lot 4 years ago!
  * LINUX option. Nice to know it's there, though I'm fine with Windows for now.

What I dislike about my X40 and want to change:

• #1) Clunky external wide-screen support. I really hate having to reboot to switch to the Intel IEGD driver by hand whenever I use my 16:9 screen at home (and then rolling back to the IBM driver afterwards to get the LCD to work).
  Very Distant #2) Battery life with the 4-cell. Perhaps I had a bad after-market one, but I could only get about 2 hours on it. Brightness 3
  Very Distant #3) could never find a "faux battery" weight saver for times when I use AC only. An AC brick that fits in the battery compartment would be awesome, but.. alas.. they don't exist.

Of course, there are other dislikes, such as not having enough CPU to decode 720p *.mkv files, or the mighty slow 40gb hard drive, but I see those as Moore's law kind of inevitable improvements that just happen after 3.5 years.

Important questions keeping me from buying the X300 today:

1. 1. Lenovo components, build quality, ruggedness. Is the build any different from the X40? Any reports/studies beyond rumors here?
   2. AC w/o battery. Will the machine boot with AC only? An off-hand comment in a video at notebookreview.com made me wonder.
   3. Noticably deeper/wider? Same review has a pic of X61 on top of X300.. Safe to assume that X40 and X61 are the same size?
   4. Touchpad disable. I'm a X40 TrackPoint addict. Are the two hardwired together, or are we expecting an eventual BIOS/Windows update to disable one over the other?
   5. External monitor / widescreen. I can only assume this has been fixed, since the X300 is already widescreen.

Little things such as lack of a SD card reader and docking station are less important than raw speed & screen performance that the X300 promises. .. to be honest, I'm also heavily considering the X61t & other make tablets.

All comments welcome, thanks..

I was using an X41 until last year and now have an X300, so here are my opinions, anyway.

tokyo_x40 wrote:

• * Build quality. 3.5 years daily use in Tokyo, & still reliable. Love the keyboard.
  * Battery life w/OEM 8-cell. I use it sparingly; but my original 8-cell still gives me 5+ hours. Brightness 3
  * Portability. Love not needing a "PC bag", rather a protective sleeve in a normal bag works well.
  * Memory expansion. 1.5gb was a lot 4 years ago!
  * LINUX option. Nice to know it's there, though I'm fine with Windows for now.

Build quality of the X300 is about the best I've ever seen -- better than the X41 I'd say. The chassis feels rock solid despite it being so slim. If you're going to worry you could worry about the display lid and the DVD burner because they're so thin they seem like they could be a bit fragile, but it's not a matter of poor build quality.

The keyboard is very good, but actually here I'd say I preferred the feel of the X41 keyboard.

Battery life on the X300 is fine, but not great -- maybe 3 hours on the 6-cell battery with screen at max brightness. I think the X41 was a bit better there too.

Portability is great: I use a Waterfield sleeve and a small bag. Very easy to carry around anywhere and in pretty much any bag you want.

I guess 2GB is all I'm likely to need, but it's easy to add another DIMM (though who knows if windows will manage to recognize it all...)

Linux I don't use on this, having downgraded myself over the years from Linux to XP and XP to Vista, no doubt to the horror of most right-thinking OS experts.

What I dislike about my X40 and want to change:

• #1) Clunky external wide-screen support. I really hate having to reboot to switch to the Intel IEGD driver by hand whenever I use my 16:9 screen at home (and then rolling back to the IBM driver afterwards to get the LCD to work).
  Very Distant #2) Battery life with the 4-cell. Perhaps I had a bad after-market one, but I could only get about 2 hours on it. Brightness 3

Don't use an external display myself, so can't help you there, but I also had a small battery for the X41 which I wound up never using because it didn't give me enough battery life. If you're plan to spend any significant time unplugged with the X300, though, I think the 6-cell for sure.

Of course, there are other dislikes, such as not having enough CPU to decode 720p *.mkv files, or the mighty slow 40gb hard drive, but I see those as Moore's law kind of inevitable improvements that just happen after 3.5 years.

The slow hard drive was one of the things I really didn't like about the X41. It's like night and day with the SSD on the X300 (as it should be given the price...). Overall, the X300 feels very fast and responsive compared with the X41.

The other things I didn't like about the X41 were the low screen resolution and lack of a DVD drive, both of which the X300 fixes. I much prefer the X300's included DVD drive and no docking station to the other way round (I simply plug in a mouse, power cord and ethernet) but I'm sure other people have opposite priorities.

Important questions keeping me from buying the X300 today:
[1. Lenovo components, build quality, ruggedness. Is the build any different from the X40? Any reports/studies beyond rumors here?

I'd have no worries at all with the X300 on that score - the opposite in fact.

2. AC w/o battery. Will the machine boot with AC only?

Well, I tried mine, and it booted fine on AC qithout the battery, so no problem there either.

3. Noticably deeper/wider? Same review has a pic of X61 on top of X300.. Safe to assume that X40 and X61 are the same size?

Not sure on X40 vs X61, but the X300 should be wider (13.3" screen and larger keyboard) and thinner (I think) than either of those.

4. Touchpad disable. I'm a X40 TrackPoint addict. Are the two hardwired together, or are we expecting an eventual BIOS/Windows update to disable one over the other?

I like both (another plus for the X300 for me), but my understanding is that you can disable the touchpad without any problem.

3. Noticably deeper/wider? Same review has a pic of X61 on top of X300.. Safe to assume that X40 and X61 are the same size?
4. Touchpad disable. I'm a X40 TrackPoint addict. Are the two hardwired together, or are we expecting an eventual BIOS/Windows update to disable one over the other?

Personally I think the X300 is here to fill the gap that until now was empty: the Thinkpad that feels like a T series (big/high res screen, full-size keyboard, build-in drive etc..) but weights like a X series.

If you're very happy with the size of your X40, you might want to take a look at the X61s/X60s (similar size, no touchpad), or wait some time for the release of X200, the successor of regular X line thinkpads. The graphic card in the X61s is the same as the one in the X300 and the former has a faster CPU and longer battery time.(and a PCMCIA slot, which I consider very useful).

thanks for the replies.. very glad to hear that build of the X300 is the "good old Thinkpad" kind. I've heard gripes about internal components, but ... from people who like to gripe. I trust this forum more than them.

I will search for info on the X200. ... especially, I'll search for news about a tablet version.. Any reason OLED and tablets don't mix, or isn't it a natural fit?

Anyone see a problem with a X300-sized tablet? Is the screen too big/long? (maybe I should make a new post)

.. But.. to be honest, today I realized that finding a new job is more important than finding a new notebook! So.. for now I'll continue with the slow but study X40