Lenovo ThinkPad x100e Review (tl;dr warning)

[bicostp]

If there are any games you want me to try running on it let me know. I will not test GTA4 (or other games that require "helper" applications) or World of Warcraft (which I do not have).

I know this is a fairly old model, but when it was originally released the ThinkPad x100e was hampered with a very dated CPU and flawed BIOS, making it a battery-gobbling furnace. If you look up other reviews, pay attention to the post date and which CPU they tested. If it's from before summer 2010, and the CPU is not a dual-core, then don't pay much attention to the battery life and performance categories.

Introduction
So I wanted a laptop smaller than my old HP dv5000 (15" aircraft carrier), and I don't like the 9-10" netbook form factor, so I bought one of these. It was about $450 on sale from Lenovo's online store in early December for the good model. (You can get it with one of three different processors; more on that later.) You can probably find a loaded model on Lenovo's outlet site cheaper, but it might be a return, refurb, or may not even be in stock if someone beat you to it and they haven't updated the web catalog yet. Well, I've been using it for a few weeks now and the honeymoon's over, so I think I can give a more honest review than "OMGOMGOMGBUYITNOWBUYITNOW". I'm not going to take too many pictures of the unit itself because it has already been reviewed to death by every computer site ever.

Nerdilicious Technical Information
Processor - AMD Turion Neo X2 L625, 1.6 ghz dual core, 1 MB L2 cache
GPU- AMD radeon HD 3200 256 MB shared memroy
RAM - 1gb (1x 1gb) DDR2 667 stock, 4gb (2x 2gb) DDR2 667 upgraded
Hard Drive- 250gb 5400 RPM SATA
Screen- 11.6" 1366x768 matte
Battery- 56 watt 6 cell
Dimensions- 8.5x11x1 inches with battery
Ports- 1x VGA, gigabit Ethernet, combination microphone and stereo headphone 1/8" jack, 3x USB (one of which acts as a 5v power outlet even if the laptop is off)
Webcam- 640x480 webcam 'optimized for low light' (according to the manufacturer)
Wireless- RealTek 802.11 b/g/n WiFi

Physical Stuff
I really like the roughly-12-inch form factor because it's a good balance between portability and usability. (In my opinion, 10" netbooks are too cramped, and once you hit 15" in a laptop it becomes too unwieldy to be really 'portable'.) Here it is on top of my 15" dv5000:

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And next to the old Powerbook Duo (maybe the reason I like this size so much?)

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And finally with a bunch of stuff you probably have sitting around.

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Build quality is very good, certainly better than the creaktastic Korean* laptops and netbooks at your big box electronic grocery stores. I wouldn't manhandle it like a Toughbook, pick it up from one corner like my old magnesium-framed Portege 7200, and it doesn't have the built-in "roll cage" reinforcement frame of its bigger siblings, but you get mostly the same build quality Lenovo has been putting into ThinkPads for the past few years. I admit I miss the metal frame and rubberized coating of the old-school IBM models.
*Yes I am aware Lenovo is a Chinese company.

One last thing I really like is the removable bottom access panel, which covers pretty much the entire bottom of the case form the speaker bar to the battery slot. On this laptop, you're just seven screws away from accessing the hard drive, RAM slots, both Mini PCI Express slots, the Bluetooth module slot, and SIM card slot. (I didn't order WiMAX, but every x100e gets a SIM slot in case you ever decide to buy the appropriate addon card.) Remove two more screws and the keyboard is released, giving you access to both sides of the fan and heatsink assembly. ARE YOU LISTENING CONSUMER LAPTOP MANUFACTURERS? You can't tell me this is more expensive to manufacture and engineer than a million tiny screws and fragile plastic snaps.


Input Devices
While the x100e doesn't have the old-school clicky ThinkPad keyboard like the old T series did, the new chiclet keyboard they came up with is fantastic with comfortable travel and virtually no bounce or flex. The keyboard on most netbooks is really cramped, but on a 12" chassis you get an almost full size keyboard.

Spoiler:

It has both a TrackPoint and a regular trackpad, I usually use the TrackPoint out of habit. (The laptop this is replacing as a general use 'netbook' only had one.) The touchpad can do multitouch with two finger scrolling and pinch zoom, and when it works it works really well. Either my hands are too dry or the trackpad needs to be broken in or 'primed' with use, because it doesn't always recognize when I do multitouch gestures. On the other hand, I haven't had any accidentally-click-with-your-palm-while-typing issues with it. The built-in VGA webcam is adequate for Skype and seems to handle low light well, but colors appear a bit washed out. I haven't used it much (and usually keep a sticky note over it to keep Skynet from watching me ).

There is an integrated SD card reader under the righthand palm rest. It works at full speed and takes SDHC cards, however it was clearly designed for temporary use because the cards only go in halfway. Mildly annoying when using an SD card as ReadyBoost space, but great for just copying pictures off the camera card.

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Screen
The x100e is built with an 11.6" 1366x768 LCD, which has a matte finish like LCDs did in ye olde days. Some people might see this as a disadvantage ("oh but that's oooold"), but it was one of the features that drew me to this model while shopping around. Matte LCDs might be a little less bright than the glossy ones, but they don't act like glare mirrors either. This resoltuion and size were practically made for each other; text is sharp but not minuscule, and you have to look hard to pick out individual pixels. It's a lot like a 10" 1024x600 display, only added onto. The only drawback to the screen is its relatively limited viewing angles. Once you get past maybe 45 degrees either way from center, some colors go screwy and black starts to invert. It's nothing you'll notice using it by yourself or maybe watching a video with someone, but if you show a video to a group of people it will be more prominent.


Performance
The part you've been waiting for. The X100e is essentially built off AMD's Congo platform, which has admittedly been with us for a while. However, the one I ordered ships with the Turion X2 Neo L625 CPU rather than the old Athlon New MV-40, which gives better performance and battery life. A mid-range CPU (Athlon Neo L325) is also available; the primary difference being the amount of L2 cache (512k for the 325, 1 MB for the 625). The Turion can also underclock itself a bit better; running at 800 mhz makes a noticeable difference in battery life and heat output. However, even when the processor steps down to 800mhz it feels a little quicker than the 1.6 ghz Atoms everyone uses.

The ThinkPad scores 3.4 on the built-in Windows Experience Index, with the weakest part being the graphics performance.

Spoiler:

Right out of the box it was pretty slow, because I ordered it with only 1 gig of RAM. (A 4 gig upgrade would have cost $140 from the OEM, while the 4 gig kit from NewEgg was $50.) I used an old 1 gig SD card for ReadyBoost space, which helped a bit. Upgrading the RAM to 4 gigs really woke it up, and allowed it to actually run more than one thing at once! I know I only put DDR2 667 RAM into it, however from what I've read it only runs DDR2 800 at 667 speeds anyway so it wasn't worth the added expense. According to a couple users on Lenovo's forums, it can handle two 4 gig DDR2 SODIMMs for a total of 8 gigs of RAM, but that would have cost nearly four times as much as the 4 gig kit did.

On paper, it should be a faster laptop than Acer's Ferrari One netbook, which is built off the same platform but with a lesser CPU. (The Thinkpad does not, however, come with that funny external graphics port that was never released stateside.) On full CPU speed I can consistently get around 30 FPS in Portal and TF2, around 25 in Left 4 Dead 2, 30 in Monday Night Combat, and a smooth frame rate in Poker Night at the Inventory (which I'm guessing runs on Telltale's point-and-click engine, like Sam & Max and SBCG4AP), all running at native resolution or 1280x720. It has no trouble running 720p Flash videos either way, however it does need to be running at its full 1.6 ghz clock speed to play 1080p without kipping frames. Remember these figures are inaccurate guesses; I'll do a video with Fraps running as an FPS counter eventually. Generally speaking if a game is at least a couple years old it will probably run on this ThinkPad.


Bundled software
Thankfully, Lenovo doesn't load their Think-branded systems down with crap from the factory. (They also have the more consumer-oriented IdeaPad line, which I don't have much experience with.) Mine only came with a link to Skype, Lenovo's ThinkVantage suite (which handles power management, driver updates, and other assorted tidbits), and a Norton installer which only ran on the initial startup. (Yes it was just an installer; Norton AV is not preinstalled on the system from the factory.)


Common review criticisms
A few issues keep cropping up in reviews I feel I should address.

Heat - There is no denying this is a very warm laptop. Early on in its production run, the x100e had an inefficient processor and BIOS. Well, that processor has gone out the window (though you can still buy x100es with it from the outlet if you're a masochist), and the BIOS has gone through several improvements since launch. It only gets exceptionally hot when you push the system (gaming); when you just use it as a netbook it barely gets warm. The only consistently warm component I've noticed is the Realtek WiFi module, located under the trackpad, which makes the bottom of the case pretty warm to the touch if it's really busy. It got pretty warm after some TF2 and Monday Night Combat when I just had the back propped up; a small laptop cooling pad couldn't hurt for extended gaming sessions.

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Battery life - As I said, early models were power hogs. however, the new CPUs and BIOS updates helped quite a bit. When you're just surfing the web and running YouTube over WiFi on maximum battery with less than half brightness (using it as a netbook) will go around 4 hours 30 minutes. Maximum performance mode will run about 3:30 to 4 hours, depending on what you're doing with it. Horrendous for a netbook, average for larger laptops. (This is with the 56 watt 6 cell model 17+ battery.)

Aesthetics- ThinkPads are utilitarian black rectangles. (Okay you can get a red one too.) What else do you expect from this line?


So, should I buy one?
If you want the performance of a CULV laptop in a 12" form factor for a reasonable price, yes. However, Lenovo has refreshed it as the x120e, which will probably be released late Q1 or early Q2 2011. The new model will have the same screen and chassis, but will be built around an updated AMD platform (more performance and battery life) and have integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics and HDMI support. (I wonder if the motherboards will be interchangeable...)

All in all the Lenovo ThinkPad x100e is a well built business-class ultraportable with enough performance for moderate gaming, as long as you don't mind average battery life.

[Triton]

very nice review bic! i tend to disagree with you on 10" being too small tho. that might be the case for the 10" formfactor netbooks but my old B series lifebooks were great. of course this is coming from somebody whos main desktop keyboard is a cherry mini (g84-4100 to be exact, cherry ML series mechanical keyswitches!) which is ~93% of "full size" and i can still bang out 55+wpm on it. if you want cramped try typing on an everrun note! you know those keyboards on ebay that are the size of a dollar bill? its like that

[bicostp]

I was thinking of picking up one of those tiny portable keyboards for doing repair work (other peoples keyboards are disgusting), but they're just too bloody small unless you thumb-type like a 16-year-old text messaging.

[vskid]

Spoiler:

Wait, the CPU gets into the 80s? My laptop's GTX 260m barely gets that high, yet alone the CPU. Even my P1610's Core Solo only gets into the 50s, but it does that any time you do anything.

Looks sweet, I probably would have gotten one instead of my P1610 if I hadn't wanted a tablet so bad. The gaming abilities aren't too shabby, there are plenty of larger, more expensive laptops that couldn't match it.

[Triton]

I was thinking of picking up one of those tiny portable keyboards for doing repair work (other peoples keyboards are disgusting), but they're just too bloody small unless you thumb-type like a 16-year-old text messaging.

they are awful to type on, but if you can spare 15-20$ the G84-4100 is a FANTASTIC very portable keyboard

[bicostp]

Lucky bastard; you've got a Model M. I can only find the fool's gold knockoffs around here.

Now, to keep this from turning into Old Fogey's Keyboard Corner, is there anything you guys want me to record this laptop running? So far I've got this stuff lined up:

1080p WMV/MP4
720p YouTube
Team Fortress 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Poker Night at the Inventory
Monday Night Combat
Portal
Psychonauts
DiRT 2 or GRiD (Same engine I believe)
FlatOut
Half-Life 1 with high-def pack
Bioshock

[Triton]

Lucky bastard; you've got a Model M. I can only find the fool's gold knockoffs around here.

3 actually 2 regular ones and an M13 trackpoint II. i'd suggest a game for you to check out but i cant really think of anything that might really put it to the test