Editors’ Note: Portions of this review were taken from earlier reviews.
Sure, the original Lenovo ThinkPad X200 will last an entire flight from San Francisco to New York, but what if you’re traveling from the Bay City to, say, London? Featuring a lower-voltage processor, LED-backlit display, and a nine-cell battery, the X200s should get you there with a few minutes to spare. While the X200s is about $530 more than the X200, and not as fast, this ultraportable still has very good performance, hardware, and connectivity, plus the endurance to last a full workday and beyond.
Design
The X200s features a lightweight yet solid design with Lenovo’s standard matte black finish. Measuring 11.6 x 9.2 x 1.4 inches (at its thickest) and weighing 2.6 pounds (with the four-cell battery) the system’s magnesium alloy frame is thicker than the featherweight MacBook Air, but it feels more durable. With the beefier nine-cell battery, the system weighs 3.2 pounds—still lighter than the HP EliteBook 2530p by about half a pound.
All the usual ports and connections are onboard, starting with two USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, and an ExpressCard/54 slot on the left side (along with the Wi-Fi switch). The right side houses an additional USB port, headphone and mic jacks, and a modem connection. Up front is a lone SD Card reader.
As expected, the X200s sports the excellent ThinkPad keyboard, which was firm and responsive. Despite being a 12-inch system, the spacious layout was conducive to an excellent typing experience. Unlike the X300, the X200s lacks a touchpad; we had to make do with just the TrackPoint, but we became acclimated to the responsive stick within a few minutes.
Display and Audio
At 1440 x 900 pixels, the X200s’ 12.1-inch widescreen display is a boost over the X200’s screen (1280 x 800 pixels). It results in sharper images but also smaller icons and fonts. The screen is protected by a carbon and glass fiber frame, which is light and durable and, according to Lenovo, makes for better Wi-Fi reception. We downloaded a high-definition trailer of Quantum of Solace and were impressed with the crisp images, deep blacks, and color balance. The screen’s matte finish ensured minimal glare, although practical viewing angles are limited to one person on either side of the screen.
If you want to watch Blu-ray or DVD movies, you’ll have to invest in the ThinkPad X200 Ultrabase dock ($175), since the system lacks an integrated optical drive (a feature you’ll find in the equally lightweight 12-inch Toshiba Portégé R500 series and 11-inch Sony VAIO TT series). Unlike the X200, the X200s lacks a webcam.
Audio quality is what you’d expect from a business machine: decent volume with a weak bottom end. Still, the dedicated volume controls above the keyboard were convenient for quick volume adjustment and muting.
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