The notebook maker dives below the $500 price and sheds some its conservative skin with models available in colors it describes as “Heatwave Red” and “Midnight Black.”
Everyone knows what a ThinkPad is — one of those Lenovo business notebooks with black cases and premium prices. As of now, however, that’s no longer strictly true: New ThinkPad Edge and X100e models are available in Heatwave Red as well as Midnight Black, and Lenovo calls the X100e its first professional-grade ultraportable priced under $500.
The 11.6-inch ThinkPad X100e starts at $449 with an AMD Athlon Neo single-core processor, with dual-core Neo or Turion power optional; AMD’s Vision Pro platform provides dual-monitor support and manageability functions like TPM support and chip-level virtualization technology to run legacy applications under Windows 7 Professional’s Win XP mode. The three-pounder’s full-size keyboard features a multitouch touchpad plus Trackpoint; 802.11n WiFi is standard, with Bluetooth and 3G optional.