Lenovo X301: the best laptop for business

Lenovo X301: the best laptop for business

Notebooks for business has always been the most expensive and most advanced. Why? Bus

iness prefers the compact size and light weight with high performance and long battery life. The combination of these requirements usually results in a high price. That is and is Lenovo X301 - a thin, lightweight, autonomous, productive and very expensive.

Each of these requirements for a business man to his laptop, of course. Compact size and light weight - so that a laptop would be convenient to carry. Performance - in order to work comfortably with a variety of applications, and leisure - multimedia content. Autonomy time - not to look at the indicator and discharge every 10 minutes, and have in reserve an extra hour or two to have time to finish everything you need.

Each model that satisfies these requirements, costs a lot of money, but it becomes an indispensable assistant business man. X301 - an example of such a notebook. Weight of laptop is just 1.33 kg, while it is equipped with 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. About the performance and battery life we describe below.

Preceded by the hero of our today's review, laptop Lenovo X300, gained fame as one of the best business models. But time does not stand still, and competitors are not asleep. Model Toshiba R600, recently tested ZOOM.CNews, and won first place in our ultra-rating models, is one of the main competitors Lenovo X301.

Competitor Lenovo X301

Toshiba R600

Core 2 Duo (up to 1,4 GHz)

Diagonal 12.1 "

From 90 thousand rubles. Lenovo X301

Core 2 Duo (1,4 GHz)

Diagonal 13.3 "

From 110 thousand rubles

In addition, this segment has historically been a stronghold of Sony, which now offers excellent model series Z and TT. And other manufacturers such as Asus and HP and Dell, may also offer some interesting laptops for business. Logically, no one wants to miss the segment's most expensive models. First, it is a significant profit, and secondly - prestige.

So, let's look at a model Lenovo X301.

Ergonomics and design

Design X301 is nearly the same model X300. The latter was extremely successful and in demand so far. Therefore Lenovo decided to just refresh it. Looking ahead, we say that the biggest change occurred in the stuffing. A design - remains the same and very successful.

It's all the same well-recognizable compact black body. As in other models of Lenovo, to the X301 is a track-point. The keyboard is very convenient, there are no reduced keyboard. Function keys (F1-12) are located in blocks of four, as on a desktop keyboard. A Caps Lock - with a bulb at the very key, just as in the Toshiba R600. Above the keyboard - buttons adjust the volume (larger, smaller, off), as well as a special key ThinkVantage, about the purpose of which we describe below. Also above the keyboard is a button switch on.

Housing around the keyboard is made of very pleasant to the touch material - soft-touch plastic. Suffice it is rarely seen in a notebook, where most plastic soft-touch finish found in communicators.

Below the keyboard, as usual, the three "mouse" buttons, which are very convenient, if not the touchpad, and track-point. If you hold down the middle - can dissipate documents and web pages using the track-point. Under the buttons - the familiar touchpad, under which - again, two mouse buttons. This is for those who use the touchpad. Very pleased that Lenovo does not impose the ways of governance. Everyone is free to choose what to use, the touchpad or track-point.

The right of the touchpad - fingerprint scanner. When and where it is absolutely necessary, because it is a model for business. Sometimes the laptop for a few thousand dollars is not so interested in the kidnappers as the data that is stored on it. In addition, daktiloskaner saves the time required to enter a password, which is a business man rarely coincides with the name of the beloved cat, it is usually much longer.

The left and right of the touchpad on the corners - a pair of speakers. Not very big, but quite suitable for listening to audio while watching the film and sound system events. Note that the speakers in laptops are usually worse. Notebook is also equipped with a webcam - this is a necessary thing for a businessman.

And next to the camera - a diode backlight keyboard. Gadgets extremely successful and convenient. When working in the dark helps not to overtax his eyes.

Now consider the location of ports. The left - only DVD-drive and security lock slot (Kensington lock). Right - the microphone input and audio output, here are two more of USB.

But most of all ports - behind. Here is DisplayPort (this is another difference X301 from the "three-hundredth"), as well as the power supply connector, D-Sub, another USB slot and the network card (RJ-45). Near the latter are located switch wireless interfaces. It is not entirely understood why the manufacturer decided to put it back where it was logical to locate it over the keyboard or the side, like the Toshiba R600. However, you can never turn off the wireless interfaces in hardware, using only the software off.

No one noticed that something is missing? Yes, the Lenovo X301 no card reader or PC Card slot or ExpressCard, no port to connect the docking station. I can not say that something from above is very necessary for a businessman, but the card reader could be useful. And, yes, Toshiba R600 has all of the above, a competitor can boast even eSATA.