The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
They also just posted a review for the x100e's direct competitor, the Dell Vostro v13. And IMO if you care about how well your computer works and not how it looks, the x100e wins hands down.
Heat ... The big enemy. I was going to buy one but very happy I never did cause I like cool notebooks not toasters. And the battery is way short of other netbooks. I finally got myself an X200s, waiting for it as we speak. If you get a demo model like myself especially if you're in USA you only pay a few hundred dollars for a product that is far superior, lighter; better battery life etc. If they produce an X100e with an Atom 450 and 2GB RAM I would get one !
Another review with a red model of the x100e. The battery life is getting more consistent, the latter reviews are getting 4+ while earlier ones were barely getting 3.5, so I believe the bios has been improved.
I love the new edge and x100e keyboard. The old Thinkpad keyboard have age a great deal, I would hope that they make the island style keyboard for x201.
I not asking to get rid of the traditional keyboard, I'm asking them to make it compatible with the x201. There are reviews that claim that they perform at the same level as the traditional keyboard. The only thing missing is spill resistance. I would gladly trade spill resistance with aesthetic.
Have to agree with Jaredy on that one ... I rather have the insurance as well. Am typing on an old HP ... T61 in office ... what a difference day and night. I have type on island style MACBook. Not bad but too much space in between keys
I have been using my X100e for several weeks as my main work laptop, and here is my report:
The laptop runs cool. Note that I do not use Aero Glass and my work doesn't stress the video card either, which I suspect is responsible for a good deal of the reports of heat. Right now I have been using the machine for over four hours, and can detect no extra heat through the palm rests, and perhaps several degrees of warmth underneath the machine.
The fan is fairly loud for such a small machine at the maximum performance setting. Off wall power, in passive-cooling mode, things are of course much quieter.
The keyboard is an improvement over the older non-island design. Accuracy and speed are at least as good, and the responsiveness and comfort are improved. The only drawback to the keyboard is that it's slightly louder than my T60 and T61 keyboards, but maybe that will change as my keystrokes get more efficient.
Performance is acceptable, actually pretty good, for the type of work I do (use of web browsers and office productivity tasks, with Truecrypt disk encryption and some other stuff running in the background). It was acceptable even before I upgraded to a cheap X25-V SSD. On battery I let the processor go up to 60% of full speed, which still gives okay performance.
The screen is nice and very bright. I sometimes have to turn it down even on wall power because the max setting can hurt my eyes.
I can consistently get 5+ hours of battery life doing actual work. This is with adaptive CPU, 5-6 level on the screen (which is plenty), etc. While I'd like more, this is enough for me. But one hidden cost is tied to this: when the machine came from Lenovo, the battery life enhancement was turned off (whatever they call the feature that only charges to 80%), and that's how it stays. Running like this all the time will theoretically result in more frequent need for a new battery, increasing the total lifetime expense for the laptop.
In the end I think it's great for the price. People constantly ogle the machine and ask about it. If I want to spend more money on my next laptop, I will get an X20x series for better performance running Photoshop, better battery life, etc. But unless they improve that line in the interim, I will miss the island style keyboard.
Great info. When you say you don't run Aero Glass, does that mean you don't run transparency or you don't run Aero at all. I find taskbar previews too useful to give up.
Thanks! I don't run Aero at all. I use the Windows Classic theme, installed "Classic Start Menu" so I'm not even using the Vista/XP-style start menu, have everything unpinned and am using the Quick Launch toolbar instead. I'm sort of a curmudgeon with this stuff, and never got into even the XP look and feel. In fact I don't even stack windows on the taskbar.
Well what ever works for you, works for you =D. I take it your system is modeled after Win98? I don't even remember much about that OS, just that SE was amazing and Window's ME was a joke.
I actually have a hard time using my XP desktop after I've gotten used my Win 7 laptop. It's been relinquished to being a gaming console/linux test box.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
