BUSINESS
Lenovo fires shot at MacBook Air
27-02-2008
by Emmet Ryan
PC maker Lenovo took a shot at Apple's MacBook Air on Tuesday as it launched its own ultra thin laptop in Paris.
Lenovo claims its new laptop the ThinkPad X300, which is 15mm thick, is the thinnest in its class. David McQuarrie, Lenovo's executive director for its notebook business in EMEA, alluded in a less than subtle manner to the MacBook Air as being thinner but not on the same plain as the X300.
"There was a single company that came out with a notebook recently that claimed to be the thinnest available but it doesn't have the full functionality of the X300," McQuarrie said at a Lenovo press conference in Paris on Tuesday. So as to remove any smidgen of doubt as to what McQuarrie was referring to, Lenovo's president Milko van Duijl later confirmed that McQuarrie was indeed referring to the new Apple device.
The X300, which is aimed at the business market, boasts some pretty bold claims which, if proven to be accurate, will make it possibly the manliest laptop on the planet. According to McQuarrie the device has a battery life of up to 10 hours -- a claim he reiterated over and over again in the press conference -- and can continue to function normally after liquid spillages.
Durability was a key message McQuarrie was trying to get across at the meeting. With the X300 Lenovo has opted to go with solid state drives (SSD) over traditional hard disk drive to help ensure the safety of data even after the device is dropped. For a device that weighs in at just 1.33kg, and based on ENN's first impressions feels lighter, this is quite the bold claim. The X300 has a 14-inch screen with a 1440 x 900 pixel resolution and is expected to be priced at around EUR2,000.
The laptop has also been designed with a green focus in mind. "Shareholders are choosing who to invest with based on environmental friendliness," said McQuarrie. Green issues were also at the core of Lenovo's other major product launches of the day. At least 25 percent of the materials used in the firm's new L174 and L197 monitors are recycled, according to Lenovo.
