While cheap netbooks are all the rage these days, just a few months ago the attention was being lavished on expensive, high-end thin and light notebooks.  Namely the 13.3″ screen Apple MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X300.  Fast forward several months and several hundred stock market points lower and expensive laptops don’t seem quite as appealing, which might be why the recent release of the Lenovo ThinkPad X301 was mostly a silent entrance on stage left.  Still, if you’re a CEO that happens to still have a job these days and you like to have the latest and greatest in ultra-mobile computing technology, cost not being a concern, the ThinkPad X301 could be a fit.

Design of Lenovo ThinkPad X301 follows the same business philosophy that was established by IBM, although we would like to see some advances in that department. Chassis is made of magnesium alloy and in combination with roll-cage made of carbon-fiber results in notebooks rigidity and low weight. Unusual for this class, there is optical device and along with DisplayPort connector and later one is only external difference compared to ThinkPad X300 . There are not many monitors with DisplayPort connector but they will appear in the near future in larger numbers. There are also 3 USB ports (two on the left side and one on the back side). VGA and Ethernet connectors are placed at the back side along with WiFi/Bluetooth switch. On the front side are only speakers that produce clear and quality sound and they are much better than speakers on X200 model. For navigation you can use TouchPad or TrackPoint – combination that is common for Lenovo. Full sized keyboard is exceptional so typing is real pleasure with no noticeable bending.

Additional button that stands out is blue ThinkPad Vantage button and it calls preinstalled applications with lot of options from which most useful to us was option of connecting to Lenovo site and downloading and updating of drivers and software. One more very useful preinstalled application is Power Manager 2 that allows very fine power consumption tuning that has option for screen power off if “Windows Is Shutting Down” message is recognized.

The keyboard deck and outer shell utilize a new rubberized soft touch paint which helps provide a more secure grip and a more comfortable feel. The X301 has all the regular connectors and ports with three USB 2.0, Ethernet, microphone and headphone jacks, DisplayPort, and a VGA connector. Unfortunately, no memory card slot is included with this laptop, which means you’ll have to use a USB card reader device or adapter to read from memory cards.