Lightweight contenders make great laptop duel
Published Monday August 25th, 2008
EDMONTON - Ladies and gentlemen, in the left corner, weighing in at three pounds and clad in silver, the Apple Mac Air. In the right corner, also weighing in at three pounds and garbed in black, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300.
This seems like a classic sweet science duel between two of the most desirable laptops today. But in real life, it ends up becoming a scrappy fight with upper and lower cuts, lots of jabs and a few knockout punches.
In some ways, comparing these two beautifully engineered laptops is like comparing apples to oranges. The X300 is a business machine with a long lineage and future upgrade potential, including next-generation wireless WiMax or internal 3G cellphone, and includes a fingerprint reader. The Air has an impressively sculptured design with a sleek, wing foil-like shell that's aimed at the consumer market. Both stand out from the crowd. Neither is a gaming machine. Both have webcams, but the Air's is more fun and easier to use.
I recently took these contenders on a nine-day trip to Europe, with multiple stops, long airport waits and country-side treks with few power outlets.
This contest was about lightweight computing away from home or office.
Both laptops do that well - and they should, for the price.
They were configured with additional options to equalize their shortcomings.
The X300, equipped with internal solid-state drive and DVD writer/reader and one additional gigabyte of RAM, cost $2,872 with standard three-cell battery. The Mac Air, also with a 64 GB solid-state drive, optional Ethernet wire adapter and external Superdrive (DVD writer/reader), tips the price scales at $2,876.
Both sport 13.3-inch screens and are so light they feel like toys. You can easily hold them, while opened, with one hand from any edge, and they both run cool, deserving to be called "laptops."
They are equipped to the hilt with Bluetooth and the fastest 802.11n WiFi, which worked admirably in Germany and Greece.
The Mac Air runs on Mac OS X, and the Lenovo X300 runs Windows Vista Business. I ran common applications, such as the newest Windows Office suites, on both systems.
Despite the Air's faster 1.8-GHz processor, versus the 1.2 GHz processor in the X300, both Intel dual core, the X300 uses clever internal frequency adjustments in a bid to match Air's speed. Still, Air ran up to 10 per cent faster on similar Windows Office applications or Adobe PS3 Photoshop. Air also showed better power management, wasting less battery charge when turned on or put to sleep. The Air for example, after one hour of computing, held more than half of its charge after being in sleep mode for two days, compared to the X300 which lost 50 per cent more of its battery life.
Unlike the sealed Air, the X300 can gain extra battery life with an optional six-cell battery and a second three-cell battery swap for the optical drive. Those changes add weight and cost to the laptop, but only then will it outlast the Air.
The Air's screen was twice as bright as the X300, making it easier to use outside.
The X300 has the smoothest and most comfortable keyboard, additional function buttons and a small lamp on the upper right corner that lights your keyboard in a dark room. It also features more touchpad pointing options. The Air's flat keys take some getting used to, but their automatic backlighting works better and the large two-finger touchpad has some iPhone-like features.
The X300 can take more punishment with more protection, inside and out. Beauty only runs skin deep in the undoubtedly sexier Mac Air.
The X300 has more connections, from USB, Ethernet port, memory card reader and built-in optional DVD (compared to Air's external DVD). That's nice, but again, results in a heavier laptop. For minimalists, the Air uses Remote Disc, a clever feature that wirelessly lets you install applications from the CD/DVD reader on any nearby networked Mac or Windows computer.
The Air has a better charger cord: It's a fraction of the size and features a magnetic connection. All other laptop makers could learn from Apple.
The Air's one-year warranty and 90-day tech help can be bumped up to the AppleCare Protection Plan for $299 with worldwide technical and full repair service for three years. Lenovo's one-year warranty is boosted by ThinkPlus and EasyServ plans ranging from $44 to $999 for up to five-year on-site next-business-day service.
Which would I choose? Alas, both have to be returned, and are too expensive for my budget. But I would pick the Mac Air for no-fuss, lightweight performance (you can get it with an older, slower and power-consuming hard drive for $849 less). The X300 is a better-thought-out, have-it-all featherweight.
Could these two computing marvels have been twins separated at birth? Nah.
For more information go to www.lenovo.com/ca/en and www.apple.com/ca/
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