ThinkPad X200 reviews: Great ultraportable . . . but it's no X300

The X200 is one of eight new ThinkPads--including the SL series for small business--that Lenovo announced as part of Intel's Centrino 2 launch. The 12.1-inch wide-screen ultraportable, which replaces the popular ThinkPad X61, is designed to bring some of the features of the pricey 13.3-inch X300 to a broader audience.

Reviews are in--plenty of them--and there's good news and bad news. The good: LED-backlit widescreen display, 64GB SSD now optional, and better performance and battery life than the current X300 courtesy of Centrino 2. The bad: No internal optical drive, no touch-pad, weighs about the same as the X300.

Though Lenovo ran into some issues with the availability and pricing of the optional SSD drives, it looks like those have been resolved and the the X200 is now available online. Other business ultraportables with 12.1-inch wide-screen displays include the Dell Latitude D430 and the HP Compaq 2510p. There are also rumors that a tablet version of the X200, which would compete with the Latitude XT and HP Compaq 2710p, is on its way.

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 reviews:

The X200 isn't likely to trump the X300 anytime soon, but it does have several things that make it a terrific business ultraportable. [PCMag.com]

The X200 is classic ThinkPad, writ small. [ComputerShopper.com]

The Lenovo ThinkPad X200 is an excellent lightweight notebook for mobile professionals who demand the business essentials: security, durability, and lengthy battery life. [LaptopMag.com--Editors' Choice]

[The] high-end features and supermodel thin X300 outdo what you'll get design-wise with the X200. With that said, the ultraportable X200 certainly has a lot to like about it, offers better performance than the X300 and has a more reasonable price. [NotebookReview.com]

The ThinkPad X200 is built and priced competitively. It will certainly be a factor in the second half of 2008 and will be a tough notebook to beat in the Centrino 2 class. [ChannelWeb]