The Holy Grail of netbooks?
By Christopher Dawson | July 12, 2010, 3:00am PDT
Summary: It may not technically be a netbook, but it’s a thin and light ultraportable that’s powerful enough to satisfy teachers and students alike, and cheap enough for widespread deployment.
OK, it’s not exactly a netbook (at least according to Microsoft). The screen is too big, It has too much RAM. The processor has too many cores. And it pulls just a little too much power. In fact, Lenovo couldn’t install Windows 7 Starter on the X100e if they wanted to. Did I mention that it runs Photoshop CS5 tolerably, too?
Introduced at CES this year, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has been thoroughly reviewed elsewhere. Lenovo doesn’t call it a netbook; they call it a “professional-grade entry ultraportable.” As part of my summer series on netbooks, though, I recently snagged a long-term evaluation unit of one of these little laptops (or whatever you want to call it) and have already been putting it through its paces. Long story short, I’m impressed. Check out the video below from Lenovo if you aren’t already familiar with its features:
Although first impressions (I’ll talk about those in a minute) tend to be lasting impressions, I’m looking forward to using this PC extensively over the next few months, loaning it to teachers and students, travelling with it, running presentations with it, writing a book with it, blogging with it, letting my daughter drool on it…you get the point. Here’s what I want to figure out:
- What’s a better choice for teachers and older students? A low-end laptop at this price point (about $600) or a high-end netbooky sort of thing?
- Is the higher performance enough to justify significantly lower battery life than you can obtain with the latest generation Atom processors and Intel chipsets?
- Is the X100e durable enough to compete with Dell’s and Intel’s offerings in the educational space?
- Does the increased performance/improved form factor justify doubling the cost of a good netbook?
- Can this computer be one of the tools that I pull out time and again like the Convertible Classmate?
- What’s the ideal target audience for the X100e? High school students? College students? Teachers?
- The limitations of netbooks are clear; just what are the limitations of this ThinkPad and its AMD Vision platform?
That, by the way, is the key differentiator for this notebook. It uses
AMD’s Turion Neo X2 dual-core processor and integrated ATI high-definition graphics to kick performance up quite a few notches. It also has a keyboard that lives up to the ThinkPad name.
This new class of notebook adds an interesting variable to the 1:1 and staff computing equations. I’m looking forward to seeing where it fits in the increasingly crowded arenas of netbooks, tablets, and commodity-priced PCs as we look to equip students and staff as fully and cheaply as possible.
More from “ZDNet Education”
Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.
Disclosure
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.).
He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change.
He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have).
Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others.
Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair.
Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards.
Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap.
Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff.
Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable.
Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.
Biography
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider.
He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
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We also need to teach computer usage, security, clean-up, smart up-dating, etc. A lot of kids will not have decent machines at home, so a bit more in class is a plus. I've been using an acer 5050-5430. came w/vista & boosted ram to 2G. Now on Ubuntu 10-4, don't need the extra G. Battery only prob, partly extra ram, now battery over 3 yr. A spare bat. would make it, or more places to plug in/charge in class. One like mine, ordered in qty., using Ubuntu, should price at about 300. or less, maybe incl. spare bat.
This gets us close to what they will use in further ed., and in the real world. And that's what they need to learn before they get there.
As far as I'm concerned, it ain't a netbook unless it's $300 or less. People buy netbooks based on price.
@CobraA1
This illustrates a big problem within the computer industry. There are no decided, published and universally accepted definitions. By this person's definition, a 15.4" Gateway computer, with a battery life of 1 1/2 hour between charging, on sale for $299.99 is a netbook. My definition does not agree. For me to call something a netbook, it must have all the basic functionality of a notebook (or laptop if you prefer that name), but must offer enough battery life to get a student through their school day without requiring a battery replacement or recharge, and must be small enough to be more easily transported than the 15.4" cited above. This would require a less than 12" screen and an absolute minimum of 4 hour battery life (Preferably 6 or more hours) to be named netbook. Price doesn't enter into my definition.
Computer world unite!!! If we are going to use a term such as "netbook", let's come together and decide what a netbook is - or is not.
@john3347@...
This is exactly what the public gets confused with. I agree that a netbook is not based on price but on what it does. If a netbook is essentially a robust PDA with basic abilities and extreme battery life, then all of those computers that have more function and less time between charges are not netbooks.
With simple apps like a web browser (of your choice) some note taking apps and perhaps some specialty test taking apps, a netbook could have more than 10 hours of battery life and be used by teachers and students all day. It doesn't need a high speed high capacity HDD and 3D extreme graphics pumping 1024 frames per second, that's why we buy computers that we use at home or the office (hey, no playing on company time, unless you work at a game company...then no working on company time ).
Seriously, the way I see it, a Netbook should be an all day book reader, test taker, web browsing assistant to all whom need such. Once you start trying to dictate a category of equipment by price only, you loose sight of why different equipment is needed. Would anyone argue that a Hyundai and a Mercedes are both cars? Just because I can buy a Hyundai for under 16,000 doesn't make it scooter and it shouldn't be viewed that way.
I don't have need of a netbook, because most of what I do with my computer is play games (sorry for all of you who thought I might have some high powered developer's job) but my wife doesn't need a laptop because all she does is read e books and check her mail. Of course the price of the netbook would be less, but to say that price is a criteria for defining the product is inaccurate at best.
I looked at one of these when I was looking at getting an UL to replace my Lenovo s10-2.
In the end I bought an ASUS ULVT30 primarily for the better graphics (switchable) and the better battery life.
Outside of that I was leaning toward the 100.
Not bad when you stop and consider I started with a list of 10 possibles and the 100 came in at number 2 on my list.
@zenwalker just curious: Why did you replace the s10-2 ?
A much cheaper unit (with a great battery life) as a front end to a remote system that is beefed up so it can support multiple sessions. That way you really don't have all that much to support.
I think this is a sweet spot in the evolution of the netbook. Same form factor but a serious computer. I looked at a x100e at local Office Depot, and it was a sweetie, even though I don't tend to favor AMD parts. I might have bought one if it had BlueTooth and 3G radios in it as my Toshiba netbook has, so those omissions along with hotter AMD parts put me off a bit.
But with the bigger, higher resolution display, performance parts and 2 Gig RAM that it had, I think this form factor has a lot of life left in it if only Microsoft would stop hobbling it as a condition of its Windows licensing terms.
As far as I and many others I know, we will not even consider the purchase of a netbook until the equivalent of an Acer netbook found in Wal Mart drops below the $150.00 range. Most people I know are really struggling to make ends meet and even at $150.00 it would be a staggering blow to our incomes. However, it would be much more palatable than what they are currently selling for, much less the absurd price you think this Holy Grail is going for. The definition of Holy Grail in computer is not defined by putting a super computer into a sliver of a case, it is more based on max power for Min price. End of discussion. Don't believe me, look at how well things in the lower end sell compared to the higher end. No matter how powerful something is, we won't buy it if we cannot afford it, period.
@dhwolfer@...
I can understand where you are coming from, but the issue here is quality, not just of the product, but of the working conditions in which the product is made. The reason netbooks are as cheap as they are now, ($300-$350), is two-fold.
One, the parts in them are less performing than the average computer. This is fine if all you need the netbook to do is basic surfing, word processing, and some media experience. The second issue is where they are created. A lot of computing parts are made overseas where the people making them get paid crap, which is why computer compaines can sell a $300 netbook and make a profit. The only way a netbook will drop below $300 is if they become unpopular or they are sold as is now when more advanced stuff comes out, (i.e. the tech in them 5 years from now is the same as today).
@KyleDDM
Being on a fixed (read as low) income myself I agree on the price of these items. I just don't believe that a netbook should be defined by price.
So long as these little computers are made with lower end components, they will always be on the lower end of the price scale, but to say $300 is a point where companies are able to make a profit is not entirely fair either. We all know that the largest portion of price, after profit in most cases, is development time. If you look at the cost of building without development, it could probably be sold for $75 and still make a profit. The price has to include intangibles such as patent costs, developer sallary, etc. I don't like it, but that's capitalism. When we as customers stop telling companies that it's ok to charge us 300% or more the value of an item, then the prices will start to drop.
no adapters...you would think at least one company would have one model that had one.
@SonofaSailor: What's wrong with a USB to Serial adapter ? A quick Google search revealed models priced less than $10.
@dphuff Because USB adapters can be easily dislodged or broken by young students.
I saw the x100e at an office supply store. Neat little machine, but the price does not call to my teacher's budget and I can't see how I would justify buying 100 of these for a school when I can get 200 more basic netbooks.
The other side of the issue is what do I want the students to be doing with the machine. Quite frankly, something that is inherently limited to word processing, e-mail and "light" web surfing has a lot more appeal than something that has the graphics and CPU to be a "screamin' game machine." As a matter of fact, what I really want for a lot of my students is an even "less wow" machine that creates less distraction; give me a netbook with a monochrome eInk display and I'll give you dollars to donuts that most students would get more real work done.
@rsmcrffl2
good call. I would venture to say that in the future we will definitely all have computers in our homes (I really don't know anyone without one, but I hear they exist). If we can get to that point, all students would need is a thumb drive to plug in to their desk and have a screen and keyboard there. The thumb drive identifies them to the network and they get access to their studies. A mirror accessible from the internet will allow them to do their homework. In the school sphere, people need to remember that our emphasis is on education, not how many bells and whistles the tech has.
For those who remember mimeograph, my school used them for years after I graduated, even though I had a personal copy machine in my home (my folks owned a business). If something does what we need, getting something that has many more functions just because it is "new" is one of the problems we face today. Think of how the "disposable" nature of our past 30 years has caught up to us at the landfills and pocket book and you will see that a slightly modified Kindle (under $150 retail, probably under $100 in bulk) is all kids need in school.
It's got a TrackPoint; that's good enough for me.
I have already since 6 months, about the same configuration: HP dm3, ddr3 4gig, hd 500 gig, win7 x64, 13.3 display, battery 4-8 hres...
AMD Athlon Neo x2 dual core L335 1600Mhz 2 logical processor, screen 1366 x 768 resolution
The best I've owned ever. 599$ no Ipad can touch that
We also need to teach computer usage, security, clean-up, smart up-dating, etc. A lot of kids will not have decent machines at home, so a bit more in class is a plus. I've been using an acer 5050-5430. came w/vista & boosted ram to 2G. Now on Ubuntu 10-4, don't need the extra G. Battery only prob, partly extra ram, now battery over 3 yr. A spare bat. would make it, or more places to plug in/charge in class. One like mine, ordered in qty., using Ubuntu, should price at about 300. or less, maybe incl. spare bat.
This gets us close to what they will use in further ed., and in the real world. And that's what they need to learn before they get there.
