Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet Multitouch – AWESOME

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Amazing battery life, responsive multitouch screen, excellent keypad.

Thumbs down: No touchpad.

Inside the trunk:

• CPU: 2.13-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
• RAM/Expandable To: 4GB/4GB
• Hard Drive Size/Speed: 320GB/7,200 rpm
• Display Size/Resolution: 12.1 inches/1280 x 800
• Optical Drive: None
• Price as Reviewed: $2075.00

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Nearly a year after the launch of the stupendous X200, Lenovo has hit back with the launch of the same X200 with a multi touch screen. It has taken the best in the category business convertible to an entirely new level.

This one from Lenovo is small and lightweight. At  11.6 x 10.1 x 1.3 inches this one is quite sleek and can fit into any carry bag or pouch easily. This one according to Lenovo weighs somewhere around 3.5 pounds and if it’s the 8 cell battery package this one could weigh approximately 4.2 pounds.

Similar in design to the other Thinkpads, this one has a matte black chassis, red trackkpoint on the keyboard and green indicator lights. Above the keyboard they are buttons for the muting and volume control of the audio along with the ThinkVantage button which helps in launching Lenovo’s management utilities. Below the keyboard we have the finger print reader, power buttons, buttons for rotating the display and a switch for locking the operating system.

The keyboard sports the same design like the other ThinkPads with a good spacing of the keys. However the palm rest could be a bit uncomfortable for people with large hands as the palm rest is kind of small. The keyboard is also spill resistant so that again is a boon for the ones who love to have their coffee right next to their workstation.

Its got a  1280 x 800-pixel resolution screen which can be swiveled either to the right or the left and converts it into a tablet mode which is more or less like a boon for the lefties. The screen is highly responsive to both finger and stylus touches. Navigating through the start menu, and the dragging icons was almost a cakewalk using the stylus. Also this one has a handwriting recognition feature which appears as a widget right at the top of the screen. Using this app one can easily write into the Microsoft Word with the hand. The more I used it, the more I liked it. Basically the other reason is that this one learns from the user inputs so the accuracy goes on increasing. Also it offers a virtual keyboard which comes in real handy when the screen is in the portrait mode.

The multitouch feature can recognize touches from two fingers and it does this with the help of the capacitive touch digitizer. I was pretty much impressed with the responsiveness however at times the screen failed to register the nail presses so I d suggest it’s always better to use the fingerpads which are provided.

The video quality of this one is good with the videos bright and vibrant enough to get even a drab video come back to life. But then again the quality of the speakers is real bad. The volume is loud but then it gets distorted and sounds tinny. I would suggest using a pair of headphones for a better experience.

This one comes without support for an optical drive which means that for watching DVD’s or Blu ray disks the user will have to invest in an external drive. The 1.3 megapixel webcam offers some real sharp and detailed images.

On the overall system performance, this one fared way better than the X200, thanks to the 2.13-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 7,200-rpm hard drive. Also it lived upto the expectations by faring way above the ultraportable category average. It took just 40 seconds to completely boot the Windows 7 professional and a speedy 3 min 13 seconds too transfer a 4.97 GB folder of multimedia files thanks to the 7,200-rpm, 320GB Hitachi hard drive.

While this one can play videos and also be of great help to the business professional, this one isn’t exactly a gaming machine.

I must say that the battery life offered by this one is excellent. It lasted for 7 hours even after continous web browsing and video streaming.

Nitty- gritty: This one just makes the best in the category even better. And its got a price tag which is almost irresistible. With the added multitouch and faster processor options this one is definitely worth all the loot.

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