Gadgetory

Ultra book whoo well that's the question when you look at the ThinkPad X - 30 e this is Lenovo's latest ultra portable business laptop and we've seen this before we reviewed the ThinkPad x2 20 last year and we love to do was at the time when Sandy Bridge Intel Core i processors debuted and so you saw some nice performance there better integrated graphics and an expensive package over $1000 but considering that this packs in everything that a full-fledged laptop would at the time it sounded really exciting now in 2012 this is a 1200 $49 configuration that's pricey and it has a 320 gave 4 gigs of ram and a new third generation Core i5 processor that's Ivy Bridge although that won't show up on the sticker on your box the performance is really not that huge leap from Sandy Bridge last year it's a nice bump up but it's nothing that's gonna rock your socks off and the graphics on it while they've been touted as being very improved in use on this laptop they're not a surprising leap they're they're okay but they're nothing that you would use for gaming not that you would game on a think pad or would you I don't know it depends on the type of person you are but this is a 12.5 inch or as I said and this is no Ultrabook this is thick and it's kind of heavy not super heavy but I carried it home in my backpack and it weighed me down I felt like it was a little frustrating and it's not like a MacBook Air it's not even like many business ultra books like the HP folio 13 and those cost as low as $800 so here you are at $1200 with a yes faster performing laptop but how fast is fast I mean a lot of last year's ultrabook processors were pretty fast for most uses and this generations which we're just starting to see will be another step up from there and when you have those prices at around that level of $800 and a lot of businesses are asking for MacBook Airs and things like the Dell XPS 13 you got to ask what's the point of a business ultra portable well ThinkPad aficionados will be happy to know that the bulky but sturdy design has been left largely intact even down to an Express card slot if you want to use that and of course the red rubber nub in TrackPoint that's always around on ThinkPads whether you're like it or not the keyboard is new though that's a fancy new island style keyboard that is on all think pads this year you may have seen it on think pad edges and laptops like the ThinkPad x1 well now you get to get used to this don't worry those who are change averse it's a really great keyboard it just has a slightly different look what it all adds up to it's a really good laptop but it's not really a revolutionary laptop and with the sort of laptops that we've been seeing coming down the line ultrabooks and maybe stuff that'll be time for windows 8 launch this may not be the future of what you want to buy for a small business machine I'm Scott Stein and this is a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad X 230