Gadgetory

it's time to get it on prizefight fans I'm Brian Chung and we're here to find out who's king of the ring for ultra portable laptops now slim is in when it comes to tech and what is everyone looking for a laptop that fits an envelope of course well we've got both of them in this week's prize fight it's a face-off between Apple's MacBook Air and the Lenovo ThinkPad x300 we've got five needing green rounds so let's see who's bringing the heat we're talking sexiness why does Apple always seem to win when it comes to the sexy well because they do it right every time the MacBook Air at its thinnest point is 0.16 inches a collapsible door reveals its ports and more importantly the machine feels solid and sturdy on the other hand the x300 may fit in an envelope but it's a tighter fit because this laptop doesn't taper like the air does its design remind you of a think pad and it isn't that ugly in fact its design is more impressive when it comes to what they packed inside the macbook air gets a perfect 5 because we've never seen anything like it but the think pad isn't too far off with the four next round is all about the display both of these guys are equipped with 13.3 inch backlit LED displays but there are a few key differences the x300 uses a matte finish versus the MacBook Airs which is glossy and a whole lot more reflective the ThinkPad also features a 1440 by 900 native resolution and that's sharper than the air and also gives you more screen real estate we do have to point out that Apple's ambient light sensing screen helps with power consumption but it's just not enough the ThinkPad gets the 5 and the MacBook Air we give it a 4 in this round the X 300 takes this round with a jab and hook combo and we're even next up we've got features how many goodies can you pack in an ultra portable well the MacBook Air has a lot in its thin frame with Wi-Fi Bluetooth a full sized backlit keyboard iSight camera and a single USB port but what are the big things missing there's no internal optical drive no Ethernet port and no removable battery that just hurts daddy and sure you can purchase add-ons but who wants to drag them around now this is where the ThinkPad shines and addresses the air shortcomings with an internal DVD burning drive and a removable battery it has Wi-Fi bluetooth a keyboard light and webcam and it adds w win gps three USB ports and Ethernet whoo the x300 gets a perfect 5 in this round and the macbook air gets a 3 the ThinkPad rocks the air on this round packing nearly every feature imaginable but apple's million-dollar baby isn't seeing stars yet who really flexes their ultraportable muscle the next round is performance so let's start off with the specs of the machines we're comparing we're using an entry-level MacBook Air with the 1.6 gigahertz core 2 duo 2 gigs of ram and the 80 gig hard drive that's not solid-state now the x300 is rocking a 1.2 gigahertz core 2 duo with 2 gigs of ram and a 64 gig solid state hard drive and a 6 cell battery in our DVD battery drain test the MacBook Air came out on top lasting about 20 more minutes than the X 300 and just getting over the 4 hour mark the air also outperformed the X 300 and our multitasking test and our image processing test and that's just the entry-level model the macbook air gets swole with the 5 and the ThinkPad racks up before it's still real close with the X 300 up one these guys have pushed us to the limit but when it comes down to it who gives us the best bang for the buck sure these guys are revolutionary laptops what we want to know if they're worth the dough were dropping for them here's comparison with the machines that we tested now our beefed-up ThinkPad ring up to just over 2900 dollars add 120 bucks if you want the three-year coverage the base model MacBook Air is about eighteen hundred dollars and add another 250 bucks for the three-year coverage there the MacBook Air is about $1,000 cheaper now let's look at how the pricing changes if we make the specs comparable in this price in comparison the upgraded macbook air reaches $3,200 when you add on the external DVD Drive and the 64 gig solid-state drive plus throw in the 250 3-year coverage that's about a $400 difference when you're comparing similar machines with similar specs now these ultra portables don't come cheap but if you want to be groundbreaking eh sometimes you have to pay bang breaking prices the ThinkPad gets a 4 and the MacBook Air a 3 tally up the scores guys and and after throwing them bows back and forth the final score is 22 to 20 the Lenovo ThinkPad X 300 gives Apple's MacBook Air the two I ninja poke you know we have a lot of fun here but ultimately the final choice between these two laptops comes down to you I'm Brian Tong and we'll catch you next time on another prize fight