Lenovo G550

The new Lenovo G550 is an update to the Value Line G530 with the primary difference being the shift from a 16:10 to a 16:9 screen. This is becoming a common trend for most manufacturers, as they shift to the now more standardized 16:9 screens. The biggest question on our minds is how well this updated budget notebook performs; considering the previous revision earned our Editor's Choice award.

Lenovo Value line G550 Specifications:

• Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 (2.00GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
• Microsoft Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (w/ SP1)
• 15.6-inch glossy 16:9 display (1366x768)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• 3GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
• 250GB Western Digital 5400RPM HDD
• SuperMulti DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
• Broadcom WiFi (802.11b/g), 10/100 Ethernet, Modem
• 6-Cell 11.1V 48WHr Battery
• Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty
• Dimensions: LxWxH, 14.9 x 9.6 x 1.4"
• Weight: 5lbs 9.0oz
• Price as configured: $549

Build and Design
The design of the G550 has changed slightly from the G530, switching from a smooth matte exterior finish, to a black weave pattern. The new cover is every bit as strong as the last one, preventing any screen distortion even if you hit or flex the back of the screen. The interior of the notebook shares the same color as the lid, but is textured with a rougher matte finish similar to what you would find on unpainted sections of a ThinkPad. Lenovo took the back-to-basics route with the color scheme on this notebook, making it entirely black inside and out.

The chassis is constructed entirely of plastic, but where most budget notebooks might feel flexible or flimsy, the G550 feels like a solid block of sturdy material. When talking about the palm rest on most notebooks, including ThinkPads, notebooks with good support still show some flex under a very strong grip. Somehow squeezing the palm rests on the G550 feels like you are trying to squeeze a rock. Other areas of the notebook share the same toughness, including the keyboard and surrounding trim.

To upgrade components the G550 has easy access panels to the memory and CPU, wireless card, and hard drive on the bottom of the notebook. No components, including the processor, had "warranty void if removed" stickers, making it very easy to handle upgrades or repairs in the future.

Screen and Speakers
The 15.6" LCD is average compared to most 15-16" notebooks, with bright and vibrant colors and decent viewing angles. The G550's big change is the transition away from the 16:10 screen size to the wider (but shorter) 16:9 panels. The screen offers a glossy surface, which helps improve colors and contrast at the cost of added reflections and glare. Compared to "frameless" displays the reflections were tolerable as long as you were not outside under direct sunlight. Screen brightness was adequate for viewing in bright office conditions, but might not cut it outside unless it is an overcast day. Vertical viewing angles were adequate with a broad viewing sweet spot measuring 30 degrees forward or back before colors started to wash out or invert. Horizontal view angles were much better, showing minimal color distortion at steep angles.

The speakers are located on the front edge of the palmrest and sound more than adequate for playing music or watching streaming video. Sound quality isn't the best compared to other notebooks of this size with a tinny sound that lacks bass. Headphones would be a good accessory for this notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is easy to type on, sharing the same comfortable and durable feel as my ThinkPad T60 keyboard and only differing in layout. Individual key action is smooth with no audible click when pressed. The keys are textured with a smooth matte finish, giving decent traction for typing ... unlike the glossy keyboards we are seeing on a greater number of notebooks these days. Keyboard support is excellent, barely a hint of flex on the main section of the keyboard. The newer 16:9 chassis on the G550 allowed Lenovo to add a numberpad to the keyboard, but they didn't change the support under that side of the keyboard frame. It doesn't appear to have much flex, but it has just enough to make a squeaking sound against the optical drive when press down. Media-related keys are limited to touch-sensitive mute and volume up/down buttons located above the keyboard.

Lenovo transitioned to a new touchpad on the G550, switching from the Synaptics model on the G530 to an ALPS pad. The ALPS pad doesn't have as quick of a refresh rate, so at times it feels like the pointer is lagging behind your finger. Another problem is the surface isn't as sensitive for users who like to use tap to click and tap to drag frequently. On the Synaptics pad it is easy to drag and lift off, while the ALPS models seem to need a strong tap at the end, otherwise it won't let go of the selected item and you keep dragging it around the screen. The touchpad buttons are similar to the old ones, with shallow feedback and giving off a positive "click" when pressed.

Ports and Features
Although the G550 is now larger than the G530, Lenovo still managed to decrease the amount of ports available. The ExpressCard slot is missing, USB ports are down from four to three, and the modem jack is gone. I can see no other reason besides cutting costs for such a loss of features.

Front: Wireless on/off, audio jacks

Rear: Screen hinge

Left: Kensington Lock slot, LAN, VGA, two USB

Right: one USB, optical drive, AC power

Performance and Benchmarks
The Lenovo G550 works very well as a desktop replacement notebook, handling most tasks with ease. The target market for this notebook includes small businesses, students, or home users looking for a basic machine. The G550 has no problems surfing the web, playing SD or HD movies, or playing the occasional 2D game like Peggle. Compared to the older G530, Lenovo switched from using DDR2 memory in favor of DDR3 which is faster and now becoming cheaper. In theory this change could have meant greater performance, but we didn't see any significant change. Both PCMark05 and 3DMark06 dropped, while wPrime saw a small boost in speed.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Lenovo T500 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	27.471s
HP EliteBook 8530w (Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz)	30.919s
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz)	32.275s
HP ProBook 4510s (Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 @2.1GHz)	36.583s
Lenovo G550 (Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 @ 2.00GHz)	38.172s
Lenovo G530 (Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 @ 2.16GHz)	38.470s
Dell Vostro 1510 (Intel Core 2 Duo T5670 @ 1.8GHz)	51.875s

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3650 256MB GDDR3)	7,050 PCMarks
HP EliteBook 8530w (2.53GHz Intel T9400, Nvidia Quadro FX 770M 512MB)	6,287 PCMarks
Lenovo T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, Intel X4500)	5,689 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (2.4GHz Intel P8600, Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB)	5,390 PCMarks
HP ProBook 4510s (2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570, Intel 4500MHD)	4,192 PCMarks
Lenovo G530 (2.16GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	4,110 PCMarks
Lenovo G550 (2.00GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	3,964 PCMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	3,568 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP EliteBook 8530w (2.53GHz Intel T9400, Nvidia Quadro FX 770M 512MB)	5,230 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3650 256MB GDDR3)	4,371 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 (2.4GHz Intel P8600, Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB)	2,242 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (2.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, Intel X4500)	809 3DMarks
HP ProBook 4510s (2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6570, Intel 4500MHD)	748 3DMarks
Lenovo G530 (2.16GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	730 3DMarks
Lenovo G550 (2.00GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	716 3DMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	519 3DMarks

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the G550 is very good thanks to the large chassis, slower processor, and integrated graphics. Under stress the system controlled temperatures very well, and under normal loads the bottom of the notebook and palmrests stayed cool to the touch. Fan noise was minimal, with it staying off under light system loads, and going just above a whisper under intensive use. The one hotspot that stood out on the G550 was the panel beneath the hard drive that warmed up considerably if you were stressing the disk. The temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

Battery
The new Lenovo G550 uses a slightly smaller battery than the G530, but with a more efficient processor it consumes less power and gets longer runtimes. The G550 stayed running for 4 hours and 18 minutes in our tests with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, Vista on the "Balanced" power profile, and wireless active. This is better than the original 3 hours and 29 minutes the G530 managed with a larger battery. While I hate to see the battery capacity decrease, at least the efficiency made up for it and gave us a net gain in battery life.

Conclusion
The Lenovo G550 is a very solid and durable notebook, but now is missing some of the features that were standard on the previous revision. From what could only be considered cost-cutting measures, Lenovo took away one USB port, removed the ExpressCard slot, and moved to an ALPS touchpad. These types of changes might not look as bad if the retail price also dropped, but it is selling for the same price as (if not slightly more than) the previous model. I would still gladly take this model over a lot of the small-business targeted notebooks on the market, but it is just a shame that it is no longer as nice as it once was.

Pros:

• Almost tough enough to stand on
• Textured interior and exterior finish hides smudges and fingerprints
• Comfortable and solid keyboard

Cons:

• Missing features from previous revision

READ MORE - Lenovo G550

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Touch

Multi-touch functionality is one of the newest features being added to notebooks and tablets alike. Currently only tablets offer screen manipulation of objects, whereas notebooks get limited multi-touch through touchpads. Lenovo is hoping to change this, by adding screen multi-touch capabilities to the thin and light Lenovo ThinkPad T400s. For an additional $400 over the base T400s, users get a touchscreen panel, albeit a non-pivoting one. In this review we take a look at the new T400s Touch with Windows 7, and see if we actually find an increase in our productivity.

Our Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Touch specifications:

• Windows 7 Professional
• 1440 x 900 WXGA+ with MultiTouch LED Backlit (Matte finish)
• Intel Core 2 Duo SP9600 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 2)
• 128GB Toshiba SSD
• DVD+/-RW
• Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.0
• Intel X4500M Integrated
• Built-in web camera
• 6-cell 11.1v 44Wh
• Dimensions: (LxWxH) 13.27 x 9.49 x 0.83"
• Weight: 4lbs 6.9oz
• Retail Price: $1,999 Starting

Build and Design

The new ThinkPad T400s looks completely revamped and polished compared to the regular T400. The chassis has slimmed down significantly, and the weight of the notebook has also dropped by almost a pound. The exterior is still wrapped in Lenovo's much-loved rubberized black paint, but the design just looks cleaner and less busy than previous ThinkPad models.

Looking inside, the main changes start to become obvious. Besides the new keyboard and touchpad that we will go over shortly, Lenovo changed the shape of the palmrest around the touchpad, with the touchpad resting flush with the palmrest instead of being slightly recessed. The screen bezel is smooth all around the perimeter of the display, unlike the T400 which shows rough plastic grids near the built-in antennas and cutouts near the light and webcam. Even when compared to the ThinkPad X301, the new T400s looks more refined. The speaker grills are larger and look better suited to the design. Even the fingerprint reader manages to blend in better, with an all-black design instead of gold and silver like past models.

Build quality is still fantastic, with barely a hint of chassis flex even as it has decreased in thickness. The screen has some minor side-to-side flex when open, but no more than previous models. Protection for the screen, even with the super thin cover is surprisingly good, showing only small amounts of screen distortion when you are squeezing the back of the display. The new chassis feels quite rugged.

With the thinner design Lenovo completely reworked the chassis for the T400s, and it looks completely different than the T400 once you start opening it up. The hard drive is now accessed through a panel under the left side of the palmrest, which is now 1.8" instead of the 2.5" found in the T400. System memory and wireless cards are found under a single access panel on the bottom of the notebook. Compared to removing the palmrest on previous models, you now just loosen one screw and pop off a single panel to upgrade memory. With most of the slots changing location to the underside of the notebook, removing the keyboard is now only required to replace a broken one, or to get access to a half-sized mini-PCIe slot used for Wireless USB on some models. I really hope future ThinkPads follow a similar design to the T400s, since it is so much easier to upgrade components now.

Screen and Speakers

The T400s Touch uses a similar panel as the regular T400s, but with a touch surface added to the display. Everest indicates the panel part number as a Samsung made LT141DEQ8B00, with an N-Trig multitouch device. Just like the regular T400s, the screen has a WGXA+ resolution and is LED-backlit. Overall the screen looks nearly identical, but with one downside that is shared with nearly all touchscreens. Touch panels appear to have a hazy layer over the screen, although on the T400s it is not as apparent. Users who have never seen a notebook and tablet side-by-side might not notice this difference, but if you are coming from a regular notebook you may be slightly annoyed. Color and contrast are good compared to business notebooks, but it might seem washed out next to the latest and greatest glossy consumer-notebook display. Backlight levels are strong, with my preferred setting being 50-60% at my home and about 75% at the office that has brighter overhead lighting. Backlight bleed is minimal, only barely coming through at the highest brightness levels.

The touch surface is a unique feature for a notebook. On one hand you can directly manipulate objects without a mouse or touchpad, but on the other you have a fixed screen that can't rotate like a tablet. Another inherent flaw of multitouch is that since it uses your finger as the pointer, it will never be as precise or accurate as a pen-input touch surface. This means that the controls are crude at best, using gesture or tap-based commands. In this area the multitouch screen works great. Scrolling around websites is easy with one finger, although sometimes the screen detects two inputs and starts to zoom the page. While drawing circles, we noticed some issues with our preproduction screen, where certain parts of the panel would get jittery, instead of showing smooth lines. As our model has a very early panel in it, it would be safe to say production models wouldn't have this problem.

Lenovo included new software to take advantage of the multi-touch features, with the primary one being Simple Tap. This application gives the user direct access to basic system features like volume and camera controls, wireless devices, and screen brightness. Each control is given its own tile, and you can add application shortcuts to the list if you want. Simply tapping the screen with two fingers brings up the tiles on top of any window.

Speaker performance was lackluster, but that is common on most business notebooks. They work well for streaming audio or having a VOIP chat, but for movies and entertainment the headphone jack is a much better alternative.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Yes, Lenovo significantly changed the look, feel, and layout of the keyboard on the T400s. After you pick yourself up off the floor from fainting, you will quickly see most of the changes are for the better. The feel of the keys remains mostly untouched from past models ... outside of the fact that the spacebar seems to click loudly if you press it on the edges. The biggest change comes with a redesigned function key section, offering larger "escape" and "delete" keys. Through in-depth research Lenovo found that those two keys were used more than other function keys. As a result they doubled the height, and moved the position of the insert key and F1 key.

I think the coolest difference is the new media buttons and power button. The power switch and mute keys light up when activated, so instead of the power icon showing up on the bottom edge of your screen, the button itself is the indicator. The caps lock button now features a translucent window with an LED that lights up to indicate the caps lock is turned on. One thing that is missing is an AC and battery indicator light facing you with the screen open, as they are now external only.

The T400s offers one feature I have yet to see on any other notebook to date: a speaker AND microphone mute button. While I am not sure how often I personally need to turn off my microphone, if you videoconference or use Skype frequently then a quickly accessed mute button would come in handy. Another minor change is the key tolerances have decreased, meaning there is less room for crumbs or dust to fall in-between keys.

The new touchpad is different, but I am having a hard time figuring out if that is a good or bad thing. The old design used a slightly rough matte plastic finish, which gave some traction and made it easy to move your finger around even if sweaty. The new design has a raised dimple finish with a softer texture that feels strange. I found myself increasing the sensitivity in the Synaptics control panel to make movement feel more fluid, but then found it too sensitive. It seems that you need to apply consistent pressure when moving over the new touchpad, where before it was easy to flick your finger across. I think if the bumpy surface was glossy or more slick I might enjoy it more.

Another change is the shape and size of the trackpad buttons. The buttons have a radius contour that goes through the buttons to the edges where they meet the palmrest. From a design standpoint they flow better with the notebook than previous attempts, and it is even easier to access them from the touchpad now.

Ports and Features

Port selection on the T400s has been greatly improved over the T400 model. New to the back of the T400s is an eSATA port for storage expansion and DisplayPort out, giving you digital video from the notebook itself. Just like the T400 it has three USB ports, one through a combo USB/eSATA port. Lenovo has kept the VGA port for legacy connections, since it is still used frequently for projectors. With the decrease in thickness the T400s lost its dual card slots, only keeping an ExpressCard/34 slot. The T400s offers a docking station connector on the bottom, but it is a new design that is incompatible with older models. The last big change came with the T60, and I can just hope that this docking station format stays the same for a few notebook generations to come.

Performance

The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Touch is the first "official" Windows 7 notebook we have had in for review. This means it has all the proper manufacturer drivers, and the newest Windows 7 designed utilities. On most review notebooks we have personally upgraded to Windows 7, we have seen decent performance bumps, but this was not the case with the T400s. From the first review the only items that have changed are the OS, new touchscreen, SSD from a different manufacturer, and RAM, which is now double at 4GB. All aspects of day-to-day performance seem very snappy, including boot times, application load times, and HD movie playing. When we went to test its synthetic performance we noticed a pretty drastic hit to PCMark05 and a slightly smaller hit to wPrime. 3DMark06 was the only benchmark that actually increased. Some of this may be driver related, since technically Windows 7 hasn't officially launched, but it still goes against what we have seen on other computers. Another possibility is the touch surface is polling for gestures, and taking up precious CPU cycles. The average user would probably never notice this, as we can't actually see any performance drop in day-to-day use.

wPrime Processor Performance Benchmark (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 Overall Performance Benchmark (higher scores mean better performance):

Synthetic Gaming Performance using 3DMark06 (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune Hard Drive Performance Benchmark:

Heat and Noise

We found the T400s Touch ran slightly warmer than the standard T400s in our tests. While both notebooks showed the same heat zones, the T400s Touch was about 3-4 degrees warmer in each area. Some of this could be related to room temperature, or it could be related to certain components being able to run hotter or faster under Windows 7 while under a moderate load. Overall nothing ran too hot to be non-lap-friendly, but it was a surprising find. Fan noise was similar to the standard T400s, staying off for most of time, only coming on while benchmarking or small bursts to cool internal components. External temperatures listed below are shown in degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life

Battery life was somewhat of a surprise with the T400s Touch. Even with the added power consumption of the touch interface, it still managed to get better battery life than the non-touch version. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and the system on the Balanced profile, it managed 6 hours and 19 minutes. The standard T400s only managed 5 hours and 48 minutes under similar conditions. This might be one area where Windows 7 shines, with less background processes or more efficient use of the processor. Both of these times are much less than the T400 with an extended battery though, almost reaching 10 hours with its 9-cell extended battery.

Conclusion

The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Touch is a very cool idea, bringing a touch interface to a standard notebook. It gives users the capability to interact with the computer on a much more natural level and has huge potential for CAD applications or even messing around while surfing the web. The only problem right now that I see is that it was added to an already expensive model, putting it well out of reach for most users. Adding it on the base T400, which starts $749, instead of the T400s which starts at $1,599 would have been the better choice. Besides some preproduction quirks we saw it was a good implementation that didn't even affect battery life. If you are looking at the T400s currently, and could expand the budget by $400, it might be worth adding to the notebook for future uses.

Pros:

• First regular notebook to offer multitouch
• No battery hit from the touch surface

Cons:

• Software supporting full multi-touch controls is still limited
• Expensive upgrade to gain touch controls

READ MORE - Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Touch

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet

To compete in the tablet market, Lenovo offers a touch-screen and Wacom-enabled version of its 12-inch ThinkPad X200. Lenovo has a standard Wacom-enabled X200, as well as a two-finger multi-touch version for a $125 upgrade. With a starting retail price of $1,909, it is priced almost $500 under the Dell Latitude XT2, which is its primary competitor. In this review we put the standard and touch-enabled ThinkPad X200 Tablet head to head, to see how well they perform in ours tests.

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet with Multitouch Specifications:

• Windows 7 Professional
• 1280 x 800 WXGA with MultiTouch and Wacom LED Backlit (Matte finish)
• Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 (2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 2)
• 160GB Seagate 7200.2 Hard Drive
• Intel 5300AGN, Bluetooth 2.0, AT&T WWAN
• Intel X4500M Integrated
• Built-in web camera
• 8-cell 11.1v 66.2Wh
• Dimensions: (LxWxH) 11.6 x 10.1 x 1.04-1.31"
• Weight: 4lbs 3.9oz
• Retail Price: $2,579 ($2,199 Street)

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet Specifications:

• Windows 7 Professional
• 1280 x 800 WXGA Sunlight Readable with Wacom LED Backlit (Glossy, Anti-glare)
• Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 (2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• 2GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 1) (Benchmarked with 4GB)
• 160GB Seagate 7200.3 Hard Drive
• Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.0
• Intel X4500M Integrated
• Built-in web camera
• 8-cell 11.1v 66.2Wh
• Dimensions: (LxWxH) 11.6 x 10.1 x 1.04-1.31"
• Weight: 4lbs 1oz
• Retail Price: $2,464 ($2,084 Street)

Build and Design
The design of the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet is all about business, with no superfluous frills. The color scheme revolves around black, with the screen lid and bottom painted with a rubberized black paint and with the inside being lightly textured black plastic. Following the trend of function over form, Lenovo includes an externally mounted WWAN antenna, palmrest rubber bumpers for when the screen is in the slate position, and quick access buttons along the lower edge of the screen. From tech-geek standpoint it is also nice to see that Lenovo didn't hold anything back when they planned the port layout, using all available space for ports, expansion slots, and internal component access. On the bottom the design is fairly busy, with two access panels for the hard drive and system memory, as well as numerous rubber bumpers for a solid grip on flat surfaces.

Build quality is excellent, with a great match of a sturdy magnesium chassis and durable plastic panels. Chassis flex isn't present anywhere, feeling solid in your arms in its slate position or sitting like a notebook on your desk. Keyboard support is very good, with only a small amount of movement on the right side of the keyboard above the hard drive bay. This wasn't noticed unless you really squeezed it in that spot. The upper half of the notebook feels very strong, which is important for any tablet that might be gripped along the screen edge. The plastic bezel feels firm under a tight grip and even under strong pressure doesn't transmit any force into the screen edge, which can cause color distortion.

A potential weakness of any tablet is the single pivoting hinge design, which also happens to be one of the first components we look at when we review any convertible tablet. Lenovo uses a 360-degree pivot mechanism on the X200 Tablet, which allows you to spin the screen in either direction. To go along with this feature, they also provide a visual indication of which direction you need to spin the screen to get it back to its default orientation. The hinge itself feels durable, with firm locking points in each of the three positions. When it is tilting the screen forward or back, it feels as strong as a standard notebook. When fully open it has some slight wiggle, which seems more like flex near the attachment point then play in the clutched hinge.

The X200 Tablet offers easy access to the hard drive and system memory through two access panels. The large panel on the bottom of the X200 exposes the two RAM slots, while the thinner access panel on the edge lets you slide out the hard drive.

Screen and Speakers
Lenovo uses an In-plane Switching display (IPS) in all versions of the X200 Tablet, but incorporates a different covering and backlighting method for each version. IPS displays are renowned for their color accuracy and superior viewing angles, which is a must if you are viewing the screen from many viewing angles. In the two models we reviewed, each showed the identical screen part number, but looked vastly different when put side by side. The touch-sensitive layer put over tablet screens almost always gives the display a hazy look, but this was the first time we saw both versions side by side. Below in the screen comparisons shots, the model on the left is the standard X200 Tablet, while the one on the right is the multitouch version.

The multitouch version looks faded and dimmer, even when both displays are set to the exact same brightness. One thing that becomes very clear is the non-touch X200 Tablet has one of the best screens we have seen in our office since the Flexview-era Thinkpads. Color saturation is excellent, contrast is through the roof, and black levels are excellent. Compared to my T60 with an IPS panel and CCFL lighting, the newer LED-backlit X200 display is much brighter and visible outdoors in full sunlight. Another interesting feature is the glossy but anti-glare surface. This display has a special coating which significantly reduces the amount of reflection you see. The only way we even saw anything reflected back at us was to tilt the screen back completely and get one of the overhead lights to bounce off of it. I personally wish other manufactures tried to do something similar. Viewing angles are nearly perfect, with colors staying accurate to the steepest angles. The only thing that changes is outside of the 10-15 degree "sweet spot" you can notice the screen dim slightly; other than that it looks perfect.

The Wacom support on each X200 Tablet was very good, with high accuracy once the pen was calibrated. Out of the box each model was pretty good, with a 2-3mm deviance from directly under the tip of the pen. Each screen surface was smooth to move a pen across, but the finish on the touch-screen model seemed to edge the glossy one out. For drawing or direct manipulation of objects on the screen the Wacom screens are very hard to beat. For slightly less accurate, but easier to use input, the touch-screen model offers excellent two-finger multitouch support. Finger presses were recognized quickly, with no lag or forceful press needed. I wish the screen supported more fingers like the T400s, but with the Wacom support included on both models, I can't complain much.

The onboard speakers are lap-firing, mounted directly below the palmrest. When situated on a flat desk surface they sound clear but very tinny. For video-conferencing or VOIP needs they work very well, but are lackluster for music and video. If you plan on using this tablet for multimedia, a pair of headphones is highly recommended.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The ThinkPad keyboard really deserves its own class when it comes to comfortable and durable business-grade keyboards. The X200 Tablet continues this trend with a full-size keyboard that is great to type on. The 12" widescreen size allows for a 100% size keyboard, no exceptions. Keyboard support is very good, with only one minor soft spot noticed on the right side above the hard drive bay. Under normal typing you would never notice the spot, but if you grip the tablet from that side you notice some give in that area. Individual key action is springy and precise, with great tactile feedback. Each key gives off a very mild click when pressed, which may get louder if you are a very forceful typer. Overall if you can get past the rather short palmrest, it is a very comfortable computer to use when typing.

Since this model has very little real estate south of the keyboard Lenovo went with a pointing stick only, just like the X-series models before it. If you have never used a pointing stick before it takes a bit to get used to, but once you get the nack of it is a very precise way to control the cursor. Sensitivity is great, with a wide range of adjustment possible in the driver menus. On occasion the mouse might move on its own for a few millimeters before it auto-adjusts on occasion, but that is fairly common with most pointing sticks on the market. As with notebooks with touchpads, you are still free to use an external mouse if you chose to go with an alternative input device.

Ports and Features
Port selection is very good when compared to other notebooks and tablets in the same size range. The X200 Tablet offers three USB ports, VGA-out, LAN, modem, and audio in/out jacks. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/54 slot and 5-in-1 SD-card reader. When compared to the Dell Latitude XT2, the only features missing are a FireWire port and eSATA connection. For additional ports as well as an optical this model also offers a docking station connection on the bottom.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance was excellent on both models we tested, and since the scores were nearly identical, we merged both of the results. Compared to the Dell XT2 with its 1.8" hard drive, the X200 Tablets offers a standard 2.5" drive that helps to keep system lag to a minimum. Going with the faster hard drives, Lenovo also offers faster processor options. New to the Windows 7 versions of the X200 is the the 2.16GHz Intel SL9600 processor. Compared to the 1.4GHz SU9400 processor offered in the XT2, the SL9600 provides much greater speeds with little impact to battery life. In our tests the X200 Tablet was able to easy cope with 720P and 1080P HD movie decoding, and even handle some older video games such as Half-Life 2 with some settings tweaking. Synthetic benchmarks also showed that system performance was on par with the 2.4GHz P8600 equipped X200 notebook. For users looking for a mobile workhorse, the X200 Tablet seems to be a great option.

wPrime Processor Performance Benchmark (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 Overall Performance Benchmark (higher scores mean better performance):

Synthetic Gaming Performance using 3DMark06 (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune Hard Drive Performance Benchmark:

Heat and Noise
During our tests we found the X200 Tablet to run fairly cool and quiet. Fan noise during our tests was minimal, with the fan staying at below whisper level under stressful activity. Under normal use the fan stayed off for the most part, only coming on in short bursts to bring air through the chassis. The cooling system seemed to handle system temperatures very well, keeping the chassis cool to the touch even after the system was on for most of the morning. The external temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life
Battery life was very good on each system, but the non-touchscreen version of the X200 Tablet was able to take a big lead in this department. Both models were equipped with the 66Wh 8-cell battery, which extends out the back on the X200 chassis. A smaller 4-cell battery option is available, but I don't see why anyone would want that besides for aesthetics. On the standard X200 Tablet with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 on a dynamically-switching power profile, it got 8 hours and 48 minutes of runtime. Average power consumption during the test was between 6.5 and 7 watts. The touchscreen version didn't do as well in this test, getting only 5 hours and 32 minutes of runtime, while consuming between 10-12 watts of power.

Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablets we reviewed performed very well in almost all categories. Battery life was excellent with the 8-cell battery, reaching 8 hours and 48 minutes on the sunlight readable version, and 5 hours and 32 minutes on the touchscreen model. Screen quality on both models was phenomenal, with the sunlight readable display being one of the best screens we have ever seen in our office. Not only was it useable outdoors, but color saturation was high and viewing angles were perfect thanks to the IPS panel.

Overall performance was very good on both models, with little impact to battery life or system temperatures. Considering the low starting price compared to the Dell XT2, the ThinkPad X200 Tablets are a clear winner. For its amazing screen, great build quality, and excellent battery life we are also awarding the outdoor viewable X200 Tablet with our Editor's Choice award.

Pros:

• Beautiful IPS displays
• Good performance
• Excellent battery life

Cons:

• Touchscreen display doesn't look as good as non-touchscreen model
• Only two-finger multitouch support

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