After successfully entering the netbook fray with the IdeaPad S10 and S12 little over a year ago, Lenovo is unveiling new range of ultraportable laptops aimed at business users on a budget. Expanding its longstanding ThinkPad series, the ThinkPad X100e packs an 11.6-inch display and AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, while new ThinkPad Edge models will come in a variety of sizes and with prices below the $800 mark.


The X100e will support up to 320GB of hard drive storage, up to 4GB of memory, and include ATI Radeon 3200 integrated graphics. Its classic black chassis with the ThinkPad logo can easily be mistaken for the ThinkPad X200 series, but you'll notice some differences when opening the lid -- specifically with the island-style keyboard and the inclusion of a touchpad in addition to the signature Trackpoint pointing stick.

The feature set is decent but not great. It comes with three USB ports, VGA-out, a 4-in-1 media card reader, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11n Wi-Fi and optional Bluetooth and 3G connectivity. The ThinkPad X100e will offer around two hours of runtime life on a three-cell battery, and five hours on a six-cell battery.


As for Lenovo's new ThinkPad Edge series, it is a blend of IdeaPad and ThinkPad laptops. Offered in 13-inch, 14-inch and 15-inch display screen sizes, they will include AMD's single-core and dual-core Athlon Neo and Turion Neo processors, longer battery life and several unspecified "Windows 7 optimizations."

Spec-wise it shares many similarities with ThinkPad X100e, but Lenovo also offers the option of Intel's ultra low voltage Core 2 Duo and other Intel dual-core chips -- boosting battery life up to eight hours. Other features include built-in low-light sensitive camera, HDMI out, and optional WiMAX. Prices range from around $500 to $800 but only the 13.3-inch screen model is available for now.