Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Notebook Review

Pre-installed Software and Performance

Lenovo's ThinkVantage Toolbox is included with the X100e which acts as a hub for items like system health, security, performance, networking and diagnostics. The software is resourceful and easy to navigate but may not be for everyone.

The X100e also has a neat hard drive protection system. Dubbed Active Protection System, the software monitors for physical shock and disables the drive when excessive force is detected to prevent damage to the spinning internals. The software defaults at maximum sensitivity but you can lower this in the configuration tab or disable it completely.

As with the Edge, Lenovo also includes their Power Manager software that monitors battery levels and manages power profiles. I opted to uninstall this software and let Windows control the power options.

Lenovo includes provisions for creating backups, Rescue and Recovery 4.3, but without an optical drive, you are only able to save the backup directly to the hard drive. This can be moved to an external storage medium but I would like to have seen a physical recovery disc bundled as well. Lastly, the company also provides links to activate an AT&T or Verizon wireless mobile broadband account, should you elect to have the optional Integrated Mobile Broadband installed.

Below we have included a set of benchmark numbers and graphs from several tests that were run on the ThinkPad X100e to give you an idea of how its processor, hard drive and memory system perform under load.

Hardware:

• 11.6" display operating at 1366 x 768 resolution
• AMD Turion Neo X2 dual-core L625 (1.60GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
• x1 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory (2GB total)
• ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
• 250GB 5400 RPM Fujitsu hard drive

• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)