Lenovo's smallest notebook offering starts at $1,099
Lenovo is wasting no time in fleshing
out its 3000 Series notebooks. The company first burst onto the scene
in the North American market with the C100
Series notebooks and later expanded to the dual-core N100
Series. Lenovo is continuing the tradition of offering low cost
laptops with a full load of goodies with the "ultra portable"
V100
Series.
Although Lenovo calls the 12.1"
V100 an ultra portable, its dimensions and weight don't quite live up
to that billing. The V100 starts at 4 pounds and is 1.25" thick.
For comparison, Sony's VAIO TX and Panasonic's Toughbook W4 both
clock in at 2.8 pounds with an optical drive -- they can truly be
consider ultra portables. But while the offerings from Sony and
Panasonic may have a size and weight advantage over the V100, Lenovo
has both cornered on pricing. The V100 starts a very low $1,099 while
the other two competitors start at around $2,000.
$1,099 brings a 1.66GHz Core Duo
processor, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive and a CD-RW/DVD combo
drive to the table. Seeing as how this is a budget offering, you only
get integrated Intel GMA950 graphics to power the 1280x800 display.
Also included is an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG wireless card,
Bluetooth and a fingerprint reader. Here's Laptop
Logic for more on said fingerprint reader:
We also asked Lenovo about the
fingerprint reader here, since it is clearly of a different design
than those on Thinkpads. Interestingly, the fingerprint scanner on
Thinkpad models actually stores fingerprint profiles in a hardware
chip attached to the reader, allowing for true hardware level
security protection. The Ominpass setup on Lenovo notebooks has no
such feature, instead storing fingerprints in software. While this
method allows for the security of strong password protection, it is
not near as secure as the Client Security Solution (CSS) package in
Thinkpads. Accordingly, this fingerprint reader is designed more for
convenience than protection.
Despite the larger overall size
compared to true ultra portable notebooks on the market, one cannot
argue with Lenovo's aggressive pricing. For those looking to carry a
smallish notebook on the go and don't want to break the bank, the
V100 may be just the ticket.
"Nowadays you can buy a CPU cheaper than the CPU fan." -- Unnamed AMD executive
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