Lenovo Makes X300 Official

Following weeks of speculation about Lenovo’s alleged MacBook-Air killer, the company has finally given the ThinkPad X300 a green light.

Although rumors about Lenovo’s X300 ultra-light notebook began circulating only days after the announcement of Apple’s MacBook Air, the machine has remained in the ethereal realm of blogs and sneak previews without an official nod from Lenovo. On Tuesday, the Chinese manufacturer broke that silence by simultaneously announcing and launching the notebook officially through its online direct-order site.

As expected, the X300 ousts the Air by fractions of a pound in weight, hitting 2.93 lbs to the Air’s 3.0 lbs, and measures in at 0.73 inches thick at its thinnest point, making it slightly chunkier than the Air, which measures 0.76 inches at its thickest point. The X300 also gets a LED-backlit 13.3-inch display, along with low-power processors and drives, which together should allow it to hit 10 hours of battery life on its most miserly settings, compared to the Air’s five-hour claim.

Lenovo also brags about the X300’s integrated DVD burning drive, which its marketing claims is “hard to find in such a thin system” – a direct shot at the Air’s need for an external drive. The X300 also packs three USB 2.0 ports to the Air’s one. However, the X300 offers only one storage option: a 64GB solid-state drive, while the Air can optionally be equipped with a larger 80GB traditional drive.

The most basic X300 currently runs for $2,548 at a seemingly perpetual “sale price,” with $3,185 listed as its MSRP. Upgrading the system with its much-touted DVD burner adds an additional $180. The systems are currently available for order immediately.