By Aaron Tan

THE ThinkPads have a new baby - a small one.

Lenovo says the ThinkPad X100e is its first entry-grade ultraportable, even though on some counts, it can take on some netbooks.

For one thing, the X100e has an 11.6-inch display, 2GB of DDR2 memory and an AMD Neo MV40 1.6Ghz processor that competes with Intel's Atom chips usually found in netbooks.

With a score of 1,344 in the PCMark Vantage computing test suite, the machine's performance is on par with most netbooks, which typically score under 1,500 PCMarks.

Like other netbooks, this new ThinkPad member also struggled with high-definition (HD) videos, even though it comes with an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip.

An HD movie trailer of the box-office hit Avatar was rendered choppily with dropped frames even when the Chrome Web browser was the only application running.

While its performance does not leave you breathless, Lenovo makes up for it by retaining trademark ThinkPad features that have endeared this series to business users.

These include the ThinkPad's signature red TrackPoint for controlling the cursor and a solid build that can withstand knocks.

For the first time, Lenovo has opted for an island-style keyboard with raised keys that provide more space between keystrokes.

The gizmo's display has a matte surface, which means it is easier to read text in bright sunlight as opposed to a glossy screen.

Onscreen text appeared sharp and photos looked vibrant, though with a stronger tinge of blue compared to other notebooks.

This baby has just enough connectivity options for quick computing on the move. In all, there are three USB ports, a memory card reader and wired network port.

Oodles of software tools give business executives the needed protection for corporate data.

Its suite of ThinkVantage tools includes a password manager, system recovery software and even a data shredding tool that removes files once and for all.

In addition, Lenovo's Active Protection System, much like a car's airbag sensors, detects sudden changes in motion and will temporarily stop the hard drive to protect your data.

To test this claim, I shook the gizmo a few times. The installed copy of Windows 7 Professional did not stall and worked very well.

For a spot of fun, the gizmo is good for gaming. But stick to Web-based ones as it will not let you play graphics-intensive titles.

Battery life was not spectacular - about 3.5 hours from a six-cell battery that powered tasks like streaming movie trailers, reading online news and working on this review in Google Docs.

Apart from black, it also comes in red to set you apart from other notebook-toting corporate types.

Final say

You are paying more for the ThinkPad's reliability and business features.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.