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From Business Week comes a longish article about Lenovo’s ultralight X300 ThinkPad laptop. There’s a picture on the top of the web version of the article that shows a disassembled version of the laptop. It’s the first Lenovo model to carry the ThinkPad brand name.

Weighing in at 3 pounds, the X300 fits inside an interoffice mail envelope and uses flash memory for file storage, just like the MacBook Air. Lenovo is a major sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games, and the company will supply hundreds of X300s to Olympic staff this summer.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall astreet Journal gave the X300 a glowing review. He’s been a big fan of Apple products for the last couple years. In fact, Mossberg’s biggest problem with the X300 is the Windows operating system. He notes that unlike the MacBook Air, the X300 has 3 USB ports, an RJ-45 jack, a DVD drive, and users can change and add their own batteries.

Designing a laptop computer is tricky work

Laptop computers are highly integrated devices that combine a battery, screen, input devices, and ports with the computer’s core hardware. The final product must withstand everyday use, as well as the occasional drop.

Corporate clients have very specific requests. For example, some companies want security features like power-on passwords, asset tags, and encrypted network cards. It’s much easier to engineer security into a product’s hardware than adding software or dongles after delivery.

Other companies are willing to sacrifice speed and features for rugged construction and reliability. Panasonic Toughbooks have become very popular with police departments and construction firms.

Give the people what they want

The average consumer tends to judge laptops on price, looks and entertainment features. Preinstalled software can dictate the purchase decision, especially the operating system. The ability to expand and maintain the computer is not an important consideration.

Anyone who uses a laptop as their home computer needs to use an external hard drive or a second computer to backup their data. At any moment, that laptop computer could be stolen or damaged. Read my 30 September 2006 article for some tips.

One example that I pointed out on 5 December 2006 is the slotless optical drive that Apple includes on its laptops. Acer and other companies have also put these drives in their laptops. They have no tray, so there’s nothing to use as a cupholder. But, if a user inserts a non-standard CD or DVD into a slotless drive, there is no safe or reliable way to remove the disc. The optical drive must be replaced at a service center.