Lenovo X200 Review

As we found within our screening inside the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Multi-Touch, the superior touch-screen capabilities built in to the microsof company house windows 7 working method undoubtedly are a welcome comfort within of a conventional clamshell notebook. But touch is completely vital within of a tablet, so we experienced been eager to acquire our arms inside the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet Multi-Touch. Its new-generation panel and handy Lenovo SimpleTap power make an at current fabulous tablet even better. Of course, using a price tag hovering near to $2,000, the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch might not do very much to deliver tablets toward the masses. But for area workers, insurance coverage and real-estate agents, health care professionals, as well as common institution end users who favor a full-featured convertible tablet, the X200 Multi-Touch delivers.

Except for the inclusion inside the multi-touch display option, the program is tiny altered away from your updated ThinkPad X200 Tablet we reviewed about a twelve weeks ago—and thinking about it absolutely was (and remains) our favored tablet, which is a fabulous thing. Wrapped inside the common matte-black ThinkPad cloak, the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch weighs a acceptable 3.6 pounds (though be aware that it is half a pound heavier and slightly bigger compared to non-tablet ThinkPad X200 ultraportable). Other attributes stay the same, away from your impeccable (and really peckable) ThinkPad keyboard toward the insufficient an onboard optical drive—a typical, although not universal, omission on this class.

To accommodate tablet mode, the optional fingerprint reader have been moved toward the display bezel. Buttons inside the bezel allow you change the display orientation, collectively with available an onscreen menu to change end users or lock the computer. additional buttons available a quick-access menu for tablet and pen settings, brightness, volume, and so on. But with Lenovo's inclusion of its SimpleTap utility, several of all those buttons’ capabilities have come going to be superfluous.

You deliver up SimpleTap by tapping over a movable red-colored circle that docks on the borders inside the screen, or by tapping two fingers anyplace inside the display. SimpleTap opens a floating pallete of semi-transparent tiles for executing tasks. By default, SimpleTap consists of tiles for quantity control, turning the Webcam on or off, locking the personal computer or placing it to sleep, and adjusting display brightness.

Adding your personal customized tiles toward the SimpleTap dock is really easy. Just tap the “+” icon inside the utility’s menu, find no issue whether you choose the brand new tile to begin an ask for or available a internet page, show the plan or URL to come going to be attached using the tile, and choose a color for the tile background. The power even lets you find no issue whether to take advantage of the associated program’s default icon or one of your personal inside the button. Click OK, as well as the icon receives additional toward the pallete of tiles.




The exclusive Lenovo SimpleTap power would make good use inside the touch display abilities, letting you swiftly control display brightness, method volume, and more. You may include your personal Tiles to begin apps or URLs.

While you cannot however create a tile to available a specific file, Lenovo says that it is pondering about adding that element within of a long-term release. SimpleTap can be on the marketplace for obtain on the accomplish of October and will come about preloaded on compatible ThinkPads over the accomplish of 2009. For all those new to touch screens, house windows 7 consists of a assortment of fixture titles utilities to help end users understand to navigate by touch, most notably surface area Collage, which encourages that you flick a bunch of pictures onto the display and resize, rotate, and overlay them.

As using the X200 Tablet, the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch accepts each finger and pen input. using the brand new touch screen, we found finger control could be the method to decide on navigating Windows. The panel is really good at discerning our wanted actions—even when our pudgy fingers overlapped adjacent buttons, along the lines of when making utilization of the icons inside the upper right corner of the window to near or decrease an application. The panel do occasionally fail to register a fast tap, but in general, making utilization of the touch display was a pleasure, as well as the screen’s coating stayed surprisingly smudge-free. Do note, however, the fact that display inside the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch facilitates input from only as very much as two fingers at a time, not the four-finger help inside the T400s Multi-Touch.


The X200 Tablet Multi-Touch's display facilitates two-finger gestures, along the lines of pivoting two fingers to rotate or pinching fingers to shrink an object.

For capturing notes, of course, pen input could be considered a must. The X200 Tablet Multi-Touch consists of a pen-size stylus that could be saved within of a slot inside the element inside the unit. although the pen is at ease enough, as much as styluses go, an instrument using a whole great offer more heft would really feel much better inside the hand. once the pen arrives within 25mm inside the tablet surface, the productive digitizer instantly disables the finger-touch sensitivity. This keeps the provides from incorrectly interpreting your stray touches when you purpose using the pen.


For a whole great offer more precise input, along the lines of adding notes to documents, the X200 Tablet's display also facilitates stylus input.

Most important, the screen’s digitizer is amid probably the most invisible we’ve seen. On some tablets, the overlay lends a screen-door effect toward the panel, but not here. The 12.1-inch LED-backlit panel carries a comparable look as any display with an antiglare coating, as well as the 1,280x800 resolution would make for at ease viewing over a display this size.

Standard ports and slots consist of three USB ports; VGA and Ethernet ports; an ExpressCard slot; a five-format memory-card reader; headphone and microphone jacks; as well as a security-lock opening. Lenovo equips the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch with every and every wireless engineering below the sun, which include 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, WiMAX, wireless USB, Bluetooth, as well as GPS. Also, you can spend additional for all those that need to outfit the X200 Tablet Multi-Touch with cell broadband service.

The X200 Tablet Multi-Touch we attempted arrived using the 1.86GHz Intel middle a few of Duo SL9400 processor. This ultra-low-voltage CPU sacrifices some efficacy in comparison with other processors, however the machine’s supporting hardware, which complies with Intel's Centrino a few of platform, even now delivers decent efficiency efficacy for this class. That was demonstrated over the unit's worthy rating of 3,105 on Futuremark's PCMark Vantage benchmark suite. It also handled our Cinebench 10 look at really well, ringing up a rating of 3,867. It managed to convert our 11 iTunes data files within of a speedy 5 mins and 9 seconds and complete our house windows advertising Encoder look at within of a fast 7 mins and 57 seconds. The 3D-graphics ability inside the built-in Intel X4500 HD chipset was also respectable, using a 3DMark06 rating of 838 on the tablet's native resolution of 1,280x800.

The miserly processor also assisted the provides provide really good battery existence from its eight-cell energy pack: It ran for three several hours and 5 mins on our demanding DVD-rundown test. (For the test, we employed the optical generate on Lenovo's UltraBase expansion unit, which snaps onto the bottom inside the system. It's a $159 option not integrated inside the price tag of our look at configuration.)

For all those that can devote closer to $2,500, Lenovo can configure this X200 with all method of cutting-edge features. An optional 128GB stable think generate (a $380 upgrade) offers a lot quicker efficacy than a conventional difficult drive, collectively with crash-proof reliability perfect for path warriors. Our top reservation is using the insufficient the touch pad. Admittedly, that's a issue of personal preference, but thinking about the fact that touch display is so good, that is much less of an issue. Otherwise, for all those that need a tablet which is at ease to preserve and potent enough to come going to be your only institution computer, the ThinkPad X200 Tablet Multi-Touch could be the method to go.

Lenovo X200 Review