Build and Design

The ThinkPad X201 carries the same delightfully-intimidating, ultra-portable business-notebook-on-steroids design as all the X-series notebooks before it. At first glance it looks like any other T-series notebook with a boxy frame and rubberized paint but much smaller. With the notebook open, you see that the design is as small as it can be without reducing the size of the keyboard. Keeping the large keyboard on the small frame does have consequences, however, such as a short palmrest that's too short to support most wrists with your fingers in their typing position. The X-series notebook is essentially the smallest ThinkPad that still allows Lenovo to incorporate a full-size keyboard in its design.



Build quality is great compared to many of the small netbooks and CULV notebooks that have hit the market in the past couple of years. Just like the larger T-series counterpart, the X201 retains the strong stainless-steel screen hinges, durable ThinkPad keyboard, strong plastic cladding, and alloy chassis. The thinner design does introduce some minor flex and the screen hinges feel "weaker" when scaled down but this is all relative. For a 12-inch notebook the X201 can easily be tossed around with little worry about it breaking ahead of schedule or wearing out before its useful life is up. Try to do the same thing with cheaper consumer competition and you won't like the results.

End-user servicing is still taken into consideration with easy memory and hard drive access. The X201 retains the side panel to quickly swap out the hard drive and the bottom cover to upgrade the system memory.



Tobe continues...!

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