Lenovo, the company that bought IBM’s ThinkPad business last year, has developed an alternative brand of desktop PCs and laptops designed to “address the needs of small-business customers” at a cheaper starting price point than most ThinkPad models. The first two laptop offerings under the Lenovo 3000 umbrella include the superbudget C100 (starting at AU$1148.99) and the slightly higher-end N100 (starting at AU$1799).

Silver on the outside, dark grey on the inside, the C100 is less sleek and a bit boxier than the N100. Depending on how you configure it, the C100 weighs about 2.8kg and runs almost 280mm deep, slightly more than 330mm wide, and 38mm thick; its very small AC adapter brings the total weight to 3.1kg. Like the N100, it strides the line between thin-and-light and midsize; many laptops are around that are more portable than either of these Lenovo systems, but the C100 is light enough for occasional travel and movement around the home or the office.

Specs:

* Intel Pentium M 1.73GHz
* 512MB RAM
* 80GB 5400RPM hard drive
* 15-inch XGA screen
* Intel 2915abg (802.11 a/b/g) wi-fi card
* Ports:
o 3 USB
o 1 Firewire
o 1 S-Video
o VGA (Monitor out), Modem, Lan, Headphone/Mic connectors
o 1 PCMCIA with a SD card slot underneath
* Dimensions: 13.1 in x 10.9 in x 1.5 in (W x D x H)
* Weight: 6.4lbs
* Graphics: Intel GMA 900
* DVD+/-RW
* Warranty: 1-year

Review By pc.ibm

The Lenovo 3000 portfolio of desktop and notebook PCs complements Lenovo’s award-winning ThinkPad and ThinkCentre brands. ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops, along with ThinkVantage Technologies are flexible enough to help enterprises or small businesses manage their PCs.

The Lenovo 3000 line is designed especially for small businesses who do not have IT departments. Lenovo is providing the personal computers that help them focus on improving their business results, not on managing their PCs. All at attractive price points. It’s a new kind of computer for a new kind of world. From a new kind of company.

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Review By Laptopmag

This 1.3-inch-thick mainstream notebook is housed in a nondescript black plastic chassis with a silver lid and weighs 6.2 pounds. Fans of ThinkPad notebooks will be happy with Lenovo’s decision to carry over the legendary ThinkPad keyboard but may be disappointed by the lack of a trackpoint mouse pointer. Instead, the system utilizes a responsive two-button touchpad controller with four-way scrolling.

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Review By Pcmag

Lenovo is trying hard to distinguish the 3000 series from the ThinkPad series, and on looks alone it succeeds. Though you won’t find a “ThinkVantage” blue button, you do have access to “Lenovo Care,” a slimmed-down version of the ThinkVantage suite. You get the core components, such as Access Connections, Rescue and Recovery, and certain maintenance tasks. You don’t get the extras like Away Manager, Whisper mode, and Active Protection, however.

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Review By Trustedreviews

The left hand side of the chassis has a single USB 2.0 port, headphone output and microphone input. On the right hand side is a single PC Card slot and a three in one card reader. On the back there are another three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port for the 10/100Mbit network adapter and a FireWire port. There is a D-SUB output should you want to plug in an external monitor, as well as S-Video output for connecting to TVs. There’s no DVI in sight I’m afraid, but that’s not particularly unusua.

The optical drive is at the front of the casing and is only a 24x CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, so anyone wanting to burn DVDs will be disappointed. This machine is pitched more at being a secondary machine anyway, for those who have a DVD burner at home already - either that or most of the backup duties will be done over the company network.

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Review By Notebookreview

This laptop has been great for me during the past couple of weeks. Boot times are a fraction of my desktop, being at the Windows login screen in less than 15 seconds most of the time, and it keeps up with the desktop loading most programs. The laptop included 512MB of RAM, and this amount of memory seemed quite adequate for what this laptop would be used for. As it only has integrated graphics, a large amount of ram for gaming isn’t a concern, because you would have probably bought a different laptop if your goals were to play Half-Life 2 on the road.

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