Lenovo X300...forget comparing to MacBook Air...what about the Lenovo X61s?

Full disclosure - I just got a Lenovo X61s, so I *may* be a little biased.

Yes, I'm jealous of the MacBook Air. Not that it's technically better. We all know it's not. That, as we also all know, is not the point. It is simply cooler. And from a "coolness factor" standpoint, it wins hands down. But that's about the only metric that the Air tops the charts at. If it came close to the others, it might be a winner, but woefully, it does not.

Now to the Lenovo X300. A very nice machine. However it seems that Lenovo, maker of excellent ThinkPads for years, is trying the same trick that Steve Jobs is famous for. Going for the top of the market with coolness as the main selling point. Unfortunately, Lenovo ain't as cool as Apple. Fortunately, they have a better offering right now. The X300 is faster, comes equipped with more standard features, and is more flexible than the MacBook Air. But you all know this from reading the millions of reviews in the cloud.

What you might not know, however, is that Lenovo has another offering, the X61s, which in my book may actually be better than either of these units. While there have been many head-head comparisons of the Air and the X300, I have not seen ANY comparisions between the X300 and the X61s. Not even Lenovo makes it easy to compare these two machines. Why is that? Could it be that the comparision might reveal that you are better off spending much less money on last year's computer? Let's see:

The X61s does NOT include an on-board optical drive. To some this might be a negative, but to me carrying around an optical drive is like carrying around a buggy-whip. Don't need it. When I do I use the UltraBase that I ordered with my X61s. It has an UltraBay, which allows me to hot-swap an optical drive, extra hard drive, or anything else I can slam in there. I never use an optical drive on the road (and I travel alot). So to me that's a big positive. Score 1 for the X61.

The X61s is very small and light. My guess is that its definitely smaller dimensionally than the X300, and probably nearly the same weight. But try to get the actual specs, and you'll find out that this is hard to come by!! But consider this: the X61s has a 12 in screen. The X300 has a 13.1 in screen. Score another 1 for the X61s.

Processing power. The X300 base configuration comes with a 1.2Ghz core 2 processor, and only 2GB RAM. The X61 can be configured with a 1.8Ghz dual-core and 4GB RAM for a lot less money! See below.

And here is the kicker. Lenovo is charging a whopping $2800 for the base X300. At the same time they have discounted X61 units to nearly HALF that amount! This includes the faster processor, more memory, and a blazing fast 7200RPM 120GB internal hard drive! Score and Game Over in my book.

Why isn't anyone talking about this? Cause the X61s is Not Cool. It has no "LED backlight". It does not have a "Wide Screen Form Factor" (4:3 aspect ratio only). And it is not billed as a "Macbook Air Killer"...and we all know, after all, that:

What Counts is Being Cool.

Right?