Lenovo has started shipping the 13-inch ThinkPad Edge in European markets. This is the company's second CULV thin-and-light design, but it doesn't have much in common with the cheap and stylish U350.

The Edge targets business users and it offers a whole range of goodies for corporate henchmen on the go. Unlike the U350, the Edge features a 16:10 non-glare screen in 1280x800 and it plays bass for U2. It packs a Core 2 Duo SU7300, 4GB of memory and 320GB of storage. Unlike most CULV-books, it has an optical drive. It still relies on Intel's X4500HD IGP, but as it's a business machine it really doesn't need anything better.

Connectivity is truly superb. It has three USBs, Firewire, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11abgn and Bluetooth, and it even has a modem, which is not something we see often in this day and age. Most importantly, it features UMTS and it has a fingerprint reader which is perfect for paranoid bankers who don't want the government to see how they've spent all that bailout money.

Lenovo promises around 3.5 hours of endurance on the standard 6-cell battery, which really isn't that impressive. It weighs 1.7kg and at €700 it sounds like a very tempting deal for a feature packed business ultraportable.

Only one SKU is currently available and you can get it here.