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.