Lenovo x120e, AMD Fusion Battery Life and the tablet wars

Lenovo x120e, AMD Fusion Battery Life and the tablet wars

x120e Press Release. Lenovo issued a press release of their new X120e coming out in February. The X120e is the successor to the x100e, a 11.6-inch AMD powered ultraportable laptop which Lenovo released in 2010 under the Thinkpad brand.   


RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – January 3, 2011: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced its latest entry ultraportable, the ThinkPad X120e laptop, that raises the bar for affordable business-class performance. As the first commercial laptop to feature an AMD Fusion E-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), the X120e blends real-world needs for faster applications and graphics processing with enhanced battery life and digital display features starting at less than $400.

"Multimedia elements like audio and video have become important parts of our world, and businesses are embracing this trend in digital content," said Dilip Bhatia, vice president, ThinkPad Marketing and Product Operations, Lenovo. "We've optimized the ThinkPad X120e to not only give businesses an excellent experience creating and consuming multimedia content, but we've also made key improvements to an area that has plagued laptops: battery life."

Professional Performance: The ultraportable X120e looks small, but it now packs an even more powerful punch for business productivity. Integrating an AMD Fusion E-Series APU gives users 65 percent faster graphics performance, which speeds up Web searches, page loads and running business applications. At the same time, the X120e gives users longer battery life – up to 30 percent longer – for more than six hours and meets Energy Star 5.0 specifications. It also carries the EPEAT Gold rating for its environmental attributes. Additionally, the X120e comes with an HDMI port for projecting content on another monitor or a TV screen.

"Mobile users no longer have to trade battery life for great graphics performance," said Chris Cloran,corporate vice president and general manager, Client Division AMP Products Group, AMD. "AMD Fusion APUs allow for thinner, cool-running devices that can last the day and do what's demanded of today's professional."

Just-Right Fit: As compact as it is, the X120e is designed to fit just right for business users who need to balance portability and usability. An 11.6 inch screen and a full-size keyboard give users plenty of room to work comfortably, and the contemporary ThinkPad keyboard features a progressively clean look while retaining the same feel of the ThinkPad classic keyboard.

Incredibly Mobile: Starting under three pounds, the X120e includes WiFi and optional Bluetooth and mobile broadband.

AMD Fusion Battery Life. The most interesting thing about the press release is the information on the battery life. The older x100e and its single and dual AMD Neo processors provided a substantial performance boost over Atom powered netbooks with Intel graphics at but with less than half the battery life. While an Atom powered netbook could be expected to provide eight hours of battery life, the x100e would provide a bit less than four.

According to Lenovo the new AMD Fusion powered x120e will provide over 6 hours of battery life.  The official Lenovo specifications for the x100e said to provide 5.1 hours of battery life. It provided in real world use it provided 75% of the stated battery life. This is not unusual, Acer TimelineX running on a certified battery life test claims and does provide an eight hour battery life which is more like six in the real world. Netbooks which claim over ten hours of battery life do eight.

Does this mean we can only expect 4.5 hours from AMD Fusion platform?  

Taking the war to the tablets. The other interesting thing is the price. When the x100e first came out its starting price was US$594, and the entry level unit is now selling for US$399. When the x120e comes its starting price will be under US$400. This also places at a lower price than Apple's entry level iPad at US$499. It looks like this ultraportable (although some would say it is just a netbook), is priced to do war with the tablets.