Review of Lenovo ThinkPad X240 laptop

Advantages:

• Ridiculously long Lenovo ThinkPad X240 battery life with hot-swappable battery
• Excellent keyboard and touch screen
• Solid all-around performance
• Laundry list of extra feature

Disadvantages:

• No HDMI and only two USB ports
• Touch pad can miss clicks
• Low-res Webcam
• Only one memory slot (8GB max)

Messing with a winning formula is always a dicey proposition (just ask the New England Patriots), so in updating its popular ThinkPad X series ultraportable, Lenovo took a measured approach. The X240 ultrabook retains the essential goodness of its predecessors—solid build, business-friendly mobility and communications features, excellent X240 battery life—while layering in the latest component upgrades. Those enhancements include Intel's fourth-generation Core CPU, a fine touch screen to better navigate Windows 8, and an embedded battery that augments the removable battery and adds hot-swap capability in the process.
 

The ThinkPad  faithful might not embrace all of the changes, however. The familiar red TrackPoint stick is still there, but the mouse buttons have been replaced by a one-piece touch pad with buttons below each corner, which takes some getting used to. The addition of an internal battery meant the sacrifice of a memory slot.
  

 While the matte-black exterior won't win any design awards, on the inside the X240 is perhaps over-designed. It features an internal skeleton to protect components and has passed MIL-SPEC durability tests for hostile environments such as humidity, high and low temperature, sand and dust, and vibration.
The 12.5-inch screen means the machine can maintain a compact footprint of 12 inches by 8.2 inches. Its 0.8-inch thickness is reasonable, although noticeably less svelte than some razor-thin ultrabooks. The Lenovo ThinkPad X240 laptpop weighs a touch under 3 pounds in base trim, 3.2 pounds with the touch screen, and 3.6 pounds with the extended 6-cell battery. We actually prefer the ThinkPad with the larger battery (just a $5 option) installed, since it gives the system an ergonomic tilt on the desk and a comfortable handhold when carrying it around.

And speaking of batteries, one neat design trick is Lenovo's Power Bridge technology that employs an internal 3-cell battery to increase runtime and make the removable 3- and 6-cell units hot-swappable. Yes, you can detach one battery and attach a spare without shutting the machine down. This is a welcome departure from most other ultrabooks, which have sealed-in batteries and no way to extend runtime when a plug isn't handy.