ThinkPad X100e Leaked, Sporting AMD Neo and New Keyboard

It looks like Lenovo’s getting into the affordable ultraportable game with its new ThinkPad X100e, according to recently leaked information. And to shake things up this machine will allegedly sport a non-traditional keyboard and AMD Neo processor.

According to the German site Chip Online, the X100e will have an 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display, up to a 320GB hard drive, and up to 4GB of RAM.

As the photos indicate, this keyboard is not the customary ThinkPad keyboard we’ve come to know and love. It’s a chiclet-style layout, and it’s spill resistant, to boot. Even better, and unique among other ultraportables of its ilk, is that the X100e will have both a trackpoint and a touchpad. Kudos to Lenovo for getting them both into a system this size.

The choice of an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU is an interesting decision: while this ultraportable should offer better performance than dual-core Intel CULVs, it will most likely have worse battery life: Lenovo is predicting roughly 5.1 hours on a charge, which puts it in the same league as the Ion-based Mini 311 netbook.  We’ve seen the same processor in two other ultraportables: the MSI Wind12 U210, which only lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes on our battery test, and the HP Pavilion dv2, which lasted just 2:30.

Additionally, the X100e will have three USB ports (one of which can charge gadgets when the notebook is off), a memory card slot, and VGA-out. We’re not sure why HDMI was left off. It will come with plenty of wireless connectivity options, too. Aside from 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, there will be a 3G module (GSM or CDMA), as well as GPS.

As one of the slides in eeepcnews’s Flickr stream indicates, this notebook will be positioned somewhere between netbooks and Lenovo’s more traditional business ultraportables, and will have a starting price of less than $500. Customers will be able to order the unit in either red, black, or white. Stay tuned for a full review, hopefully soon after Lenovo makes it official.