Lenovo's laptops aren't exactly designed for those looking for cheap bargains, but if you do decide to shell out for the ThinkPad X200 Tablet PC you'll get a computer with plenty of interesting features. This is Lenovo's first wide screen Tablet PC and its 12.1-inch display manages to deliver 1200 x 800 pixels, which is more than you might expect to get on such a small screen. The display is sharp and bright, its LED backlight helping on both fronts, and its matte finish means you don't get any of that dreadful reflectivity that makes working with a light source behind you difficult.
The keyboard is exemplary. It feels solid and fast touch-typing was no problem at all. There's no touchpad, though. Instead there is a TrackPoint sitting between the G, H and B keys and three mouse buttons just below the space bar. The left and right buttons are separated by a vertical scroll key. We never did really get used to working without a touchpad.
This is a very light and small laptop at 1.6kg and 295 x 228 x 33.3mm. As with any convertible Tablet PC you can swivel the screen round and lay it flat, facing outermost. It is held in place by a solid clasp which also functions to keep the laptop closed during transportation. The touch sensitive screen responds to both finger-touches and the stylus that lives in a purpose built housing. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor runs at 1.8Ghz. We'd have liked a bit more than the onboard 2GB of RAM, but worse than this is the absence of an optical drive. No notebook is really ‘fully fledged' without one, and its absence here is a real pity.