Lenovo X121E incoming soon

The successor to the Lenovo X120E is coming soon. Rumours first arose when a Lenovo notebook sleeve mentioned the ability to accommodate a "X121E".

More recently, a user manual (in Chinese) popped up on a Lenovo website.
User manual on Lenovo China website (PDF)

What are the changes?

1. It seems the X121E mousepad has adopted the button-less design, first seen on the X220
2. The battery placement has moved slightly to a DM1-like design, with the battery taking up space below the screen. Consequently, the keyboard is moved slightly downwards
3. The screen hinge position also changes, to accommodate the change above. This results in no space for the VGA port and power supply port, which move to the sides
4. There is also an addition of a fingerprint reader

The most important difference remains unclear. The user manual does not explicitly mention what platform it is running on, although references are made to both AMD and Intel. As alluded to in a few forums, it is possible that the X121E may run on both platforms.

Whatever the platform, I hope the performance/battery balance remains just as good, if not better than the AMD E-350 running on the X120E.

Xperia pro slips to late July

Sony Ericsson UK store

Seems the Xperia Pro's availability is slow compared to other models that were launched around the same date.

Looking at this model because it has a Exmor-R backlit camera sensor, plus a QWERTY keyboard.

Trying to get a Lenovo X120e in Singapore

Ever since AMD launched its new E-350 processor, I have been looking forward to buy a laptop with that chip. The chip offered a nice balance between price and performance; faster than an Intel Atom, but cheaper than an i3.

The following models were released, with my comments in brackets

• Asus 1215B (cheap, has page up/page down keys)
• Dell M102z (9-cell battery option, but expensive)
• HP DM1 (pretty, good battery life, big chicklet keyboard, but no page up/page down keys, and no dedicated trackpad keys)
• Lenovo X120e (matte screen, page up/page down keys, but not sold in retail shops)
• MSI U270 (similar to 1215B, haven't seen it in person)
• Sony YB-series (expensive)

With the Lenovo X120e having most of the features desired, I decided to write to Lenovo Singapore to try to get them to reconsider their decision.