Lenovo has introduced its latest sub-notebook, the 1.42kg ThinkPad X300, in Japan ahead of its Western debut.

The X300 packs a 13in widescreen 1440 x 900 display lit with an LED backlight, but when closed is just 18.6mm thick. It still features an integrated dual-layer DVD writer.

The machine's based on a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL7100 processor on an 800MHz frontside bus. Depending on the model you pick, you'll get 1GB or 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory, expandable to 4GB. Graphics come courtesy of the laptop's Intel 965GM chipset.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X300: thin'n'light

The X300 is Centrino branded, so it has Intel's 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi module on board, along with Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet. It has three USB 2.0 ports.

Lenovo claimed the X300's battery life at 8.2 hours, but the caveats are that's with the optical drive disabled and the use of a six-cell battery instead of the standard three-cell unit.

There's no hard drive option, at least in Japan. There, the X300 is SSD only, packing 64GB of storage in a 1.8in SATA unit.

Over there, Lenovo is offering the X300 with Windows Vista Business - there's a fingerprint reader on board, common on Vista Business laptops - but a glitch on Lenovo's US website indicates over here the machine will also be offered with Windows XP.

Prices in the States start at $3006; Lenovo Japan will charge between ¥346,500 and ¥365,400 ($3208-3383/£1632-1721/€2164-2282). The X300 goes on sale today.

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