Lenovo Group, the manufacturer of the legendary ThinkPad-branded notebooks, is getting ready to unveil the first ever ThinkPad computer with a microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices. Neither IBM, the original creator of Think brand, nor Lenovo have ever used AMD chips inside the premium laptop line. The ThinkPad X100e, however, resembles a mix between a notebook and a netbook and may not gain traction from traditional ThinkPad owners.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is based on AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 (single-core, 1.60GHz, 512KB cache, 15W, 65nm SOI) and AMD 780V core-logic with integrated ATI Radeon HD DirectX 10-supporting graphics core. The laptop features 11.6” display with unknown high-def resolution, media card reader, 3 USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 0.3MP webcam and so on. The mobile computer may be equipped with up to 4GB DDR2 memory; up to 500GB hard drive; various connectivity options, including WWAN, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS and so on, reports Netbooknews.de web-site.

It is interesting to note that while the ThinkPad X100e sports an all-AMD platform with multimedia capabilities, it does not carry AMD Vision brand.

Considering that this is still a ThinkPad, the X100e is equipped with high-quality spill-resistant keyboard, UltraNav trackpoint, business OS support, basic manageability functions and some other functions. Still, the X100e is made is inexpensive plastic, has rather high weight of about 1.5 kilograms when equipped with 6-cell battery, does not feature an optical drive, does not support trusted platform module, full disc encryption and so on.

Lenovo plans to offer its ThinkPad X100e globally starting at $449 starting early January, 2010. The price-point hardly targets those, who bought T- or X-series ThinkPad computers starting at $1500 or more just about five years ago. Still, there are a lot of customers who may want to buy a ThinkPad at the price of a netbook.

Lenovo did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Lenovo, ThinkPad, AMD, Athlon, Vision