Lenovo X1 – so close, but so far

This has to be the most leaked-about product launch ever. The PC industry has not had a great answer to the Macbook Air. The Samsung Series 9 is pretty close, but too expensive (although much more powerful and flexible). The Lenovo X1 has been on the radar screen for months now, and is now out^H^H almost soon out^H^H^H should be… agh. Industry reports said May 17th, but it’s still not in the wild.

Specs released so far (anlaysed here) suggest it will be the ultralight laptop to beat for the corporate market. It (reportedly) packs an i5 2.5GHz CPU, 200MHz faster than the Air. It should have the Sandy Bridge architecture. It comes standard with 8GB of RAM, double the Air. Battery that charges to 80% in half an hour, and 10 hours use. Ports will include 3x USB (one of which doubles as eSATA), and particularly gratifying, HDMI and mini DisplayPort (so no dongles and adapters making your ultralight laptop bag ultrabulky).

An ultralight heavyweight machine for heavy hitters. It’s not as light as the Air at 1.4kg vs 1.32kg, and in this market segment every little gram is something to crow about (although add an HDMI adapter to the Air and you immediately lose any benefit.

But those who either don’t like, or aren’t allowed, Macs at work are champing at the bit.

The million dollar question is, why the continuing delays, Lenovo?