Lenovo’s new Thinkpad X131e Chromebook can take licking, keep ticking

The last few months have given us a steady trickle of new hardware running Google's lightweight Chrome OS: Samsung's ARM Chromebook and Acer's C7 Chromebook delivered Chrome OS for $249 and $199, respectively. Those releases finally gave us Chromebooks with prices that were roughly in line with their capabilities. Today, Lenovo is getting in on the fun with its own Chromebook announcement, but while the Thinkpad X131e Chromebook promises "a rugged design for the classroom environment," you'll pay $429 per laptop to get that extra durability.

Like the Acer C7 Chromebook, the X131e Chromebook is a Chrome OS-equipped version of an existing Windows laptop, also (somewhat confusingly) called the X131e. Google's announcement doesn't include hard specifications aside from mentioning that the laptop uses an Intel processor and has 6.5 hours of battery life. But the $619 Windows version of the X131e includes a 1.4GHz Intel Core i3-2367M, 4GB of RAM, an 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen, a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, dual-band Wi-Fi, and a mobile broadband option—we assume that Lenovo will go with more or less the same specs for the Chromebook version. Its ruggedness means it weighs quite a bit more than the other 11- and 12-inch Chromebooks Google is selling: it's a hefty 3.92 pounds, compared to three pounds for the C7 and 2.4 pounds for Samsung's ARM Chromebook.

There's no denying that building a $249 or $199 laptop is going to result in some compromises when it comes to build quality, so it's nice that schools (especially schools with younger and perhaps less conscientious students) will have the option to buy something a little more sturdy. There's also no denying that $429 is a big jump up in price, especially for the price-conscious education market. Many who are in the market for a fleet of Chromebooks may simply opt to get a pair of C7s instead of a single X131e.

The X131e Chromebook will be available to educational institutions and businesses starting February 26. As of this writing, Google has no plans to sell this device directly from its Chromebook site or through consumer retail channels, though it's possible that Lenovo will sell it to end users through its own site.