Though its 13.3-inch screen size puts this notebook in almost the same category as all-purpose machines, it is billed and sold as an ultraportable. It's slim and light enough (under 4 pounds without accessories) to qualify. As with many ultraportables, it utilizes an ultra-low-voltage processor that sacrifices performance for battery life. Our test system came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor at 1.3GHz, and starts at $799. A less-expensive, AMD-based system is available for as little as $579, but our experience with these processors tells us it would be a bit slower than the Intel flavor.

This low-voltage processor is largely responsible for the Edge's somewhat low WorldBench score of 65, but it's still fast enough for day-to-day business needs. Fortunately, the system comes equipped with 4GB of DDR3-1066 RAM and a fairly speedy 7200 RPM hard drive, so system bootup and application launch times are quick. It takes about 5 seconds to wake from sleep--snappy, but not the fastest we've seen. Battery life is excellent, lasting 6.5 hours in our battery run-down test. You could probably go more than 7 hours simply browsing the Web, checking e-mail, and working on office documents.

An ultraportable ThinkPad is clearly aimed at the business road-warrior market, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the great connectivity options for this audience. The Edge has 802.11b/g/n support, of course, but it also has built-in 3G mobile broadband with GPS, and even WiMAX support.

In general, the ThinkPad Edge is a very successful updating of a staid notebook line that has been in desperate need of it for years. We found a few minor complaints (not enough status lights, for hard-drive access and Wi-Fi, for example), but the Edge still hits all the important notes--everything you love about ThinkPads is here, including a great keyboard (despite the switch to chicklet-style keys). With a few minor tweaks, we'd love to see this new design proliferate through the rest of the ThinkPad line.